How Do Personal Data and Algorithms Influence Our Sense of Self?
All achievement is threatened by the machine, as long as it dares to take its place in the mind, instead of obeying. That the master’s hand no…
Tag: Technology
Fuel Maps: Digitizing Grass and Sensing Fire in Brazil
Guilherme M. Fagundes, Princeton University § Part and parcel of the technological repertoire in wildland fire management, fuel maps invite us to reflect on the everyday life of…
Innovation and its discontents
Nostalgia for the Future “I’ll never be a billionaire. Now I help other people try to get there, but I just don’t have the emotional well.” These words…
The Age of Digital Divination
Divination rituals around the world often include animals, as seen in this early 20th-century painting of fortunetelling using a chicken by Russian artist Konstantin Makovsky. Brandmeister/Wi…
30 Minute Methods – TDTU, Vietnam – Professor Paolo Favero
Prof Paolo Favero, Uni Antwerp, Belgium: ‘Expanded Ethnography: technologies and the senses’ and coming up next: at TDTU: 2. Tues November 23, 2021, at 4pm HCMC….
Paper: Anthropological notes on digital & transport infrastructures in remote communities
Budka, P. (2021). Anthropological notes on digital and transport infrastructures in remote communities. Paper at Anthropology of Technology Conference, Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University, 4-5 Novembe…
Alchemy, Metallurgy, and Modern Chemistry in Post-Medieval Europe: An Intersection of Archaeological Science and the History of Science
Oil on Canvas of a experimental demonstration, public domain What is the first image conjured up in your mind by the word “alchemy”? Influenced by popular culture, it…
How People Actually Use Their Smartphones
[no-caption] John Cei Douglas In 2022, the smartphone, first introduced by IBM, will celebrate its 30th birthday. Most of us now use a smartphone every day—whether we like…
West African Migration: The Dangers of a Single Story
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” Chimamanda Ngozi…
Fetishes or Cyborgs? Religion as technology in the Afro-Atlantic space
(Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of the Thematic Series Data Swarms Revisited) Exú, the trickster god, Axé Ilé Oba – São Paulo (photo by Giovanna Capponi)…
GAA 2021 Conference Diary: Atmospheric Discussions?
In collaboration with the conference organisers, Allegra had reached out to a number of colleagues to submit some impressions in the form of “daily diaries” from the recent…
#A future history of water: Andrea Ballestero’s response
When encountering the generosity of brilliant colleagues, one can only start with gratitude. Add to that a historical moment when a virus has reconfigured the languages, spaces, and…
How Will We Remember Coal?
Aging coal mine equipment sits on display in Gillette, Wyoming. Jessica M. Smith This article was originally published at Platypus, the blog of the Committee for the Anthropology…
Ethnographic Film at the Crossroads
Ethnographic film is blooming Ethnographic film, however loosely defined, is blooming. While to track and map the entire production of ethnographic film appears next-to impossible, I want to…
Amazon Sidewalk Needs our Trust for its Security
On June 8, 2021, Amazon deployed an “opt-in” way for people to enable the company to expand its private network into communities, creating infrastructure to peddle even more…
Like, Share, Comment, and Follow: Labor and Capital on Instagram
Screenshot of the Instagram profile of the influencer discussed in the blog. Social media content creator Ishita Mangal (@ishitamangal) uploaded a post with multiple slides on her Instagram…
Mediated Intimacies: Teletherapy and the Changing Face of American Mental Healthcare by Rebecca J. Lester
“Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?” “I can, but your head is cut off. I just see your neck. Can you hear me?” “Yeah, yeah, I hear you. &nb…
Days of Their Lives: The Limits, Possibilities, and Parallels of Media-Ted Research during a Pandemic
On a regular day, a Hindi soap opera production set in Mumbai is home to upwards of 100 artists and technicians – production associates, actors, make-up artists, costume…
Not “just tools”: The framework of equivalence and cochlear implants in Jordan by Timothy Y. Loh
“Should all deaf children learn sign language?” This seemingly innocuous question was the theme of a roundtable article published in the influential journal Pediatrics in 2015, which compiled…
‘Silicon health’ for Africa: Understanding the rise and impact of drone logistics by René Umlauf
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones, are on the rise. During the ongoing corona crisis their potential to either monitor curfews or to provide contactless deliveries…
Mediating Mobility: Migration and Brokerage at the Borders of the State
Natasha Raheja (Cornell University) will present on ‘Mediating mobility: Migration and brokerage at the borders of the State’. Elizabeth Challinor (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa) will ac…
Multiple Modes of Being Human
(Editor’s Note: This blog post is part of the Thematic Series Data Swarms Revisited) Evolution (photo by and copyright of Oliver Berger) In the last couple of years,…
Totalizing Infrastructures: Statecraft in the Uyghur Penal Colony
There were three lanes at the checkpoint in Turpan—an old Uyghur-majority oasis city on the northern reaches of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China. Two lanes were fitted…
A Sandbox for a Specific Type of Narcissist – Clubhouse, the Allure of Live Audio and Dangerous Rabbit Holes
A nasal voice is rambling on in a long monologue about how to best pitch a startup on Clubhouse when I log on sometime in March. It is…