Making and embedding humane technologies: can artistic practices provide normative guidance?

Abstract

In this commentary, I raise one question and one critical comment about Rietveld’s normative claim that ‘artistic practices afford embedding technologies better in society’ (2019, p. 5). In what exact sense is this the case? It seems that Rietveld offers two interconnected but conceptually distinct answers to this question. The first focuses on art’s habit-breaking possibilities. The second concerns art’s ability to make the lived experiences of the stakeholders potentially affected by a given technology experientially concrete. I will discuss both points, and why I think more needs to be said about them.