My research-based work pushes against the historical amnesia that often accompanies the fetishizing of new technologies. The projects I research both present and complicate histories of media and technology, building on recognizable aspects or qualities of current technological devices such as instant messaging, voice-assistants and virtual reality. However, my goal is to defamiliarize the devices, technologies or systems that I work with, and by so doing, create space for critical thought about the technologies we rely on every day, and the systems that make those technologies necessary or attractive.
I am especially interested in how new technologies are explained and represented in popular culture. I draw from pop culture sources to understand how devices and systems have been made understandable and desirable to the public through dramatization and iconography. Being critical and aware of this process is important because the stories and images associated with technologies ultimately construct the meaning and perceived value of those technologies for individuals and for society (for better or worse according to who is writing the story). Thus, interrupting stories or myths that are perpetuated in popular culture but which deliver problematic or toxic messages and ideologies is a central concern in much of my practice. I believe that no technology comes to us as socially or politically neutral.
By turning to the past, my work is not meant to invoke feelings of nostalgia, but rather suggest that we still have much to learn from the past and that “new” doesn’t always mean better. Older forms of technology can still powerfully transmit stories and can highlight how media shape social and cultural values, inspiring curiosity about our technological past and encouraging questions about the role of technology in modern life. In addition, reconstructing these older technologies, and representing them by other means – especially using non-digital materials like paper - can act as a form of “critical making,” creating opportunities to re-author and restructure the histories they have traditionally been associated with and symbolizing tactics of resistance to a culture more and more reliant on organizations that control the internet and the hardware (and software) necessary to access it.
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