Being Material Library of Congress Cataloging-In- © 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Publication Data Technology

Names: Being Material (2017 : Cambridge, All rights reserved. No part of this book Mass.) | Boucher, Marie-Pier, editor. | may be reproduced in any form by any Helmreich, Stefan, editor. | Kinney, Leila electronic or mechanical means (including W., editor. | Tibbits, Skylar, editor. | Uchill, photocopying, recording, or information Rebecca, editor. | Ziporyn, Evan, editor. | storage and retrieval) without permission in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. writing from the publisher. Center for Art, Science & Technology. This book was set in Monument Grotesk Title: Being material / edited by Marie- by DINAMO. Pier Boucher, Stefan Helmreich, Leila W. Printed and bound in South Korea. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, and Evan Ziporyn. Volume Editors: Marie-Pier Boucher, Stefan Helmreich, Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Leila W. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Press, [2019] | Based on April 21-22, 2017 Uchill, Evan Ziporyn symposium entitled Being Material, presented by The MIT Center for Art, Science Developmental Editor: & Technology. | Includes bibliographical Patsy Baudoin references and index. MIT Press Editor: Identiﬁers: LCCN 2019006324 | ISBN Roger Conover 9780262043281 (hardcover : alk. paper) Book & Website Design: Subjects: LCSH: Commercial prod- E Roon Kang, Minkyoung Kim ucts--Computer-aided design--Con- / Math Practice gresses. | Art objects--Computer aided design--Congresses. | Digital media--Psy- Physical Interaction Design: chological aspects--Congresses. | Senses Marcelo Coelho, Lukas Debiasi, and sensation--Philosophy--Congresses. E Roon Kang, Skylar Tibbits | Materialism--Congresses. | Material culture--Congresses. Indexer: Tobiah Waldron Classiﬁcation: LCC TS171.A1 B45 2017 | DDC 306.4/6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006324

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Edited by Marie-Pier Boucher, Being Material Stefan Helmreich, Leila W. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, and Evan Ziporyn

The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Contents 7 Preface and Acknowledgments 11 Being Material, an Introduction By Marie-Pier Boucher, Stefan Helmreich, Leila W. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, and Evan Ziporyn

PROGRAMMABLE 14 Introduction Skylar Tibbits 16 Ferrite Cores, Whirlwind Computer Project: “The Materials of Memory” Deborah G. Douglas 20 Code as Material Ben Fry and Casey Reas 26 Frugal Science in the Age of Curiosity Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, Team Foldscope and the global Foldscope community 30 Machine Agency Nadya Peek 34 Another Matter: Notes on Worldeating Benjamin H. Bratton 43 Interdigitation Tom Özden-Schilling

WEARABLE 46 Introduction Leila W. Kinney 50 The Materials of Immateriality: Hussein Chalayan’s Fashion Michelle Tolini Finamore 62 Yarn-dez-vous, 2014 Azra Akšamija 66 Crafting Material, Being Material M. Amah Edoh 70 HAPIfork and the Haptic Turn in Wearable Technology Natasha D. Schüll 76 The Algorithms Have Eyes Hyphen-Labs Ashley Baccus-Clark, Ece Tankal, Nitzan Bartov, Carmen Aguilar y Wedge 80 Beyond Wearables: The Future AUDIBLE Is Fleshy Christina Agapakis and 172 Introduction Lucy McRae Evan Ziporyn 95 Interweaving 174 On “Land” Tom Özden-Schilling Evan Ziporyn in conversation with Dewa Alit

LIVABLE 176 Air Maya Beiser 98 Introduction Rebecca Uchill and 178 Magnetic Resonances Stefan Helmreich Arnold Dreyblatt

102 Microuniverse 180 Born-Digital Musical Instruments Tal Danino Victor Gama 108 Being Material Beings 184 Hey Exit: Every Recording of Claire Pentecost Gymnopédie 1 Brendan Landis 112 That Touch of Money Bill Maurer 186 Vessels: Being as Material Grace Leslie 120 Standing Rock: Selma Moment for the Environmental Justice 188 Musical Trojan Horse: Movement Uncontrollable Sounds Winona LaDuke, illustrated Paweł Romańczuk by Sarah LittleRedfeather 190 Gymnopédie Z 127 Interleaving (Erik Satie, arr. Ziporyn) Tom Özden-Schilling Evan Ziporyn

INVISIBLE 193 Outroduction 130 Introduction Marie-Pier Boucher Stefan Helmreich and Rebecca Uchill 197 Biographies

134 Ways of Absence: or, 200 Index The Unbearable Heft of Being Materialized Sandy Alexandre 140 Invisible Images Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen 144 Mediating Animal-Infrastructure Relations Lisa Parks

154 Persistent Ephemeral Pollutants Nicholas Shapiro 162 To See or Not to See? Dilemmas in Imaging and Intelligence George Barbastathis 169 Interstitial Tom Özden-Schilling Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen during the 2017 "Being Material" Symposium Invisible session. Photo credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

7 ’s contributors, who contributors, ’s Being Material ered a touchstone that helped us to helped us to that a touchstone ered f o Being Digital Looking back, it is remarkable what a recursive and a recursive what it is remarkable back, Looking The 2017 symposium “Being Material” emerged from from emerged “Being Material” The 2017 symposium

iterative process the creation of this work has proven to be. We We be. to has proven this work of the creation process iterative to grateful extremely are and challenged us to the process us throughout inspired have Özden- Tom inputs. of range such a disparate sense of make welcome, especially was join the fray willingness to Schilling’s MIT, at research of the history from vignettes as his series of unprecedented ability to program materials, we thought about thought we materials, program to ability unprecedented the emergence in the humanities, materialism to approaches new developments and recent computing in the 1990s, wearable of the design with to researchers allow that in biotechnology the altered signiﬁcantly have These developments life. units of touch, see, and human capacities to materiality of properties Sounding, “Seeing, In this way, world. the physical and feel faculties, and sensorimotor aural, visual, which explored Sensing,” which “Being Material,” toward and opened a path informed By as subject. include object as well to the sensate expanded and designers, bring artists, to seemed radical it hardly then, with programmers, a conversation the middle of musicians into of along with such a wide array and engineers, scientists, media studies art historians, humanists—anthropologists, among others. and social scientists, philosophers, scholars, of the barriers and overcome cacophony avoid to But how areas erent and dif protocols, disciplinary language, specialized Finding capacious and open-ended categories expertise? of the sufx around contents the disparate crucial; clustering proved a was possibility) of its connotations all of (borrowing “-able/-ible” pathbreaking Negroponte’s Nicholas and recalling breakthrough; 1995 book the digital and material between relationship assess the evolving opening remarks er f o to he agreed that gratiﬁed were We worlds. the from researchers young so many and that the symposium for the event. at projects demo their to available Lab were Media addressed cognitive science and neurosciences, to drill down into into drill down to science and neurosciences, cognitive addressed possibilities. ongoing concern and future of areas the explore began to As we conversation. a two-year-long

1 .

this work set the set this work Being Material 2 After that event, we we event, that After 3 and the symposium that instigated it instigated that and the symposium for this project brings considerable experience experience brings considerable this project for Being Material équipe Experience: Culture, Cognition and the Common Sense Experience: Culture, The

“field guide for future matter programmers.” matter future “field guide for materials domain of this emerging revisit to wanted we that knew and critical, conceptual, science and engineering using the broad which had symposium, inaugural CAST’s of framework historical for design and fabrication created by programmable, responsive, responsive, programmable, by created design and fabrication for Matter” “Active also organized He materials. and self-organizing convened which summit on the topic, a research with CAST, unpublished work showcase to leaders and industry university media, engineering, design, biology, in architecture, underway were book and the subsequent The gathering labs. and robotics designed as a a scouting expedition, mapping, a preliminary volume into a “polyvocal, multifaceted object”; multifaceted “polyvocal, a into volume of the editors by the attempt and inspired tone the academic book. of the typical format once again rethink to Self- the of co-director and founder Tibbits, Skylar Architect a taught MIT, at Design Center Lab in the International Assembly possibilities new the powerful explored in Spring 2015 that studio inaugural symposium in 2014, “Seeing, Sounding, Sensing,” Sensing,” Sounding, “Seeing, in 2014, symposium inaugural and Jones, Caroline art historian of the leadership under organized the conference’s expanded that book the distinctive to contributed themes: fellow, postdoctoral then a CAST Uchill, Rebecca Art historian of the curator and was book that for team joined the editorial the who transformed artists designed pages by the ingeniously and all kinds of technological innovation at MIT and beyond; we we and beyond; MIT at innovation technological and all kinds of exploration, modes of informing mutually are they that believe be constantly must that formation knowledge and discovery, dialogue and debate. into brought helmed CAST’s Helmreich Stefan Anthropologist the task. to has been an immensely interesting and valuable process in and of in and of process valuable and interesting has been an immensely exists (CAST) Technology Science & Art, for Center The MIT itself. Ziporyn and I are Evan director and faculty collaboration, through with us to colleagues who work outstanding have to fortunate intellectual, creative, fostering mission of the Center’s implement sciences, humanities, among the arts, exchanges and practical Leila W. Kinney W. Leila CAST of and Arts Initiatives of Director Executive Developing Preface and Acknowledgments and Preface which he encountered as a student, add a penetrating and 1. Caroline A. Jones, David Mather, and Rebecca experiential account of activity that can at times seem abstract Uchill, eds., Experience: Culture, Cognition, and the Common Sense (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016). and incomprehensible. A very special recognition goes to Marie-Pier Boucher, our current CAST postdoctoral fellow, who 2. Ibid, 9. joined the team as contributor, editor, and logistical wrangler of 3. Skylar Tibbits, ed., Active Matter (Cambridge, MA: the contents. Patsy Baudoin, the developmental editor, made MIT Press, 2017), 11. invaluable suggestions and enhanced the final text immeasurably. We thank acquiring editor Roger Conover for his ongoing support 4. “MIT Reshapes Itself to Shape the Future,” MIT News, October 15, 2017, http://news.mit.edu/2018/ and generous advice; he has known when to encourage our mit-reshapes-itself-stephen-schwarzman-college- adventurous inclinations regarding book design and when to of-computing-1015. restrain them. We are honored to have ours among the final books he will publish for the MIT Press during his long and distinguished career. Our designer E Roon Kang/Math Practice was in every way a full-fledged partner; as we experimented with various approaches to making this book both a physical and a digital expression of its contents, he guided us through a number of design options that were inventive and inspiring. We landed on the cover and web design that expresses this ambition, a joint creation of Kang, Tibbits, and electronics/interaction/product designer Marcelo Coelho. Material as well as intangible support are vital, and we would like to express our profound appreciation for the funding that made this project possible. Ron Kurtz ’54, ’59, SM ’60 funded both the “Being Material” symposium and the preceding “Active Matter” studio and research summit. The Council for the Arts at MIT underwrote the musical performances at the symposium, and the 2018 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT gala donors ofered a generous subsidy for the book, which enabled us to realize its current form. An ongoing grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation allows CAST to move forward, as does the support of Associate Provost with responsibility for the arts Philip S. Khoury, of Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Melissa Nobles, and of Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning Hashim Sarkis, as well as of many other individual donors. When we began planning the “Being Material” symposium, none of us could anticipate its unfolding in the dramatic context of an urgent, nationwide call to support art, science, and the humanities. We therefore adjusted our schedule to enable participants to attend The March for Science on the Boston Common, in solidarity with those being held around the country, on April 22, 2017 and coinciding with the 47th annual celebration of Earth Day. We felt that “Being Visible” meant that we be with science and engineering, both in the sense of standing for the scientific method and its results as well as in recognition that all of us—scientists, artists, humanists, engineers—must stand with one another in support of reliable accounts of the material world, accounts crafted in cross-disciplinary solidarity, dialogue, and, as demanded, debate. And then, as we were finalizing the manuscript for this book, we learned that MIT was planning to make a huge investment in the future of computing and artificial intelligence. The new Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing was announced in October 2018, in order to “bring the power of computing and AI to all fields of study at MIT” and, equally important in our view, “[allow] the future of computing and AI to be shaped by insights from all other disciplines.” 4 We hope that this coincident and fortuitously timed contribution to the ongoing discussion will prove beneficial and provocative.

9 Christina Agapakis in conversation with Lucy McCrae during the 2017 "Being "Being the 2017 during McCrae Lucy with in conversation Agapakis Christina Hetherington. Barry L. credit: Photo session. Wearable Symposium Material" The Center for Art, Science & Technology's 2017 "Being Material" symposium at MIT. Photo credit: L. Barry Hetherington.

10 Being Material, an Introduction

Marie-Pier Boucher, Stefan Helmreich, Leila W. Kinney, Skylar Tibbits, Rebecca Uchill, and Evan Ziporyn

At the end of the last millennium, as the World Wide Web was gain- material dynamics limit, expand, transform, and/or vivify biological, ing traction, the possibility that social relations, financial transac- social, and political lives. tions, and media consumption would increasingly unfold in digital In the current historical moment (we are writing in 2019), worlds seemed imminent. In his groundbreaking book Being when machine learning reshapes human agency, when wearable Digital, published in 1995, MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte claimed and portable devices with digital capacities reorder our daily activi- that society was entering a computational and networked domain ties, when biotechnology modifies reproduction, when algorithms increasingly unconstrained by the materiality of the world. We were encode social possibilities and inequalities, and when extractive moving, in his words, from the realm of “atoms to bits.” Economies industries disrupt land claims and environments, we need to and societies would become newly organized around “the global understand how processes that may seem immaterial in character movement of weightless bits at the speed of light.”1 function within, and even rearrange, the material conditions of pro- In many ways, Negroponte’s claim was tremendously duction, distribution, communication, and circulation. For example, prescient, and much of what he predicted has come to pass, as think of how the efciency of “mining” for Bitcoin, an aspirational digital technologies have reshufed how people consume the form of digital cash, depends on the cost of the electricity that news, relate to each other, conduct research, compose music, powers the computers needed to do such mining—a fact that has design buildings, elect politicians, convene protests, and organize made Iceland, with its inexpensive geothermal and hydroelectric the material world. At the same time, the material world—the world power, an attractive site for Bitcoin calculation and extraction.6 of atoms—is as vigorously present as it has always been. It is also These convergences at the intersections of labor, environmental the case that all digital technologies remain relentlessly material impact, and capital might be understood as emblematic of how, things—constituted by atoms of gold, silver, silicon, copper, tin, in our time, the activity of being digital is entrenched in its condi- tungsten, phosphorus, antimony, arsenic, boron, indium, gallium, tions of being material. and more. Thinking about the world through its material parts In many ways, of course, such conjunctures are nothing and their combinations can point in many directions: toward the new. Consider the work of MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener, who transformative possibilities of active and programmable matter in 1948 coined the term cybernetics, “the scientific study of control and metamaterials;2 toward novel ways of crafting, inhabiting, and and communication in the animal and the machine.”7 His work encountering cyborg bodies;3 toward imagining fresh fusions of motivated research into such technologies as the hearing glove, biological and computational dynamics in enterprises such as which transduced sound into tactile sensation:8 sound as vibration synthetic biology and gene editing; 4 and, of course, toward the was broken down into discrete segments—digitized—in order to be economic relations that make the extraction of minerals for digital materially transposed into something haptic. Scientists have long devices so worrisome from the point of view of environmental toxi- been crossing boundaries between the abstract and the material, cology and social and workplace justice.5 Being Material attempts making their abstractions material and their materials into con- to speak about all of these things at once. At the intersection of art, duits for new abstractions and theoretical claims. science, and technology, the book explores the worlds of material- In the texts and artifacts gathered here, we ofer an account ities and materialisms today: the unexpected convergences in the of how the digital and the material are together brokering new practices of artists, designers, engineers, and scientists who work scientific, physical, social, and political forms. Many of its contribu- with programmable matter, self-assembling structures, 3D/4D tions originated in a symposium that MIT’s Center for Art, Science printing, wearable technologies, and bio-inspired design. The & Technology hosted in Spring of 2017—a symposium that saw editors and contributors seek to extend our understanding of how artists, scientists, and humanists in conversation about how to think simultaneously about technoscientific work on active and 1. Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital (New self-assembling matter, artistic work centered on the afordances York: Knopf, 1995), 12. Being Digital was also, in early days, available on cassette, its text read by of novel media and materials, and feminist and anti-racist work in magician Penn Jillette. the new materialisms.9 This collection grapples with the material forces that create 2. See Skylar Tibbits, Active Matter (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017). the objects of such assemblages as the internet of things as well as those other material-digital devices around us every day.10 That 3. The Ur-texts here are Norbert Wiener, grappling begins with the form of the book before you. When we Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (Cambridge, MA: MIT puzzled over how to present this volume, we thought at first that Press, 1948); Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline, we might create an e-book, or an app, or supply a companion “Cyborgs and Space,” Astronautics (September USB stick, or salt the text with QR codes, or even print a circuit on 1960): 26–27, 74–75; and Donna Haraway, “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology and the jacket. How best, we asked ourselves, to bring the tangibility Socialist Feminism in the 1980s,” Socialist Review of paper together with the possibilities of the digital? Our answer 80 (1985): 65–108. starts with the cover and interior pages of this book, designed 4. See Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Jane Calvert, by E Roon Kang, Skylar Tibbits, electronics/interaction/product Pablo Schyfter, Alistair Elfick, and Drew Endy, designer Marcelo Coelho and graduate student Lukas Debiasi. If Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic you open the book’s companion website—http://beingmaterial.mit. Biology’s Designs on Nature (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014). edu—on any camera-enabled phone, laptop or desktop computer and then point the camera toward the first page of each author’s 5. Jennifer Gabrys, Digital Rubbish: A Natural section, you will unlock films, music, images, and other dynamic History of Electronics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011). content that complement and extend the book’s physical pages. Machine learning and computer vision enables communica- 6. Karl J. O’Dwyer and David Malone, “Bitcoin Mining tion with the website through the unique visual arrangements of and Its Energy Footprint,” 25th IET Irish Signals & Systems Conference 2014 and 2014 China-Ireland images and text on each page throughout the book. The camera International Conference on Information and recognizes the graphic pattern of the printed page and then Communications Technologies (ISSC 2014/CIICT orchestrates digital content that can be played and controlled. The 2014), Limerick, Ireland, June 26–27, 2013. content can be as simple as a soundtrack that plays as you read 7. See Wiener, Cybernetics. through the book, videos that extend the written text, or a variety of other digital elements. We think this book ofers something unique: 8. Mara Mills, “On Disability and Cybernetics: Helen Keller, Norbert Wiener, and the Hearing Glove,” a way of employing graphic design, printed ink, machine learning diferences 22 (2011): 74–111. and computer vision to create a book that is a hybrid of being digital-material. 9. The literature here is extensive. Some touchstones include Rosi Braidotti, In order to organize this compilation, at once a compen- Metamorphoses: Toward a Materialist Theory dium of artistic research, a digitally activated object, and a com- of Becoming (Oxford, UK: Polity, 2002); Karen pilation of scholarship across arts, humanities, and sciences, we Barad, “Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter,” explore five diferent modes of being material—thinking through Signs 28, no. 3 (2003): 801–831; Tim Ingold, being programmable, wearable, livable, invisible, and audible. The “Materials against Materiality,” Archaeological book is ordered under these headings, though readers will find Dialogues 14 (2007): 1–16; Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke much cross-talk among the various entries. Each section also University Press, 2010); Diana Coole and Samantha contains a short text by Tom Özden-Schilling, an MIT alumnus,11 Frost, eds., New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, who adds snapshots of the history of MIT’s Materials Science Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010); Mel Chen, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering and Engineering department in order to amplify the themes that and Queer Afect (Durham: Duke University Press, structure this book and to give them a particularly MIT address. 2012); and Susanne Lettow, “Turning the Turn: New The contributions in this book take a range of formats—research Materialism, Historical Materialism and Critical Theory,” Thesis Eleven 140 (2017): 106–121. reports, demos, manifestos, philosophical essays, artist portfolios, and more—exampling the many ways of being material that we 10. See Samuel Greengard, The Internet of Things hope this book chronicles and advances. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015). 11. Özden-Schilling is an alumnus of MIT’s Materials Science and Engineering department as well as of the Institute’s Doctoral Program in History | Anthropology | and Science, Technology, and Society. PROGRAMMABLE

Introduction Skylar Tibbits Ferrite Cores, Whirlwind Computer Project: “The Materials of Memory” Deborah G. Douglas Code as Material Ben Fry, Casey Reas Frugal Science in the Age of Curiosity Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, Team Foldscope and the global Foldscope community Machine Agency Nadya Peek Another Matter: Notes on Worldeating Benjamin H. Bratton Interdigitation Tom Özden-Schilling Introduction Skylar Tibbits

To program something is to impart a set of people who calculated by hand, many of much so that our fabrication technologies executable instructions into a medium to them women, including the pioneering have outpaced our digital design tools. perform a process. From Ada Lovelace’s African American women at NASA who Further catalyzing this resurgence first handwritten program to today’s played a vital role during the space race.1 in materiality is the rapid growth of the algorithmically animated robots, clothing, The first nonhuman, mechanical comput- DIY and maker communities, with acces- and living materials, programmability has ers were made with gears, pulleys, and sible electronics, software, and hardware expanded its purview to embrace every- vacuum tubes. But with the introduction of platforms such as Processing, Arduino, thing from the digital to the physical, from the transistor, silicon-based computing, and LittleBits, and MakeyMakey. Processing, the synthetic to the biological, and from the miniaturization, it became harder to see the developed by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, is scientific to the artistic. This section of the material characteristics of computing. an open source programming language book explores how ideas about creativity, Many thought the digital would and sketchbook for visual arts. Processing craft, and matter have transformed in the just influence the physical, allowing us and its community expanded our under- process of becoming programmable. to design digitally but assemble and standing of computation as encompassing Computation and digital technol- fabricate physically. This notion of dig- design and art and pushed the realm of ogies infiltrate and surround much of our ital design led to emphasizing physical computing beyond the screen into physical daily lives. One can argue that the digital creation using CAD tools; sophisticated and interactive objects. Creatives were world has become more and more entan- simulation and computational capabilities able to start to program everything from gled with the physical realm rather than separated the design process from the anything—taking in data from almost any less and less. The digital technologies that fabrication process. As digital fabrica- imaginable source and turning it into enabled this digital revolution have pushed tion advanced rapidly, however, material any imaginable outcome. Designers and us ever closer to the material world, to the demands and research into materials artists were now able to plan projects that point where now the digital and physical science expanded into new processes pushed the boundaries of computation, are blending. In the early days of comput- such as multimaterial printing, advanced fabrication, and interaction. ing, the physical and embodied character composites, and smart textiles, among Nadya Peek at the University of of the material aspects of computing many others. Both the interest in these Washington enabled the rapid develop- processes were more apparent than today. physical innovations and the material ment of fabrication tools through her work Early computers, for example, were actually capabilities increased dramatically, so on machines to make other machines

Figure 1.1.1: Project Whirlwind’s core memory and the miniaturization yet continually physical realization of computing. Courtesy MIT Museum.

