Paper short abstract:

How would neuronavigation tools be transformed if they addressed both their users' and creators' aspirations? Juggling the demands of speculative clinical prototyping and the energy that can be tapped from “making public” through exhibited artwork, SpecLab holds space for an STS experiment.

Paper long abstract:

SpecLab started in 2022 with the ambition of enhancing an existing conversation between a neurosurgeon and a design anthropologist by inviting creative coders and designers into the loop. The lab's name reflects a dual focus: on one hand, a neurosurgeon's desire to explore the future of interfaces for surgical planning in the context of spatial computing; on the other, an anthropologist's intent to examine neurosurgery as an ecology of practices. (Stengers 2023)

How would neuronavigation tools be transformed if they addressed both their users' and creators' aspirations? Engaging programmers and artists "on their own terms'' involves offering them the challenges and group dynamics they value. How does one hold such space within academia, while making space for a critical discussion on biomedical visual cultures? Research-as-exhibition ticks many boxes. (Basu & Macdonald 2007) Anthropology is one of the knowledge domains that has devised an open attitude toward its conversation partners, holding reflective yet dynamic spaces for inventive conversations. (Pandian 2019)

The crew of the SpecLab navigates the demands of speculative clinical prototyping and the energy that can be tapped from “making public” through exhibited artworks, featuring into a series of workshops and pop-up exhibitions at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Kulturforum in 2024-2025. This contribution will centre around a discussion between a designer, a creative coder, and an anthropologist, exploring the generation and non-generation of knowledge with their clinical counterparts, the public, and other team members, and will include a demonstration of their current mixed reality neuro-navigation prototype.