The ways through which humans interact with their environment via sensory perception is changing rapidly in the age of digital sensor technologies. An increasing number of technical sensors are currently being added to our skin, eyes, and ears – the once central interfaces between body and world. These sensors aim not only to imitate human smelling and tasting in addition to haptic and visual perception but also to translate smelling and tasting into digital processes—that is, into mathematically representable discrete operations. This brings a previously marginal dimension of media theory into focus: the entanglement of the “lower” senses with machine perception apparatuses, like sensors.

This development is not merely an expansion of the concept of the interface; it also touches on fundamental anthropological and epistemological questions—for example, concerning the boundary between human and nonhuman agency or the (technical) conditions of perception itself. Human and nonhuman operations appear to intermingle fluidly in this sensory situation. The relations of human-computer interaction (HCI) are renegotiated through questions about the “senses” and the purpose of sensors.

The sensing activated by sensors is part of a media-technical configuration of perception: sensors act not only as part of a media ensemble but increasingly extend the constitution of what can be considered perceptible. This coupling of human senses and technical infrastructures shifts human-computer interaction and transforms the interface from a mere point of contact into a sensory infrastructure in which data streams, materiality, bodies, and software form relational assemblages. Sensing thus serves paradigmatically as a renegotiation of the interfaces between humans, technology, and environment. This implies that not only the concept of the interface is expanded, but also the conditions and limits of perception are redefined in an increasingly sensor-mediated world.

The workshop Sensing, Sensorik und Sensoren

Medienästhetische Fragestellungen sensorischer Medialität und des Sensing der Nahsinne examines the entanglements of perception, media technology, and aesthetics in the context of sensory cultures. The focus is on theoretical and methodological approaches to processes of sensing as epistemic and aesthetic practices that mediate between human sensory perception, environments, and technical sensors. Media-aesthetic, cultural-technical, and material-theoretical perspectives on sensory mediality will be discussed in order to reassess the role of the near senses—especially smell and taste—in contemporary media dispositifs.

The goal of the workshop is to open an interdisciplinary discussion on the current relevance of the sensory and to explore the theoretical applicability of the term “sensing,” both in relation to digitalization—for example, of culinary experiences—and regarding the development of a mediality of the lower senses.

The ways through which humans interact with their environment via sensory perception is changing rapidly in the age of digital sensor technologies. An increasing number of technical sensors are currently being added to our skin, eyes, and ears – the once central interfaces between body and world. These sensors aim not only to imitate human smelling and tasting in addition to haptic and visual perception but also to translate smelling and tasting into digital processes—that is, into mathematically representable discrete operations. This brings a previously marginal dimension of media theory into focus: the entanglement of the “lower” senses with machine perception apparatuses, like sensors.

This development is not merely an expansion of the concept of the interface; it also touches on fundamental anthropological and epistemological questions—for example, concerning the boundary between human and nonhuman agency or the (technical) conditions of perception itself. Human and nonhuman operations appear to intermingle fluidly in this sensory situation. The relations of human-computer interaction (HCI) are renegotiated through questions about the “senses” and the purpose of sensors.

The sensing activated by sensors is part of a media-technical configuration of perception: sensors act not only as part of a media ensemble but increasingly extend the constitution of what can be considered perceptible. This coupling of human senses and technical infrastructures shifts human-computer interaction and transforms the interface from a mere point of contact into a sensory infrastructure in which data streams, materiality, bodies, and software form relational assemblages. Sensing thus serves paradigmatically as a renegotiation of the interfaces between humans, technology, and environment. This implies that not only the concept of the interface is expanded, but also the conditions and limits of perception are redefined in an increasingly sensor-mediated world.

The workshop Sensing, Sensorik und Sensoren

Medienästhetische Fragestellungen sensorischer Medialität und des Sensing der Nahsinne examines the entanglements of perception, media technology, and aesthetics in the context of sensory cultures. The focus is on theoretical and methodological approaches to processes of sensing as epistemic and aesthetic practices that mediate between human sensory perception, environments, and technical sensors. Media-aesthetic, cultural-technical, and material-theoretical perspectives on sensory mediality will be discussed in order to reassess the role of the near senses—especially smell and taste—in contemporary media dispositifs.