14 Skylar Tibbits

(Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke Culinary Materialism Culinary Materialism Hidden Figures: The Figures: Hidden Staying with the Trouble: Trouble: with the Staying , vol. VII: vol. , (New York: Harper Collins, 2016). Collins, Harper York: (New Collapse Philosophical Research Research Collapse Philosophical University Press, 2016). Press, University “Editorial Mackay, and Robin Negarastani Reza 3. in Introduction,” and Development 2011). UK: Urbanomic, (Falmouth, 1. Margot Lee Shetterly, Shetterly, Lee Margot 1. the Story of Untold and the Dream American Win Helped Who Mathematicians Women Black Race the Space Donna Haraway, 2. Kin in the Chthulucene Making

- - -

³ . Figure 1.1.3: Multimaterial printing to create programmable materials. Credit: Credit: materials. programmable create to printing Multimaterial 1.1.3: Figure and Stratasys. MIT Lab, Self-Assembly . The question of of The question . edible of what Negarastani and Negarastani what of ² culinary materialism Deborah G. Douglas is the Director Douglas is the Director G. Deborah

Benjamin Bratton, a design theorist, a design theorist, Bratton, Benjamin memory, memory, are only made possible by pro materials. gramming asks us to extend our notions of design of notions our extend us to asks cooking, how consider to and materials and redraw breach digestion and eating, and organisms the boundaries between As he so all the time. do matter—and being implicates being material explains, and becoming the us to and when directs what who eats posthuman, nonhuman, politics (human, composting) call Mackay of Collections at the MIT Museum and oversees the entire Science andTechnology collection. Here she presents insights into com of and development the materiality puter memory, developed in the 1940s and ’50s.As she highlights, it is not only genius manu better or engineers or scientists facturing, communication, or more money that create new technologies. In fact, it is the breakthroughs in material science that may have had the greatest impact in creating our digital world. Even the most of and fundamental “digital” seemingly computing capabilities, like storage and physical and living materials. Scientists, Scientists, materials. and living physical to able now are designers and engineers, do digi as they just atoms physical program and actuation. sensing, logic, tal bits—using - - - With new material advances and advances material With new

Figure 1.1.2: A water computer, developed by Stanford’s Manu Prakash in 2015, in 2015, Prakash Manu Stanford’s by developed computer, water A 1.1.2: Figure droplets. fluidic of using the movement processed but physical matter is algo matter but physical processed Recent as well.” manipulated rithmically and biology in synthetic developments showing increasingly science are materials embed digital capabilities into to ways new water computer functions by the precise the precise functions by computer water than rather droplets, water of movement a create aiming to silicon and electrons, that devices programmable class of new As matter. physical and manipulate operate run a you when “Imagine that, he explains, is information only not computations, of set rely on batteries, robotic actuators, and and actuators, robotic on batteries, rely inter create to computers electronic capabilities. lifelike and digital, active, at exactly works Prakash Manu Stanford’s and biology physical of this intersection a of development His lab’s computation. machines have empowered creatives to to creatives empowered machines have going materials, of push the boundaries world. physical our into screens our beyond and biology synthetic of the emergence program new are there smart materials, do not that emerging mable materials erent configurations, and configurations, erent dif with many and engineers, designers, enable creatives, as Just tools. own build their to scientists the to contributed computing personalized fabrication personalized digital revolution, These revolution. the hardware has led to and object-oriented hardware platforms. platforms. hardware and object-oriented built in minutes, can be machines Her Ludlum was working on it. Papian’s final Ferrite Cores, Whirlwind note: “Particularly needed is the experimental operation of a few cores in a two-dimen- Computer Project: sional pilot assembly. This work will begin at Project Whirlwind in the near future.” 2 “The Materials of Memory” For Project Whirlwind, the application of core memory transformed the Deborah G. Douglas machine into the first real-time computer. But the story is complicated. It was very hard work technically to make this happen, and there were also many lawsuits. Jan In late 1948, Jay Forrester, director of MIT’s The Permenorm Project was a spe- Rajchman at RCA contested Forrester’s Whirlwind Project, was increasingly worried cial undertaking of the Magnetic Materials patent immediately after it was issued in that the new digital computer the team was Subdivision at the US Naval Ordnance 1956. Rajchman had filed a competing building would not meet the speed and Laboratory. Edward Gaugler and Gustaf patent application in September 1950, eight storage requirements needed to make this Elmer, the inventor of Permalloy, were the months earlier than Forrester’s application a “real-time” device. Memory is an essential first to reproduce Permenorm 5,000-Z. in May 1951. The U.S. Patent Ofce agreed function of all computers, but the original It made possible magnetic amplifiers for to declare interference regarding the electrostatic storage tubes designed for guided missiles, fire control equipment, Forrester patent. Forrester was the first to Whirlwind simply did not work as well as and underwater ordnance devices, and come up with idea, but Rajchman claimed they needed to. The engineers struggled was immediately applied by the Naval that Forrester had not “reduced his idea to with what they called the “paradox in build- Ordnance Laboratory. Gaugler and Elmer practice” before filing his patent application. ing a high-speed computing machine with introduced the material at a symposium Then there was a conflict between MIT and vacuum tubes.” 1 In an April 1949 memo- of the American Institute of Electrical IBM. When IBM began manufacturing com- randum, one engineer put it this way: “a Engineers in 1948, and Arnold Engineering puters with magnetic core memory, MIT high-speed computer, to take full advan- began to manufacture the substance wanted royalties. They each contested the tage of its speed, must be reliable and free shortly thereafter. extent of the other organization’s contribu- from the frequent necessity for shut downs. The advertisement that Jay tions. Ultimately, the courts ruled in favor Yet the vacuum tube, admittedly the only Forrester saw prompted him to completely of MIT and Forrester, in part because of his device capable of the high-speed opera- rethink the design of Whirlwind’s internal fastidious documentation. IBM ended up tion required, is probably the least reliable memory. He had been intrigued by the idea paying MIT $13 million, which was then the and shortest-lived electronic element.” of a three-dimensional memory array as largest patent settlement in US history. That same month Forrester saw an early as 1947 but, lacking a way to imple- But in the spring of 1949, these advertisement in Electrical Engineering for ment it, he had abandoned the concept. developments were unimaginable. There a new industrial material called Deltamax. Deltamax, a reversibly magnetizable was a crisis brewing because the budgets “Where can YOU use a Magnetic Material material, resurrected his thinking. Soon Forrester had proposed to the Navy had with these specialized, dependable char- Forrester’s project colleagues noticed that grown. Forrester had proposed $1.15 mil- acteristics?” was the headline of the adver- he was consumed with a private experi- lion for fiscal year 1951; the Ofce of Naval tisement placed by the Arnold Engineering ment in a side ofce. While they continued Research had planned to allocate between Company, a subsidiary of Allegheny Ludlum to labor away on electrostatic storage $250,000 and $300,000. In December 1949 Steel Corporation, in Chicago. The company tubes and other aspects of the computer, came a withering critique of Whirlwind by a thought the material would be useful for Forrester was experimenting with small special panel on electronic digital computers engineers designing a long list of special- toroidal rings (or cores) made of Deltamax. convened by the Department of Defense ized electrical instruments and equipment, That fall, Forrester assigned a graduate (so harsh that the Ofce of Naval Research from voltage regulators to theater lighting student, William Papian, to fully investigate issued a rebuttal). Interestingly, Forrester controls. They also speculated that it might the use of these cores for a computer and the Whirlwind project staf (who took also be useful in computing machines. memory system. their cues from him) were not discouraged Deltamax was not invented by The work would prove transforma- despite the criticisms and complaints. Arnold Engineering. The original name of tive. Papian finished his investigation and Scholars have provided various this specialty alloy was Permenorm 5,000-Z, submitted his master’s thesis on August explanations for this persistence. Obviously, and it was developed in Germany in 1943. It 31, 1950. Eight days later his thesis was Forrester and his colleagues had become required a very complicated manufacturing submitted as an ofcial report to the Ofce enthralled by the technical challenge process that fused nickel and iron in a spe- of Naval Research. Papian had done a thor- of building a high-speed, parallel digital cial heat-treating process, the end result of ough analysis of Forrester’s three-dimen- computer. Forrester was also exceptionally which was a magnetic substance that many sional storage array and of magnetic core self-assured, but what was the source of his thought would revolutionize the rectification technologies. He noted in his conclusion confidence? Most have suggested it was the of electric power. The patent for Permenorm that “the best response times presently US Air Force’s serendipitous need for exactly 5000-Z along with unfinished samples attainable run to about 20 microseconds the kind of computer Whirlwind had become. were among the spoils of war plundered for metallic cores and about ½ micro- Perhaps putting the spotlight on by the US Technical Industrial Intelligence second for ferritic cores. The latter time is tiny, magnetizable metallic rings, made Committee, which scoured German scien- more than low enough by the high-speed of a specialty alloy—a plundered German tific and technical industries for information memory standards of Whirlwind I.” The best invention—suggests another explanation. of potential value to American companies at metallic cores were not yet good enough During the period between 1949 and 1953 the end of World War II. for high-speed computers, but Allegheny (the first bank of core storage was wired

16 Deborah G. Douglas

17 Figure 1.2.2: Close-up of ferrite core memory plane, early 1950s. Courtesy Museum. MIT Figure 1.2.1: Core memory plane developed for the Memory Test Computer, c. 1953. Courtesy MIT Museum. Museum. MIT Courtesy 1953. c. Computer, Test the Memory for plane developed memory Core 1.2.1: Figure Figure 1.2.3 Core Memory Unit (the memory planes are stacked in the center) developed and tested with the Memory Test Computer. Three such units were developed. The ﬁrst two would be wired into the main Whirlwind computer, while this third unit enabled researchers to keep using the Memory Test Computer. Mid-1950s. Michael Cardinali, photographer. Courtesy MIT Museum. Deborah G. Douglas - 19

What happened next? Between 1955 1955 Between next? happened What

192, “A Coincident- “A 192, - R Report Papian, William N. 2. Submitted Unit,” Memory Magnetic Current under Research Naval Ofce of the U.S. to the by -048-097 NR Project N5ori60, Contract Massachusetts Laboratory, Servomechanisms 1950 (Thesis 8, September Technology, of Institute 2019, April 10, accessed 1950), 31, August Date: 78. 74, pp. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.3/40251, 1. R. L. Sisson to 6345 Engineers, “A Preliminary Preliminary “A 6345 Engineers, Sisson to L. R. 1. Transistors Using of the Possibility Discussion of M-840, Memorandum in High-Speed Computer,” Laboratory, Servomechanisms Whirlwind, Project April 26, Technology, of Institute Massachusetts April 1949), 18 (15–30 Folder 14, Box 1, p. 1949, Institute ), (MC140 Memory Core Magnetic Libraries, MIT and Special Collections, Archives Massachusetts. Cambridge, and 1975 core memory was the dominant dominant the was memory core 1975 and core Magnetic memory. internal of form expensive. but it was worked, memory in up set were factories cost, the lower To 1950s and 1960s, late Asia during the East bit to $1 per from bringing the price down the ﬁrst of The introduction bit. per $.01 SRAM chips in memory semiconductor the erode begin to 1960s would the late 1102 chip The Intel memory. core for market Steady bit. per $.01 cost 1972 in introduced manufac in semiconductor improvements in storage increases dramatic turing led to The chip—made prices. dropping rapidly at major the next to lead silicon—would of the modern computer, of transformation story. another but that’s SABRE, which resulted in American Airlines’ Airlines’ American in resulted which SABRE, that system reservation computer Apollo US of the deregulation to led ultimately And Travelocity. s like f spino to airlines and it. of half the is just this list Beyond MIT’s classrooms and classrooms MIT’s Beyond

run in the Whirlwind I computer.” It was a was It Whirlwind I computer.” run in the MIT. of in the history moment consequential of the introduction of With the exception the campus in the nineteenth to electricity innovation technological no other century, impact on MIT. has had a greater would memory core laboratories, research Olsen, Kenneth For impact. further still have build a to tasked engineer Whirlwind a see to Computer” Test “Memory miniature it led work, actually idea would Forrester’s if the Digital Equipment for inspiration the to Air States When the United Corporation. from Whirlwind project the over took Force build a special to MIT it asked the Navy, Whirlwind Project -campus laboratory. f o Lincoln the new at SAGE became Project Massachusetts. in Lexington, Laboratory business. the computer put IBM into SAGE was SAGE of version The commercial Whirlwind to do useful things—began on things—began do useful to Whirlwind wrote Tayler when Norman 1949 9, August Report” “Bi-weekly Whirlwind famous in the passed was milestone important “an that was program 9th when the ﬁrst August on

- - - Whirlwind was more than a more Whirlwind was

Figure 1.2.4 Jay W. Forrester, director of Project Whirlwind and pioneer in the Whirlwind and pioneer Project of director Forrester, W. Jay 1.2.4 Figure plane. memory inspects a core memory, magnetic-core of development Museum. MIT Courtesy of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Union. with the Soviet War the Cold of with experimented and faculty Students play from problems, other solve it to x-ray a soft calibrating to ing checkers activity—programming That spectrograph. from the fact that they are programmed programmed are they that the fact from tasks. people accomplish complex help to as a proj which had started Whirlwind, turned into simulator, build a ﬂight ect to defense air the served that a computer the height at States the United needs of notice the impact of the particular kind of of kind the particular the impact of notice hubris and even drive, certitude, positivistic inject would diaspora Whirlwind the that industry digital computer the nascent into itself. MIT as into as well powers their derive Computers machine. for the Whirlwind computer reveals how a how reveals computer Whirlwind the for Deltamax design. a upend can material new and ect on Forrester f e catalytic had had a dogged project; the entire subsequently yielded genuine techni experimentation to not be impossible would It cal success. into Whirlwind on August 8, 1953), the steady steady the 1953), 8, August on Whirlwind into technology memory core of development http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Code as Material programmable/ Ben Fry and Casey Reas ben-fry-and-casey-reas

Every programming language is a dis- that is easy for beginners to work with and possible to invent new software. In the arts, tinct material. Physical materials like clay is comfortable and powerful for people as in the sciences, it is often necessary and wood have diferent properties, and with years of experience writing code. A to invent software to do new things—to the same is true of code materials. One program written in Processing is called a explore ideas that others have not yet pur- programming language might work well sketch; we emphasize the idea of writing sued. Processing was created to be ﬂexible for quickly writing a program to parse data, code to explore ideas and to iterate using to encourage a wide range of explorations and another might be better suited to write working code. One line of code can and discoveries. software to control a robot sent to another draw a circle on the screen, and a few The code and the images the code planet. Some programming languages more lines can create a working drawing creates on the next few pages show the are good for general tasks, and others are program. With a few weeks of work, that development of one sketch, a minimal created for speciﬁc domains. same code could evolve to have all of the image of a circle, through a few ideas that We created Processing in 2001 as functionality of a professional drawing feature how the Processing language a code material for the visual arts, and we application. operates and the kind of thinking it have been working on it continuously for Code is used to write software; encourages. seventeen years. Processing is a material therefore learning to write code makes it

size(400, 400); background(255); // White ellipse(200, 200, 280, 280);

Figure 1.3.1

size(400, 400); background(255); // White strokeWeight(40); ﬁll(164, 212, 60); // Green stroke(40, 122, 180); // Blue ellipse(200, 200, 280, 280);

Figure 1.3.2

20 Ben Fry and Casey Reas 21 // Blue // Green // Green // Blue // White // White // White ); (5); (10); (40); (255); (255); (255); (255); MULTIPLY (200, 200, d, d); (x, 200, 120, 120); ( d = 20; d <= 340; d += 40) { x = 80; x <= 320; x += 60) { x = 80; x <= 320; x += 60) (250, 200, 210, 210); (250, 200, 210, (150, 200, 210, 210); (150, 200, (40, 122, 180); (); (); (164, 212, 60); (40, 122, 180); (40, 122, 180); (); 60); (164, 212, int int (400, 400); (400, 400); (400, 400); (400, ( ( ellipse ellipse stroke for } size background strokeWeight noFill } size background strokeWeight noFill stroke for stroke ellipse background blendMode strokeWeight noFill stroke ellipse size Figure 1.3.5 Figure Figure 1.3.4 Figure Figure 1.3.3 Figure size(400, 400); background(255); // White strokeWeight(5); noFill(); stroke(40, 122, 180); // Blue for (int x = 50; x <= 360; x += 60) { for (int y = 50; y <= 360; y += 60) { for (int d = 10; d <= 80; d += 20) { ellipse(x, y, d, d); } } }

Figure 1.3.6

size(400, 400); background(255); // White strokeWeight(5); noStroke(); float angle = 0; for (int x = 10; x <= 390; x += 10) { float y1 = 200 + sin(angle) * 100; float y2 = 200 + sin(angle+1.7) * 100; fill(14, 34, 72); // Dark Blue ellipse(x, y1, 10, 10); fill(164, 212, 60); // Green ellipse(x, y2, 10, 10); angle += 0.12; }

Figure 1.3.7

size(400, 400); background(255); // White strokeWeight(5); noStroke(); for (int a = 0; a < 360; a += 10) { float angle = radians(a); float y = 200 + sin(angle) * 160; float x = 200 + cos(angle) * 160; fill(164, 212, 60); // Green ellipse(x, y, 20, 20); }

Figure 1.3.8

22 Ben Fry and Casey Reas 23 // Blue (10, 380); // Blue // Green // Dark Blue (angle) * 160; (angle) (angle) * 160; (angle) * 100; (angle) * 100; // Dark Blue random sin cos sin cos // White (10, 300); (10, 300); ); // White // White random random (5); (5); (255); MULTIPLY (255); (255); (255); (x, y, 10, 10); (x, y, 10, 10); ( (200, 200, diameter, diameter); n = 0; n < 800; n++) { (); n = 0; n < 800; n++) { i = 0; i < 100; i++) { (40, 122, 180, 102); (14, 34, 72); (14, 34, 72); (40, 122, 180); (); 12) { a < 360; a += a = 0; x = random(100, 390); y = random(100, 390); x = y = diameter = x1 = 200 + y2 = 200 + x2 = 200 + angle = radians(a); angle + y1 = 200 (14, 34, 72); (164, 212, 60); (); (200, 200, x2, y2); (200, 200, x2, (x1, y1, x2, y2); int int int int (400, 400); (400, 400); (400, 400); (400, ( ( ( ( float float fill ellipse float float fill ellipse float stroke ellipse float float float stroke line stroke line float float } } for size background noStroke for } size background blendMode strokeWeight noFill for }

background strokeWeight noStroke for size Figure 1.3.11 Figure Figure 1.3.10 Figure Figure 1.3.9 Figure size(400, 400); background(255); // White noStroke(); fill(40, 122, 180); // Blue float threshold = 0.4; for (int y = 10; y <= 390; y += 10) { for (int x = 10; x <= 390; x += 10) { float r = random(0, 1); if (r > threshold) { ellipse(x, y, 10, 10); } } }

Figure 1.3.12

size(400, 400); background(255); // White noStroke(); for (int y = 60; y <= 350; y += 90) { for (int x = 60; x <= 350; x += 90) { pushMatrix(); translate(x, y); rotate(random(0, TWO_PI)); ﬁll(14, 34, 72); // Dark Blue ellipse(0, 0, 90, 45); ﬁll(164, 212, 60); // Green ellipse(0, 0, 32, 32); popMatrix(); } }

Figure 1.3.13

size(400, 400, P3D); background(255); // White noFill(); strokeWeight(10); stroke(164, 212, 60); // Green for (int x = 100; x <= 300; x += 40) { pushMatrix(); translate(x, 200); rotateY(HALF_PI); ellipse(0, 0, 320, 320); popMatrix(); }

Figure 1.3.14

24 Ben Fry and Casey Reas 25 ); height ( float / (y, 0, 250, 0, 5); 250, 0, 5); (y, 0, (noiseX, noiseY); (z, 0, 1, 30, 270); map ); mouseY map (weight); P3D /2, 0, -600); noise , 360, 100, 100); x = -90; x < 90; x++) { HSB (0, 0, 100); width y = 0; y < 250; y++) { (hue, 90, 80); (x*grid, y*grid, z*300); () { ( ( z = hue = weight = () { (angle); float newAngle = float ( point setY = 0; ofsetY = angle; setup (648, 864, draw float float stroke float strokeWeight increment = 0.03; increment = 0; noiseX = 0; noiseY ( for grid = 5; grid size colorMode background translate float rotateX for noiseX += increment; } noiseX = 0.0; noiseY += increment; } ofsetY += increment; } float float void } void noiseX = 0; noiseY = ofsetY; 0.1); * (newAngle + 0.9) * (angle = angle int float float float Figure 1.3.15 Figure Frugal Science in the Age of Curiosity Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, Team Foldscope and the global Foldscope community

Figure 1.4.1: Individual parts that make a Foldscope—assembly required.

Science faces an accessibility challenge. Foldscope is a paper microscope and professionals alike. The work that Although information is fast becoming built primarily from a flat sheet of paper the community does is openly docu- available to everyone around the world, that the user folds herself. Designed to mented at the community site: http:// the experience of science is significantly be extremely portable, durable, waterproof, microcosmos.foldscope.com limited, both in developed and developing ultralight (8 grams), and flat-packed for Our vision is to bring microscopy countries. One approach to solving this shipping, the instrument is highly versa- to every child on this planet. Enabling challenge is to democratize access to tile. Moreover, using glass micro-optics curiosity-driven explorations at an early scientific tools. We explore this context fabricated with custom apertures allows for age allows kids to deeply understand in the framework of “frugal science,” a an optical quality similar to that of con- the process of science. We intend to do philosophy that inspires design, develop- ventional research microscopes (magni- so by inventing and deploying “tools ment, and deployment of ultra-afordable fication of 140X and 2-micron resolution). of curiosity” in a global context. Allowing yet powerful scientific tools for the masses. This enables Foldscope to bring hands-on these communities to interact and By connecting the dots between science microscopy to new places and new people! share their work enables a global network education, global health, and environmen- Over the last 5 years, we have of mentors, teachers, and explorers pas- tal monitoring, our lab explores the role deployed ~600,000 Foldscope to 130+ sionate about the life forms with of “simple” tools in advancing access to countries around the world. This has cre- which we coinhabit our planet. better human and planetary health in a ated the largest community for amateur resource-limited world. Here we provide microscopy in the world, its ranks includ- an example using the case of Foldscope— ing farmers, doctors, community health an origami microscope. workers, rural kids, college professors,

26 Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, et al. 27 India Antarctica Madagascar erent contexts—including biodiversity surveillance in rural in rural surveillance biodiversity contexts—including erent in dif world the microscopic exploring community the Foldscope of members 1.4.2: Diverse Figure exploring in deep blue waters and a sailor pests, for crops India inspecting his in rural a farmer cover, a shrinking forest immense challenges of facing Madagascar plankton. microscopic Figure 1.4.3: Foldscope community posts on the website http://microcosmos.foldscope.com sharing explorations by individual members—an open access portal for knowledge sharing.

