Anthropology of the Artificial

Abstract “Anthropology of the Artificial” is a special section of articles by a collective of anthropologists, sociologists, digital media artists, and computer scientists that address the ever increasing encounters between humans and new kinds of machine systems. The contributions draw on a series of artistic and scientific research programs which call for new ways of thinking about the relations between human and artificial systems, focusing on anthropological encounters with artworks, software/hardware, and the public encounters with such systems in settings ranging from research labs to museums.