I’m an Associate Professor at TU Delft, working in human-algorithm interaction - exploring the messy terrain between people, data and things through a combination of making and thinking. Current research questions include: How can we understand the algorithmically mediated society that we are heading towards? How can we ensure that there is space for people within computational systems, preserving privacy, choice, identity and humanity while making use of the possibilities of emerging technology? How can we work with things that have an increasing sense of agency, from sensing to responding to shaping the world around them? See info on academic work, with more detail on research, teaching and PhD supervision.

In my creative practice I engage with interactions between people and technology. This includes electronic music making (especially with laptop trio Raw Green Rust), building software for different kinds of musicking and a collection of technology based artworks.

Selected recent papers

Murray-Rust, D., Elsden, C., Nissen, B., Tallyn, E., Pschetz, L., & Speed, C. (2022). Blockchain and Beyond: Understanding Blockchains through Prototypes and Public Engagement. Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.
Blockchain and Beyond: Understanding Blockchains through Prototypes and Public Engagement

This paper presents an annotated portfolio of projects that seek to understand and communicate the social and societal implications of blockchains, distributed ledgers and smart contracts. These complex technologies rely on human and technical factors to deliver cryptocurrencies, shared computation and trustless protocols but have a secondary benefit in providing a moment to re-think many aspects of society, and imagine alternative possibilities. The projects use design and HCI methods to relate blockchains to a range of topics, including global supply chains, delivery infrastructure, smart grids, volunteering and charitable giving, through engaging publics, exploring ideas and speculating on possible futures. Based on an extensive annotated portfolio we draw out learning for the design of blockchain systems, broadening participation and surfacing questions around imaginaries, social implications and engagement with new technology. This paints a comprehensive picture of how HCI and design can shape understandings of the future of complex technologies.
```
@article{murray-rust2022BlockchainUnderstanding,
  title = {Blockchain and {{Beyond}}: {{Understanding Blockchains}} through {{Prototypes}} and {{Public Engagement}}},
  shorttitle = {Blockchain and {{Beyond}}},
  author = {{Murray-Rust}, Dave and Elsden, Chris and Nissen, Bettina and Tallyn, Ella and Pschetz, Larissa and Speed, Chris},
  year = {2022},
  journal = {Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction},
  eprint = {2112.11891},
  urldate = {2022-01-05},
  archiveprefix = {arxiv},
  keywords = {Computer Science - Computers and Society,Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction},
  file = {/Users/dmurrayrust/Dropbox/University/ZoteroPapers/murray-rust2022BlockchainUnderstanding/murray-rust2022BlockchainUnderstanding.pdf}
}
```
Murray-Rust, D., Nicenboim, I., & Lockton, D. (2022). Metaphors for Designers Working with AI. DRS Biennial Conference Series. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.667
Metaphors for Designers Working with AI

In this paper, we explore the use of metaphors for people working with artificial intelligence, in particular those that support designers in thinking about the creation of AI systems. Metaphors both illuminate and hide, simplifying and connecting to existing knowledge, centring particular ideas, marginalising others, and shaping fields of practice. The practices of machine learning and artificial intelligence draw heavily on metaphors, whether black boxes, or the idea of learning and training, but at the edges of the field, as design engages with computational practices, it is not always apparent which terms are used metaphorically, and which associations can be safely drawn on. In this paper, we look at some of the ways metaphors are deployed around machine learning and ask about where they might lead us astray. We then develop some qualities of useful metaphors, and finally explore a small collection of helpful metaphors and practices that illuminate different aspects of machine learning in a way that can support design thinking.
```
@inproceedings{murray-rust2022MetaphorsDesigners,
  title = {Metaphors for Designers Working with {{AI}}},
  booktitle = {{{DRS Biennial Conference Series}}},
  author = {{Murray-Rust}, Dave and Nicenboim, Iohanna and Lockton, Dan},
  year = {2022},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.21606/drs.2022.667},
  file = {/Users/dmurrayrust/Dropbox/University/ZoteroPapers/murray-rust2022MetaphorsDesigners/murray-rust2022MetaphorsDesigners.pdf;/Users/dmurrayrust/Zotero/storage/A4RA26BG/237.html}
}
```
Murray-Rust, D., Lupetti, M. L., Nicenboim, I., & van der Hoog, W. (2023). Grasping AI: Experiential Exercises for Designers. AI & Society. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2310.01282
Grasping AI: Experiential Exercises for Designers