~600,000 Foldscope Deployed In 130+ Countries

Figure 1.4.4: Map of global Foldscope community with 600,000+ users spread across the world.

28 Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, et al. 29 Figure 1.4.5: Community of Foldscope users, belonging to diverse locations and contexts. The diversity of of The diversity and contexts. locations diverse belonging to users, Foldscope of Community 1.4.5: Figure in speciﬁc Foldscope for applications ideas and new new for ground a breeding provides the community exploration. of contexts Figure 1.4.6: Data frame from a Foldscope connected to a regular smartphone. The microscope can be used by an individual user or connected to an electronic an electronic to connected or an individual user can be used by The microscope smartphone. a regular to connected a Foldscope from frame Data 1.4.6: Figure enhanced capabilities. with one for but it can be augmented can be used without a cellphone, Foldscope broadly. more and share record to sensor http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Machine Agency programmable/nadya-peek Nadya Peek

The maker movement has greatly contrib- production of parts to tight tolerances, guide shafts, and bearings. We developed uted to making digital fabrication more but how do we harness the precision of a networked control system with Ilan accessible. It has produced demand that machines without losing the creativity of Moyer that enables adding functionality to has driven down the prices of 3D printers, individuals? Being digital has allowed for a machine’s electronics by simply plugging laser cutters, and CNC mills. It has driven unprecedented creativity in CAD and code. in another networked board. the development and improvement of As for “being material,” we’re not quite To make it possible to rapidly proto- CAD/CAM software. And it has facilitated there yet. Many industrial machines are not type machines in a few hours, I developed spaces where people can get access to designed to be easily reprogrammed or a Cardboard Machine Kit with James digital fabrication tools—such as maker reconfigured. Instead they are designed Coleman. For the kit, we broke down spaces or fablabs—worldwide. to make millions of the same thing over machine motion into linear and rotary It has been predicted that personal and over again. axes that can be stacked, connected, and fabrication would be the killer application All kinds of processes can benefit outfitted with diferent end-efectors. Each of digital fabrication. The history of the from the precision of machines, including stage is made of laser-cut cardboard that personal computer is invoked as a ones that are not for making millions of the folds into the frame. Instructions for the kit roadmap to ubiquitous, user-friendly, and same thing. Our material turn yearns to can be found at machine-agency.org, and inexpensive manufacturing. But the anal- extend beyond mass production: The tem- some of the documentation is shown in the ogy breaks down: when given a calculation perature-controlled water baths of sous- figures included here. task, personal computers produce the vide cooking enable the reliable production Ultimately, systems like the net- same answer as mainframe computers, of perfectly cooked eggs. Liquid-handling worked controls of PyGestalt or the albeit perhaps more slowly; but consumer- robots can quickly pipette a perfect gradi- stacking axes of the Cardboard Machine level digital fabrication tools do not pro- ent of diferent concentrations of an active Kit are machine-building infrastructure. duce parts with the precision, or of the size ingredient. Coil winders can wrap perfect A software library allows you to quickly add or strength, as their industrial counterparts. antennae. How can we make it easier to functionality while being digital. These are The assumption that personal build these kinds of new machines for material libraries for building machines. digital fabrication machines look like smaller low-volume production? Being material does not mean versions of their industrial counterparts In the spirit of being material, my making incremental improvements to may be mistaken. After all, the user profile research group Machine Agency is rapidly existing fabrication and manufacturing of people making one thing for themselves prototyping rapid-prototyping machines. infrastructure. It is a fundamental rethink- is very diferent from that of machinists To start, digital fabrication machines work ing of the kind of material systems we making many of the same parts in a factory. well for producing the mechanical compo- need for production. We are building those Perhaps their tools also look diferent. nents of new digital fabrication machines. systems to reflect the agency of individuals The precision of computer-con- Digital fabrication machines can cut out in the machines and tools they use. trolled machines enables the reliable frames to which you can attach motors,

Figure 1.5.1: A Cardboard Machine for precisely measuring out triangles.

30 Nadya Peek 31 Figure 1.5.2: Parts for a Cardboard Machine Kit axis. Kit axis. Machine a Cardboard for 1.5.2: Parts Figure Coleman. James by Photograph MOTOR HARDWARE CABLE RIBBON USB FTDI STEPPER MOTOR STAGE CARDBOARDSTAGE CABLE CONNECTORS INTEGRATED LEADSCREW INTEGRATED ALUMINUM SHAFTS ALUMINUM FRAME HARDBOARD TAPE NODE GESTALT GESTALT POWER SUPPLY BUSHINGS GLUE NODE HOUSE LEAD LEAD HARDWARE SCREW NUT NUT SCREW CLAMPS 32 Nadya Peek 33 Figure 1.5.3: A plotter made with the Cardboard with the Cardboard made plotter A 1.5.3: Figure Coleman. James by Photograph Kit. Machine more of the same: and because symbolic communication relies on Another Matter: diference, the indefinite same is horrifying. Fortunately, we do not need to ask every form of matter to Notes on Worldeating perform for us in Freudian theaters such as these. To track and glean the semiotics of matter is to become resigned to its indif- Benjamin H. Bratton ference to us and our fears and desires. It does not care how we think it thinks. Still, how matter signals, or can be made to signal, is neither fixed nor limitless but open to continuous discovery. For example, the technique of visual vibrometry uses a combina- Wang took over. “The study of the deep structure of matter tion of computer vision and vibration mechanics to estimate the is the foundation of the foundations of all other sciences. material properties of a sample by detecting the frequencies of If there’s no progress here, everything else—I’ll put it your vibrations inferred from how the material appears in video images. way—is bullshit.” The sample may not mean to signal and disclose itself, but, if seen —Cixin Liu, The Three Body Problem through particular instrumentation, it does. Of course, living matter may signal diferently throughout its lifespan, and so the complex- Note 1. Signals ity and fragility of biosemiotics as a general framework to understand any signaling by, to, and for living organisms is not decided Now as forever, there is need for a Materialism that is closely tuned (or perhaps decidable).4 Knowing this, we train tools to see signals to the provocations of actual matter, including how we under- that we cannot unaided, but at the same time we also must stand ourselves as matter. But from where would it come? Matter restrain ourselves from misrecognizing and anthropomorphizing itself seems to escape the grasp of many professed materialists, biological processes that have no volition. The bacterium does not especially those who prefer their matter enchanted or reduced mean to swim upstream for food. The biochemist Jacques Monod to series of self-evident objects—nouns actually—in a nominally refers to a version of this tendency as teleonomy, an impression flat ontology. This makes it more difcult to get a fix, especially as that the interrelations of living matter are enacted with purposive we reflect on our own concepts as themselves local biochemical and meaningful function when they are not and cannot be.5 It is events: matter thinking about matter thinking about matter. difcult, because it is perhaps deep in “our” own way of communi- At the core of it, even apparently obvious boundaries cating to assign and identify subjective will to a material world that between matter that is alive and not alive shift, along with debates is signaling wildly but doing so without an overarching coherence about the qualities of “life.”1 With deeper prodding, features that of meaning, drive, or reflection (usually). We identify with ourselves seemed exclusive to living creatures prove to be more promiscu- and empathetically amongst ourselves, so why not with microbes, ous and pervasive. Given time matter may assemble into certain serpents, and everything else in the forest?6 But at what point then forms—such as brains and nervous systems—that produce a do some creative implications of a general biosemiotics lead to the wondrous pattern we recognize as intelligence, but done difer- impression that matter is fundamentally “linguistic” and that, quite ently similar-seeming efects are accomplished by non-carbon- literally, there is nothing “outside the text”? Or at what point does it based forms of mineral intelligence as well. They may seem related imply deeper acceptance of the inverse: that even the most inefa- or unrelated; matter can know in ways that are very specific and ble experiences of conceptualization and denotative abstraction, others that are more general, and movement between the two is lovely as they may be, are elaborations of fundamental biochemi- always uneven. Insights and applications drawn from biology both cal operations? What planetary society will tolerate such a materi- intersect and repel those from artificial intelligence, and making alism, really? How would we teach each other to internalize it? matter “think” informs diferent practices and expertises. Some people work with a genre of programmable matter—the geological Note 2. Edibles folding we name “AI”—that can easily self-replicate, while others can make synthetic cells, which, as of this writing, need to borrow Closer to home than the laboratory or the rainforest, perhaps, the membrane of nonsynthetic cells and cannot reproduce on another way that the world becomes us is as food. Culinary materi- their own. And so it is. At least in this way, nonliving intelligence can alism speaks to how cultures ingest matter to replicate themselves reproduce more easily than living. biochemically and how we stage ingestion events and activities.7 How diferent sorts of matter are capable of reproducing Besides indexing the raw versus the cooked, food’s philosophical and communicating is linked only loosely to how our cultures complexity derives from its being the matter that is transformed may categorize and symbolize them, and in principle, vice versa. into our own bodies. Food and medicines that we ingest are a spe- The gaps and disentanglements between one and the other can cial category of matter, even if their underlying chemistry is shared bring anxiety, unease, and even fear, such as when we encounter by many things that are not food. That distinction is based not only matter that seems to be alive but which cannot communicate and on how mammal physiology draws nutrition, but on conceptual yet reproduces itself. I don’t often refer to Lacan but am drawn to conventions as well. Ultimately, as the world eats itself, what is not a type of matter he described, briefly and obliquely, in Seminar IX food? Among all things around us, some can be eaten and nourish and called lamella. It shifts shape and may be, like the placenta, an us, and others can be eaten and not nourish us very much (con- “organ” from which subjectivity must emerge but which by itself sider the case of Michel Lotito, who between 2007 and 2009 ate has none. It is a flesh “deprived of the symbolic order,” and defined a 1,100-pound airplane, approximately 2 pounds of metal per day). by the contrast of that deprivation to the symbolic complexity of Because we also eat matter that is not nutritious, food is more than bodies animated by libido and sexual reproduction.2 Because what we internalize in order to live and reproduce. We eat and drink lamella reproduces asexually, with genetic code that is copied, not poisons all the time, and we swallow much that our bodies filter combined, from parents, it approaches an uncanny deathlessness: out as unsuitable, special organs having evolved to manage this. viruses, bacteria, and especially clones. In Žižek’s hands, lamella is Some favored matter habituates nourishment, such as water, corn, like The Blob or the shape-shifting alien in John Carpenter’s The and rice, which are all but universal sources of sustenance, and Thing. It/they are matter that cannot die, only grow or split.3 Just their common intake binds us together. Other foods are delicious

34 Benjamin H. Bratton ------35 , owned and run by and run by owned , Goop to the black market trade trade market black the to 9 11 boundary questions deﬁne this deﬁne questions boundary

10 “The healing powers of eleuthero root, 13 Note 3. Recipes 3. Note ers a lifestyle ideal predicated on an ideal predicated a lifestyle ers f o Goop 12 8 , run, by the thick-necked red-staterAlexJones, fer o As each cultivates its users’ crises of subjective agency agency subjective crises of its users’ As each cultivates What matter counts as food (and what food matters) can As the external matter that becomes us, we can find “food” “food” find can we us, becomes that matter As the external Infowars in a changing and challenging world, how do the corresponding do the corresponding how in a changing and challenging world, the site’s the divide of cross held, so adamantly fictions, elective and the class identities to linked are While they cultures? two identity of vector the explicit expresses, each site that aspirations each is gender. for from liberated performatively femininity, and enchanted fuent a that medical establishment a mainstream of masculinity the toxic eras, cars, and eventually whole grids. The geopolitical machi whole grids. and eventually cars, eras, nations over remaining deposits may prove fierce. If the tensions over controlling the sourceability of lithium were to get really dire, a stando f might include the aiming of nuclear weapons, which use lithium in their essential triggering devices. In a diferent form, lithium is also given to psychiatric patients who ingest it and, because they do noso, longer hearvoices and exhibit fewer other abnormal or disturbing as a symptoms.whole,Taken it may seem that we deal with madness not by loading the lunatics onto boats and floating them to the next town, but instead by feeding them batteries. is a kind of politics sometimes food; a politics of is there only Not Nikhil Sonnad which maps how article by a recent Consider food. movements websites/social the popular Paltrow, Gwyneth avatar and wellness actress coastal carefree and many of the same potions, good luck balms, and megavitamins to their respective clienteles, situated as they are across the chasm of the wider culture wars. “har both out to turn iodine” and nascent mushrooms, cordyceps monize mind, and body, spirit” and keep the“new world order” at Who knew? bay. in unexpected contexts. Organ donor programs institutionalize institutionalize programs donor Organ contexts. in unexpected one person whereby sanctioned cannibalism, ethically a kind of because and can do so precisely another, the flesh of incorporates other that and themselves between likeness is a strong there may person A the same. of More blood type. including person, digestion. of an organ which is itself example, for a liver, receive can con they so that others the flesh of internalize Recipients Sanctioned in the future. the world the flesh of internalize tinue to bioethics, imperfect if an intense by is governed transplantation making online and each other Germans finding strange from but, and sample one another toast pacts to Asia, South East in in kidneys trans hour, every At what. no matter economy, circular expanded This res table. the operating from the near-dead revives plantation based monotheism rituals of the persistent parallel may urrection inverse is a kind of example, for Jesus, cannibalism. on symbolic can undead the hungry so that not flesh is reanimated zombie—his the the living can eat so that but as the Eucharist the living, stalk and immor redemption of its promise for the resurrected flesh of the Communion also a sort of commonwealth the strange Is tality. parable? slavery A trade? organ of vary from person to person and thing to thing. Lithium is a chem of variety with an unlikely in accordance eat we that ical element purposes and palettes. It is mined to be used to store energy in batteries that will be used later for electricity by computers, cam to some taste cultures, but for others are disgusting to consider consider to disgusting are others but for cultures, taste some to dog, internalizing: swallowing, chewing, mouth, one’s into putting or hair, urine, snail, okra, egg, bush meat, dog, hot lobster, bug, people. other Figure 1.6.1: All images by Benjamin H. Bratton Benjamin H. All images by 1.6.1: Figure has devalued the afects of personal embodiment and suppressed by his recommendations, and he told me that primarily certified folk remedies with its brutish utilitarianism. Here the claim that a organic fruits and vegetables and various “raw” foods were on simple hand cream might “fuel your physical and entrepreneur- the menu. Sounds tasty, but I reminded him that all fruits and ial feats” is a positive wish that feels like it should be true, and so vegetables are, in fact, composed entirely of chemicals. Roughly those initiated in the Goop worldview by trusting such intuitions speaking, all matter on, in, and of the planet earth, and indeed the are congratulated as wise. As the adage of radical self-concern, known universe, is composed of chemicals. But he wasn’t having “be the change you want to see in the world,” is elevated to a it. He described the toxins that are sprayed on regular produce spiritual extreme, gardening the border between a clean self and causing symptoms ranging from headaches to pancreatic cancer. external “toxins” is how one keeps to the shining path. This back and forth went on in a predictable way. Regarding the Infowars shares Goop’s focus on “immunity support” as universal table of elements he nonchalantly suggested that it is an its core cultural politics. A patron-saintly figure for Goop might be artifact of “Western Science” and, besides, it diagrams elements the character Carol White, from Todd Haynes’s Safe, a film about not chemicals. Soon he was as tired of me as I was of him. We had environmental illness and the terrors of bioimmunological iden- reached an early impasse, Jef and I. tity disorders in afuent white suburbs. For Infowars, the parallel I am of two minds about this. On one hand, there is some- figure is Col. Jack T. Ripper from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, thing obtuse and disappointing about aspiring to a chemical-free a man’s man so overcome with anxiety about the purity of his diet. It seems like a diference in kind, not just degree, from run- bodily fluids, especially his semen, that he concocts a final of-the-mill motivated misapprehension.15 No, it’s more than just all-consuming nuclear war. Her body and his are both under that. The idea of chemistry itself as something artificial, synthetic, attack from unseen contaminants, but whereas she withdraws contaminating and inorganic is not just a kooky quirk; it is, at least into an increasingly mute and self-referential interiority, he wipes in some corners of some contemporary societies, a default folk the world clean. Alex Jones is as motivated as Paltrow by the ontology of matter. For this way of thinking, artificial things are magical thinking of fortified individuation, if not more, but his made up of uncertain compounds, but natural things are made of worldview is focused on a masculinity under siege from a global what they are. That is, medicines may be made of chemicals, but technocratic elite hell-bent on eliminating his birthright virility: wood is made of wood. A fine chair may be made of pure wood, “I am a human,” he screams. “I like to eat! I like to have children!” whereas a less good chair may not be 100% pure wood. What is And finally, pointing at his torso, he reveals “this is a human, this the name for this theory? Nominative essentialism (with a hint of is what we look like!” The matter must be somewhat unsettled to Creationism), or intuitive indexical empiricism, or phenomenal sub- require such unequivocal declarations. stantialism? Please send suggestions. Some academic philoso- Infowars and Goop ofer dietary survivalism for a user base phies will also posit that objects just are what they are, and despite that feels their sand castles of self dissolving under waves of alien doing so in the name of a postlinguistic turn, in practice such contamination. Of specific importance, however, is not the discur- philosophies seem less concerned with objects than with nouns, sive symmetries between the two celebrities, but how they peddle self-apparent things with names, however diverse.16 the same cuisines as the stuf of diferent politics. As leaders of On the other hand, a truly chemical-free diet—a xenonutri- active popular movements, their explicit politics may be expressed tion so alien that it involves a hitherto unknown form of matter—is a in always-on streams of motivational content, but the products that provocative notion (unlikely but provocative). Perhaps we do need are finally for sale, and actually support the movements financially, more science fiction on our dining tables, not less. After all, isn’t are food and pills. The Goop and Infowars movements are stories, food making a genre of material design beset by a sentimental cosmologies even, but their shared business model is the mass traditionalism and aesthetic laziness that would be acceptable in provision of placebos and dodgy pharmaceuticals. And so it’s less other areas? In the short term, this leads to boring unhealthy food that food/medicine only represent a kind of politics, than that poli- and a mystification of agricultural supply chains. In the longer term, tics can actually be a kind of food. If you are one of us, you eat this, it is perilous. The chemical imaginary should imply interconnec- and vice versa. After all of the biosemiotic signaling of anger, virtue, tion, entanglement, and tricks of practical knowledge. It shows impotence, and/or self-definition, the politics on ofer is, finally, that inside and outside are of the same cloth. Anyone who eats is a decision to eat (and become) the world in a way that matters already full of microbial foreign bodies, which together represent according to a given plot. over 99% of the DNA inside your personal skin bag. Many of these help you digest foods that would be difcult or even impossible to Note 4. Chemicals14 eat otherwise. They evolve in relation to what you feed them, and as you eat, you are also being eaten. Inside, you are a cannibal garden. To visit Whole Foods Market is to track signals of first world But where does all this take place? No one eats in a problems, both real and imagined. It was there that I recently vacuum, and so both the anthropology and design of spaces for encountered a fantastical new way of eating. “Chemical Free ingestion are essential. The meal is sometimes an installation at Diet” announced the banner hanging over a table manned by an appointed times of hungry bodies around a rectangular surface, earnest, placid young man named Jef who could show me how. and such occasions are organized by rituals, hierarchies, proce- His pale hands were folded one on top of the other as if sitting to dures, and improvisations, some of which are more edifying than have his portrait painted. After a few minutes of discussion with my the food itself, some far less so. What is and is not on the table, consultant I learned that, yes, he believed than organic food did who picks it, who puts it there, who ingests it and in what order not contain chemicals, or far fewer than conventional food, and (and who and what does not) are all variables that encapsulate that this guarantees its nutritional superiority and overall health- diverse gestures into regular rhythms. Some restaurants replicate fulness. But a chemical-free diet? Would this be a diet of food that and multiply domestic dining rooms—one table per social unit— is not made of known molecules, literally another matter hitherto while others gather diners along benches and modular tables that unknown to science? Neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor water: re-sort social alliances. Some would rather not sit at all. For them, such a diet does he promise. I asked Jef if he was familiar with the avoiding the meddlesome weight of community and instead eating table of elements, with hydrogen on the top left, and so on, and he on the go—a deliberate alienation from kinship procedures and said “yes.” I engaged him further and asked him what was allowed obligations—can feel like freedom.

