Entering the Algorithm: On Epistemological Vulnerability with Rehabilitation Exoskeletons

Studies in health technology and informatics, vol. 330, pp. 257–273

Abstract

Developments in robotics, among which exoskeletons, have lately known a constant increase. Wanting to understand how these devices transform realities of both able and impaired bodies, I conducted multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in research centers where exoskeletons are designed and sometimes used. At one of these sites, I was allowed to take part in a test for an exoskeleton developed for persons with neurological impairments, being thus given the possibility to literally become my research phenomenon and thus enter the algorithm of a device. Data about my own able body contributed to forge forms of knowledge for experts in engineering sciences, but also to build an algorithm for a technological object designed for impaired people. I argue that my participation to my own object of study that resulted in my experiencing of a form of digital incorporation into this very object led me to theorize the category of "epistemological vulnerability" from a methodological point of view.

Authors 1

1. Denisa Butnaru corresponding Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University · University of Konstanz

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen/University of Konstanz, Germany