This set of projects explores how tech company offices relate to questions of space and place. For instance, what is the “boundary” of the tech company office in an era of hybrid work? What does it mean for a researcher to “access” tech company spaces to study them? How are urban tech company offices situated in relation to city transportation infrastructures?
Mapping AI Work in Atlanta
Richmond Wong, Soyoun Jang, Inha Cha
This project seeks to understand how (AI) tech workers in Atlanta understand the city. We are currently piloting studies that involve diary studies of commuting practices, and participatory mapping to investigate how workers understand and make meaning about Atlanta.
Speculations on Research Access to Tech Company Field Sites
Richmond Wong, Jingxuan Wang, Sarah Mathew, Vera Khovanskaya
In this project, we explore how tech companies create and maintain boundaries between the “inside” and “outside” of companies through physical, technical, and legal mechanisms including security checkpoints, guest registration data systems, and non-disclosure agreements. We then use speculative design to re-imagine how these boundaries could be reconfigured in different ways that might allow external researchers greater insight into the processes and practices within tech companies.
Acknowledgements
This project is supported in part by the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network, and the National Science Foundation.