Nello Barile

The Automation of Taste: A Theoretical Exploration of Mobile ICTs and Social Robots in the Context of Music Consumption

Today robotics and robotic functions are increasingly relevant to our everyday life. Although the notion of social robots tends to trigger the idea of autonomous machines such as humanoid and zoomorphic robots, it can be extended to include information and communication technologies (ICTs) Sugiyama and Vincent (Intervalla Platf Intellect Exch 1:1–6, 2013). The present paper seeks to describe the implications of the deepest penetration of mobile ICTs in everyday life through the proliferation of technologies as well as the cogent effect of software and new applications controlled by algorithms. As smart phones and wearable devices continue to evolve and come closer to the human body, and also, transform from “a hard and utilitarian conception to a softer ideal based on the emotional value of new devices” Barile (Intervalla Platf Intellect Exch 1:101–115, 2013, p. 102), this is an important and timely question to examine. In particular, this paper considers how mobile ICTs such as smart phones have the power to shape, and furthermore, to “automate” our emotions and taste by exploring the examples of widely-adopted music applications. By reviewing some of the classic theories of taste and the current technological environment of music consumption, it proposes the notion of “the automation of taste,” which is a theoretical framework that can describe the new role of the technological mediation in the social definition of taste, considering the music recommendation systems as a sort of automatized cognitive environment. The paper argues that the automation of taste, facilitated by the smart phone and its applications and algorithms, leads to the human carrying some traces of robots.

The New Television Ecosystem

Contents Alberto Abruzzese Introduction 9 Part I: The Role of Emotion in the New Television Ecosystem Leopoldina Fortunati & Sakari Taipale Adoption of New Forms of Television and Emotion in Five European Countries 21 Nello Barile The Age of Personal Web TVs. A Cultural Analysis of the Convergence between Web 2.0, Branding and Everyday Life 41 Emiliano Trere & Manuela Farinosi (H)earthquake TV: ‘People Rebuilding Life after the Emergency’ 61 Part II: Digital Television Audiences and their Practices of Use Leif Kramp Access to Cornucopia? The Rise of a New Television Archive Culture on the Web 83 Fausto Colombo & Andrea Cuman The (Old) New Value of Digital TV as a Cultural Product 105 Eleonora Benecchi & Giuseppe Richeri TV to Talk about. Engaging with American TV Series through the Internet 121 Part III: The Transformation of Television: Contemporary Perspectives Juan Miguel Aguado, Claudio Feijoo, Inmaculada J. Martinez & Marta Roel Mobile Television, a Paradigmatic Case on the Uncertainties and Opportuni- ties of the New Media Ecosystem 141 Andrea Miconi A Glocal Way to Broadcasting: Neighbourhood TV and Web TV in Con-temporary Italy 159 Part IV: Understanding New Behaviours and Attitudes towards Digital Television Jakob Bjur Social Television Ecology – The Misfits and New Viewing Practices 175 Bartolomeo Sapio, Tomaz Turk, Stefano Livi, Michele Cornacchi, Enrico Nicolo & Filomena Papa User Experience of Payment Services through Digital Television 193 About the Authors 216

Wearing Data: from McLuhan’s “Extended Skin” to the Integration Between Wearable Technologies and a New Algorithmic Sensibility

Abstract One of the current issues in fashion studies resides in the area of wearable technologies research. The intersection between fashion and technology has been studied; however, as technology, particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs), evolves at a rapid speed, this topic has become increasingly important in recent years. This paper proposes to apply Marshall McLuhans ideas on media and fashion as an analytical framework of wearable technologies, particularly focusing on the case of Hussein Chalayan. The analysis of Chalayan’s work suggests the progressive integration between design innovation and increasingly elaborate storytelling techniques. The paper argues that the smartly clothed body produces data as well as wears the data. The extended skin is equipped with artificial sensory systems, extending our natural body and sensory systems into the augmented space; the extended skin is datafied and the body is datafied.