ITZ Podcasts Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

Kurt Möser has published two books on the topic of “Grauzonen der Technikgeschichte” – (Grey Zones in the History of Technology).
Three examples of Grey Zones could be the following: Influential inventors, who from today’s point of view are seen as a failure, large scale projects which took so long to complete, they were already outdated by technological progress once finished and the unintended usage of technology for criminal purposes.

Why is it important to research these grey zones? What impact does technology have on us? Why do we crave certain technologies and what can and have we learnt from past technologies? These questions and more are topics not only in Kurt Möser’s research, but also in the following interview which Joshua Bayless held with him.

Humans are fascinated by technology and what it does to our lives. But how does this fascination work and why are we fascinated? How has the theory of fascination and subjectivity found its way into user centered research in the history of technology and museums? These are some of the questions Rolf-Ulrich Kunze has looked at in his paper „History of Fascination and Fascinated History“.

These interesting topics and how family photos can be used to show the potential offered by the study of fascination and subjectivity for the history of technological culture, are some of the topics Rolf-Ulrich Kunze spoke about with Joshua Bayless in the following interview.

In this interview with Joshua Bayless, Erik Fisher describes STIR as a method to investigate the possibility and utility of incorporating social and ethical considerations directly into scientific research and technology development.