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Dr Alex Taylor

Reader in Human Computer Interaction

School of Science & Technology Department of Computer Science

Contact details

Address

Dr Alex Taylor A207 , College Building [A]
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

Personal links

About

Overview

Alex Taylor is a sociologist working in the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design. Showing a broad fasciation for the entanglements between social life and machines, his research ranges from empirical studies of technology in everyday life to speculative design interventions—both large and small scale. Across these realms, he draws on a feminist technoscience to ask questions about the co-constitutive roles human-machine composites play in forms of knowing and being, and how they might open up possibilities for fundamental transformations in society. Most recently, he’s begun to wonder about the abilities of humans and non-humans, together, and to speculate on hybrid compositions that enlarge capacity and offer the chance of something different-than, something more-than.

For up to date details see: https://ast.io

Fellowships

  • Fellow, RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), Sep 2012 – present

Memberships of professional organisations

  • Senior Member, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), Dec 2004 – present

Publications

Featured publications

  1. Taylor, A. (2016). Data, (bio)sensing, and (other-)worldly stories from the cycle routes of London. Quantified: Biosensing Technologies in Everyday Life (pp. 189–209). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-33454-9.
  2. Crivellaro, C., Taylor, A., Vlachokyriakos, V., Comber, R., Nissen, B. and Wright, P. (2016). Re-Making Places. CHI'16: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/2858036.2858332
  3. Taylor, A.S., Lindley, S., Regan, T., Sweeney, D., Vlachokyriakos, V., Grainger, L. … Lingel, J. (2015). Data-in-Place. CHI '15: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/2702123.2702558
  4. Taylor, A.S. (2011). Out there. CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979042
  5. Taylor, A.S. (2009). Machine intelligence. CHI '09: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1518701.1519022
  6. Brown, B., Taylor, A.S., Izadi, S., Sellen, A., Kaye, J.J. and Eardley, R. (2007). Locating Family Values: A Field Trial of the Whereabouts Clock. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74853-3_21
  7. Taylor, A.S. and Swan, L. (2005). Artful systems in the home. CHI05: CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1054972.1055060
  8. Taylor, A.S. (2017). What Lines, Rats, and Sheep Can Tell Us. Design Issues, 33(3), pp. 25–36. doi:10.1162/desi_a_00449.

    [publisher’s website]

  9. Lindley, S.E., Thieme, A., Taylor, A.S., Vlachokyriakos, V., Regan, T. and Sweeney, D. (2017). Surfacing Small Worlds through Data-In-Place. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: CSCW: An International Journal, 26(1-2), pp. 135–163. doi:10.1007/s10606-017-9263-3.
  10. Taylor, A. (2015). After interaction. Interactions, 22(5), pp. 48–53. doi:10.1145/2809888.

    [publisher’s website]

  11. Rosner, D.K. and Taylor, A.S. (2012). Binding and aging. Journal of Material Culture, 17(4), pp. 405–424. doi:10.1177/1359183512459630.

    [publisher’s website]

  12. Swan, L., Taylor, A.S. and Harper, R. (2008). Making place for clutter and other ideas of home. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 15(2), pp. 1–24. doi:10.1145/1375761.1375764.

    [publisher’s website]

  13. Laurier, E., Lorimer, H., Brown, B., Jones, O., Juhlin, O., Noble, A. … Weilenmann, A. (2008). Driving and ‘Passengering’: Notes on the Ordinary Organization of Car Travel. Mobilities, 3(1), pp. 1–23. doi:10.1080/17450100701797273.

    [publisher’s website]

  14. Taylor, A.S. and Harper, R. (2003). The Gift of the Gab?: A Design Oriented Sociology of Young People's Use of Mobiles. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 12(3), pp. 267–296. doi:10.1023/a:1025091532662.

    [publisher’s website]

Publications by category

Book

  • Harper, R., Palen, L. and Taylor, A. (2005). The Inside Text Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives on SMS. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4020-3059-8.