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly integrated into the functioning of physical and digital products, creating unprecedented opportunities for interaction and functionality. However, there is a challenge for designers to ideate within this creative landscape, balancing the possibilities of technology with human interactional concerns. We investigate techniques for exploring and reflecting on the interactional affordances, the unique relational possibilities, and the wider social implications of AI systems. We introduced into an interaction design course (n=113) nine ‘AI exercises’ that draw on more than human design, responsible AI, and speculative enactment to create experiential engagements around AI interaction design. We find that exercises around metaphors and enactments make questions of training and learning, privacy and consent, autonomy and agency more tangible, and thereby help students be more reflective and responsible on how to design with AI and its complex properties in both their design process and outcomes.
```
@article{murray-rust2023GraspingAI,
  title = {Grasping {{AI}}: Experiential Exercises for Designers},
  author = {{Murray-Rust}, Dave and Lupetti, Maria Luce and Nicenboim, Iohanna and {van der Hoog}, Wouter},
  year = {2023},
  journal = {AI \& Society},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2310.01282},
  file = {/Users/dmurrayrust/Dropbox/University/ZoteroPapers/murray-rust2023GraspingAI/murray-rust2023GraspingAI.pdf}
}
```
Seymour, W., Van Kleek, M., Binns, R., & Murray-Rust, D. (2022). Respect as a Lens for the Design of AI Systems. Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 641–652.
Respect as a Lens for the Design of AI Systems

Critical examinations of AI systems often apply principles such as fairness, justice, accountability, and safety, which is reflected in AI regulations such as the EU AI Act. Are such principles sufficient to promote the design of systems that support human flourishing? Even if a system is in some sense fair, just, or ’safe’, it can nonetheless be exploitative, coercive, inconvenient, or otherwise conflict with cultural, individual, or social values. This paper proposes a dimension of interactional ethics thus far overlooked: the ways AI systems should treat human beings. For this purpose, we explore the philosophical concept of respect: if respect is something everyone needs and deserves, shouldn’t technology aim to be respectful? Despite its intuitive simplicity, respect in philosophy is a complex concept with many disparate senses. Like fairness or justice, respect can characterise how people deserve to be treated; but rather than relating primarily to the distribution of benefits or punishments, respect relates to how people regard one another, and how this translates to perception, treatment, and behaviour. We explore respect broadly across several literatures, synthesising perspectives on respect from Kantian, post-Kantian, dramaturgical, and agential realist design perspectives with a goal of drawing together a view of what respect could mean for AI. In so doing, we identify ways that respect may guide us towards more sociable artefacts that ethically and inclusively honour and recognise humans using the rich social language that we have evolved to interact with one another every day.
```
@inproceedings{seymour2022RespectLens,
  title = {Respect as a {{Lens}} for the {{Design}} of {{AI Systems}}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2022 {{AAAI}}/{{ACM Conference}} on {{AI}}, {{Ethics}}, and {{Society}}},
  author = {Seymour, William and Van Kleek, Max and Binns, Reuben and {Murray-Rust}, Dave},
  year = {2022},
  month = jul,
  eprint = {2206.07555},
  primaryclass = {cs},
  pages = {641--652},
  doi = {10.1145/3514094.3534186},
  urldate = {2022-07-28},
  archiveprefix = {arxiv},
  keywords = {Computer Science - Human-Computer Interaction},
  file = {/Users/dmurrayrust/Dropbox/University/ZoteroPapers/seymour2022RespectLens/seymour2022RespectLens.pdf;/Users/dmurrayrust/Zotero/storage/6WY5VCY8/2206.html}
}
```
Tallyn, E., Revans, J., Morgan, E., Fisken, K., & Murray-Rust, D. (2021). Enacting the Last Mile: Experiences of Smart Contracts in Courier Deliveries. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–14. Yokohama Japan: ACM.
Enacting the Last Mile: Experiences of Smart Contracts in Courier Deliveries