36 Benjamin H. Bratton ------37 19 Any contribution to to contribution Any 21 As he relays it, each exhibition exhibition each it, As he relays 20 Despite (or because of) its pretensions to to its pretensions because of) (or Despite 22 Instead, the fertile path is toward a deeper engagement engagement a deeper is toward path the fertile Instead, may join him in bristling join him in bristling may f Je sensible than Critics more While it may seem obtuse to say so, perhaps the term “fac term perhaps the so, say to seem obtuse it may While tional “phenomenological” argument against platform-scale platform-scale against argument “phenomenological” tional to connected people can be consciously production—that food alien tangible or and intuitively immediate are that processes and capital—is techniques, chains, supply planetary from ated an expen It’s viable program. is it a but nor wrong, entirely not Most policy. than an agricultural more aesthetics notional sive other disqualify to such a rationale accept never would readers large-scale technological interventions are bad and work to per to bad and work are interventions technological large-scale a cas into himself in hand he paints With this heuristic it. petuate to having by momentum interpretive undercutting corners, cade of For his polemic. of the direction to expertise scientific subordinate frey Je citing by GMO” of “refutation a ers f o he blithely instance, misleading outlandishly several besides producing who, Smith, M. Party Law Natural dance instructor, is a former films, documentary the 2012 conference at and speaker candidate, congressional and repeats repeats Demos Chemtrails.” “Consciousness Beyond reducing results, with similar technique this compare-and-contrast char bundled friend and enemy into and everything everyone Just the juxtaposition of as a critical arranged which are acters, us as Black this for he summarizes Elsewhere and the Complicit. a joke). Geoengineering (not vs. Matter Lives quo food the status of the endemic failures be made regarding whoppers Law-level Poe’s of the intensity by defused are system is reason” technoscientific “universal the thing called about how causes famines. what exempli work this sort of future, a decolonized of on behalf speak axiomatic reconcile the humanities to difcult it can be for fies how more a richer, for be necessary would positions with what belief system. food planetary and sustainable equitable, viable, which embedded, are in which we with the biochemical torrents and ancient both are They once. global and local at always are The conven renewal. radical to available always and upcoming, conditions by which sentient creatures are today rendered into into rendered today are creatures which sentient by conditions production industrial-scale that but rather substances, edible meat than weird no more design platform be seen as a should food of “machines also and living in” for “machines architecture: industrial need food we materials, raw of In the mass cultivation eat.” can you for and, obsolete, waste of forms worst the make that platforms scale also means bring bioregional at ecological restoration this, loops. more and closing many indoors ing crops Demos has drawn J. T. historian art example, For this model. at food “local” and “global” between contrasts solemn and decisive two by the discerning connoisseur for as demonstrated systems (13). dOCUMENTA at exhibitions one fea with and food, biological nature to dealt with relationships should be held in some which he suggests turing Donna Haraway, the Green and “technoscience” with its alignments suspicion for AND, AND AND art collective with activist and another Revolution, via the Shiva with the aforementioned which Demos associates and localist “organic, an politics tuned to a food of performance presentation curatorial any with him that I agree While character.” reasons our is absurd, as interchangeable and Shiva Haraway of lines were that irritation Demos’s opposite. probably this are for stems and the latter the former enough between clearly drawn not opposed between demarcation be his mistaken to I take what from move local cultural roughly, which, for cultures, ideal technical whereas quo, status the unjust against good and work are ments blood and bone meal. Humans can be vegetarians—for very good good very vegetarians—for be can Humans meal. and bone blood not. are usually eat vegetarians that plants the reasons—but conno negative its current from rescued should be farming” tory the horrific should embrace we that mean not I do that By tations. - - - - - Where to start? First of all, plants plants all, start? of to First Where 18 17 Scale may imply standardization, but instead of monocul of but instead standardization, imply Scale may What about scale? All those ingredients are not produced produced not are All those ingredients about scale? What Whether mobile or stationary, the molecular assemblages assemblages the molecular stationary, or mobile Whether war. There are almost half a million plant species, and most use and most species, a million plant half almost are There war. war, because it came from war.” because it came from war, are kill or immobilize, repel, attract, to chemical warfare some sort of drink to love They meat. eat also Plants animals and each other. not necessarily cozy. Along with demystifications of the “cultural” “cultural” the of Along with demystifications cozy. necessarily not of disenchantment comes a corresponding food of artificiality many are but there seems simple, It is and does. “nature” what conclusions. opposite to themselves committed have , f Je like who, the says in agriculture,” been allowed have should never “Fertilizer “I think Shiva. Vandana and activist advocate unreliable eminently use is like Its mass destruction. of a weapon It’s ban it. time to it’s coherent and realistic popular sense of systemic interactions interactions systemic sense of popular and realistic coherent but on level the policy at only not is necessary, cycles within food if such cycles experience While one can directly the menu as well. all outputs where garden or a single farm into miniaturized are they is food of the cybernetics inputs, new immediate into made are are scales that it at appreciate need to and we be global, and must nomic and territorial organization of cooking, tasting, and eating, and eating, tasting, cooking, of organization nomic and territorial circumstances, other Under rest. at on the go or together, alone or “terraforming.” be called might such an assignment through heterogeneity expand that need platforms cuisine we tural In scalable chemical elements. standard of the recombination a more this, realize To old and new. flavors, more words, other may hope for far fewer earthlings, but the means and ends of this and ends of but the means earthlings, fewer far hope for may Thanos if goes, As the meme unreasonable. always not if dicey are to people owing the half can eliminate that stone has a reality double the to use the same device not why constraints, resource a suf produce to have We so simple. it were only If resources? the eco and also transform matter edible food of volume cient duction are well known: there will be more than nine billion people will be more there known: well duction are now, have than we billion more two roughly or 2050, on Earth by is It etc. in 1927, population the total being equal to the increase sea growing thirty-one have then we to now from that repeated may we the human earthlings well, feed sort it out; and to sons to Some before. ever grown have than we food more grow to have one plate at a time or one garden at a time. Food is always a is always Food a time. at one garden a time or at one plate it should be how of but the questions resource, population-scale cuisines particular how to unrelated not this scale are designed at and production meat The ecological impacts of composed. are obvious the most perhaps beef—are consumption—particularly pro food planetary-scale for The basic statistics make. to links into everyday tables, how much more interesting, sumptuous, and sumptuous, interesting, much more how tables, everyday into artificiality its natural demystified we be if food surprising would remains It courage? creative with more and chemical constitution design in champion radical those who might for subject a touchy be as to ingest personally they the matter but prefer some areas as possible. traditional such slurries into marvelous and unexpected cuisines. Molecular Molecular cuisines. unexpected and marvelous such slurries into into givens raw render to equipment uses industrial gastronomy between associations doxic sensual experiences: hypercooked again. and made new confounded are tactile flavors visual, artificiality and the chemistry diet,” “chemical-free a to Contrary hidden behind not as the main point, is foregrounded the diet of kitchens elite from As this principle moves masks. skeuomorphic from more elemental forms. Raw ingredients may be blended into into blended be may ingredients Raw forms. elemental more from forms complex into reconstituted turn in are which pastes, entropic and the deconstruction as if dishes, normative resemble that accordingly, are, lunches Many place. took never reconstitution burgers pink-paste and McDonald’s Soylent only is not It fictions. design chefs elegant most our some of made this way; are that that we eat may seem familiar but have often been reconstructed been reconstructed often but have familiar seem may eat we that designed systems that are equally essential. Instead of ideal- izations of agrarian experiences—especially on behalf of others who may not wish to play the role of authentic antimodern other—we should conceive and leverage deeper and yet more complex involvement with food processes that are regional and transregional in scope. This very likely means intensifying food production while reducing its acreage footprint, and “integrat- ing pest management with agroecological systems to minimize costs, maximize yields, restore ecosystem services, and ensure environmental enhancement.”23 It means building better and more capable food “factories” for baseload nutrition with radically reduced waste and land use. It almost certainly means a diferent geoeconomic system, one likely unrecognizable to the twentieth-century model of centralized public vs. decentralized private archetypes. Cue now the allergic reactions that obscure behind a fog of afected political connoisseurship the real food cycles that remake us over and over again each day. Instead, as a planetary species, we are creatures who need intimacy with our factories, and so we should imagine the food factory as a place of diverse imaginations and surprises, not rote homogeneity. Open up the doors. Let us in. As cooks, we move from a politics based on “the kitchen is her factory” to one in which our factories are vibrant kitchens for cuisine.

Note 5. Programs

Lastly, at least for these notes, we should consider correspondences between culinary materialism, as we’ve defined it, and other more novel material biotechnologies, particularly those for which the uncertain relations between living and nonliving matter are central to discovery, recovery, design, and engineering. These might include any laboratory procedure by which matter is fused, folded, or cooked in order to transform it into something known or unknown; and of these, some have more gravitational relevance for our inquiry than others, especially those that combine chemistry with computation. Two such are synthetic biology and programmable matter. At this time, both are as theoretical as they are practical, and still their basic premises are not undisputed. From some perspectives, a deep interrelation between bits and molecules is how the world works, and so designing accordingly is obvious and overdue, but for others the gaps between the underlying chaotic continuities of matter and its abstraction by digitization are impassible.24 Versions of this debate are ancient and ongoing; they were present in the Macy conferences on cybernetics and extend to contemporary reconsiderations of Democritus as having ofered prototypical models of quantum computing.25 To be sure there are many ways to define and counterde- fine these terms and more than one way to consider computation, including the specific relationships between algorithms and what they calculate. A recent paper by Lin, Tegmark, and Rolnick considers that “symmetry, locality, compositionality, and polynomial log-probability translate into exceptionally simple neural networks,” and draws attention to how this mode of AI depends not only mathematics but also on principles of physics.26 A popular infer- ence from this is that artificial neural networks work well because they reduce complexity in ways that are similar to how real physical systems do it; they work like the real world works, and perhaps vice versa.27 If so, then while attentive to the geology of AI as a technology dependent on specific and complex foldings of minerals and energy, we would also consider whether/how its calculative processes themselves align in other ways with the physics of that substrate. For media theory, this is perhaps another way of asking Figure 1.6.2: All images by Benjamin H. Bratton whether “there is no software.”28

38 Benjamin H. Bratton ------This 36 39 As new technol As new 34 For synthetic biology and biology synthetic For 35 it works on it). it works how Without explicit recipes, the design paths here are yet yet are here the design paths recipes, Without explicit However pressing the need may be, such hacks are a long are such hacks be, the need may pressing However Or perhaps they never will be. If not, the reasons may be may the reasons not, If will be. never they perhaps Or more winding. As one of my doctoral students, Sascha Pohflepp, Sascha Pohflepp, students, doctoral my of As one winding. more deep learning and synthetic of the integration is researching, design.” “postrational be called might what suggests biology an planning for of instead that suggests term awkward elegantly it tilt toward to a procedure and choreographing ideal outcome setting finds themselves now engineers step, controlled by step reliably based on practical technique, and you don’t need to need to don’t you and technique, based on practical reliably importantly, More build a bridge. to entanglement quantum master possi design are material of forms other that do know we that now learning to depletion, resource crisis of the pressing and given ble, the use of and creative fcient e more make design machines that Programmable worthwhile. on hand is have already molecules we novelties, therapeutic as marketed often are technologies matter molec radical us down, rise staring temperature 4°C but with 2° or and ethical be the more may salvage fcient and e curation ular the landfills. To domain. viable application cells making synthetic of costs the energy Today (I think). f o way generic access and produc for ready not are They astronomic. are and super will be forgotten methods today’s and perhaps tion, one kind of is not “Computation” happens. that seded long before paradigms computational that and it is less a matter technology, than biomatter programming for value have don’t and metaphors such metaphors approaches with deep learning and similar that today recognize we What turned upside down. themselves have modeling at symbolic with abstract programming, as procedural bottom-up more to way gives layer, interface the human-computer volumes huge find signals and solutions from that approaches programming for employed are methods Similar sample data. of intro biology synthetic so artificial-intelligence-driven and matter, some even challenges, and conceptual procedures duces new displacing. are than those they uncertain more They were not exported from some Visual BioCAD IDE according IDE according BioCAD Visual some from exported not were They but someday biology, systems for established the ISO standards to will be. perhaps they miscom as on technical as much and economics, based on ethics “smart and bioreplicators Post-scarcity the problem. of prehension make. to hard really are ectors” f with e motes the complexity underestimate to it easy results, early er f ogies o models the formal of the clarity versus space problem the real of AI in 1955 that impression McCarthy’s John it. engineer chosen to session in New a summer out over less fleshed or could be more and advances eventual but given a fine example, is Hampshire for also cause it was was, program workshop’s that prescient how there not, or biological matter, programmable For some optimism. inquis curious, These are on call. and no utopia no promises are expand and reveal and foremost first may that techniques itive microscopic at even assembles, matter how of an understanding logical for allow may which paths focus and secondarily scale, simple, a dumb, even Again, scale. at and replication intervention not yet and as intended roughly can work stack biology synthetic a on (but rather it works what model of “true” be a scientifically functional model of certain is possible at recombinacy directed matter, programmable in operations the underlying natural if even abstraction of levels As and undeciphered. insubordinate remain which it intervenes can be predicted outcomes out, has figured human culture every this past September, a team at UC Davis used modular methods methods modular used UC Davis at a team September, this past are Such examples cells. synthetic antibacterial together piece to old be may feats such this, read you the time and by multiplying, together hacked were viable cells these minimum However, news. least. the say to projects, and uncertain messy are These hand. by - -

- - - - 31 - 30 32 - - from 1993, 1993, from Here, at least, least, at Here, 33 . All of this followed this followed All of . , which are in turn which are , Utility Fog system devices Among the implications of their their of the implications Among 29 , which are arranged and aligned into into and aligned arranged which are , parts Outside of software metaphors, systems biology, like like biology, systems metaphors, software Outside of Synthetic biology names an overlapping genre of technol of genre names an overlapping biology Synthetic Programmable matter is a catchall term that suggests suggests that term is a catchall matter Programmable progress in synthetic biology has either been too fast to keep track track keep to fast been too has either biology in synthetic progress Venter The question. into put the whole initiative as to so slow or of synthetic 473-gene a demonstrated California, Jolla, in La Institute, And just biological organism). simple synthetic very so a cell (and matter. Such a stack would not have to be “true,” it would just have have just it would “true,” be to have not would a stack Such matter. biotech Successful mean in practice). may that (whatever work to than complicated much more obviously are nical methodologies and methods, do use modular but many bits, snapping together public and both packages, software of hundreds are there today and prototyp cell simulation, sequencing, genetic for proprietary, point, reference your Depending on manipulations. various ing to capture the complexity of what is represented. what of the complexity capture to is entirely matter Another device. kind of that is not the diagram “stack” biology-programming synthetic a modular of the prospect interfaces, scripting higher-level code snippets, with arrangeable code which passes the chasm from source a genetic of on top “print” and which can thereby the chemical and back, the digital to ing a public license agreement, a parts registry, and an iterative and an iterative a parts registry, ing a public license agreement, really. but not worked sort of It standard. assembly dia models to stack employs already disciplines, other many transcriptome, then the bottom, with genome at its domain, gram but these the top, and phenome at metabelome, proteome, presume don’t features genes to from translation of abstractions an extremely simple modular process for biological assembly. biological for process simple modular an extremely simple functions are very express that code snippets DNA this, For the basic units called functions called defined higher-level, called the the envelope combined into includ software, from borrowed design practices systems other ogies that suggest the industrial-scale design of living systems. design of the industrial-scale suggest ogies that cel with working connote has come to the term culture, In popular simple scripts such that bits, like behaved they functions as if lular like more biochemistry advanced make that be written might design/ a speculative was Biobricks example, For Lego. arranging for the aspiration expressed 2006 that to dating science project many of which are now sci-fi clichés. Still, the poetic detail of some of detail the poetic Still, clichés. sci-fi now which are of many Hall’s Storrs J. as such visions, those early of could self-assemble that “foglets” elegant composed of vapor a the for both compelling, remains human-scale forms, erent dif into strange opened to it imagines a world how implied uses and for and surprise. recomposition which assembly procedures can be guided by higher-level classes classes higher-level can be guided by procedures which assembly language perhaps. a programming unlike not and abstractions, the 1990s Eric to least at date this notion of Imagined applications nanotechnol how for enthusiasm unrealistic) (often of era Drexler brought moment This life. everyday soon revolutionize would ogy such as commandable nanobots, proposals, speculative of a wave between these anthropometric models and how molecules, cells, cells, molecules, models and how these anthropometric between one shape and/ from themselves transform proteins or enzymes, its alter to matter of the ability In theory, another. into state or do so to it could be programmed that means shape in this way today’s go beyond that perhaps in ways and precisely, artificially to matter programmable of ability The conventions. technical in scenarios suggests processing information predictable perform cesses may be “computed,” including as self-assembling forms. forms. as self-assembling including “computed,” be may cesses computational Tibbits and Skylar architect between Collaborations assem matter how and simulate Art Olsen demonstrate biologist crystalline phase change among including scales, multiple bles at states. and gaseous liquid, solid, scale independence is some demonstrations self-assembling myriad ways that matter’s physical and biochemical pro biochemical and physical matter’s that ways myriad up the Rube Goldberg-like conditions whereby machine learning distinctions between living and nonliving matter, the natural and software and an array of test beds are arranged, and test iterations the synthetic, are at once critical and irresolvable. When the are set in motion without always understanding what directions Lacanian notion of lamella, the uncanny matter outside symboliza- it all may take. It is hacks on top of hacks. This is not AI as some tion, finally does speak up, a generalized biosemiotics becomes crystalline overlord of absolute discrete operations but rather deadly fragile if rendered as an anthropomorphic projection of as a predictive prosthesis for making and testing a very large linguistic essentialisms. This puts us not back to square one but number of messy iterations to find what “works.” The human somewhere of to the side. From there, we consider how it is that researcher is a limited governor in a sextuple-order cybernetics, we, ourselves, become the material world, and vice versa, through as finely folded metals and silicon etched with pulses of electrical the artificial transformations of matter to taste and its ingestion for current are steered somewhat by nested learning algorithms, all pleasure and cellular nourishment. At the extreme, cannibalism in attached to a matrixed assembly line of living sample materials, its prosaic, ritualized, and medical guises names not just a cultural together searching for results that lead to other conjectures and taboo but, because we are always similar to the world we eat, a other trials. It is nonliving matter automated to think about living dynamic that can never be eliminated despite symbolic prohibitions. matter in order to make other living matter: intelligent robotic The scope of edibility, obviously, marks one limit of the digestion as a formally bounded and iterative natural selection mutual ingestion of people and their worlds, but we have not based on a groping-about epistemology.37 Outside the laboratory, tested that limit nearly far enough. This means reexploring “for- the implications of this model for the ultimate careers of AI in the gotten” ingredients and cuisines that may now seem irregular, as wild are profound. well as popularizing the fact that all gastronomy is molecular and simultaneously growing more comfortable with the ecological and Note 6. Conclusion and regurgitation logistical obligations of generic nutritional substances. I contrast this to a magical cultural politics that mobilizes its audiences That materialism-to-come that is more deeply attentive around hyperindividuated immunological placebos, and locate to what we actually know about matter, and thereby to what we these, in turn, within a weird intuitive substantialism that imagines can conceive about and through matter, must be based on the the chemical reality of food as a secondary contamination. I sketch reflexive comprehension of ourselves as chemical assemblages an alternative dedication to the heterodox rationalization of a sus- who think about matter, which is itself a chemical assemblage. Life tainable planetary agriculture, not as some guilty black megabox is a churn of hacks and provisional compounds all the way down, against which we attend microfarms in penance, but as a beautiful, and all the way in. In its resistance to idealization, matter is not delicious recombination machine. Generalizing the culinary ges- simply natural; it is not just given but also revealed and assembled ture beyond the edible, we link this to the ancient and continuously by working on the world. Matter is artificial. Such activity (call it emerging technologies of programmable matter and synthetic labor if you like, or call it design) allows for embedded tactics but biology, and to the disjunctures between the ontological depth (or also for abstractions that allow us to navigate unlike situations and depthlessness) of digitization and the practical modularization of systems. These abstractions are also biochemical formulations systems for assembling artificial forms. The procedural program- which occur when certain anatomies allow for them and certain ming logic is then contrasted with techniques derived from deep populations circulate them as culture. Just as tactical and tech- learning, and I wonder aloud how the training of artificial intelligence nical knowledge evolves in reflexive relation to working on the on the task of composing unknown, intricate pharmaceutical com- world, over generations that anatomy does as well. All this makes pounds and culinary fleshes may lead to unexpected positions for for diferent ways of knowing/cooking the world by the diversity of us in the loops that we inhabit and, ultimately, swallow. creatures that have assembled over time, and so, at least in this way, all technologies are media. As for the chemical, computational, culinary, and conceptual techniques noted above, ongoing interest and commitment stems both from their open-ended futures and pasts and from how they might filter insights from the ambient noise of the world. They may cook the world at the scale of a meal or at the scale of a continent, but the broader implications of these interrelated attachments are sometimes lost. Conventional critical punditry will ofer, in one breath, that technology cannot solve social problems, and in another breath that we cannot separate technology from its social impacts. I agree that we cannot separate the social from its mediation and unfolding, but I conclude that a final “social determinism” of technology is both impossible and undesirable. It is never just a tool. To the limited extent that social problems even have solutions, technology can alter the circumstances dramatically, but when it does, it is no longer thought of as technology but as the world: urban sanitation systems, public school buildings, rural electrification, mass-produced antibiotics, etc. The stakes are more than semantic for the material technologies discussed above. If popular politics doesn’t see chemistry, it cannot think and act on chemistry as such. It may be that we will come to see climate collapse (CO2), clean water supply (H20), food security (mostly C, H, and O) as manifestations of a stunted, literally retarded chemopolitical imaginary. On modest behalf of that unknown materialism, I hope to have shown a few things. First, that the theoretical and practical

40 Benjamin H. Bratton (New (New 41 The Rise of The Rise of (Berlin, 2017). Thank you you Thank 2017). (Berlin, , https://qz.com/1010684/all-the- , (Durham: Duke University Press, Press, University (Durham: Duke The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric The Esoteric Cosmists: The Russian On the Table the On Quartz (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2017). Press, UK: Polity (Cambridge, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, Mattering, Racial Animacies: Biopolitics, 21. See T. J. Demos, “To Save a World: World: a Save “To Demos, J. T. See 21. and Futurisms, Conflictual Geoengineering, https://www.e-flux.com/ the Unthinkable,” journal/94/221148/to-save-a-world-geoengineering- conflictual-futurisms-and-the-unthinkable/. guard against radiation poisoning, or similar. or poisoning, radiation against guard the all-purpose or litany” “Latour the Consider 16. nouns for substituting of as ways “hyperobject” that is forthcoming Harman Graham actual objects. his See in matter. interested really is not his project De Landa in discussion with Manuel Realism in all is excellent food “traditional” So much 17. it should be replaced that is not point My senses. the from free it should be set but that food” “new by performing of weight and unnecessary expensive the be sure, To moderns. alienated for authenticity traditional organic of dichotomization simplistic be to is a fallacy modern food and synthetic food inverted. not subverted, https:// Doubt,” “Seeds of See Michael Specter, 18. www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/ seeds-of-doubt. considering why it is worth example, For 19. human waste eating cockroaches full of factories See https://www. should seem as odd as it does. reuters.com/article/us-china-cockroaches/bug- business-cockroaches-corralled-by-the-millions- 1O90PX. in-china-to-crunch-waste-idUSKBN Bio- Eden: beyond “Gardens Demos, J. T. 20. at and Dystopia Eco-Futurism, aesthetics, https://brooklynrail.org/2012/10/ (13),” dOCUMENTA art/gardens-beyond-eden-bio-aesthetics-eco- futurism-and-dystopia-at-documenta-13. tables, chairs, and carpet of our shared room.” See room.” shared our of and carpet chairs, tables, Chen, ect f A and Queer Russian century, nineteenth In the late 2012). science science, blend of cosmism—a fantastical and Orthodox engineering, astronomic fiction, generation the dead, resurrect to theology—sought however, dream, the cosmist to Lost generation. by has including the living, the whole world, is that See dead. the and digested ingested already Young, George and His Followers Fedorov Nikolai of Futurism 2012). Press, University Oxford York: Alarms,” Car for “Music essay See my 12. https://tankmagazine.com/issue-76/features/ benjamin-h-bratton/. Products ‘Wellness’ the “All Sonnad, See Nikhil 13. Infowars Sold on Both Are Buy to Americans Love and Goop,” wellness-products-american-love-to-buy-are-sold- on-both-infowars-and-goop/. published section was this of version An earlier 14. by monograph an artist to essay as a contributing Sutela, Jenna it here. rework permission to for Jenna to meme—perhaps true?— internet the Consider 15. who customer Market Foods Whole another about of instead demanding that, nuts by cashiers drives packaged their on codes bar UPC the laser-scanning to hand by them for codes the all in type they food, 11. Notions of mutual ingestion can lead in many many can lead in mutual ingestion of Notions 11. we how describes Chen Y. Mel directions. erent dif another one and exteriorize interiorize constantly copresent physically “When habitats. and our is “There Chen said. them,” I ingest with others, their I am ingesting this. about fanciful nothing the skin of and the sloughed skin, their air, exhaled We are are We