Chapters (11)

  • Houston, L., Heitlinger, S., Catlow, R. and Taylor, A. (2023). Algorithmic food justice. In Papadopoulos, D., Puig de la Bellacasa, M. and Tacchetti, M. (Eds.), Ecological Reparation – Repair, Remediation and Resurgence in Social and Environmental Conflict Bristol University Press. ISBN 978-1-5292-1605-9.
  • Heitlinger, S., Houston, L. and Taylor, A. (2022). Nature 3.0 Blockchain for extraction or care? In Catlow, R. and Rafferty, P. (Eds.), Radical Friends: Decentralised Autonomous Organisations and the Arts Torque Editions. ISBN 978-0-9932487-7-1.
  • Heitlinger, S., Houston, L., Choi, J.H.-.J., Taylor, A. and Catlow, R. (2022). More-than-human computer interaction for urban food governance. In Moragues-Faus, A., Clark, J.K., Battersby, J. and Davies, A. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Urban Food Governance Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-51800-4.
  • Rosner, D.K. and Taylor, A.S. (2019). Reading with Anni Albers The Weave as a Lively Involution of Scale, Affect, and Feminist Precarity. BAUHAUS FUTURES (pp. 203–213).
  • Taylor, A., Jain, A. and Swan, L. (2010). New Companions. Close Engagements with Artificial Companions (pp. 107–120). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Taylor, A. (2009). Ethnography in Ubiquitous Computing. In Krumm, J. (Ed.), Ubiquitous Computing Fundamentals (pp. 203–236). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-9360-5.
  • Sellen, A., Taylor, A.S., Kaye, J.J., Brown, B. and Izadi, S. (2009). Supporting Family Awareness with the Whereabouts Clock. Human-Computer Interaction Series (pp. 425–445). Springer London. ISBN 978-1-84882-476-8.
  • Harper, R., Taylor, A. and Molloy, M. (2008). Intelligent Artefacts at Home in the 21st Century. Material Agency (pp. 97–119). Springer US. ISBN 978-0-387-74710-1.
  • Taylor, A. and Vincent, J. (2005). A SMS History. Mobile World: Past, Present and Future (pp. 75–91). Springer. ISBN 978-1-85233-825-1.
  • Taylor, A. (2005). Phone Talk. Mobile Communications (pp. 149–166). Springer London. ISBN 978-1-85233-931-9.
  • Taylor, A. and Harper, R. Switching On to Switch Off. Inside the Smart Home (pp. 115–126). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 1-85233-688-9.

Conference papers and proceedings (54)

