Essential self technologies: Body-based wellness machines

Linda Stone served in senior executive roles at Apple and Microsoft, did pioneering work in multimedia technology and applications in the 1980s and early ‘90s, and in social computing technologies in the ‘90s. For the last decade she has studied, written, and spoken about trends, attention, and the psychophysiology of our relationship with technology. She coined the phrases continuous partial attention, email apnea, screen apnea, conscious computing, and essential self technologies. She believes that essential self technologies, technologies that support autonomic resilience, embodiment, and emotional self-regulation, offer the most effective approach to health.

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Kelly Dobson designed and built the machines that contributed to inspiring essential self technologies. Dr. Dobson’s highly interdisciplinary background spans medicine, art, technology, and culture. She earned three advanced degrees from MIT where she trained in art, media arts and sciences, engineering, and anthropology. She has served as department head of Digital + Media for four years at RISD, where she is currently associate professor and founder/director of the Data Visceralization Research Group. Dobson pays deep and careful attention to the ways that we, and the things we make, help us care for one another, and is profoundly driving medical and wellness transformations in the fields of medical device design, critical care medicine, and mindfulness.