Philosophy Machines is the research practice of Despina Papadopoulos and Kevin Walker. We think through making – objects and systems that act as prompts or provocations for considering and communicating concepts, like artificiality, intelligence, and love.
is a researcher, artist, and educator whose work treats making as a mode of inquiry into how intelligence, meaning, and behaviour emerge through relations between bodies, materials, technologies, and institutions.
Through wearables, AI, and robotics, her practice explores how intimacy, care, and affect can reconfigure encounters with technological systems. Her work with industry has allowed her to work closely with technological infrastructures and supply chains, and to adopt a systems-based approach to innovation and transformation programs.
A pioneer in wearable technologies since 1995 and a former fellow at Paul Allen's Interval Research Lab, she has led innovation projects at NCR's Knowledge Lab and IBM's Innovation Center, and holds multiple patents in wearable and tangible interface design. She has developed strategic innovation systems for Ralph Lauren, DuPont, UNESCO, Christie's, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Beiersdorf/Nivea, translating complex technological futures into actionable strategies.
She has taught design, technology and ethics at New York University for nearly two decades, and is founding faculty of SVA's Design for Social Innovation MFA. She holds a Master's in Philosophy (KU Leuven), an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications (NYU), and a practice-led PhD from the Royal College of Art exploring AI as material infrastructure.
She is co-author, with Caterina Moruzzi, of Material Encounters: Creativity in the Times of AI (Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
Find her work and CV here.
is an experienced leader in arts and technology, having led an AI research group, an award-winning software development team, and two technology-focused graduate programs in top arts universities. He has supervised and mentored more than 300 Masters and PhD students in the arts, and his own work in sound, video and installations has been exhibited and commissioned internationally
He led the research group 'AI and Algorithmic Cultures' at Coventry University, launched and led the Information Experience Design programme at the Royal College of Art in London. He has created award-winning web sites and installations, and worked with organisations including Centre Pompidou, CNBC, Samsung, Serpentine. His work has been deployed and exhibited internationally, he is a frequent invited speaker, and he has published and taught in art and design. His books include AI and Algorithmic Aesthetics (forthcoming) and Interior Futures (2019).
Find his work and CV here.
"Technology at present is covert philosophy; the point is to make it overtly philosophical." — Philip Agre, 1997
