Media Infrastructure Studies

In preparation for my talk in the InfoStructure lecture series on February 25, 2010 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I am listing some of my infrastructure-related articles that might be of interest for further reading.

“Signals and Oil: Satellite Footprints and Post-Communist Territories in Central Asia,” European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 12(2), 137-156, 2009.

“Around the Antenna Tree: The Politics of Infrastructural Visibility,” Flow, March 2009, available at http://flowtv.org/?p=2507.

“Where the Cable Ends: Television in Fringe Areas.” In Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Cynthia Chris and Anthony Freitas, eds. New York: New York University Press, 2007, 103-126.

“Postwar Footprints: Satellite and Wireless Stories in Slovenia and Croatia.” In B-Zone: Becoming Europe and Beyond, Anselm Franke, ed. Barcelona: ACTAR Press, 2005. Reprinted as an expanded version with “Afterthougts” and translated into Spanish in Political Typographies: Visual Essays on the Margins of Europe, Barcelona: Fundacio Antonio Tapies, 2007, pp. 87-140.

“Obscure Objects of Media Studies: Echo, Hotbird, Ikonos,” in Strange Spaces: Explorations into Mediated Obscurity, eds. Amanda Lagerkvist and Andre Jansson, Ashgate Publishing, 2009.

"Kinetic Screens: Epistemologies of Movement at the Interface," in Media/Space: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age, eds. Nick Couldry and Anna McCarthy, London: Routledge, 2004, 37-57.

"Insecure Airwaves: US Bombings of Al Jazeera." Forum on Homeland Security, Journal of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 4:2, June 2007, 226,-231.

CBC Radio Interview

On March 12 I did an interview with CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) in relation to my public lecture "Digging into Google Earth: An Analysis of 'Crisis in Darfur.'" The radio interview is available online here: http://www.cbc.ca/radionoonmontreal/

Beaverbrook Scholar in Residence at McGill

I am honored to be working as the Beaverbrook Scholar in Residence at McGill University in Montreal for two weeks. Information about the program can be found here: http://media.mcgill.ca/

ejection seats and contrail sculptures

I'm writing a short catalog essay about Max Greuter's work and am focusing on his ejection and contrail works. He's an artist based in Zurich and works like a tinkerer in a wood shop yet uses more and more 3D design software to craft various objects and images that explore the euphorias and anxieties associated with aeronautics and propulsion. Greuter pretends he has his own private space agency and always wanted to be an astronaut.

Roaming - Installation Description

This installation is designed to situate a visitor at the technological and financial interface of Mongolian white phone workers who operate on the streets of Ulaanbaatar. It includes a projection of a series of straight-on photographs of different phone workers with different stands offering time for sale. The visitor is positioned in front of the projection screen as if he/she is about to purchase a call. While standing at this interface, he/she will be encouraged to recognize a form of public mobile telephony. City maps of Ulaanbaatar are projected onto the floor along with the footprints of wireless phone corporations that operate in the city. The visitor is thus be positioned as if a user who is standing within the footprints of the Mongolian wireless infrastructure. The piece is designed to simulate and stage an act of "roaming" – wireless use in another country – but rather than being charged additional fees, the visitor will learn about a different configuration of mobile telephony. The installation is intended to emphasize technological variation in the context of globalisation, the figurative relocations that occur through transnational infrastructures, and the dialectics of distance and proximity that shape wireless encounters.

Transmediale 2008

I am in Berlin at the Transmediale festival and conference this week. I arrived on Tuesday just in time to set up my installation before the opening, which started at 7pm. My installation is called Roaming and is in the main exhibition hall at the Center for World Cultures. I will also be giving a lecture about this project on Fri Feb 1 at 5:30pm in the Bilderberg Salon. I'll be posting some comments about various talks as the week proceeds. Above are some photos of the opening night. There is more information about Transmediale available here: http://www.transmediale.de/site/en/transmediale/home/

Back on the Satellite Coast - Sputnik's 50th Birthday

October 4, 1957 is the 50th anniversary of Sputnik's launch. Francis Hunger, creator of the Sputnik Gazetteer,Germany has helped to organize a variety of international events. You can find information about them here: http://www.hgb-leipzig.de/~francis/irmielin/works/sputnik/_externalmaterial/issue6.pdf

I will be giving a lecture on Sputnik in my Satellite Media class at UC Santa Barbara from 4-5:20pm in Buchanan Hall 1920, which is open to the public. For anyone who wants to celebrate, come to Tupelo Junction restaurant in SB at 6:30pm.