(New (New (New (New How How , be , A World World A with Postmodern Postmodern not thinks that that thinks cannot (New York: York: (New Posthumous Life: Life: Posthumous Thinking Edibility Thinking Edibility Life Explained Life (after Meillassoux), one Meillassoux), (after (Scranton: University of of University (Scranton: Flatline Constructs: Gothic Gothic Constructs: Flatline , ed. Reza Negarastani and Robin Robin and Negarastani Reza ed. , . The latter, in turn, is by no means is by in turn, The latter, . (Durham: Duke University Press, Press, University (Durham: Duke ” (emphasis mine). (emphasis ” , http://www.lacan.com/essays/?p=180. Troubles with the Real: Lacan as a as Lacan Real: the with Troubles Signs of Meaning in the Universe Meaning Signs of , a conversation between Chido Govera Chido Govera between a conversation , 19 (2008). (Berkeley: University of California Press, Press, California of University (Berkeley: UrbanomicVII hyper-Correlationism Otherwise in https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/ Evans Josh and pub/issue4-evans-govera. Armin Meiwes the case of to course, of I refer, 9. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_Meiwes). Asian South Organs: “Others’ Vora, See Kalindi 10. Trade,” and the Kidney Labor Domestic Culture forests (or cities) as dense with information, active active with information, as dense cities) (or forests memory of cycles recursion, adaptive patterns, The concern is etc. and prospection, would turn in anthropology the ontological how way make it would that or West, the provincialize those from erent dif concepts of “the creation for with them,” brought knower participating every it in describing Marisol puts as Donna Haraway volume Blaser’s de la Cadena and Mario Worlds Many of valid obviously these are the contrary; To 2018). is The serious problem viable commitments. and on behalf instead deployed are when such projects a of embedded mental ering culturally which dif for and indeed should not, constructs to correspond they how to according considered or careless These moves, reality. material external openly such cosmopolitical initiatives leave explicit, failure. premature to vulnerable the from materialism” “culinary the term I borrow 7. title of essential provides introduction editorial Their Mackay. See https://www. the term. use of my to background urbanomic.com/chapter/collapse-vii-robin-mackay- and-reza-negarestani-editorial-introduction/. generations, for eaten were that Some foods 8. and been forgotten have may such as insects, the of and so the expansion become overlooked, foods new the design of only not involves palette For available. the already of but also the recovery see this topic a discussion of Materialism and Cybernetic Theory-Fiction and Cybernetic Materialism “everything—human that 1999) Exmilitary, York: and inorganic organic beings and machines, ering f o for Manaugh f Geo I thank dead.” matter—is is my “It Ellington: Andrew biologist from this quote … is no such thing as life. there position that dead even not use of Lacan’s of explication complete a more For 2. see http://nosubject.com/Lamella. the term, ek’s See Žiž 3. Alien of Viewer fmeyer Ho Jesper The Danish biologist 4. See his see signs everywhere. help us to would Signs of the into An Examination Biosemiotics: Signs of and the Life Life broader an even and for 2009), Press, Scranton his scope, 1997). Press, Indiana University (Bloomington: eds., Scarfe, Adam and See Brian Henning 5. Biology into Back Putting Life Mechanism: Beyond 2013). Books, Lexington MD: (Lanham, book elegant Kohn’s Edouard Consider 6. the beyond Anthropology an Toward Think: Forests Human “think” do as a whole and in parts, forests, Yes, 2013). the same as how is not but that ways, in particular forest species in that one particular thinks the forest of else should conceive anyone the same as how 1. For contrasting approaches on the status of of on the status approaches contrasting For 1. Morange, see Michel “living” Jami and 2009); Press, University Yale Haven: Colebrook, Claire and Weinstein the Posthuman Theorizing beyond Mark The late 2017). Press, Columbia University in suggested Fisher 22. Poe’s Law refers to moments when it is 32. On biobricks standards, see http://parts.igem. “impossible to create a parody of extreme views so org/Help:An_Introduction_to_BioBricks. obviously exaggerated that it cannot be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of the 33. Thank you to Helena Shomar for the excellent parodied views” (via Wikipedia). references to several systems biology stacks.

23. Jules Pretty, “Intensification for Redesigned 34. “Smart motes with efectors” is borrowed from and Sustainable Agricultural Systems,” Science, Vernor Vinge, personal conversation 2010. November 23, 2018. 35. Giuseppe Longo’s critiques of digital 24. See, for example, Alexander Galloway, “What Is biotechnologies seem to be based on his principled the Analog?,” http://cultureandcommunication.org/ insistence that their models of underlying processes galloway/what-is-the-analog. are hopelessly reductive. The rejoinder is that any application model needs to be reductive to 25. See Scott Aaronson, Quantum Computing have technical traction, and in principle all tools since Democritus (Cambridge: Cambridge are reductive. See Longo and Maël Montévil, University Press, 2013). Perspectives on Organisms: Biological Time, Symmetries and Singularities (Berlin: Springer, 2016). 26. Henry W. Lin, Max Tegmark, and David Rolnick, “Why Does Deep and Cheap Learning Work So 36. Pohflepp argues (via personal correspondence) Well?,” https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.08225. that “in order to arrive at the possibility of a postrational design, heterogeneous parts such as 27. See, for example, https://www.technologyreview. human intention, evolution at work in the body of com/s/602344/the-extraordinary-link-between-deep- a microbe, and artificial intelligence have to be neural-networks-and-the-nature-of-the-universe/. interfaced. This new paradigm finally generates a methodology which can be used as a means to, for 28. The reference is to Friedrich Kittler’s famous instance, generate new forms: an interplay of alien suggestion that, indeed, there is is no software. agendas and what could perhaps be called their ‘xenoaesthetic’ choices. … [In post-rational design] 29. See https://www.archdaily.com/407750/ we can maintain a certain goal-orientedness, yet fluid-crystallization-skylar-tibbits-arthur-olson. defer it to a diferent layer, in the knowledge that we can never control the whole. The human now 30. Tibbits explains that “we have also identified the appears not as the solver of problems, instead key ingredients for self-assembly as a simple set of possibility spaces get queried in a way that is responsive building blocks, energy and interactions deeply emergent, subject to failure, digression, that can be designed within nearly every material inhuman agendas and more.” and machining process available. Self-assembly promises to enable breakthroughs across many 37. On this see my essay “The City Wears Us: disciplines, from biology to material science, Notes on the Scope of Distributed Sensing and software, robotics, manufacturing, transportation, Sensation,” Glass-Bead Journal (2017), http://www. infrastructure, construction, the arts, and even space glass-bead.org/article/city-wears-us-notes-scope- exploration.” See https://selfassemblylab.mit.edu distributed-sensing-sensation/?lang=enview.

31. Sophia Rooth, Synthetic: How Life Got Made (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2017).

42 Interdigitation

Tom Özden-Schilling

Chemist. Biologist. Chemical engineer. Data scientist. Cancer becoming. From its nineteenth-century origins as MIT’s early specialist. To some, the roster of current afliates and past alum- Department of Mining, the undecidable nature of materials—as nae/i of Professor Angela Belcher’s laboratory group at MIT reads well as of materials science, and, as Belcher’s many acolytes make like a diagnosis of a discipline in flux. To many others, however, its plain, materials scientists, too—has been borne out in a cascade heterogeneity has come to signal the dissolution of disciplinarity of shifting institutional titles. As the nineteenth century progressed, itself. Asked by popular media to explain the lab’s work to general the Department of Mining became Mining and Metallurgy, then audiences (and they often are, given Belcher’s parade of awards, only Metallurgy in the years after World War II. Between 1967 and including the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2004, 1974, Metallurgy and Materials Science was simplified into the Scientific American’s “Researcher of the Year” two years later, and department’s current moniker, Materials Science and Engineering the prestigious Lemelson Prize in 2013, to name but a few), a group (or DMSE, for short). As in other corners of MIT (see, in particular, member’s gloss of an ongoing project might come across as post- “Interweaving,” later in this book), these changing names index an modern pastiche. Viruses become integrated circuit components. attenuating embrace of prewar New England industry and, more Bacteria become batteries. Living things become structural things, recently, a growing self-consciousness regarding the Institute’s which then take on lives of their own. Within the spaces where the global reach. Throughout these transitions, the ways faculty and group’s research takes form, though, classifying the objects and their students have been made to represent the department, its objectives of the work is a far messier business. Inside a fume objects of research,1 and the epistemic virtues2 of the consum- hood in one of the group’s wet labs in Building 76, virus-rich solu- mate materials scientist have undergone constant change. Since tions stand ready to coat small slabs of glass and silicon, drying the beginning of the twenty-first century, DMSE has assertively into translucent films as their biomolecules grab hold of a surface branded itself as leading a technoscientific revolution toward and snap themselves into complex structures. On a computer biologically inspired design (see “Interleaving”). In the rush to screen linked to the sensing tip of an atomic-force microscope, construct interdepartmental working groups and promote avant- one such film takes on the sharp-edged topography of a terraced garde ideas like Belcher’s virus-based transistors, however, few hillside; a postdoc’s discerning eye traces out the connections of the scientists involved have had much time to process how the and contours of a successfully fabricated transistor. Moving back meanings of “biology” and “design” have changed in the process. and forth between fabrication and testing steps with students Among thousands of young scientists still working to parlay shepherding diferent stages of the process, one’s reliance on their research into long-term jobs and careers, these shifts have such analogies tightens as descriptive qualifiers proliferate. For played out in deeply personal ways. For some social scientists, the Belcher Group researchers and their research objects alike, pressures that young people face to eschew vocational aspira- treating wildly diverse “building blocks” as only so much matter to tions and see themselves in entrepreneurial terms forebodes an be manipulated ofers a constant reminder that while streamlined alienating future of abstract, programmable labor.3 Other scholars, origin stories might make good copy for popular articles (“chem- however, have long seen academic training, religious practice, and ist”; “virus”), the only things that matter are what they and their other forms of self-fashioning as always and everywhere grounded objects might eventually become. in political currents and empirical worlds which are themselves Sharing their principal investigator’s dual afliations with unstable.4 Continually reconciling oneself to these kinds of the Departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science discontinuities, anthropologist Naveeda Khan5 argues, is largely and Engineering, Angela Belcher’s research group has come a matter of understanding the limits of agency and resisting the to exemplify the latter field’s predilection for states of continual allure of simplified narratives. Building professional identities upon undecidable virus-transistors and bacteria-batteries while stand- 1. Paul Rabinow, Making PCR: A Story of ing astride disciplinary boundaries drawn in sand, perhaps Angela Biotechnology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996). Belcher’s many students and alumnae/i have simply experienced these dissociative forces more explicitly than their peers. For them, 2. Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity life after MIT promises to be no less uncertain. Recent graduates (Cambridge, MA: Zone Books, 2007). have already begun starting their own laboratory groups in Beijing, 3. Ilana Gershon, Down and Out in the New Economy: Seoul, Oxford, and Austin, among other places, while others have How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today (Chicago: joined venture capital funds, intellectual property firms, and solar University of Chicago Press, 2017). energy startups. Each of these new institutions faces its own 4. Park Doing, Velvet Revolution at the Synchrotron: calls to define itself and defend the value of baroque technical Biology, Physics, and Change in Science (Cambridge, training against the twenty-first-century demands of industrial MA: MIT Press, 2009); Naveeda Khan, Muslim Becoming: Aspiration and Skepticism in Pakistan design. Much like the diverse forms of training they first brought (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012). to the group, such a wide range of outcomes might again strike one as evidence of intellectual flourishing, or perhaps of a field 5. Naveeda Khan, “Of What Does Self-Knowing Consist? Perspectives from Bangladesh with no core. As more materials scientists are called upon to treat and Pakistan,” Annual Review of Anthropology their objects and selves as programmable things, however, the 44 (2015): 457–475. usefulness of such assessments wanes. Researchers and their work have never been left alone to subscribe to set terms, or to follow established stories. For Belcher Group graduates, helping things, ideas, and each other to keep becoming something new is already work enough. WEARABLE

Introduction Leila W. Kinney

The Materials of Immateriality: Hussein Chalayan’s Fashion Michelle Tolini Finamore Yarn-dez-vous, 2014 Azra Akšamija Crafting Material, Being Material M. Amah Edoh HAPIfork and the Haptic Turn in Wearable Technology Natasha D. Schüll The Algorithms Have Eyes Hyphen-Labs Beyond Wearables: The Future Is Fleshy Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae Interweaving Tom Özden-Schilling Introduction Leila W. Kinney

The integration of the human body and textiles with technology propelled a wide-ranging exploration of biomimetic design, which has propelled art, computationally enhanced fashion design, and has inspired everything from body armor for the military to Neri materials science far beyond visions of the cyborg proposed in the Oxman’s extensive “material ecology” research and uncategorizable 1960s. This section of Being Material explores a multiplicity of these artistic practice. Meejin Yoon and Eric Höweler’s 2001 Defensible developments, from the emergence of conceptual fashion design Dress—inspired by the blowfish and porcupine—is one example. It and wearable computing in the 1990s to experiments with electronic used a microcontroller, passive infrared sensors originally devel- and reactive textiles and portable sensing systems that provide data oped for the military, and shape memory alloy actuators to define a feedback to monitor health or enhance physical performance. It protective spatial perimeter around the wearer, shifting the wearable asks what it means today to be “human, not so human.” toward a kind of urban armor that protects personal space.8 In this context, “wearable”—like the other modes of “being” Unexpected explorations of bioresponsive materials also that organize this book—is an elastic category. Not confined to were a prominent area of research. Hussein Chalayan’s remarkable digital devices that can be attached to the body, the term is used thesis exhibition in 1993 buried a collection of clothes with iron here to connect a series of inflection points in what today is called filings that decomposed the fabric. Jae Rhim Lee, whose Infinity the “technoself” and to weave together a series of discussions about Burial Suit was first exhibited at the 2008 Seamless exhibition, the internalization and manipulation of biometric surveillance, the worked with mycologists to develop a wearable infused with a new cultural mobility and signifying power of textiles, the hyperbolic strain of mushroom that counteracts industrial toxins in our bodies performativity and narrative capacity of the body in extreme or tech- so that burial can lead to remediation of the soil after death. In Neri nologically augmented conditions, and the inversion of the fashion, Oxman’s series, the material research is a substrate for the creation beauty, and self-care industries through virtual reality, biological of mythologically inspired wearables, whose properties of organic platforms, microbial interventions, and more.1 morphologies and matter augment human capacities. Two col- This combination of topics is inspired in part by the under- lections, Wanderers: An Astrobiological Exploration and Imaginary lying historical connection between weaving and computing, inter- Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet (2012–2014), use multimaterial 3D twined with an awareness of the specific preoccupations that have printing technologies to produce shock-absorbing helmets, flexible, driven experimentation and research around wearable electronics, protective corsets, and other wearables, envisioned as life-sustain- smart textiles, and biomimetic design. As is well known, Charles ing habitats for interplanetary travel in the spirit of the exogenous Babbage’s Analytical Engine adapted the use of punch cards in support that Manfred Clynes imagined for the cyborg.9 Jacquard looms to operate a set of sequential instructions and cal- All of this experimentation has taken place alongside the culations as a precursor of modern computing; in the words of Ada development of afective computing, as defined by Rosalind W. Lovelace, “We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves Picard, who also was instrumental in launching wearable comput- algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and ing at the Media Lab in the 1990s. When outlining her own research leaves.”2 Although there were many practical and conceptual dis- program, she predicted that “wearables may fulfill some of the placements along the way (see Tom Özden Schilling’s discussion at dreams espoused by Clynes when he coined the word ‘cyborg.’”10 the end of this section of how MIT moved from supporting industrial Intensive focus on the development of human-computer interfaces, training in New England textile mills in the late nineteenth century sensor technology, and network theory aligned well with longstand- to military applications of fabric science in the twentieth), computa- ing notions of fabric and skin as interfaces with the body in clothing tion has emerged as the overarching or at least most visible pilot of design, fashion as a form of information flow among individuals and research at MIT—and wearable technologies are one way to track societies, and self-fashioning as a process of constructing identity the interface between the human body and computing. and projecting public personae. Portable and personal computing converged in the 1980s Expressing the technological imperative through cloth- and 1990s at the MIT Media Lab in the Wearable Computing Project ing design accelerated the exploration of conductive fabrics and that Alex (“Sandy”) Pentland launched in 1986.3 Among the most reactive textiles and maintained a connection between computing notorious of the self-styled “borgs” was Stephen Mann, who is and the body. In the meantime, as avant-garde art progressively remembered for walking around campus in the 1990s with a porta- abandoned representation during the twentieth century, the domi- ble camera strapped to headgear that transmitted roving images to nant cultural space for figuration of the human body migrated to the the web.4 In Mann’s case, “shooting back” at Big Brother by turning fashion industry. By the turn of the millennium, the runway show had the tables on the increasingly pervasive use of surveillance cameras developed into a spectacular form of performance art, increasingly (which he later termed “sousveillance”) was a primary motivation.5 aligned with the worlds of technical innovation and futuristic display. Seeing himself as a performance artist and social commentator, not Designers such as Hussein Chalayan mobilized technology from the just a technologist, however, Mann asserted that the project was an outset of his career, both for the sake of experimentation and mate- “exploration of self as much as of surveillance,” because he was also rials innovation as well as to make a series of propositions about turning himself inside out, by making his movements and visual field how the clothed body exists in social space. As Michelle Finamore, publicly available to all on the internet.6 curator of the 2016 #techstyle exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts The conceptual space opened up by wearable technology in Boston, explains in her contribution to this section, Chalayan’s and the embrace of cyborg hybridity, whether as originally or subse- conceptually groundbreaking shows have captured conditions such quently defined—an “exogenous organizational complex” necessary as speed, disembodiment, or forced migration and have incorpo- for extraterrestrial survival (Clynes), or a liberating fiction of hybrid- rated animatronics, robotically controlled garments, lasers, liquid ity as an alternative to rigid sexual dimorphism (Haraway)7—also crystal displays, sensing devices, and textiles that change states by

46 Leila W. Kinney ------

- 16 47 - and heralded, and heralded, his ideal device device ideal his 15 Most intriguing are the devices devices the are intriguing Most 14 Harvard Business Review Disrupting that feedback loop and resisting what they call call they what resisting and loop feedback that Disrupting Nothing could be farther from the biometric evolution of Facebook. Self-fashioning on social media is pervasive andsurveillance, how it is striking era, an earlier instan to Compared taneous. experienced as externally imposed and alienating, has been inter self-dis photogenic and digital tracking by and superseded nalized into deeply delved has Schüll Natasha anthropologist Cultural play. intro modes of and the new technologies biofeedback the rise of interview by engender, they dressage” “technological spection and and catalogu community (QS) Self in the Quantified ing enthusiasts health, monitor that products consumer of number ing the growing habits. and daily activity, physical can be felt that something into data personal translate aim to that “exosense”; calls an Kelley Kevin what heard, or encourages that wearable acing” f “self-e a as described be might the in interested is Schüll perfectionism. numerological of kind a the but self-governance, for gadgets haptic these of ramifications can What individual. the beyond far reach trend this of implications second-order commodified, of combination of sort some as seen be cybernetics and applied physiology has been “physiolitics” dubbed James by H. Wilson in the will that Taylorism of form new a as science, data by amplified when in the workplace. fciency e and increase employees motivate Hyphen-Labs, has been the goal of identities” our of “databasing the technology of with a group who work artists young of a collective immersive designs, product Afrocentric on partners artistic and wearables that has occurred in contemporary consumer elec computing. ubiquitous into has evolved computing Mobile tronics. has been com it in fact, monetized; has been itself Surveillance and Google like monoliths of model business the in mercialized , - - Yarn- - Her work work Her 12 Portable Mosques 11 amija’s amija’s š Ak Azra of component a are Wearables . and the origins of architecture in hanging textiles for for in hanging textiles architecture and the origins of amija’s use of textiles as a marker of cultural identity identity cultural of as a marker textiles of use šamija’s Ak is at once a multiperson garment, a record of disparate disparate of a record garment, once a multiperson is at 13 The dense cultural meaning of textiles and the performative performative and the textiles meaning of cultural The dense Being Material Figure 2.1.1: MIT cyborgs, pioneers in human-machine interaction, model their wearable computers or “smart clothes.” From right are: MIT graduate students Rehmi Rehmi students graduate MIT are: right From clothes.” “smart or computers wearable model their in human-machine interaction, pioneers cyborgs, MIT 2.1.1: Figure The of Courtesy Berry. Pam by Photo Computing Group. Perceptual Laboratory’s the Media of left, Pentland, Alex with Professor Mann and Steve Thad Starner, Post, Images. via Getty Globe Boston craft that works with wearable matter as at once a transgenerational transgenerational a once at as matter wearable with works that craft and hierarchy. erence social dif of inheritance and a token and repository of cultural memory reminds us of their enduring enduring their of us reminds memory cultural of repository and wax “Dutch” or print” “African the in exemplified is which materiality, complex performs cloth printed This Edoh. Amah M. by studied cloth financial and kinship) of (ties signaling—interconnectedness social that meaning with alive so is It wealth”). “wearable (literally value without cutting it. the cloth of the integrity retain to pains take tailors and care, curation, a kind of requires the cloth being of The material cultural origins, a counternarrative to Islamic and Middle Eastern and Middle Eastern Islamic to a counternarrative origins, cultural andstereotypes, an installation hybrid of textiles zipped together to form a quilt, in athat way recalls Gottfried Semper’s theory of Bekleidung principle of as a founding words, other and shelter—in enclosure dwelling. cially clear in two examples of “unwired” wearables in this section section this in wearables “unwired” of examples two in clear cially of to sculpture social of form a as clothing treats which practice, artistic Her identities. mutable and multicultural convey for example, deploy wearables as architectural support for contin and migrants. such as refugees communities, gent dez-vous tions of wearable computing while moving away from computation from away while moving computing wearable of tions Susan what themselves—toward of and in priorities engineering and to approach “materialist-conceptualist” a called has Ryan Elizabeth wearable technology within clothing design. terrain nonverbalof communication through clothes are espe decomposing, melting, or transforming themselves into suitcases or or suitcases into themselves transforming or melting, decomposing, preoccupa the of many words, other in up, takes His work furniture. Figure 2.1.2 (top): Meejin Yoon and Eric Höweler, Defensible Dress, 2001. Courtesy of Meejin Yoon.

Figure 2.1.3 (bottom): Jae Rhim Lee, Inﬁnity Burial Suit, Seamless, 2008. Photo by Mikey Siegel. Courtesy of Jae Rhim Lee.

