Philip Schauss
is a Conceptual Analyst of Products and Environments.
Previously a Researcher and Director of Curriculum at Transformations of the Human (ToftH) in Berkeley, California.
Ph.D. in Philosophy from the New School for Social Research in New York City.
The work of conceptual analysis and innovation begins with attention paid to the concrete experience of things.
That is the starting point for how it could be otherwise: more surprising, less splatter.
I believe in things that make realistic demands on our attention.
Newness tends to be measured only on the strength of a first impression, not on a more sustained interaction.
If the experience of a product or environment is going to make us reconsider fundamentals like work, creativity, togetherness, etc., many small surprises must follow a strong first impression.
Noteworthiness can be identified and fine-tuned through conceptual analysis: of underlying technologies, contexts (commercial, sensory, environmental, etc.), and aesthetics.
Attention is not merely something to be captured; it is something to be held.
Transformations of the Human
2021 – 2023
Transformations of the Human (ToftH) is a place of radical experimentation for technological products and the concepts that inform them. It is positioned at the leading edge of conceptual research and innovation, from where it can appraise and productively displace traditional accounts of the relations between humans, technology, and nature. Working alongside practitioners in fields as diverse as AI, robotics, microbiome research, and biotechnology, this yields exciting and entirely novel opportunities, both in experiential and commercial terms.
At ToftH, I was a Fellow, Researcher, and Director of Curriculum and Instruction:
As an inaugural Fellow, I received intensive training in the conceptual approach developed in-house, which allows one to conduct mutually beneficial work alongside makers in technological research and development. As a Researcher, I was tasked with applying this approach to a host of contemporary AI applications through exhaustive conceptual analyses. Then, as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, I brought my experience as a teacher and educator to ToftH School, leading the second cohort of Fellows through a refined version of the original curriculum, with a view to further refining it for next cohort. In addition to further honing my pedagogy, the day-to-day running of the school also saw me acquire a host of administrative skills, among which was the maintenance of guest lecturer relations (experts such as Yann LeCun, Antonio Damasio, and Margaret McFall-Ngai).
The New School for Social Research
Ph.D. 2022
My Ph.D. thesis, Backgrounds in Architecture, laid out how the Western architectural tradition, with its historical repertoire of forms and functions, determines the conditions under which things come to our attention — largely, in part, or not at all. Early on in its history, architecture acted as an experiential frame for the human experience of the divine, for example, in temples and cathedrals. From the late 19th century on, as architecture turned modern, it gradually became a blanket infrastructure for everyday life, and therefore also the background against which exceptional or irregular things and events appear. Any creative pursuit of novel products, experiences, and worlds must therefore contend (or break) with the experiential baseline of the currently built world.
When not conceptually engaged, I watch soccer, read while watching soccer, and play with my son (not soccer).