Smart contract systems could change the nature of last-mile delivery for the better through enhanced precision, coordination and accountability. However, technological complexity poses a challenge for end-users participating in the design process, making it hard to explore their experiences and incorporate their perspectives. We describe a case study where technological prototypes create smart contract experiences for professional couriers and receptionists, allowing them to speculate about emerging possibilities, whilst remaining grounded in their current practices. Participants enacted a series of deliveries, choreographed by smart contracts, and their responses were explored in post-experience, one-to-one interviews. Working with professionals to explore the potential impact of smart contract technologies, revealed the systemic webs of value underlying their existing work practices. This has implications for design of such technologies, in which increased automation, efciency and accountability must be delicately balanced with the benefts of sustaining personal values, relationships and agency.
```
@inproceedings{tallyn2021EnactingLast,
  title = {Enacting the {{Last Mile}}: {{Experiences}} of {{Smart Contracts}} in {{Courier Deliveries}}},
  shorttitle = {Enacting the {{Last Mile}}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2021 {{CHI Conference}} on {{Human Factors}} in {{Computing Systems}}},
  author = {Tallyn, Ella and Revans, Joe and Morgan, Evan and Fisken, Keith and {Murray-Rust}, Dave},
  year = {2021},
  month = may,
  pages = {1--14},
  publisher = {{ACM}},
  address = {{Yokohama Japan}},
  doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445525},
  urldate = {2021-11-19},
  isbn = {978-1-4503-8096-6},
  langid = {english},
  file = {/Users/dmurrayrust/Dropbox/University/ZoteroPapers/tallyn2021EnactingLast/tallyn2021EnactingLast.pdf}
}
```
Wang, Z., Romat, H., Chevalier, F., Riche, N., Murray-Rust, D., & Bach, B. (2022). Interactive Data Comics. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2021.3114849
Interactive Data Comics

A set of operations tailored to support data comics narrative goals that go beyond the traditional linear, immutable storyline curated by a story author are introduced and a lightweight specification language, COMICSCRIPT, is proposed for designers to add interactivity to static comics. This paper investigates how to make data comics interactive. Data comics are an effective and versatile means for visual communication, leveraging the power of sequential narration and combined textual and visual content, while providing an overview of the storyline through panels assembled in expressive layouts. While a powerful static storytelling medium that works well on paper support, adding interactivity to data comics can enable non-linear storytelling, personalization, levels of details, explanations, and potentially enriched user experiences. This paper introduces a set of operations tailored to support data comics narrative goals that go beyond the traditional linear, immutable storyline curated by a story author. The goals and operations include adding and removing panels into pre-defined layouts to support branching, change of perspective, or access to detail-on-demand, as well as providing and modifying data, and interacting with data representation, to support personalization and reader-defined data focus. We propose a lightweight specification language, COMICSCRIPT, for designers to add such interactivity to static comics. To assess the viability of our authoring process, we recruited six professional illustrators, designers and data comics enthusiasts and asked them to craft an interactive comic, allowing us to understand authoring workflow and potential of our approach. We present examples of interactive comics in a gallery. This initial step towards understanding the design space of interactive comics can inform the design of creation tools and experiences for interactive storytelling.
```
@article{wang2022InteractiveData,
  title = {Interactive {{Data Comics}}},
  author = {Wang, Zezhong and Romat, Hugo and Chevalier, Fanny and Riche, N. and {Murray-Rust}, Dave and Bach, Benjamin},
  year = {2022},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
  doi = {10.1109/TVCG.2021.3114849}
}
```