48 Leila W. Kinney

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49 as Bekleidung , January 26, 2017, 2017, 26, January , , September 2013, https:// 2013, September , (Cambridge, MA: MIT MA: MIT (Cambridge, A Networked Self and Networked A (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 010 Publishers, (Rotterdam: Experience: Culture Cognition Experience: Culture therapeutically reinstates reinstates therapeutically , trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave Mallgrave Francis Harry trans. , The Four Elements of Architecture Architecture of Elements The Four The Verge The , a sci-fi beauty salon that Agapakis and McRae are each each are McRae and Agapakis 19 New Nomads: An Exploration of Wearable Wearable of An Exploration Nomads: New Future Day Spa sundance-interview-2017. 18. Philips by Electronics see https://www. SKIN: Dresses, For 2000). vhmdesignfutures.com/project/224/. in McRae and Lucy Agapakis See Christina 19. 80. p. volume, this 13. Harry Mallgrave translates translates Mallgrave Harry 13. “cladding.” typical than the more rather “dressing” Semper, Gottfried Writings and Other Cambridge (Cambridge: Herrman Wolfgang and 1989). Press, University Bits, in the Loop: “Self Schüll, Dow Natasha 14. Self,” in the Quantified and Pathways Patterns, ed., in Zizi Papacharissi, Sentience Intelligence, Artificial Augmentics, Human her In addition to 25–38. 2018), Routledge, (London: article, see the related volume, this to contribution and Mather, David Jones, A. in Caroline “Tracking” eds., Uchill, Rebecca and the Common Sense 203. 195– 2016), Press, 70. p. volume, See Schüll in this 15. Workplace,” in the “Wearables Wilson, James H. 16. Business Review Harvard hbr.org/2013/09/wearables-in-the-workplace. Afro-Feminist the “Building Robertson, Adi 17. Beauty One Cyberpunk Sundance, at Future Time,” a Salon at https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/26/14377214/ neurospeculative-afrofeminism-vr-science-fiction- Biometric Mirror Biometric Active Active ective ective f A (Toronto: (Toronto: In addition to her work as a biotechnologist for the custom custom the for biotechnologist a as work her to addition In . become the next “fleshy” technology. technology. “fleshy” become the next that are rendered possible, and perhaps even probable, by current current by probable, even and perhaps possible, rendered are that virtual Hyphen-Labs’ to contrast in work, another In technologies. reality hair salon, McRae’s ame to being touched, of with a fear clients for experience a haptic seems technology that disconnectedness interpersonal the liorate to exacerbate. In the arti uses crowdsourced McRae vision, Hyphen-Labs’ complements Western in perfection female of ideals expose to intelligence ficial recognition. facial for norms and algorithms collaborated has Agapakis Bioworks, Gingko firm design organism “synthetic called been has that practice a in artists with frequently artist the of “portraits” microbial cultured she Notably, aesthetics.” as cheese. Obrist Hans-Ulrich and the curator Eliasson Olafur Looking toward the future of internal wearable technologies, with already and drug delivery detection disease for engineered bacteria be symbionts, wearables “Will our she asks: clinical trials, in early with our interaction new encouraging embedded with living cells, own microbial ecosystems?” want and forms life created synthetically and artificial in interested the about questions toward wearables of conception the push to about joke may they Although sexuality. and reproduction of future “on-board an as future the in conceived be will uterus the whether CRISPR a wear can edit genes—“Is scientists that now 3D printer,” sentient as wearables that be may ask—it they technology?” able will DNA of units basic the with redesigned body a of extensions as a platform for wearables, developing with a synthetic biologist biologist synthetic a with developing wearables, for platform a as and body the of surface the on erupts that perfume ingestible an seem body the of extensions prosthetic Her fragrance. a “sweats” installations in creatures, otherworldly and reptilian, human, elide to scenographies fantastic in future cyborgian a posit that videos and (Frankfurt: Revolver Revolver (Frankfurt: 27, 27, 26– 1960): (September 108. 80 (1985): 65– - - - - Mosque Manifesto—Propositions Manifesto—Propositions Mosque - (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014). Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Astronautics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997). 1997). Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Garments of Paradise of Garments Socialist Review Socialist (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017), 308–309. 2017), Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Garments of Paradise: Wearable Discourse in Discourse Wearable Paradise: of Garments

17 amija, šamija, Ak Azra 12. Coexistence Spaces of for 2015). Publishing, 6. Ibid. Mann is now professor of electrical and of professor is now Mann Ibid. 6. Toronto, of the University engineering at computer the art and art practice ties to but maintains Niedzviecki, Hal with Mann See Steve department. Possibility and Human Digital Destiny Cyborg: Computer Wearable the of Age in the and Susan Elizabeth 2001), Canada, Doubleday Ryan, Age the Digital “Cyborgs Kline, S. Clynes and Nathan E. Manfred 7. and Space,” Cyborgs: for Manifesto “A Haraway, Donna and 75; – 74 the in Feminism Socialist and Technology Science, 1980s,” Spaces“Sentient Höweler, Eric and Yoon Meejin 8. ed., Tibbits, in Skylar Architectures,” Active and Matter See http://neri.media.mit.edu/projects.html. 9. Media MIT Computing,” ective f “A Picard, W. R. 10. Technical Section Computing Perceptual Laboratory ect.media.mit.edu/f Report 321, No. 1995, https://a Picard, W. Rosalind pdfs/95.picard.pdf; Computing Ryan, 11. , Taylor’s Taylor’s , and McRae was part of a team team a of part was McRae and , MIT News MIT She went on to imagine the skin itself itself imagine the skin on to She went 18 be found in the neuro-cosmetology lab neuro-cosmetology in the be found

2017; e12514, https:// 2017; e12514, , May 6, 2014, https:// 2014, 6, May , New Nomads Verge in August 1843. August in , exhibition catalogue, October 9– October catalogue, exhibition , The Art of Detection: Surveillance in Detection: Art of The Although all of the contributions in this section unravel tech section unravel in this the contributions Although all of Sociology Compass Laura Kurgan, Richard Lowenberg, Steve Mann, Mann, Steve Lowenberg, Richard Kurgan, Laura Scher Julia Arts Visual MA: List (Cambridge, 1997 29, December 1997). Center, who reportedly was the first to wear a portable computer and later became theLeadTechnical on Google Glass. Back’” ‘Shooting Profile: “CAMIT 5. http://news.mit.edu/1996/ 1996, 18, September Timothy and Riddell Jennifer See also camit-0918. Druckrey, + Scofidio, Diller Niels Bonde, Bill Beirne, Society: device in 1966 for “the admirable goal of cheating cheating goal of “the admirable in 1966 for device on take an MIT-centric For table.” the roulette at see the 1997, 1268 to from wearables of the history Rhodes: https://www. Bradley by timeline posted media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/timeline.html. 4. More than twenty graduate students were Thad Starner, among them among the initial group, the Analytical Engine originally appeared in appeared originally Analytical Engine the Memoirs Scientific of the Grandfather “Meet Konnikova, Maria 3. Computing,” Wearable www.theverge.com/2014/5/6/5661318/the-wizard- alex-pentland-father-of-the-wearable-computer. and Edward Claude Shannon that notes Konnikova computing wearable the first Thorp developed O. 1. For a review of recent literature on wearables, see on wearables, literature recent of a review For 1. and Bodies, Tech, “Wearable Wissinger, Elizabeth Gender,” doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12514. http://www. 696, p. A, Note Lovelace, Ada 2. on These notes fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html. the 2002 publication the 2002 publication bioluminescent embedded which Dresses, SKIN: developed that phys have that wearables expressive create to sensing technology range. and emotional icality and scientists working with advanced technologies applied to the the to applied technologies advanced with working scientists and design with the units of it means to what ask They human body. internalize that conditions extreme into body the project to and life Alongside technology. her emergence as a self-styled“body archi artist, tect” “sci-fi” andMcRae worked in a research lab at Phillips with experimentation of proponent corporate early an Design, in featured were workshops Future the of Vision Their wearables. in an alternate universe of empowering possibilities. empowering of universe in an alternate engineer biological way, in some enhanced wearables nologically crosscut the most er f o McRae Lucy and artist Agapakis Christina conversation wide-ranging Their category. the of complication ting artists of mindsets respective the about dialogue a contains also that the artists have created, which also includes earrings with with earrings includes also which created, have artists the that and hair encounters hostile capabilities for video and recording extensions that are virtual electrodes a of platform forthe transcranialThrough Butler. stimulation, Octavia author namedsci-fi of inhonor (NSAF) AfroFeminism NeuroSpeculative entitled salon beauty reality Festival Film Sundance the of section Frontiers New the in exhibited participant the immerses that experience an er f o artists the 2017, in counterforensics artist Adam Harvey, is a scarf intended to over to intended is a scarf Harvey, Adam artist counterforensics the to homage in designed is it technology; recognition facial whelm as women, creole and enslaved identified that headdress a tignon, This Louisiana. eighteenth-century in laws sumptuary by required fashion the by underrepresented those of accessories other and can industries and beauty installations, and speculative fictions that incorporate women of of women incorporate that fictions speculative and installations, the with developed HyperFace, design. of narratives the in color http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ The Materials of wearable/hussein-chalayan Immateriality: Hussein Chalayan’s Fashion Michelle Tolini Finamore

How do the seemingly immaterial concepts of displacement, Flows in its store windows. It was the first time in ten years that it travel, death, nomadism, and ephemerality become embedded had highlighted a recent fashion school graduate. Such immediate in fashion? For twenty-six years, a creative wellspring within the success is rare, especially for one whose work is so conceptual. inherently material world of art, Hussein Chalayan has explored Chalayan quickly produced Tyvek garments for sale in the shop these concepts through fashion collections that are the result of and continued to have a fru itful retail relationship with Browns for collaborations with mechanical engineers, computer program- a number of years. Striking a balance between the conceptual and mers, electrical engineers, airplane and automobile designers, the wearable, his work continues to defy definition and encourage dance choreographers, and the special efects team of Harry new ways of looking at fashion. Chalayan’s unusual approach to Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Chalayan also employs the fashion has garnered appreciation from thinkers and creators in materials of immateriality—lasers, transparent glass, sugar glass, various disciplines, and has resulted in awards including England’s LEDs, and computer code—to construct his unique garments. This Designer of the Year in 1998 and 2000, an MBE in 2006, and most essay explores Chalayan’s career through a dialectic between recently the prestigious London Design Medal in 2018. the wearable and the conceptual that, ultimately, transcends the materiality of dress. As Chalayan’s oeuvre defies categorization, it Ephemerality: is particularly challenging to impose an organizational structure “The Dialogue between Fashion and Death” onto his work. The essay is loosely divided into three sections: ephemerality, movement, and the materials of immateriality, with A fashioned garment is material. Clothing is made from textiles the caveat that many of the collections discussed could fit into any that have a structure and acquire additional three-dimensionality of these sections, and overlapping themes surface throughout. once on a body. The fashion system, however, is based on ephem- It is also difcult to come up with one word or phrase to erality. To be a commercially successful designer and participate in describe Chalayan: fashion designer, contemporary artist, fash- the fashion system, one has to operate within a cycle of seasonal ion’s arch-avant-gardist, sculptor, showman, digital architect, change. The Tangent Flows tackles the transience of the physical alchemist, mad scientist? Chalayan has described himself as “an materials of fashion, while other Chalayan collections grapple immigrant within various disciplines” who aims to “connect gaps with the planned obsolescence that propels the fashion system in the world.”1 From Chalayan’s own story, it is apparent that the forward. Theorists and thinkers dating back to the early nineteenth seeds of his nonlinear approach to fashion are rooted in a peripa- century have examined the material/immaterial paradox inherent tetic, multicultural upbringing. He was born in 1970 in the Turkish in the fashion system. Walter Benjamin, who devotes much of his Republic of Northern Cyprus, a crossroads of cultural and religious unfinished opus the Arcades Project to exploring the intersection exchange with a charged and violent political history. Forced to of popular culture, commerce, fashion, and philosophy, values the leave Cyprus with his family, he studied at Central Saint Martins in constant newness and changing cycle of fashion as evidence of London, a school with a progressive curriculum that encourages its relevance.2 For him, fashion is a veritable, and valuable, reflec- cross-pollination, and which has graduated some of the greatest tion of cultural and social forces. In his 1824 “Dialogue between fashion talents of the last thirty years. Though keeping a toehold in Fashion and Death,” Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837) posits: “Do you his native Cyprus and connections to Turkey, Chalayan continues know we are both born of decay … and that we both profit from to live in the vibrant, urban, diverse environment of London. the incessant decay and destruction of things?”3 Leopardi’s, and From the very outset of his career, his inimitable approach subsequently Benjamin’s, astute observations of the fashion world to fashion drew attention and accolades. For his 1993 Central Saint were published even before the intensification of consumer culture Martins thesis show, The Tangent Flows, he buried his garments and the rise of ready-to-wear fashion for people of all classes. As with iron filings in his backyard for six months. The pieces were the nineteenth and twentieth centuries progressed, the fashion unearthed once they started to decompose, and the result- cycle sped up; the contemporary fashion scene has now moved ing random rust patterns imbued the clothing with narratives far beyond two seasonal cycles (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter) related to life, death, and decay (see figure 2.2.1). Presented as the to upward of six per year per design house. archaeology of the future, these dresses challenged contemporary Chalayan has consistently explored this inherent conflict notions of beauty because their design relied upon an unseen pro- between life and death and planned obsolescence and novelty cess of gradual destruction. A designer completely relinquishing in fashion, mixing the past with the present and future in unex- control of his design process is itself quite radical. The collection, pected ways. His Spring/Summer 2007 collection, entitled One however, went even further, encompassing the fleeting nature of Hundred Eleven, directly confronted the life/death cycle (see fashion as well as the inherent stories within a garment’s life cycle. figure 2.2.2). Chalayan always actively participates in fashion week, Chalayan’s accompanying story explored the diferences between but for this particular collection, instead of focusing only on the a mechanistic or Descartes-inspired philosophy and a more emo- new, the show encompassed one hundred and eleven years of tionally driven, Jungian approach to life. fashion silhouettes, albeit through a contemporary design lens. Browns department store in London, known for its pro- As a glass clock ticked away in the background, Chalayan’s show gressive retail philosophy, featured garments from The Tangent started out with the more traditional showing of a model parade

50 Michelle Tolini Finamore 51 , Autumn/Winter Collection, 1993. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan. Hussein of Courtesy 1993. Collection, Autumn/Winter , Figure 2.2.2: Look from Hussein Chalayan’s One Hundred and Eleven, Spring/Summer Collection, 2007. 2007. Collection, Spring/Summer and Eleven, One Hundred Chalayan’s Hussein from 2.2.2: Look Figure Catwalking. Chris Moore, Credit: The Tangent Flows Tangent The Figure 2.2.1: Looks and texture from Hussein Chalayan’s Chalayan’s Hussein from and texture Looks 2.2.1: Figure on the runway, wearing dresses comprised of materials as varied such as marketing, press, branding, etc. The designer is the as ethereal silks, large scale beads, and large plastic bubbles. public face of this system, yet ultimately he is not completely in The last six garments, however, were a surprise. A model walked control of his design either. One Hundred Eleven ofers cunning down the runway and then stood staring at the audience as her commentary on these innate conflicts within fashion and the silk garment gradually changed form of its own accord—the collar tension between these forces. magically unfolded and opened out, the skirt was pulled up by an Chalayan originally experimented with robotically con- invisible hand, shortening and changing the shape of the garment. trolled garments in his Airplane Dress from the 1999 Echoform There were no wires nor any obvious mechanisms as an ofstage collection, exhibiting a high-tech futurism rarely, if ever, seen on a remote control manipulated the garment’s movement. A series fashion runway (see figure 2.2.3). In the 1960s, designers such as of five more dresses followed, all miraculously transforming from Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin had channeled the aesthetics one historic silhouette into another. Morphing from Gibson girl to of space age design, yet they did not go so far as to incorporate a flapper to a post-World War II New Look silhouette to a 1960s these technologies into their actual garments. Chalayan wanted shift, the last dress completely disappeared into the model’s hat, to create an aerodynamic shape but realized it would be limiting leaving her naked on stage. The robotic garments were a collabo- to use conventional dress fabrics. To achieve his goals, he worked ration among Chalayan, product designer Paul Tope, Joe Scott of with airplane engineers to construct a sculptural fiberglass and Harry Potter animatronics fame, jeweler Florian Ladstaetter, and enamel garment with sliding parts. A third iteration of this dress, the model Agathe Rouf. Chalayan used the shape-memory fabric shown for his Spring/Summer 2000 collection, was controlled by a Nitinol to create the garments, a nylon woven with a metallic alloy. young boy in a yellow shirt who came onto the stage with a remote The metals allow the fabric to change shape with fluctuations control, operating sliding panels that transformed the garment in temperature and eventually return to its original form when into a dynamic, and aerodynamic, object. To bring fashion into the temperatures stabilize. A tour de force of design, fashion, concept, realm of narration, Chalayan often uses materials not normally and performance, the collection was described by many reporters used in fashion, including wood, resin, plastic, fiberglass, neces- as “magic,” with one Vogue writer noting that it “was a collection sitating work with designers and engineers who do not normally where you were proud to say, I was there.”4 step into the fashion world. Chalayan continually returns to these For a fashion journalist, remarkable moments can prove collaborative experiments in his quest to portray the movement of elusive in the sweep of attending dozens of shows during Fashion the body through space. Week. Chalayan is certainly not the first designer to harness both In his Spring/Summer 2009 Inertia collection, Chalayan spectacle and narrative in the fashion industry. In the 1930s and again addresses kinesis, this time through the persona of mobile 1940s, Paris couturière Elsa Schiaparelli created fashion shows of individuals who are constantly on the move and whose bodies, and surrealist fashion that encompassed art, storytelling, and concept. clothes, symbolize the speed with which they hurtle through life Her Music collection, for example, included a dress covered in Man (see figure 2.2.4). Chalayan posits that our interaction with tech- Ray-inspired violin imagery that had a working music box in the nology has increased the speed with which we move through the belt. John Galliano and Alexander McQueen’s fashion shows world and that, ultimately, we are heading for a crash. He incorpo- of the 1990s were spectacles writ large, a phenomenon continued rates these ideas into ethereal silk garments digitally printed with by the houses of Christian Dior and Chanel today. The diference images of wrecked cars that flow and flutter about the body as the for Chalayan is that the narrative, spectacle, and technology models walk the runway. Chalayan goes even further, seeking to merge seamlessly, working together to communicate a larger capture the intangible idea of movement in a very tangible manner. conceptual theme. His shows and collaborations have efectively How to freeze motion in garment? Using a technique common transformed the fashion show genre into a more expansive and in the automobile and airplane industry to design the shapes of meaningful medium. cars (originally pioneered in the 1940s to design streamlined and On the surface, One Hundred Eleven uses the body as organically inspired automobiles), he worked with engineers to a “time-lapse” exhibition of seasonal change, yet, as with many design solid blocks of 3D-printed, injection-molded, chemo-wood of Chalayan’s collections, additional subtexts emerge. Although for the base, shaped to convey forward motion. The dresses were fashion wearers have the power to continually reimagine them- then molded out of latex to evoke the freezing of mobility, and the selves through dress, this self-fashioning must operate within models appeared as if they were wearing windblown garments, a constantly mutable industry cycle powered by unseen forces even in stasis. The collection ofered a study in contrasts. Chalayan

Figure 2.2.3: Airplane Dress from Hussein Chalayan’s Echoform, Autumn/Winter Collection, 1998. Credit: Marcus Tomlinson. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan.

52 Michelle Tolini Finamore

Figure 2.2.5:Airmail Dress from Hussein Chalayan, 1999. Credit: Matthew Pull. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan. 54 Michelle Tolini Finamore 55 Hussein Chalayan. Hussein Figure 2.2.4: Looks from Hussein Chalayan’s Inertia, Inertia, Chalayan’s Hussein from 2.2.4: Looks Figure of Courtesy 2009. Collection, Spring/Summer explored the inherent tension between the static nature of an parade of beautiful garments set amidst a sparsely furnished unworn garment and the changes it undergoes when moving on room, but approximately fourteen minutes into the show, the a body through space. The material also belies the nonmaterial runway becomes a tableau with models exhibiting how the concept that buttresses the collection—from a distance, the dress slipcovers of chairs can transform into dresses and skirts, chairs appears to be comprised of a hard-sculpted substance; yet, being can become suitcases, and in perhaps the most memorable made of latex, it is eminently wearable. image of all from this collection, a wooden table turns into a tiered dress (see figure 2.2.6). Chalayan presents clothing for refugees Movement: “Imaginations Fed by Exile” who can carry only the essentials in their search for a new home. Multifunctional and multivalent, like much of Chalayan’s work, the But we live in an age defined by mass migration and garments move beyond clothing to ofer commentary on the tran- creative immigrants; Conrad, Nabokov, Naipaul—these are sient and challenging lives of immigrants and exiles. writers known for having managed to migrate between lan- The idea that one could create a refuge, a safe space, or a guages, cultures, countries, continents, even civilizations. homeland wherever one finds oneself is addressed in Chalayan’s Their imaginations were fed by exile, a nourishment drawn short 2003 film Place to Passage, in which a woman travels and not through roots but through rootlessness. lives in a self-sufcient, streamlined pod. This character lives a life —Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories of a City of constant mobility, but she wears her home like a shell or a mother’s womb. She is always safe and protected as she sleeps, eats, As a child, Chalayan considered being a pilot, then an architect, and awakens, even while she zooms through Istanbul, past nuclear but ultimately studied design. His fascination with flight, movement power reactors, through a forest, over the ocean, eventually up the through space, and architecture continually finds expression in Bosphorus, and back to the city. Other collections address similar his design. The notion of the fashion body as being constantly in themes, including his 2003 Place/Non-place menswear collec- motion is a recurring theme in his work, explored variously through tion, which unpacks the ostensible rootlessness of contemporary the concepts of immigration, flight, and transiency. For his Fall 1994 existence. Drawing from anthropologist Marc Augé’s concept of collection, he created Tyvek dresses that transformed into airmail non-place, where transit points themselves create the experience, envelopes that, like the fashioned body, could travel through time the clothing has numerous transparent pockets to hold essentials and space (see figure 2.2.5). The garments play with the idea of and memories so that the garments can act as connectors and travel as a permanent stage of being for many citizens of the conversation starters.5 Chalayan invited wearers of the collec- contemporary world, and they also reference a childhood replete tion to gather at London’s Heathrow airport ten months after the with airplane travel between Cyprus and London. Pamuk’s “imag- showing of the collection to test the proposition that wearing the inations fed by exile” plays itself out time and again in Chalayan’s garments creates a sense of place within a “non-place” full of con- work. stant movement and activity. For a Cypriot, issues of migration and exile continu- The need to navigate and negotiate the continually ally resurface, given the 1974 Turkish military intervention that changing environmental conditions of the four seasons provided displaced both Turkish and Greek Cypriots from their homes. the inspiration for Chalayan’s 2007 Airborne collection, which he Chalayan’s Autumn/Winter 2000 Afterwords collection addresses envisioned as a “micro-geography with the body.” these issues. He seemingly presents a standard fashion model

Figure 2.2.6: Look from Hussein Chalayan’s Afterwords, Autumn/Winter Collection, 2000. Credit: Chris Moore, Catwalking. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan.

56 Michelle Tolini Finamore 57 Collection, 2007. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan. Hussein of Courtesy 2007. Collection, Figure 2.2.7: Airborne Video Dress from Hussein Chalayan, Autumn/Winter Autumn/Winter Chalayan, Hussein from Video Dress Airborne 2.2.7: Figure Figure 2.2.8: Look from Hussein Chalayan’s Readings, Spring/Summer Collection, 2008. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan. Hussein of Courtesy 2008. Collection, Spring/Summer Readings, Chalayan’s Hussein from 2.2.8: Look Figure Figure 2.2.9: Looks from Hussein Chalayan’s Pasatiempo, Spring/Summer Collection, 2016. Courtesy of Hussein Chalayan.

