The cultural theorist and media designer Anne Balsamo calls for transforming learning practices to inspire culturally attuned technological imaginations.

This volume, Futurism and the Technological Imagination, results from a conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas in Helsinki. It contains a number of re-written conference contributions as well as several specially commissioned essays that address various aspects of the Futurists’ relationship to technology both on an ideological level and with regard to their artistic languages. In the early twentieth century, many art movements vied with each other to overhaul the aesthetic and ideological foundations of arts and literature and to make them suitable vehicles of expression in the new Era of the Machine. Some of the most remarkable examples came from the Futurist movement, founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. By addressing the full spectrum of Futurist attitudes to science and the machine world, this collection of 14 essays offers a multifaceted account of the complex and often contradictory features of the Futurist technological imagination. The volume will appeal to anybody interested in the history of modern culture, art and literature.

Imagination is highly valued and sought-after, yet elusive and ill-defined. Definitions range from narrowly cognitive accounts to those which endow imagination with world-making powers. Imagination underpins our ability to speculate about the future and to re-experience the past. The everyday functioning of society relies on being able to imagine the perspectives of others; and our sense of who we are depends on the stories our imaginations create. Our soaring imaginations have taken us to the moon and allowed Einstein to race a light beam. Unsurprisingly, imagination underlies every aspect of human-computer interaction, from the earliest conceptual sketches, through the realistic possibilities portrayed variously in well-known tools as scenarios and storyboards, through to the wilder shores of design fictions. Yet, curiously, imagination is very rarely addressed directly in the design and HCI literature (and is wholly missing from virtual reality). This book addresses this gap in our accounts of how we imagine, conceptualise, design and use digital technologies. Drawing on many years of practical and academic experience in human computer-interaction, together with a wide range of material from psychology, design, cognitive science and HCI, seasoned with a little philosophy and anthropology, Imagination + Technology first considers imagination itself and the principal farthings of a new account. Later chapters discuss the role of imagination in the design, aesthetics, use and experience of digital technologies before the concluding chapter focusses on the provocative nature of imagination. The book will be stimulating reading for anyone working in the field of interactive technology and related areas, whether academics, students or practitioners.

Hundreds of buildings, thousands of people, countless stories&—there&’s always more to learn about Penn State, no matter how much time you&’ve spent there. This Is Penn State: An Insider&’s Guide to the University Park Campus will enlighten anyone with an interest in the University, from visiting parents to lifelong State College residents. This Is Penn State documents the rich history beneath the surface of the Penn State experience, offering facts and figures, essays and anecdotes, obscure trivia, notable quotations, and a wealth of other information about Penn State&’s past, present, and future. Forty of the University&’s most prominent buildings and areas are highlighted, accompanied by more than 120 illustrations, ranging from historical photographs to architectural sketches of buildings not yet completed. Essays by veteran Penn Staters Leon Stout, Craig Zabel, and Gabriel Welsch cover Penn State&’s history, architecture, and changing physical landscape. And when you want to get outside and see the campus firsthand, This Is Penn State is your guidebook to University Park. The four detailed maps take you on a west-to-east walking tour of Penn State&’s buildings, allowing you to understand the development of each area of campus. Over the last 150 years, Penn State has been devoted to scholarship, research, and community service. In honor of the University&’s sesquicentennial and in celebration of the Press&’s fiftieth anniversary, the Penn State Press is proud to offer This Is Penn State as its gift to everyone who feels a connection with &“dear old State.&”

The contributors to Captivating Technology examine how carceral technologies such as electronic ankle monitors and predictive-policing algorithms are being deployed to classify and coerce specific populations and whether these innovations can be appropriated and reimagined for more liberatory ends.

Technologies of Empire reshapes post-colonial scholarship of the long eighteenth century by exploring the ways in which post-enlightenment authors employ writing and imagination to produce rather than simply represent empire. Challenging the assumption that the first imaginings of coordinated global empires occur in the later nineteenth century, this study argues that authors ranging from Adam Smith, Edmund Burke to William Wordsworth conceive of imagination and writing as technologies that can conceptualize and consolidate the new forms of empire they see emerging.