The goal of the workshop is to open an interdisciplinary discussion on the current relevance of the sensory and to explore the theoretical applicability of the term “sensing,” both in relation to digitalization—for example, of culinary experiences—and regarding the development of a mediality of the lower senses.

Here is the link!

AI in Research: Predictive Practices

Final Conference of the »How is Artificial Intelligence Changing Science? Research in the Era of Learning Algorithms (HiAICS)« Research Group
University of Bonn, March 25–27, 2026

Over the past years, our transdisciplinary group HiAICS has examined how AI-based methods reshape scientific practice through infrastructures, data regimes, and predictive work. I’ve been part of this effort with Anna Echterhölter, Alexander Waibel, Jens Schröter, Markus Ramsauer and Fabian Retkowski. With our final conference, we close this project phase and invite a broader discussion across disciplines.

From March 25 to 27, 2026, we met at the University of Bonn for »AI in Research: Predictive Practices«. The conference brings together 25 speakers from climatology, sociology, media studies, history of science, computer science, law, anthropology, economics, mathematics, philosophy, and the humanities to examine uncertainty, simulation, and the changing status of evidence in the age of learning algorithms.

We focus on predictive operations such as forecasting, modeling, and pattern recognition in concrete research settings. These practices reorganize methods, redistribute epistemic authority between researchers and computational systems, and shift validation standards. Across disciplines, uncertainties range from data quality and model assumptions to distribution shift. Simulated, augmented, and synthetic data increasingly shape training, validation, and inference—raising questions about how evidence is constituted under AI-driven conditions.

Keynotes: Gabriele Gramelsberger (RWTH Aachen), Alexander Waibel (KIT/CMU), Markus Gabriel (University of Bonn).

A panel on day 2 brings together Alexander Winkler, Christian Djefall, Gabriele Schabacher, Orit Halpern, Anne Dippel, and Christian Bauckhage.
Website: https://howisaichangingscience.eu/final-conference

Contact: contact.howisaichangingscience@gmail.com

Our book with the results of our workshop last year (and even more invited papers), 20 in total... in English and first in print and then in Open Access...

(Preliminary Cover, thanks to Seba)

Jens Schröter gave via Zoom a talk, 28.2.2026, on »Electronic Noses« on the »The Odorous Object« Conference at the renowned Brown University, Providence, USA.

Here is the link to the program.

Here is the link to the Symposium!

There are now also the talks available as audio-recordings!

Photos by Silviu Guiman.

Intercultural Dialogue and Interdisciplinary Convergence:
Toward Plural Media Studies

Wu Jingwei, Jens Schröter, Song Sijing (Translator)

Journal of Communication Innovation Research, 2, 2025, p. 1-13 + 238.

This article conducts an in-depth interview with Jens Schröter, a German media studies scholar. It attempts to define and explore the characteristics, boundaries, current significance and limitations, as well as future developments of media studies. Taking as its starting point the study of the technologies and associated institutions and practices that are necessary to store, transmit, process and display information, media studies is both distinct from other fields of study and also has possibilities that allow for dialogue and integration, presenting itself as a plural discipline. On the one hand, media studies emerge based on the overlapping of different developments, focusing on a specific object (media) with various approaches and perspectives. On the other hand, media studies, which for historical reasons focuses more on technology, can in the future incorporate economic and political issues into its research framework through dialog and integration with other fields, such as economics; German media studies can likewise engage in a dialog with media studies in other countries, such as China and France. In our current technological society, we are dependent on technological infrastructure all the time, and media studies are helping to answer the question of what is happening around us and society.

Here is the link to the paper!

The translated article is:跨媒介性的四种话语 (Four Discourses of Intermediality). In 艺术跨媒介研究精粹 (Intermediality in the Arts. A Reader), Li Jian & Werner Wolf (ed.), pp. 178-190. trans. Zhan Yuelan, Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2025. (ISBN: 978–7–108–08180–3)

Here is the link to the article from the book!