The concept of the user is not a well-established sociological concept even though the "user" is omnipresent in our culture as someone who uses a device, a machine, the internet or a public service. Due to the close relationship between man and technology "user studies" have become very important. The papers assembled in this volume were presented at the Vth International Conference on -The Culture of the Artificial- - "The User of the Artificial" (Ascona Switzerland, Monte Verita, 23-25 April 2004). They deal with various aspects of the figure of the user."