Calm Surveillance in the Leaky Home: Living with a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
by Kassandra Wellendorf, Karen Louise Grova Søilen, and Kristin Veel
Abstract:
Understanding the attachment owners can feel to their robot vacuums, which also map and collect data about their homes, is key to understanding the ambivalences involved in the integration of automated visualities in the home. Drawing on qualitative video interviews and observations of people interacting with their robot vacuums, this article identifies three key factors in understanding how cohabitation with a robot vacuum and its particular form of automated sensoria is experienced by its user: firstly, the robot assists with work that we would otherwise do ourselves with the aid of a broom or traditional vacuum cleaner; it is thus often regarded as an extension of ourselves, the equivalent of a cleaning assistant, or even a kind of pet with which you can interact. Secondly, its ability to move autonomously increases the inclination to anthropomorphize the robot as a being with some level of agency and intelligence. Thirdly, the robot vacuum cleaner is a very visible part of the intimate sphere. It has its charging station in the home; it cannot be hidden away in a cupboard like an ordinary vacuum cleaner; more often than not, furniture needs to be moved around for it to run smoothly. This article argues that these three factors are important for understanding people’s difficulty in perceiving the robot as an entity that potentially participates in surveillance practices, and to understand the nature of this form of surveillance that emanates from the leaky home.
Keywords: robot vacuum; everyday culture; surveillance; leaky home; automated vision; smart home; cleaning habits
How to cite:
MLA (9th edition):
Wellendorf, Kassandra, Karen Louise Grova Søilen, and Kristin Veel. “Calm Surveillance in the Leaky Home: Living with a Robot Vacuum Cleaner.” MAST, vol. 3, no. 1, Apr. 2022, pp. 41–62.
APA (7th edition):
Wellendorf, K., Søilen, K. L. G., & Veel, K. (2022). Calm surveillance in the leaky home: Living with a robot vacuum cleaner. MAST, 3(1), 41–62.
Chicago (17th edition):
Wellendorf, Kassandra, Karen Louise Grova Søilen, and Kristin Veel. “Calm Surveillance in the Leaky Home: Living with a Robot Vacuum Cleaner.” MAST 3, no. 1 (April 2022): 41–62.
Licensing:
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Copyright:
Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions and may reuse/republish their article as part of a book or other materials, providing acknowledgment is given to MAST as the original source and place of publication. Authors can also post a copy of their accepted/published article on their websites and on their Institutional repository, citing that the article was originally published in MAST.
© 2022 Kassandra Wellendorf, Karen Louise Grova Søilen, and Kristin Veel
Issue: vol. 3 no. 1 (2022): Special Issue: Automating Visuality
Section: Article
Guest Editors: Dominique Routhier, Lila Lee-Morrison, and Kathrin Maurer
Submitted: Feb 15th, 2021
Accepted: Feb 1st, 2022
Published: Apr 25, 2022