58 Michelle Tolini Finamore 59 Dominant culture has established a worldview, where sounds and music. Eventually mixed by Antony Hegarty for the film, death is seen as an opposite force to life. Using climates the resulting “bricolage soundscape” included music and excerpts as a metaphor, my collection is inspired by appropriat- from one of Martin Luther King’s speeches. Chalayan’s early ing our protective sense of empowerment and our fears adoption of crowdsourcing (since the word “crowdsourcing” was of mortality to the cycles of the weather. The climates introduced in 2005, the practice has become common practice for constantly renew and recreate all entities in the world all sorts of artists, businesses, websites, and institutions) fed directly including our bodies and minds, demonstrating that lives into the theme of the collection. Chalayan explained in an interview: and deaths of all entities are in a constant state of flux.6 I propose to draw parallels between Greek/Pagan and Opening with another first for the fashion world, the show started other ancient cultural perceptions of icons or gods and with a volcano-like eruption of swirling fog to emphasize the modern icons (people as opposed to natural forces or unpredictability of climate conditions. Among the meticulously gods), which in today’s media are evolving much more tailored designs and unusual silhouettes were a dress with an democratically, with people becoming icons far more easily automated hood that extended over the wearer’s body to create its than in the past. My aim is to find the means to symbolize own refuge, allowing for protection from the world and the weather, how all icons are kept alive by the synergy between them and futuristic hats designed to emit light in the darkness of winter. and their audience.8 A dress composed of LED-embedded fabric also emerges from the darkness, its moving images and lights embedded in its sur- What creates celebrity in the twenty-first century? Again, Chalayan face (see fig. 2.2.7). To achieve these novel approaches to lighting was prescient. In today’s social-media-driven world, the virtual the body, Chalayan sought out the expertise of British/German presence often takes precedence over the real one, leaving us only designer and engineer Moritz Waldemeyer for the dress, who also with image. This is perhaps never truer than in the current digital partnered with Chalayan for One Hundred Eleven. LED fabrics landscape with crowdsourced Facebook or Instagram stars whose have now become one of the more standard media of the fashion/ fame relies on, and is created, by their followers. tech nexus. Chalayan’s more recent collections have explored other iterations of the notion of immateriality. After visiting Cuba, Materials of Immateriality Chalayan was struck by how the longstanding isolation of that island and the concomitant freezing of time and place contrasted The media give us a disembodied experience of looking with the recent dramatic transformation of a more open, post-Cas- at events through a screen. It removes us from brutality tro Cuba. For Pasatiempo Spring/Summer 2016, models walked by censoring and prefabricating the reports that we are the runway as rain fell from the ceiling; the dresses dissolved, leav- supposed to interpret as reality. We participate in some- ing a diferent iteration of the garments on stage (see figure 2.2.9). thing we are not part of without really thinking about what One would think that a dress that dissolves is the ultimate expres- really goes on. … We should look, and think, to really see sion of immateriality, but collections such as Room Tone Autumn/ life itself. Part of my work is about revealing the veiled Winter 2017 seeks to capture something even less tangible and processes that humanity chooses to ignore.7 communicate it via garments: emotion. Using the body as a vehicle for projection, the models on this runway have devices that record As a designer who aims to “connect the gaps in the world,” and communicate the wearer’s emotions in real time. This collec- Chalayan often challenges the very notion of the physical materi- tion, above all perhaps, erased the boundaries between the virtual ality of dress, trying to give invisible processes tangible form and world and reality, bringing the two together via the fashioned body. explore the body’s relationship to invisible forces such as gravity, Chalayan’s interest in “revealing the veiled processes that weather, flight, radio waves, speed, and movement. Although the humanity chooses to ignore”9 has helped to broaden the fash- collections that can be explored are many, his video dress is per- ion dialogue. Designers ranging from Iris Van Herpen to Cute haps the most compelling and surprising incarnation of fashion as Circuit to Francis Bitonti to Ralph Lauren have all explored the an interface between the designer’s philosophical preoccupations idea of fashion as an interactive medium. The use and visibility of and the tangible world. LED-embedded fabrics, shoes with designs driven by invisible Chalayan’s video dress was part of a collection called computer code, and garments that respond to body temperature, Readings Spring/Summer 2008. Various dresses embellished with among other innovations, are becoming more commonplace Swarovski crystals parade down the runway and, and as surround- in the ready-to-wear world.10 Chalayan has often expressed in ing light dims, lasers projected toward the dress refract into the interviews that he is an emotive designer as well as a rational darkness, obliterating the boundaries of each dress (see figure one. Much as in his exploration of Descartes and Jung in his early 2.2.8). Only a revolving beacon of light remains visible, and the The Tangent Flows collection, he continues to meld the forces of virtual dress accumulates meaning through its very absence. This math and science with feeling and aesthetics. Chalayan is always show was unusual in that there was no live runway show, rather a moving beyond the materiality of the garment, addressing ephem- film presented to the fashion press and buyers in Paris—the ulti- erality, death, immateriality, and often adding his personal narrative mate expression of absence, ephemerality, and immateriality. to the story. His interdisciplinarity is in the end a holistic, humanist The immateriality of the laser dresses is reinforced by a undertaking because all aspects of the resulting work are depen- larger narrative related to ancient sun worship and contemporary dent on each other to tell the story. Fashion, too, is an interdisci- celebrity worship, one that could not have been achieved without plinary medium that is both material and immaterial—it functions the assistance of numerous players. Readings was a collaboration as protection, communication, and an expression of identity. with cinematographers Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben of London’s Chalayan’s fashion remains at the core a material expression of SHOWstudio and music mixers Antony Hegarty of Antony & The immaterial concepts, ideas, and stories, and a dynamic medium Johnsons; in a somewhat unusual move, Chalayan reached out to that consistently feeds him; or as he has said, “I cannot imagine the public to assist with the show’s soundtrack. Chalayan ofered ever being done … there is so much more I want to explore.”11 SHOWstudio viewers the opportunity to submit their choices for

60 Michelle Tolini Finamore 61 Stratays and Adobe to create the Molecule shoes the Molecule create to Adobe and Stratays recently and is more code, computer by driven Nude design firm United with Dutch working 3D-printed on-demand gold-plated create to has continued Circuit Cute London-based shoes. LED- interactive push the boundaries of to can be and accessories that embedded garments The London’s video and text. show to programmed feather, leather, with fabrics, experiments Unseen light, to responsive are that and makeup crystals, and temperature. air, Massachusetts, Salem, with author, Interview 11. 2018. 30, November 8. Interview with Hussein Chalayan on Readings on Readings Chalayan Hussein with Interview 8. (http://showstudio. website SHOWstudio collection, com/project/readings/interview_films). Chalayan.” “Hussein Quinn, 9. with collaborated has Bitonti American Francis 10. 1, 1, , no. 17 no. , Merge Fashion Theory Fashion , October 4, 2006. 2006. 4, October , Vogue The Arcades Project Project Arcades The 6. “More Moritz Waldemeyer with Hussein with Hussein Waldemeyer Moritz “More 6. 2007, 8, March Dezeen, Chalayan,” https://www.dezeen.com/2007/03/08/ more-moritz-waldemeyer-with-hussein-chalayan/. Chalayan,” “Hussein Quinn, Bradley 7. http://mergemag.se/blog/wp-content/ 11, (2006), uploads/merge-nr17.pdf. files/52356/52356-h/52356-h.htm), 20. 20. files/52356/52356-h/52356-h.htm), Ready-to- 2007 “Spring/Summer Doig, Stephen 4. Chalayan,” Hussein Wear: to Introduction An Non-Places: Augé, Marc 5. John trans. (1992), Supermodernity of Anthropology 1995). Verso, (London: Howe no. 2 (2009): 243. 243. 2 (2009): no. Benjamin, Walter 2. Harvard of MA: Belknap Press (Cambridge, 2003). Press, University Fashion between “Dialogue Leopardi, Giacomo 3. translation 2016 1824, published originally Death,” and by Charles Edwardes (https://www.gutenberg.org/ 1. Sandy Black, “Designer Hussein Chalayan in Chalayan Hussein “Designer Black, Sandy 1. Black,” with Sandy Conversation http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Yarn-dez-vous, 2014 wearable/azra-aksamija Azra Akšamija

In a world traversed by zones of contact in which lifestyle choices shared space created by the jackets. The “wearable” is reconcep- have become targets for reactionary forms of identity paranoia, tualized as a performative and ephemeral space that speculates wearing a headscarf or a beard can be perceived as a threat. on the diferent modes of cohabitation, based on the paradigms The central area of my work engages with subject positions of transculturalism discussed by Theodor Adorno, Hal Foster, and defined by “otherness” and marginality, with an emphasis on the Wolfgang Welsch. Instead of the essentialist idea of culture with representation (and marginalization) of Islam in the West. Yarn- clearly defined and internally homogeneous boundaries, I use dez-vous (2014–2015) draws on social and cultural practices to transcultural aesthetics to portray identity as multilayered and empower the alienated. fluid. This provides a counternarrative to Orientalism, nationalism, Yarn-dez-vous is a tactical cartography questioning what xenophobia, and religious fundamentalism. constitutes the geography of “Middle Eastern” and “Islamic” art. Much of my work is inspired by the portable architecture of The project takes the form of a wearable quilt featuring textiles Lucy Orta, the interrogative design of Krzysztof Wodiczko, and the from the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and complex entanglements of identity, colonial legacy, and global- the United States. This fabric was chosen to map the identities, ization that characterize the work of Meschac Gaba and Yinka migration, and cultural encounters of its participants (the wearers Shonibare MBE. While my work addresses diferent problems of of the quilt). The quilt’s hexagons and stars can be transformed social relations, it is not indebted to relational aesthetics. If the goal into individual letterman jackets and vice versa: the jackets unzip of most relational aesthetics art is to create social circumstances flat into geometric elements that fold into the larger quilt. in which the social experience becomes the art, my wearable/ The project name is a portmanteau word that combines the portable works are not aimed at creating that sort of experience. words “yarn” and “rendezvous.” “Yarn” denotes both a thread and a Rather, I seek to make social alienation visible by exploring rela- story, while “rendezvous” refers to a meeting or a romance. Project tions between bodies and architecture/space and in relation to participants from the MENA region were asked to bring textiles nomadism and migration. from the places where they reside featuring colors of the Sadu (Arabic weaving), which were combined with textiles from Boston. Twelve jackets were then made with these hybrid textiles. The project is an ongoing transformation and customization; personal logos, letters, and stars are developed to embroider onto the jackets. Some jackets may be further transformed into variations on tunics, kaftans, abayas, dresses, and shirts, inspired from East and West. The growing project will exhibit changes in color and pattern, becoming a map of the path taken by the transcultural participants as they ofer their own cloth contributions. Yarn-dez-vous builds on previous body-scale work, such as my Wearable Mosque project series, in which I explore the legacy of interventionist art, interrogative design, and relational aesthetics to lay out my own methods of critical design as an aesthetic strategy for interventions in public space. I design objects as friendly provocations, mirroring the viewers’ perspectives on a subject while simultaneously alienating them with opposing perspectives. I call this “empathetic antagonism.” This approach creates sustained difering within the socio-optical space, subscribing to Chantal Moufe’s notion of public space as an arena of confronta- 1. Chantal Moufe, “Art and Democracy: Art as an tional hegemonies without the possibility of a rational consensus.1 Agnostic Intervention in Public Space,” Open, no. 14, Empathetic antagonism draws on Hannah Arendt’s idea of public “Art as a Public Issue” (2008): 6–15. space as a forum in which individuals can enact their public self, Yarn-dez-vous but it departs from Arendt’s and Jürgen Habermas’s perspectives Wearable device, interactive performance, video on the goal of negotiation. The aim of my work is not to reach a Credits consensus but coexistence: coming to terms with the limits intro- Materials: 12 jackets, textiles, zippers, trimming, duced by an irreducibly composite “other” in the social sphere. single-channel video (5 min); Dimensions: 120 × Yarn-dez-vous also investigates the institutional framing of 220 cm each jacket (open constellation); Concept, design, and artistic direction: Azra Akšamija; otherness in relation to the recent resurgence of the categories Research and conceptual contributions: Lillian of “Middle Eastern” and “Islamic” in contemporary art, critiquing Harden, Regina Möller, Karina Silvester; Production: them as neo-Orientalism motivated by financial opportunism. Lillian Harden, Karina Silvester (prototype development); Andy Boit, Emma Harden, Elliot The Yarn-dez-vous project counters essentialist caricatures of McLaughlin, Emily Tow (sewing); Seth Avecilla, Bjorn the “Oriental” with the leitmotif of cultural mobility. The project Eric Sparrman (installation); Gedney H. Barclay, relates to Lygia Clark’s project O eu e o tu (1976) in the way the Sooyoung Kwon (project videos); Participants and textile donations: Ahmed Mater, Arwa Alneami, interconnected jackets create psychosexual links between people Arthur Tres, Katrina Weber Ashour, Matthew wearing them, while allowing them to see one another within the Mazzotta, Regina Möller, Ziad El Sayed

62 Azra Akšamija 63 Figures 2.3.1 and 2.3.2: Referencing the military origins of the word “ren-dez-vous,” the work performs as a tactical cartography of the relationships between the between the relationships of as a tactical cartography performs the work “ren-dez-vous,” the word origins of the military and 2.3.2: Referencing 2.3.1 Figures stories. shared create to regions from assembling artists region, and the MENA States United Figures 2.3.3 and 2.3.4: The transcultural aesthetic of the piece, rendered visible through the diferent textile modules, demonstrates the inherently ﬂuid and hybrid understanding of world cultures.

64 Azra Akšamija 65 Figures 2.3.7: Once unfolded, the jackets can be zipped together diagonally to to diagonally can be zipped together the jackets Once unfolded, 2.3.7: Figures the quilt is structured of on the front pattern The geometric quilt. a larger from and pieces, chest black-colored sleeves, white-colored of the repetition through collars. knit trim stand-up Figures 2.3.8: The mutability of the piece alludes to the notion of cultural cultural of the notion the piece alludes to of The mutability 2.3.8: Figures and personal participants project of movement cross-border mobility—the the work. by connections forged Figures 2.3.5: By zipping together the jacket’s belly parts, the project participants can connect both literally and symbolically, sharing space through intimate intimate space through sharing and symbolically, literally can connect both participants the project parts, belly the jacket’s zipping together By 2.3.5: Figures heat. and body touch, proximity, Figures 2.3.6: Each jacket is comprised of geometric modular forms, eight eight forms, modular geometric is comprised of Each jacket 2.3.6: Figures and wrapping by formed are The sleeves triangles. and four parallelograms triangles on the The textile the arms. around parallelograms zipping two pockets. form up to can fold the jacket of abdomen area Crafting Material, Being Material M. Amah Edoh

Commonly known as “African print,” wax and cultural capital.3 Tailors in Lomé note without cutting the cloth. These labor-in- cloth is a pervasive element of the visual that the Togolese are more conservative tensive styles require tremendous dexter- landscape of West Africa. In fact, the cloth when it comes to Dutch Wax cloth than in ity, sharp eyesight, precision, and patience has become a signifier of Africanness.1 neighboring countries like Côte d’Ivoire (figure 2.4.1), necessary for stitching dozens Among the plethora of wax cloth oferings or Nigeria. Indeed, because of both the of uniform lines, tightly pulling threads to in the markets of Lomé, Togo, Dutch Wax cloth’s financial value and the way it holds crease the fabric, and distributing needle cloth, the variety produced by the Dutch memory in Togo, cutting tsigan-vɔ has long points evenly across a design. company Vlisco since the early twentieth been considered almost taboo: “Tsigan-vɔ, Today, ñagankɔme are falling out of century, holds special significance; it is you don’t put scissors in it any which way” favor in Lomé, however—first with tailors, known as tsigan-vɔ, high-cost or high- is a common admonition from mothers who complain that the styles are compen- value cloth, in Mina, Togo’s lingua franca. and tailors alike in Lomé. sated too poorly, given the amount of labor Through a range of wearing, gifting, and As a result, so-called couture tradi- they require, but also with customers, who keeping practices, tsigan-vɔ is used to tionelle (traditional tailoring) techniques are view them as relics of a bygone era. Rather, mark ties of kinship and filiation in Lomé geared toward crafting tsigan-vɔ into the Togolese women are opting for “cut” styles, and in southern Togo more broadly. It customary three-piece jupe–pagne com- where the designs printed on tsigan-vɔ belongs to the female realm especially; plet while preserving, as much as possible, guide the tailor’s hand as she cuts the part of a woman’s wealth, it is a cherished the integrity of the cloth. Of the standard fabric to adorn the bodice (figure 2.4.3, piece of the inheritance women leave for six-yard length (or three two-yard pagnes) figure 2.4.4). Because tsigan-vɔ’s high value their daughters. In this manner, tsigan-vɔ used to craft the jupe–pagne complet, for Loméans endures, wearing the cloth functions as a memory object embodying the two yards used for the bodice are the “cut” can also be called on as “wearable transgenerational ties: the oldest designs most intervened upon (the skirt is sewn wealth,”4 a particularly conspicuous form are referred to in Lomé as mya maman-wo without cutting, in such a way that the full of consumption. Seemingly contradictory, ba-vɔ—our grandmothers’ cloth. Tsigan-vɔ two yards of fabric can be recovered if the these two means of deriving value from embodies place, relationships, and time. skirt is undone, and another two yards, to tsigan-vɔ—cutting and not cutting the cloth Tailoring practices are crucial to be draped on the shoulder or tied around for dress—coexist. the realization of tsigan-vɔ’s value through the hips, are simply hemmed). Styles “Practitioners,” Tim Ingold writes, dress. Owing to its high cost relative known as ñagankɔme, typically worn by “are wanderers, wayfarers, whose skill to other wax print textiles, tsigan-vɔ is elderly women (the name literally trans- lies in their ability to find the grain of the leveraged by Togolese women as a form lates as “old lady necklines” in Mina), have world’s becoming and to follow its course of “wearable wealth,”2 and also in the been adopted to adorn bodice necklines while bending it to their evolving purpose.”5 performance of respectable womanhood by transforming the designs on the cloth Being and making are recast here as a

Figure 2.4.1 (left): Da K, a couturière (seamstress), who has been making ñagankɔme for the past twenty years, ties knots at the end of individual stitches.

Figure 2.4.2 (right): Mme D, a styliste (fashion designer), who trained in couture traditionelle with Da K but no longer makes ñagankɔme herself, shows a sample of what she considers the most difcult style to create. She only creates “cut” styles now; when clients ask for ñagankɔme, she contracts out those orders to Da K.

66 M. Amah Edoh 67 Figure 2.4.3: Mme D surveys tsigan-vɔ brought by a client for ideas on how to cut the fabric for the bodice of a three-piece jupe–pagne complet.

68 M. Amah Edoh The 69 34, no. 1 (2009): 92. 1 (2009): no. 34, (Chicago: 176. – 141 2 (2009): no. 13, Fashion Theory: The Journal Journal The Theory: Fashion The Bureaucracy of Beauty: of The Bureaucracy (Chicago: University of Chicago of University (Chicago: Patterns in Circulation: 3. Nina Sylvanus, Nina Sylvanus, 3. Fashioning Prints,Aesthetics, andWomen’s Economic Power inWest Africa University Chicagoof Press, 2016). and the Hightimers “Asante Gott, 4. in Wealth Women’s of Display Fashionable 2009. Ghana,” Contemporary Making,” of Textility “The Ingold, Timothy 5. Economics of Journal Cambridge Ibid. 6. Dutta, Arindam See 7. Global Reproducibility Its of Age Design in the Michael Herzfeld, 2007); Routledge, York: (New Artifice in the Global Artisans and Body Impolitic: Value of Hierarchy 2004). Press, 1. See for instance, how artist Yinka Shonibare, MBE MBE Shonibare, Yinka artist how instance, See for 1. work. in his textile the leverages the and Hightimers “Asante Gott, Suzanne 2. in Wealth Women’s of Display Fashionable Ghana,” Contemporary Body and Culture Dress, of - tailoring. tailoring. me ɔ styles comes the comes styles ɔ ñagank As the tailoring landscape As the tailoring 7 tsigan-v of shaping fabric into dress. dress. into shaping fabric of might take. With the coexistence of cut of With the coexistence take. might and not-cut the one like arrangement an for possibility and for developed, have Mme D and Da K of the endurance also highlights however, This moment, brought labor of the reconfigurations how can forms craft of the revaluing about by hierarchies, social compound preexisting of certain categories rendering potentially with and, tradition of as guardians workers social a subordinate locking them into that, class position. able to Mme D was changed, in Lomé access the class privilege to her leverage rede financial and social capital needed to who Da K, for while options fine herself, background, modest a more came from access to For limited. more been far have machine and up a sewing set space (to a first purchase (to money clients), receive a worker), hire to or second machine, or able who are people (clients right) and (the is as prices) premium pay and willing to as self-making of craft tailors’ to essential the craft to and needle are thread, scissors, of their technical skill, and by working working and by skill, technical their of of value the high extend they this cloth, continuing by cloth” grandmothers’ “our communicate that garments fashion to the garment form whatever high status,

; - ɔ ort f an e 6 tsigan-v bringing-in and , a fashion designer designer a fashion , tailors are refashioning refashioning are tailors me ɔ styliste styles; instead, she remade she remade instead, styles; her as part of techniques becoming me me , the endpoint of which is often which is often of the endpoint , ɔ ɔ Though the two tailors work the work tailors Though the two ñagank Figure 2.4.4: Details from the design Mme D has cut out shape the neckline and from 2.4.4: Details Figure the garment. of sleeves cloth in ways that might seem to be at odds be at seem to might that in ways cloth status derive both they with each other, work they that the fact from them with this entrust clients that the fact validation of a form is cloth high-value toolkit, albeit as a technique that she does that albeit as a technique toolkit, she contracts Rather, herself. practice not with whom she Da K, out to those orders in the 1980s, traditionelle in couture trained close and with whom she has remained 2.4.2). since (figure friends ever of value. Mme D, a Loméan tailor in her in her tailor a Loméan Mme D, value. of creating stopped instance, for fifties, late ñagank a into herself and enlists styles, “cut” specializing in ñagank amidst the revaluing of dress forms, forms, dress of the revaluing amidst some Ingold what of an example themselves, in “intervene to describes as the ability material of and currents force the fields of generated,” are forms wherein shifting regimes amidst relevant remain to unknown, with the path emerging with with emerging the path with unknown, and maker between each encounter the maker between in this case, material; of practice of view This and the world. in is borne out and self materials crafting Indeed, in Lomé. tailors of the experiences process of of process to-being HAPIfork and the Haptic Turn in Wearable Technology Natasha D. Schüll

