Hector Michael Fried is a Design Anthropologist and artist. Hector’s research explores the use of technological probes towards qualitative and ethnographic inquiry, while applying it to industry issues around service design. He has specific interest in IoT with an emphasis on contextualizing the growing relationship between things, humans, and AI. At Design Informatics he has worked with Edinburgh City Council towards their Public Art Research Project and conducted research under the Internet of Things Research Hub (PETRAS).

This project aims to showcase the approach and the integral elements of a novel ethnographic inquiry, and illustrate how the Ethnobot, a simplistic form of AI can be used in practice in a complex service co-design project through the case study of the Edinburgh City Council Public Art research project.