  • Kapania, S., Taylor, A.S. and Wang, D. (2023). A hunt for the Snark: Annotator Diversity in Data Practices. CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3544548.3580645
  • Zdanowska, S. and Taylor, A.S. (2022). A study of UX practitioners roles in designing real-world, enterprise ML systems. CHI '22: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3491102.3517607
  • Klumbytė, G., Draude, C. and Taylor, A.S. (2022). Critical Tools for Machine Learning: Working with Intersectional Critical Concepts in Machine Learning Systems Design. FAccT '22: 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. doi:10.1145/3531146.3533207
  • Leigh, A., Makri, S., Taylor, A., Mulinder, A., Hamdi, S. and Ranade, S. (2021). Preserving for People: Observing Humanities Scholars’ Research Practices in a Hybrid Archive Environment. iPRES 2021 the 17th International Conference on Digital Preservation 19-22 October, Beijing, China.
  • Vincenzi, B., Taylor, A.S. and Stumpf, S. (2021). Interdependence in Action. doi:10.1145/3449143
  • Heitlinger, S., Houston, L., Taylor, A. and Catlow, R. (2021). Algorithmic Food Justice: Co-Designing More-than-Human Blockchain Futures for the Food Commons. CHI '21: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3411764.3445655
  • Klumbytė, G., Draude, C. and Taylor, A. (2021). Critical Tools for Machine Learning: Situating, Figuring, Diffracting, Fabulating Machine Learning Systems Design. CHItaly '21: 14th Biannual Conference of the Italian SIGCHI Chapter. doi:10.1145/3464385.3467475
  • Morrison, C., Cutrell, E., Grayson, M., Thieme, A., Taylor, A., Roumen, G. … Sellen, A. (2021). Social Sensemaking with AI: Designing an Open-ended AI Experience with a Blind Child. CHI '21: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3411764.3445290
  • Leigh, A., Makri, S., Taylor, A., Mulinder, A. and Hamdi, S. (2021). From Information to Knowledge Creation in the Archive: Observing Humanities Researchers' Information Activities.
  • Catanzariti, B., Chandhiramowuli, S., Mohamed, S., Natarajan, S., Prabhat, S., Raval, N. … Wang, D. (2021). The Global Labours of AI and Data Intensive Systems. CSCW '21: Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. doi:10.1145/3462204.3481725
  • Bennett, C.L., Rosner, D.K. and Taylor, A.S. (2020). The Care Work of Access. CHI '20: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3313831.3376568
  • Vincenzi, B., Taylor, A. and Stumpf, S. (2019). Hacking Sighted Guide Navigation. CHI 4-9 May, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.
  • Schlesinger, A., O Hara, K.P. and Taylor, A.S. (2018). Lets Talk about Race: Identity, Chatbots, and AI. CHI ’18 21-26 April, Montreal, Canada. doi:10.1145/3173574.3173889
  • Thieme, A., Bennett, C.L., Morrison, C., Cutrell, E. and Taylor, A.S. (2018). "I can do everything but see!"
    -- How People with Vision Impairments Negotiate their Abilities in Social Contexts.     CHI '18: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3173574.3173777
  • Reeves, S., Porcheron, M., Fischer, J.E., Candello, H., McMillan, D., McGregor, M. … Zouinar, M. (2018). Voice-based Conversational UX Studies and Design. CHI '18: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/3170427.3170619
  • Morrison, C., Cutrell, E., Dhareshwar, A., Doherty, K., Thieme, A. and Taylor, A. (2017). Imagining Artificial Intelligence Applications with People with Visual Disabilities using Tactile Ideation. ASSETS '17: The 19th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. doi:10.1145/3132525.3132530
  • Regan, T., Sweeney, D., Helmes, J., Vlachokyriakos, V., Lindley, S. and Taylor, A. (2015). Designing Engaging Data in Communities. CHI '15: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/2702613.2725432
  • Mentis, H.M. and Taylor, A.S. (2013). Imaging the body. CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/2470654.2466197
  • Taylor, A.S., Piterman, N., Ishtiaq, S., Fisher, J., Cook, B., Cockerton, C. … Benque, D. (2013). At the interface of biology and computation. CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/2470654.2470725
  • Cycil, C., Perry, M., Laurier, E. and Taylor, A. (2013). 'Eyes free' in-car assistance. MobileHCI '13: 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. doi:10.1145/2493190.2493207
  • Kuznetsov, S., Taylor, A.S., Paulos, E., DiSalvo, C. and Hirsch, T. (2012). (DIY)biology and opportunities for HCI. DIS '12: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2012. doi:10.1145/2317956.2318085
  • Kuznetsov, S., Taylor, A.S., Regan, T., Villar, N. and Paulos, E. (2012). At the seams. DIS '12: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2012. doi:10.1145/2317956.2317997
  • Benque, D., Bourton, S., Cockerton, C., Cook, B., Fisher, J., Ishtiaq, S. … Vardi, M.Y. (2012). Bma: Visual Tool for Modeling and Analyzing Biological Networks. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-31424-7_50
  • Sundström, P., Taylor, A.S. and O'Hara, K. (2011). Sketching in software and hardware Bluetooth as a design material. MobileHCI '11: 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. doi:10.1145/2037373.2037434
