Dr. Matt Ratto
Assistant Professor
Director, Critical Making Lab
Faculty of Information
University of Toronto

Room BA1180
Bahen Centre for Information Technology
University of Toronto
40 St. George St.
MAP (look for code BA): map

In this talk, Ratto will detail a series of experiments in what he has termed 'critical making', a mode of engagement with social theory and technology that encourages the building of new connections between the two. While making use of rapid prototyping technologies such as arduino microcontrollers, 3D printing, and laser cutters, the focus of critical making is on conceptual elaboration rather than on the development of final technical solutions. Using examples draw from his recent work, Ratto will explore similarities between critical making and other types of reflexive technical practice. A particular goal of critical making is to explore how makers can become more reflexive about the social implications of their work, but also how users of technologies can become more active participants in the development of their technologically-mediated environments.

Matt Ratto is an Assistant Professor and director of the Critical Making lab in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2003, writing his dissertation on the social organization of the Linux development community. Past appointments include a postdoctoral position with the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information (NIWI), researcher and founding member of the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam (VKS-KNAW), visiting scholar at the University of Amsterdam, and a research position in the Humlab, University of Umea, Sweden. His current research focuses on how hands-on productive work - making - can supplement and extend critical reflection on the relations between digital technologies and society. In particular, Ratto's work addresses the movement of digital media and information from screens and into the material environment. This trend, known as 'ambient' or 'ubiquitous' computing, or more colloquially as the 'Internet of Things', is the primary focus of his work and builds upon the new possibilities offered by open source software and hardware, and the developing technologies of 3D printing and rapid prototyping. Since 2007, Ratto has carried out workshops in 'critical making' in Amsterdam, London, Canada, the US, and Scotland.