Dr Richard Cook
I consider myself an interdisciplinary researcher, perhaps even a trans-disciplinarian.I've published on Education, Sociology and Business and Computing - the commonality is 'people'. My research and interest is in people and their things - or technologies (material culture). I study who, the what, how (ethnomethodology) and most importantly the why of human behaviour. Currently I am exploring the social construction of nonsense.
I'm producing an art exhibition in Bristol of AI generated media that will challenge peoples perceptions of realities and what counts as knowledge. It speaks to identity and power asymmetries.
ETHNOGRAMS | SENSEPLACE I've used ethnography as a good way to explore human behaviour and developed several key concepts that transpose well across disciplines. For example ' narrative meaning' and 'senseplaces'. Two important conceptual tools to develop insights about individuals habits and patterns. The talk below shows my current direction of research travel. Machine auto-ethnography, machine-machine interactions, synthetic authors, command and control socities, fractured ontologies... Here is a talk I recently gave to the British Computing Society (Cheltenham) which gives a flavour of my current direction and focus.
Get in contact for press or speaking here
Words
Recent Publications
Cook, R. (2024) Crafting a ‘senseplace’: the touch, sound and smell of graffiti, Senses and Society. Available hereCook, R. (2024). ‘Ethnograms’. in Kara, H, (ed) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Creative Research Methods. pp.123-133. UK: Bloomsbury Academic. Available here.
Cook, R. (2023) 'Using an ‘ethnogram’ to visualise talk in the classroom'. The International Journal of Research and Method in Education. Vol 18, Issue 3. pp.223-240. Available here
Cook, R. and Hockey, J. (2023) ‘Gravel cycling craft and the senses: scenes, sounds, vibrations, fatigue and typifications on off-road tracks’. Senses and Society. Volume 18, Issue 3. pp.223-240 .Available here