Waking the Machines

Artist, researcher, and writer Sara Hendren opens the Center for the Humanities’ ongoing series “Science, Technologies, and the Human Condition” at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, in Rosenfield Center Room 101. The series explores how different technologies have transformed the ways we perceive the body, time, space, and our environment.

“Among the themes we hope to explore this year are the human experiences of technology and the relationship between moral and scientific thought,” says Shuchi Kapila, the Center’s director.

“Hendren thinks about representations of technological innovations and their connections with the human body as an exploration of design and artistic production,” says Kapila. “Her work on disability and prosthetics, for instance, is interested in its aesthetic and technical dimensions.  She will explore adaptive technologies and the medicalized body in her talk.”

Hendren's presentation is “Waking the Machines: Art, Design, and Adaptive Technology.” 

She writes about adaptive technologies and prosthetics, critical design, the medicalized and biopolitical body, and cultural representations of disability and health.  Her projects at various stages include: an investigation of the inclined plane, one of Galileo's "simple machines;" cardboard carpentry; personal genomics; and prosthetics for invisible conditions.

Hendren runs the Abler web site.