Networking with Ghosts in the Machine. Speaking to the Internet of Things

Our increasingly technologically-mediated world continues to pose challenges for design. Considering these we suggest that the digital products and services that surround us are haunted by 'ghosts in the machine'. These spectres bridge the physical with the digital, they broker competing relationships, and live among streams of data which cohere as algorithmic oceans causing precipitation of physical agency. Cast in this light, the ghosts in the machines of modern networked technologies represent aspects of designers' challenging relationships with the products and services they create. An emerging body of Post Anthropocentric theory offers conceptual 'jumping-off' points to engage with these challenges. In this paper we describe experiments that reflect and build on these theories. Through these we explore the possible foundations of accessible heuristics to aid in purposeful designerly apprehension of the difficult socio-technical complexities that are common among 21st century technological assemblages.