iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Sadie Couture

Nick Seaver @nickseaver.website · 05/10/2026

folks coming to #4S2026, I'm organizing not one, not two, not three, but *four* panels on the social study of contraptions. come by my new home, the Wentworth room on the second floor of the venue this Thursday, to say hi

160. Contraptions 1

Panel
8:00 to 10:00 AM
2nd Floor
Wentworth

Participants:
The Operation of Failure: Amazon Go and its Lessons for Automated Life Zoe Horn, Western Sydney University

Contraptions of Glucose Testing and the Gimmickry of Non-Diabetic Attachments Carrie Rentschler, McGill University

Riding into the Millennium: The Fixed-Gear Bicycle as Contraption Bernhard Isopp, Technical University of Munich

5G as compromised form: From technical standard to visceral abstraction Rory Sharp, York University

Panel Organizer:
Nick Seaver, Tufts University

195. Contraptions 2

Panel
10:20 to 12:20 PM
2nd Floor
Wentworth

259

4S 2026

THURSDAY, OCTOBER, 8

Participants:
Contraptions of Cognition: Shannon’s Theseus, Minsky’s SNARC, and the Liminal Machines of Early AI Asaf Hazan, Bar-Ilan University
On (non)Interconnection or, the Story of the Beeper-Phone Sadie Couture, Smithsonian Insitution's National Museum of American History/Northwestern University
Contraptions: Toward an Ingenious Theory of Technology Ted Striphas, University of Colorado Boulder
Lost and Found in Translation: AI Translators as Contraptions Heewon Kim, Jeonbuk National University
Noisy Contraptions: Towards Materialist Identification of Algorithmic Harms Nasanbayar Ulzii-Orshikh, University of Michigan
Panel Organizer:
Nick Seaver, Tufts University

259. Contraptions 3

Panel
1:30 to 3:20 PM
2nd Floor
Wentworth

Participants:
“Dude just work”: Mouse Jigglers and the Perception of Technical Complexity Nick Seaver, Tufts University

Approximation and its Discontents: toward a history of machine intelligence as language contraption Xiaochang Li, Stanford University

Making Up Chatbots: Hacking Together jeffrey lockhart, University of California, Berkeley

'It's all smoke and mirrors till it's not': Thinking with the contraption Sarah Yems, Concordia University

A Good Enough Mousetrap: LLMs as Professional Contraptions Gabriel Alcaras, Sciences Po; Donato Ricci, Sciences Po

Panel Organizer:
Nick Seaver, Tufts University

293. Contraptions 4

Panel
3:40 to 5:30 PM
2nd Floor
Wentworth

Participants:
Modded Minecraft as Contraption in the University Classroom Darren Wershler, Concordia University; Bart Simon, Concordia University

From Control to Floods of Useless Data: The Life of PLATO Ekaterina Babintseva, Carnegie Mellon University

Cat Got Your Timbre: Contraptions, Interface Aesthetics, and Memetic Vocal Play Kate Galloway, Wilfrid Laurier University

The metro and the share-auto, or captivity and contraptivity as two modes of socializing technology Deepak Prince, IIIT-Delhi

Panel Organizer:
Nick Seaver, Tufts University

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E z r a @bruit.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026

I'm looking to interview anyone who has worked at an electronics assembly (components or systems) factory, anywhere in the world, before 1990. I can offer $100CAD / hour, though I don't think my questions will run the full hour. If you know anyone who is still able and willing to answer, plz lmk

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elena razlogova @erazlogo.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Honored to be on the bill with such illustrious WFMU DJs! Thanks to @amnazz.bsky.social for the invitation. On Aug 26, come hear a deep cut or two from WFMU’s past.

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I'm on a roll! So many great new books. This time, I talked to @emilygdoucet.bsky.social about her new book "Inventing Nadar" out from @dukepress.bsky.social. It was such an interesting conversation about the history of photography, historiography, and the media production of photographic 'firsts.'

newbooksnetwork.com

Emily Doucet, "Inventing Nadar: A History of Photographic Firsts" (Duke UP, 2026) - New Books Network

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

When I interviewed Pat Brodie last month about his co-edited collection, I realized that he actually had ANOTHER book out this year with @dukepress.bsky.social. So of course we had to talk about that too. Check out "Wild Tides: Media Infrastructure and Financial Crisis in Ireland," it's a keeper.

newbooksnetwork.com

Patrick Brodie, "Wild Tides: Media Infrastructure and Financial Crisis in Ireland" (Duke UP, 2026) - New Books Network

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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Oh shit that’s me

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

I had a great conversation last week with the editors and contributors of Media Rurality, a new book from @dukepress.bsky.social. Listen and read for important interventions into the often narrowly urban focus of our field.

newbooksnetwork.com

Patrick Brodie and Darin Barney eds., "Media Rurality" (Duke UP, 2026) - New Books Network

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

You or someone you know should submit to a @labortechresearchnetwork.org award! I’m on the book award committee :) Let me know if you have any questions and please share.

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

So happy to be spending the week researching and writing at the Hagley Center. Spring has sprung and radio history is in the air! @hagleycenter.bsky.social

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emily doucet @emilygdoucet.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

👀 The intro of Inventing Nadar is now up online for free!

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Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Big congrats to @akstuhl.bsky.social for winning the 2026 SCMS dissertation award. For “Unmaking a Medium: Automation and Art in American Radio, 1950–2010,” supervised by Jonathan Sterne (McGill).

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quyat erp @solidarity.pizza · 30/01/2026

king shit, honestly. REAPER is the DAW for/of the people. $60 for a personal license and you're set for life, an awesome community, loads of free plugins. ableton and logic pro could never

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures". Open panel submissions portal is open! ls! Deadline: 2nd February 2026 www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

4sonline.org

About the Conference

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Reposted by Sadie Couture

m. r. sauter @oddletters.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

hey! hey!!! if you are an academic of any rank in the critical tech studies space who cares about how money, finance, and business structures work in science and technology, i want to see your abstracts for a collected volume! they're due tomorrow!!! https//oddletters.com/tech-money/

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

I helped organize this memorial zine to my beloved doctoral advisor @jonathansterne.bsky.social. Thanks to all the contributors for their beautiful offerings. Sound ON for silly, apropos page turning sound effects. intercomzine.com

intercomzine.com

Intercom! Zine

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Sadie Couture @sadiecouture.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Pub day! Really excited to share my new article “Melodies of the toppling trees: the tree farm pastoral, extractivism, and attachment in British Columbia, Canada.” It’s probably the weirdest piece I’ve attempted, and it all started with finding a CBC documentary about a “whistle farm.”

doi.org

Melodies of the toppling trees: the tree farm pastoral, extractivism, and attachment in British Columbia, Canada

This paper develops a concept, ‘the tree farm pastoral,’ that describes the ability to perceive beauty in the midst of destruction and dispossession through a particular framing of the extraction o...

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Reposted by Sadie Couture

lauragarbes.bsky.social @lauragarbes.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Had a blast seeing my book Listeners Like Who? in the wild at ASA this weekend 🤩 @princetonupress.bsky.social press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

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