An investigation of how-to guides for sensor technologies

Sensors are increasingly common within citizen-sensing and DIY projects, but these devices often require the use of a how-to guide. From online instructional videos for troubleshooting sensor installations to handbooks for using and abusing the Internet of Things, the how-to genres and formats of digital instruction continue to expand and develop. As the how-to proliferates, and instructions unfold through multiple aspects of technoscientific practices, Jennifer Gabrys asks why the how-to has become one of the prevailing genres of the digital. How to Do Things with Sensors explores the ways in which things are made do-able with and through sensors and further considers how worlds are made sense-able and actionable through the instructional mode of citizen-sensing projects.

Forerunners: Ideas First
Short books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

About the Author

Jennifer Gabrys is chair in media, culture, and environment in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. She is author of Program Earth: Environmental Sensing Technology and the Making of a Computational Planet and Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics.

Reviews

"How to Do Thing with Sensors is a relatively condensed argument, considering its complexity. It is one that has the potential to open up its readers to a more nuanced and complex understanding of making and maker culture."-Hyperrhiz

"Gabrys encourages those with curiosity to develop and refine questions through the iterative process of making sensors and taking readings. Like a character or reader exploring a new world for the first time, she fosters new modes of engagement with the built world."-Public Books

Book Information
ISBN 9781517908317
Author Jennifer Gabrys
Format Paperback
Page Count 106
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publisher University of Minnesota Press
Dimensions(mm) 178mm * 127mm * 6mm