Publications
1. Brucker-Cohen, Jonah,“Human Error: Projects That Emphasize “Misuses”
of Technology” Artist Talk”, International Symposium on Electronic Art, (ISEA 2022) , June 2022, Barcelona, Spain.
2. Brucker-Cohen, Jonah,”Human Error, A Collection of Work that Highlights Our
Misuse of Technology and the Internet”, EVA London 2022 ,
London, United Kingdom.
3. Brucker-Cohen, Jonah,”Human Error How Integrating Common Errors Into User Interfaces Can Challenge Our Perceptions and Change Design Thinking”, chapter in Green Revisited. Encountering Emerging Naturecultures in Art and Research Paperback, RIXC, Riga, Latvia, 2022.
Description
PCKTDial is a phone application that automatically calls a random person in your contact list when the phone senses low light levels as if it was in a pocket or handbag. Typically when we least expect it, our phones tend to dial others without our knowledge resulting in wrongly made cellular calls or as they are commonly called “butt dials” or “pocket calls”. This “human error” is a common problem for people who are unfamiliar with the technology they carry around with them and unable to “lock” or turn off their phones when not in use. Because of this “human error”, calls are made without their knowledge, causing confusion from those on the receiving end of the call. In 2015, Google completed a research study about the prevalence of people calling “911” from “Butt Dials” or accidental calls and found this to be a serious problem with modern smartphones. The study discovered that one of every five calls to emergency services was due to “accidental dials” or “butt dials” and 30% of those calls originated from wireless devices and smartphones. Without software fixes to existing operating systems to stop this form of calling, the problem will persist unchecked. PCKTDial integrates this form of human error into it’s design to call to attention a problem that occurs daily with no end in sight.