Ambience Factory: an exploration of technology's role in wellness

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• Sophie Bullock and Sophie Huckfield. Ambience Factory
• Wednesday 19 June 2019, 11:00-12:00
• Computer Science, The Sloman Lounge (UG).

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Rowanne Fleck.

Ambience Factory (Sophie Bullock and Sophie Huckfield) is a performance duo who investigate work practices across a range of industries and organisations. They use satire and comedy to disseminate and engage the wider workforce on working conditions and methods employed by institutions to increase productivity.

Their work highlights the irony of using wellness programmes whereby the use of a superficial ‘mindfullness’ plaster on worker’s emotional and physical strain only amplifies stress, often facilitated by UX design and technology. This work was inspired by PhD students and lecturers of ‘Contemporary Philosophy of Technology Research Group’ at University of Birmingham.

Performance AF will be delivering an inspiring TED talk which highlights neoliberalism’s onus on the individual to manage their own success and happiness under increasingly pressurised and precarious working conditions. AF is in the business of generating stress and selling back the solution. Our tactic is to distract the workforce from interrogating their toxic work environments by encouraging them to interrogate their own self worth.

Presentation We will give a brief background of how this project came to fruition, our methodology of disseminating research, and our future projects and ambitions.

Discussion Q&A

This talk is part of the Human Computer Interaction seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Computer Science Departmental Series
• Computer Science Distinguished Seminars
• Computer Science, The Sloman Lounge (UG)
• Human Computer Interaction seminars
• computer sience

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