Culturally Embedded Computing: The Politics of Technology

As an expansion of my last post I'd like to offer a few thoughts on the role of technology (particularly interactive technology) in authoritarian culture.Throughout history, individual technologies (with the possible exception of the guillotine) have been largely understood as neutral and passive and so we attribute any evil and injustice committed by technology to the intentions of its users rather. It is a particular kind of displacement that is the distinct invention of capital and it has largely informed the way we create and develop new technological resources.

While critical reflection is all but missing from the technical fields, several artists, designers and researches have taken up the cause in ways that are novel and inventive, a few of which I've included below. Each has their own disinct critical perspective but all with the aim of dismantling (or at the least uncovering) the uneven power relations embedded in ever facet of technology.

1. Pheobe Sengers/ Culturally Embedded Computer Group @ Cornell

Alt.GPS:

GPS units usually focus on avoiding traffic or toll roads, but in what other ways might we envision the environment that we move through, and the experience of moving through it? How is authority negotiated, what kinds of interactions occur around GPS devices in the front seat of the car, and how can we design to alter these relationships?


2. Chris Csikszentmihályi and Adam Whiton/ Computing Culture Group @ MIT

Watching the Watchers:

Tasers are an electroshock weapon used by over 12,000 police agencies in the United States. The military recently completed testing on another less-lethal weapon which uses a 95GHz millimeter-wave transmitter, called the pain ray. The stated purpose of these less-lethal weapons is as an alternative to firearms, but in practice this hasn't been the case. Some police departments allow taser use in cases of passive resistance, refusing verbal commands, or civil disobedience. Their deployment is now routine and open to misuse. When a gun is fired, the shot is heard and the bullet can be found as evidence. Electronic weapons leave no such traces: they don't leave the telltale markings of traditional physical force, but their electronic signatures are evident in their electromagnetic frequencies and induced body currents. This research focuses on developing tools to sense and identify when these weapons are being used and document that evidence.

3. Natalie Jeremijenko/ Environmental Health Clinic

Fwish Interface:

fwish interface (118) from natalie jeremijenko on Vimeo.

The Fwish Interface is a grid of robotics buoys that monitor water quality, sense fish presence and visualize information through colored LED lights. Its purpose is to collect and communicate real time data to the public about the water quality and fish activity.