  • Helmes, J., Taylor, A.S., Cao, X., Höök, K., Schmitt, P. and Villar, N. (2011). Rudiments 1, 2 & 3: Design speculations on autonomy. doi:10.1145/1935701.1935730
  • Rosner, D.K. and Taylor, A.S. (2011). Antiquarian answers. CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979332
  • Davidoff, S., Villar, N., Taylor, A.S. and Izadi, S. (2011). Mechanical hijacking. Ubicomp '11: The 2011 ACM Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. doi:10.1145/2030112.2030148
  • Sundström, P., Taylor, A., Grufberg, K., Wirström, N., Solsona Belenguer, J. and Lundén, M. (2011). Inspirational bits. CHI '11: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1978942.1979170
  • Helmes, J., O’Hara, K., Vilar, N. and Taylor, A. (2011). Meerkat and Tuba: Design Alternatives for Randomness, Surprise and Serendipity in Reminiscing. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-23771-3_28
  • Marquardt, N., Taylor, A.S., Villar, N. and Greenberg, S. (2010). Rethinking RFID. CHI '10: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1753326.1753674
  • Swan, L., Tanase, D. and Taylor, A.S. (2010). Design's processional character. DIS '10: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2010. doi:10.1145/1858171.1858186
  • Seitinger, S., Taub, D.M. and Taylor, A.S. (2010). Light bodies. TEI '10: Fourth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction. doi:10.1145/1709886.1709908
  • Marquardt, N., Taylor, A.S., Villar, N. and Greenberg, S. (2010). Visible and controllable RFID tags. CHI '10: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1753846.1753917
  • Durrant, A., Taylor, A.S., Frohlich, D., Sellen, A. and Uzzell, D. (2009). Photo Displays and Intergenerational Relationships in the Family Home. People and Computers XXIII Celebrating People and Technology. doi:10.14236/ewic/hci2009.2
  • Fernaeus, Y., Ljungblad, S., Jacobsson, M. and Taylor, A. (2009). Where third wave HCI meets HRI. HRI09: International Conference on Human Robot Interaction. doi:10.1145/1514095.1514182
  • Taylor, A.S., Wyche, S.P. and Kaye, J.J. (2008). Pottering by design. NordiCHI08: 5th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. doi:10.1145/1463160.1463200
  • Durrant, A., Taylor, A.S., Taylor, S., Molloy, M., Sellen, A., Frohlich, D. … Swan, L. (2008). Speculative devices for photo display. CHI '08: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1358628.1358673
  • Swan, L. and Taylor, A.S. (2008). Photo displays in the home. DIS08: Designing Interactive Systems Conference 2008. doi:10.1145/1394445.1394473
  • Chen, J. and Taylor, A.S. (2008). entrigue. NordiCHI08: 5th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. doi:10.1145/1463160.1463215
  • March, W., Nafus, D., Swan, L. and Taylor, A.S. (2008). Night and darkness. CHI '08: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1358628.1358973
  • Lindley, S.E., Durrant, A.C., Kirk, D.S. and Taylor, A.S. (2008). Collocated social practices surrounding photos. CHI '08: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1358628.1358957
  • Wyche, S.P., Taylor, A. and Kaye, J. (2007). Pottering. CHI07: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1240866.1240917
  • Brown, B., Taylor, A.S., Izadi, S., Sellen, A., Kaye, J.J. and Eardley, R. (2007). Locating family values: A field trial of the whereabouts clock - (Nominated for the best paper award).
  • Taylor, A.S., Swan, L., Eardley, R., Sellen, A., Hodges, S. and Wood, K. (2006). Augmenting refrigerator magnets. NORDICHI06: The 4th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. doi:10.1145/1182475.1182488
  • Sellen, A., Harper, R., Eardley, R., Izadi, S., Regan, T., Taylor, A.S. … Wood, K.R. (2006). HomeNote. CSCW06: Computer Supported Cooperative Work. doi:10.1145/1180875.1180933
  • Lindström, M., Ståhl, A., Höök, K., Sundström, P., Laaksolathi, J., Combetto, M. … Bresin, R. (2006). Affective diary. CHI06: CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1125451.1125649
  • Swan, L. and Taylor, A.S. (2005). Notes on fridge surfaces. CHI05: CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1056808.1057029
  • Brush, A.J., Palen, L., Swan, L. and Taylor, A.S. (2005). Designs for home life. CHI05: CHI 2005 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. doi:10.1145/1056808.1057087
  • Taylor, A.S. and Swan, L. (2004). List making in the home. CSCW04: Computer Supported Cooperative Work. doi:10.1145/1031607.1031697
  • Berg, S., Taylor, A.S. and Harper, R. (2003). Mobile phones for the next generation: Device designs for teenagers.
  • Taylor, A.S. and Harper, R. (2002). Age-old practices in the 'New World': A study of gift-giving between teenage mobile phone users.
  • Taylor, A.S., Swan, L. and Durrant, A. Designing family photo displays. doi:10.1007/978-1-84800-031-5_5
  • Swan, L., Taylor, A.S., Izadi, S. and Harper, R. Containing Family Clutter. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-73697-6_13
  • Makri, S., Leigh, A., Taylor, A., Mulinder, A. and Hamdi, S. From Information to Knowledge Creation in the Archive: Observing Humanities Researchers’ Information Activities. Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Salt Lake, USA.

Journal articles (21)

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