Just like Magic: anthropological accounts of wireless technology
1:00:07
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2 years ago
In 1840, Maori elders from New Zealand's north island agreed to the terms and conditions of a British treaty. Amongst its many provisions, the Treaty of Waitangi as it is commonly known, retained Maoris rights in land and taonga (treasures). In 2005, Nextscribe.org, a Catholic think-tank in New Mexico declared that the 'network is the church" and set out an ambitious agenda for research into the role that technology might play in the spiritual lives of America's (and the world's) Catholics. What do these events have in common, and why might they be relevant to our contemporary discussions about wireless technologies?
In this talk, I propose to re-examine the notion of 'wirelessness' from an anthropological perspective. This talk is informed by nearly a decade of ethnographic research in and around domestic environments, and by ethnographic and feminist theory. I also draw on historical and contemporary cultural practices, events and accounts - emergent technologies often lack a genealogy and here I attempt to locate this conversation in a broader historical and cultural context with particular reference to Australia, and the United States. This paper is divided into several sections: a discussion of notions of magic and technology, an attempt to define wirelessness from a socio-technical point of view, and the presentation of three different interpretative frames for wirelessness: one grounded in history and political economy, one grounded in cultural practice; and one grounded in notions of citizenship and nation-states, all of which are underwritten, in some part, by magic thinking or ideas of magic. Ultimately, I want to suggest a different way of thinking and talking about one of the dominant technology infrastructures of this decade.In 1840, Maori elders from New Zealand's north island agreed to the terms and conditions of a British treaty. Amongst its many provisions, t...all »In 1840, Maori elders from New Zealand's north island agreed to the terms and conditions of a British treaty. Amongst its many provisions, the Treaty of Waitangi as it is commonly known, retained Maoris rights in land and taonga (treasures). In 2005, Nextscribe.org, a Catholic think-tank in New Mexico declared that the 'network is the church" and set out an ambitious agenda for research into the role that technology might play in the spiritual lives of America's (and the world's) Catholics. What do these events have in common, and why might they be relevant to our contemporary discussions about wireless technologies?
In this talk, I propose to re-examine the notion of 'wirelessness' from an anthropological perspective. This talk is informed by nearly a decade of ethnographic research in and around domestic environments, and by ethnographic and feminist theory. I also draw on historical and contemporary cultural practices, events and accounts - emergent technologies often lack a genealogy and here I attempt to locate this conversation in a broader historical and cultural context with particular reference to Australia, and the United States. This paper is divided into several sections: a discussion of notions of magic and technology, an attempt to define wirelessness from a socio-technical point of view, and the presentation of three different interpretative frames for wirelessness: one grounded in history and political economy, one grounded in cultural practice; and one grounded in notions of citizenship and nation-states, all of which are underwritten, in some part, by magic thinking or ideas of magic. Ultimately, I want to suggest a different way of thinking and talking about one of the dominant technology infrastructures of this decade.«
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