Workshop: The Significance of Noise

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project supports the Science & Technology Studies Department of Cornell University for a graduate student workshop on The Significance of Noise to be held April 8 at Cornell University. The conference will engage peers and colleagues in Science & Technology Studies, Psychology, Communications, Sociology, Anthropology, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and other disciplines in untangling the term "noise," and how it can be used to gain a better understanding of how scientists and engineers sort meaning from chaos. Four graduate student papers have been selected for presentation. In addition papers from two outside scholars, as well as commentaries from three Cornell faculty members have been solicited. The workshop is organized into three sessions. The first two sessions will consist of two students papers each, running 20 to 30 minutes with a 5 minute follow-up question period for each speaker. After the two students in each panel have given their talks, each guest speakers will present his own material plus some commentary on the theme of the panel. The first panel is entitled Noise and the Body: Human Presence in the Lab, and the guest speaker will be Prof. Brian Rotman of The Ohio State University. Prof. Rotman's talk will be on "n01se---the man/god number nexus". The second panel is entitled Manufacturing Sense: Noise and Social Negotiation, and the guest speaker will be Prof. Harry Collins, of the Center for the Study of Knowledge, Expertise, and Science at Cardiff University. Prof. Collins' talk will be on "The Meaning of Data: Open and Closed Evidential Cultures in the Search for Gravitational Waves". A discussion of 45 to 60 minutes on general themes running through all three papers will immediately follow each panel. The third session will be a roundtable discussion with the two guest speakers, three Cornell faculty members, and questions and comments from the audience. The Cornell S&TS faculty members, Michael Lynch, Ronald Kline, and Trevor Pinch, will give 10 minute summaries of their thoughts on the workshop and the topic of noise, followed by 45 to 60 minutes of discussion. In addition, between the first two panels there will be a working lunch, at which all attendees can sit down and discuss the issue of noise more informally. In the lunch discussion, as well as throughout the day, issues raised by speakers on different panels, as well as questions left unanswered in general discussions, and crosscutting themes that deserve extra time and consideration will hopefully be addressed.