Bits are not edible; in that sense, they cannot “Humans have blind spots in our field of vision and gaps in our stop hunger. stream of attention,” wrote Wolf in the New York Times in 2010; “If —Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, 1995 you want to replace the vagaries of intuition with something more reliable, you first need to gather data.”2 Fitbit, the leading consumer Midway through an advertisement for a smart fork designed to wearable company, appropriated the mind-over-matter logic of QS quietly and invisibly change the way we eat, three ladies are shown to advertise its wrist-tracker’s data dashboard: “Know yourself.” lunching at a sidewalk café. They smile, laugh, and engage in the Yet QS cofounder Kevin Kelly—founding editor of Wired, flow of casual conversation as they eat, the rhythm of their chatting former editor of the Whole Earth Review, and author of several interspersed with sips and chews and swallows. One of them is books (most recently The Inevitable, about the technological discreetly attuned to another rhythm, stealing subtle glances at forces shaping our future)—has come to speak less passionately the screen of the smartphone lying on the table to the left of her about the knowledge to be derived from self-tracking technology salad bowl. Blue network signals appear over the image, drawing than about the prospect that we might experience and assimilate viewers’ attention to the real-time synchronization of informa- our tracked data in an embodied, sensory manner. “Right now all tion between the phone and the woman’s digitized utensil. The we can do is see the data, the charts, the curves—but in the long fork’s metal tines spear her food as efciently as those of her term, we want to be able to feel them,” he told an audience in New friends, but the thicker diameter of its handle hints at the sensor York in 2012, recalling Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 prediction that the hardware encased within: a 3-axis accelerometer to monitor the future of electronic media would be defined by touch rather than motion of food to mouth; a memory chip to record this pattern, by vision.3 He praised the belt that a San Francisco hackathon as well as meal time and duration; and a vibrotactile actuator team had devised, whose onboard electronic compass (equipped rigged to give its handler a buzz when she too quickly reaches for to sense direction through a magnetometer) and eight vibrators another mouthful. could, over a short period of time, entrain a sense of “north” by acting haptically on the wearer’s body. “It translates numbers into “Oops, too fast!” the smartphone alerts, in red. something you can feel; numbers become a sense.” Instead of a “Good timing,” in green (see figure 2.5.1.). new self-understanding, the belt afords a kind of sixth sense that Kelly calls an “exosense”—whereby an otherwise undetectable Feel the Data aspect of being (in this case, one’s position relative to magnetic north) becomes haptically available.4 In 1995, MIT’s famed Media Lab had established itself as a rich site Kelly delivered his comments during an onstage interview of experimentation in the digitization of human experience, its fac- at the 2012 Living by Numbers conference (an event organized ulty and students designing some of the earliest “wearable tech- by Wired magazine and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation), nologies”—from Steve Mann’s backpack-mounted video recorder prompting the moderator, author and data entrepreneur Thomas (and, later, webcam headgear) to Thad Starner’s head-mounted Goetz, to ask if it was important for self-quantifiers to be con- computing system. Their digital capacities were conceived as a sciously aware of their own data-monitoring as it was happen- way to better see, know, record, and sometimes transcend the ing. “That’s an inherent tension,” responded Kelly. “You want to material world. be tracking as easily as possible so that you don’t have to pay One twenty-first-century legacy of these experiments attention to it, and yet oftentimes the benefit comes from paying are the consumer-grade, mass-market “wearables”—smart attention to it.” Sporting his usual Amish beard, he spoke of a future wristbands, waistband clips, watches, and pocket sensors—that in which artificial intelligence would be employed to do the work seemed to appear overnight five years ago in the aisles of Best of paying attention to the “the huge universe of data we’re col- Buy and storefronts of Amazon.com, inspiring Forbes to speculate lecting and then alerting us when the patterns are there—putting that 2014 might be “the year of the wearable.”1 By keeping reliable on a red light or giving us a green light, bringing us to attention statistical track of bodily metrics and behaviors, these gadgets when we need to have some attention.” While processes of data provided users with an informational scrim to consult as they computation would, of course, continue to underlie self-tracking, made decisions about the mundane aspects of daily life: what to he predicted that devices would find a way to “bury the numbers,” eat, when to sleep, whether to take the elevator or stairs. Their pur- as he put it, by converting them into new ways of sensing somatic pose was not exactly to help people transcend the material realm phenomena such as glucose levels, heart arrhythmias, or brain but to help them move more confidently and knowingly through it. waves—or behavioral phenomena such as sitting, sleeping, or Early marketing campaigns for these wearable digital com- breathing. Instead of extracting machine-readable data from passes appropriated the language of Quantified Self (QS), a com- bodies and presenting it for cognitive digestion in a tabulated, munity formed in 2009 in the pursuit of “self-knowledge through graphical format, sensor-derived output would be converted into numbers.” Founded by two senior editors of Wired magazine, Gary and delivered as “body-readable” impulses, such as the fork’s Wolf and Kevin Kelly, the group was organized around the idea that vibration in the opening scene. “We can now see charts or curves one could use sensor and data technology to track otherwise inac- but in the future we want to be able to feel or hear it. That’s the cessible aspects of existence—from temperature to heartbeat vari- long-term destiny.” ability to feelings—and thereby increase one’s self-understanding.

70 Natasha D. Schüll - - - -

- 5 - 71

9 of eating—which eating—which of

6 pace The Fork Bury the Numbers Bury The HAPIlabs website explains that its smart utensil its smart utensil that explains The HAPIlabs website 7 The HAPIfork’s 3-axis accelerometer monitors the motion the motion monitors 3-axis accelerometer The HAPIfork’s This genre of wearables communicates with wearers at at with wearers communicates wearables of This genre Materiality is triply at stake in these digital technologies: in these digital technologies: stake at is triply Materiality the fork’s object of concern is the object of the fork’s 8 value, time: in the body parts of two sensing and monitoring by it tracks hand.” your mouth and “your as as well this pattern, chip records mouth; a memory to food of its han buzzes actuator vibrotactile and a meal time and duration; mouthful. another for reaches quickly when she too dler notes, “digital data are invisible and intangible,” describing “a “a describing and intangible,” invisible are data “digital notes, the senses: engage does not phenomenon that immaterial wholly taste.” smell or hear, touch, at, look to be nothing seem to there (or over cover wearables haptic of The sensorial interventions processes, computational the abstract, word) use Kelly’s to bury, patterns and behavioral states insensible corporeal transducing the actuators, to paired algorithms of way By palpable signals. into only not “does that skin” “algorithmic of function as a kind devices the body.” and orders but animates sheathe the at attention them to calling speak, so to purchase, of the point on track. them back get to is required when an action moment on reflect to data collected their review still course, of may, Users behavior, decisions about future own their and make behavior past dis can they instead, optional; but doing so becomes increasingly here, Matter, a buzz. for wait and simply pense with self-reflection mind. over precedence takes can bites yet conceded—and Negroponte be edible,” not “may Bits become bits. tines the fork links that with a circuit key an electronic “contains it closes the mouth, your in put the fork you When with the handle. technol self-management Unlike 2.5.2). figure (see electric circuit” nutritional its caloric or or food of on the weight focus ogies that that people can more directly assimilate than they can numerical can numerical than they assimilate directly more people can that was wristband UP Jawbone The on screens. presented information long during too idle for had been wearers when vibrate to the first range A move. up or should stand they signaling that hours, waking in the past has been introduced devices posture-correcting of without slouchers fce-desk o of backs the straighten to years few alert “posture as with such features flow, work their interrupting buzzed, you’re when can control you app, the “Through mode”: the inform it buzzes,” intensely how and even buzzed, you’re how called device stonelike small, A Lift pin. the Lumo for instructions extension, by breath—and, their helps people regulate the Spire respiration when their vibrating subtly levels—by stress their instead users “taps” Watch Apple The erratic. or becomes shallow of notifying them with beeps and chimes:“Get a feeling for what’s After selecting going on.” a walking destination on a you map, can head f o without paying attention to the directions, knowing that Engine“theTaptic can giveyou a gentle when tap” it’s time to right. or turn left basic subsis to related life daily aspects of act on material they physical are they breathing; stepping, drinking, tence—eating, casing passive simply not are the skin; they against worn forms vibrat tapping, but a buzzing, information of the conveyance for “rematerialize” and then digitize first The wearables ing force. us in a to it back feeding data, and behavioral physiological our Lupton Deborah cases, In most can assimilate. we tangible form Kelly’s prediction in 2012 characterizes well the direction that con that direction the well characterizes in 2012 prediction Kelly’s have Designers has since taken. technology self-tracking sumer ects f e in haptic numbers” the “bury to ways sought increasingly Figure 2.5.2: HAPIfork design 2.5.2: HAPIfork Figure Figure 2.5.1: Stills from a HAPIfork advertisement in which the protagonist in which the protagonist advertisement a HAPIfork from Stills 2.5.1: Figure while using the smart husband) dines with her later, lunches with friends (and 403H_ry0w). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt utensil As described in the opening scene of this paper, the fork tool for weighing but also for behavioral regulation; it “mechanically lengthens the chewing interval by vibrating when it is placed too enforced the control of ingestion,”12 removing the eater as a decid- quickly (that is, in fewer than ten seconds) in one’s mouth following ing agent—indeed, his eating action was simply foreclosed by the the previous bite. “You are advised to take about 10–20 chews,” apparatus. The static chair did not entrain; it constrained. read the product instructions. “If you trigger the HAPIfork’s alarm In contrast, the fork is small and portable, not architectural [by eating too fast], don’t panic. Set the fork down at the side of the and fixed; it accompanies one’s body into the world and moni- plate and wait until the light turns green again, signaling that it is tors all eating events. While the static chair places the eater at a safe to take another bite” (see figure 2.5.1). The utensil has a kind physical remove from his food to mandate the meal’s termina- of metronomic function, keeping time for the eater. The company tion, the fork introduces vibratory friction so as to down-regulate recommends placing smart phones in view so users can see their the speed of ingestion—not cease it altogether.13 The HAPIfork data as it is collected in real time; as they feed themselves, their performs its digital dressage by way of proprietary “slow control” data is fed back to them, deepening the fork-person circuit and technology14 similar to that used in rhythm-based games where reinforcing the vibrotactile intervention of the fork. players are encouraged to synchronize their play response with The distinctive workings of the fork are illuminated by the game tempo—except that the aim, in the game of HAPIfork comparison with another device, an invention of the sixteenth-cen- eating, is not to keep up with a quick-paced action stream but to tury Venetian physician Sanctorius,10 who believed that health slow one’s pace.15 Over time, promises HAPIlabs, the utensil “subtly depended on maintaining a constant weight. To that end he guides you into a perfect rhythm, improving your overall health and devised several tools, including a table and bed that doubled as well-being” (see figure 2.5.4).16 scales and a contraption he called the “static chair” that hung The slow-eating agenda of the fork prompted comedian from the beams of his home (see figure 2.5.3); seated there he Stephen Colbert to remark: “What is the point of consumer tech- took all his meals. Sanctorius advised would-be weighers that, nology that keeps you from consuming? Frankly, it’s un-American” prior to sitting in the chair to eat, they place at the opposite end (see figure 2.5.5).17 It would seem to be un-American in another of the hanging beam a weight equivalent to that of the food and sense as well, if one considers the country’s long tradition of drink they wished to consume—so that, once the meal had been self-help approaches that emphasize the cultivation of inner consumed, the seat would drop below the level of the table, “sanc- restraint and self-control and that reject reliance on external tioning the end of the meal.”11 In this sense, the chair was not only a forces (whether human or technological).18 Of relevance here is the

Figure 2.5.3: In the famous frontispiece to his Figure 2.5.4: The HAPIfork dashboard presents an arrangement of informatic tiles with options to quickly guide to the arts of static medicine (De statica analyze a given meal or to reveal trends over time. One may choose to upload a photograph of one’s meal medicina, 1615), Sanctorius is shown seated, arms and a description of the eating experience, which are displayed alongside numerical indices of the meal’s outstretched; just out of reach are a half-eaten duration, number of fork servings, and the average length of time or interval between bites. Intervals that loaf of bread, a partially ﬁlled goblet of wine, some exceed the fork’s ten-second “alarm threshold” are used to calculate the “overspeed ratio,” which will ideally remaining bites of meat, and a knife and fork. An approach zero. One’s overall “success rate” is determined by the ratio of well-timed servings to the total apparatus consisting of weights and pulleys is number of servings, with the most successful meal being a meal free of (bad) vibrations. (https://www. ﬁxed to the beams of the roof and connects to pcworld.com/article/2035647/hands-on-with-the-hapifork.html) the chair, which has just dropped below the table, pulling Sanctorius away from his meal at the precise moment that his prescribed intake of food has been met. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Sanctorius;_Ars_de_statica_medicina_ Wellcome_M0006325.jpg)

72 Natasha D. Schüll - - - 73 actu 24 sense-already- , January 10, 2013 2013 10, January , amounting to a kind of a kind of to amounting 27 The Colbert Report —and then release them back to an to them back —and then release With John Law she has written“the of Figure 2.5.5: “What is the point of consumer consumer of the point is “What 2.5.5: Figure technology that keepsyou from consuming? Frankly, Stephen comedian the said un-American,” it’s the of Wag / Hat the of “Tip of segment a in Colbert on Finger” (http://www.cc.com/video-clips/35sqrd/the-colbert- report-tip-wag---hapifork---kevin-garnett). 23 The role of humans in a loop of this design is humans in a loop of of The role 26 —abrupt, discrete, and fleeting. discrete, —abrupt, HAPIfork and Lumo Lift users receive receive Lift users and Lumo HAPIfork actuated attention actuated 25 A one-star Amazon customer review of the HAPIfork notes notes the HAPIfork of review customer Amazon one-star A Haptically driven consumer wearables tend to be designed to tend wearables consumer driven Haptically subjects receive in which intervals During the discrete by algorithms that invisibly extract their data, filter it through it through filter data, their extract invisibly algorithms that by haptic actuation. haptic reaction reflex-like to it is limited in the sense that short-circuited response, than self-reflexive rather agency ated punishing: is mildly takes actuation its particular the form that sensation is perhaps the worst teeth your on vibrating “Metal use of measurement machines to train inner sensitivity” to blood sugar levels by hypoglycemia patients—a technically inflected form of bodily attunement they call“introsensing” (evoking“intro states). inner one’s sense to the capacity or ception” which Breeze, Unlike attunement. model of erent a dif to according no and calls breath with one’s continuously and deflates inflates must users ect, f an e have it to for that, (such itself to attention pos the Lumo of buzzes the HAPIfork, of vibrations the it), notice and discontinuous, abrupt are Apple watch the of taps or pin, tural is otherwise in which the person experience of the flow fracturing ongoing cultivate to is not devices these of point The engaged. attention— momentary to snap wearers to but rather self-attention I call what state. unvigilant un-self-attentive, kind a delimited to brought only not are they cues, haptic kind of a limited exercise to but also prompted attention of in the “participating” is continuously Although the body agency. and receiver data tracked of human-machine loop as the source when buzzed— participates subject only the acting its prompts, of biofeedback Unlike configured. is tightly participation and her sense of and make notice who selfers quantified or practitioners data, their made them in a number-burying it to and deliver thresholds, preset pendant worn on a necklace, Breeze extracts the signal of breath from the digitizes body, it, and feeds it back to the personvia the oscillation of its inflation and deflation.This whendisplay, noticed by theserves wearer, as a trigger and reference point for self-adjustment.The gadget works both as a sensor of a breath-state and a conveyor of that state to wearers, so that they can shift their breath if they wish.AsAnnemarie Mol notes, it can happen that“an apparatus helps to increase a person’s physical self-awareness, encouraging one to better attune to the subtle body.” one’s signals of - An inflatable 22 The Great Masticator, Masticator, The Great 19 20 If I want to eat more slowly, slowly, more eat to want I If pay attention to one’s own own one’s to attention pay As the makers of a breath-focused 21 er demonstrates demonstrates er f o they The response ” Actuated Attention, Actuated Agency Actuated Attention, Actuated us,” to use Kevin Kelly’s earlier words, “bringing us to “bringing us to words, earlier Kelly’s use Kevin to us,” for , to mindfully internalize the masticatory dogma without the masticatory internalize mindfully to , To answer that question, it is instructive to briefly consider Why not do it Fletcher’s way today? Atop its list of frequently frequently of its list Atop today? way do it Fletcher’s not Why device called Breeze explain:“Biofeedback is meant to make explicit a physiological signal, in such a way that it becomes more noticeable.The feedback shifts people’s attention to their internal and mind.” body of awareness raising processes, But to what kind of attention are people brought by the fork and its the fork by people brought are attention kind of what But to kin? driven haptically “biofeedback” devices designed with the explicit goal of cultivat in users. ing self-attention pace at which we’re eating.” The fork leaves our ears and eyes free free and eyes ears our leaves The fork eating.” which we’re pace at its absorb us and relays compelling stimuli whatever to attend to “pays soon; it too has bitten the mouth that of the site nudges at attention some attention.” have need to when we attention gadget-free appeal of mindful eating: “ mindful eating: appeal of gadget-free myself? I do this by can’t is the expected—and today which distraction to the degree the control to want “When we eaters: of state accepted—subjective the bites on counting focus to have we eating, which we’re pace at a meal with friends or sharing are When we the time. watching or the conscious of remain difcult to very it is TV, by being distracted use of mechanical timers and bells or perhaps a metronome, a perhaps a metronome, and bells or mechanical timers use of to was his system critical aspect of chewing a device. of entrainment the supportive the anticipates website the HAPIlabs product questions, asked benefits that HAPIlabs advertises on its website today, including today, its website on HAPIlabs advertises that benefits and gastric problems, digestive gain, weight of the regulation about agnostic deliberately was Fletcher itself, the fork Like reflux. rested his system success of the eat; people chose to which foods set themselves eaters that essential it was Yet eating. of on the rate make to his followers encouraged While he could have this rate. Progressive-era fad of Fletcherism (also called the “chew-chew “chew-chew called the (also Fletcherism of fad Progressive-era enthusiast the health led by eating of a method in its day), cult” must all food that who espoused the doctrine Fletcher, Horace one to no less than thirty of a rate masticated—at be deliberately that depending on the substance—such minute times per hundred swallowed. being liquid before it turned to the same of many his followers promised be known, as he came to ever.”28 The buzzing of fork tines in the mouth is punitive by design; eaters are not so much rewarded for slow eating as they are dissuaded from fast eating, recalling the anatomopolitics of “discipline and punish.”29 Yet disciplinary power is an inadequate model for grasping the specificity of this mode of self-governance, for subjects are not expected to internalize the behavioral rules to which they are subjected and vigilantly enact them. Instead, the suite of devices at stake in this essay present themselves as sentinels that remain on watch at all times; self-vigilance is not required.30 While people could, theoretically, use the fork as a training device “to force focus on a particular behavior, help us reflect on patterns or triggers, and develop sensitivity to specific aspects of our lifestyles,”31 there is no suggestion in its marketing that users will learn to eat self-attentively such that they can eventually stop using it.32 The logic is one of ongoing dependency on the haptic actuations of the device. “I don’t want to track—I want it to be done for me,” said Leslie Ziegler, a health technology designer and longtime self- tracker, in 2014.33 “Insert a chip in my mouth and have it record the calories for me!” Ziegler’s plea suggests that mainstream consumers, unlike QSers or the Media Lab’s wearable pioneers before them, are not seeking a technology that helps them cultivate greater self-awareness or the ability to transcend the material world but, rather, one that can help them maintain a weight, maintain a rhythm, maintain just enough self-attention to stay healthy. As market research has confirmed, people are wary of adding more self-regulative labor to their lives and instead want devices to do that work for them.34 Nevertheless, users retain a transient agency—momentary, triggered by the stimulus of a device, and quick to pass. In this sense, the fork’s agentic afordances distinguish it both from Sanctorius’s static chair and from another smart utensil, the Liftware fork. Designed to exert continuous friction to counteract involuntary hand tremors (see figure 2.5.6), the fork treats its users as dependent on its ongoing ministrations; they are not invited into the loop as choice-making subjects. HAPIfork users, in contrast, ultimately decide to slow their eating when prompted—or, if they wish, to ignore (or “chew though,” as it were) the fork’s buzzing remonstrations. No matter how constrained their field of choice, they remain in the position of choosing consumer. Evoking the “inherent tension” between self-awareness and automation that Kevin Kelly identified earlier in this essay, the actuated subjects of haptic wearables at once wish to make responsible choices and to delegate the labor involved. The HAPIfork and its haptically driven kin present themselves as an answer to this wish, ofering to automate the daily load of entrepreneurial Figure 2.5.6: The Liftware smart utensil can selfhood. Departing from the world-transcending aspirations of a distinguish between intentional and involuntary generation of wearables pioneered in the heyday of Negroponte’s hand tremors (such as those caused by Parkinson’s Media Lab, their role is not to maximize or even to optimize human disease) and ofset the latter with haptic vibration. Both the HAPIfork and the Liftware fork seek potential—but to help us abide the material functions of life in a to regulate the eating process—the latter using context of continual distraction and multiple demands on attention. continuous friction to counteract involuntary These new “pastors of the soma,”35 likely to have been spurned in behaviors, the former using intermittent, discretely applied friction to slow its tempo of eating. (Image Fletcher’s day, are considered permissible adjuncts to self-regula- from https://www.liftware.com/steady/) tion in a governmental climate of so-called “libertarian paternalism” and the nudge, in which freedom is understood to operate within— and through—constraints, as a brief, and specific, call to action.36

74 Natasha D. Schüll How How Health Health 75 , trans. D. Ross Ross D. trans. , The Politics of of The Politics Cultural Cultural Critical Public Health Critical Public Health (Princeton, NJ: Princeton NJ: Princeton (Princeton, Discipline and Punish: The Discipline and Punish: 26 (2017): 9. , trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: York: Sheridan (New Alan trans. , , October 31, 2018. 31, October , Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health Health Our Pharmaceutical Companies Define 2012). Press, University (Durham: Duke while moderating Ziegler made by Comments 33. Having” Worth Disorder A “Track-a-holism: the panel the of Summit panel stream the Digital Health at Show. Electronics 2014 Consumer analysts, industry by a 2014 report to According 34. tracking discontinued owners wearable of one third “Inside Dan Ledger, six months. within the first and Daniel Dan Ledger and 2,” Part Wearables, the Science How Wearables: “Inside frey, McCa to the Secret ers Change Of Behavior Human of Partners, Endeavour Engagement,” Long-Term 2014. Report, Industry Cambridge, Notes the Invisible’: “‘Quantify Millington, Brad 35. Posture,” of a Future toward citing Nicolas Rose, 412, 26 (2016): and Subjectivity in Power, Biomedicine, Itself: Life Century Twenty-First the 2007). Press, University discussion fuller a for Life,” for “Data Schüll, See 36. the with As “nudge.” the of logic governance the of algorithmic a kind of nudge (itself governmental nudge is riddled with the haptic device), governance “need people when decides what or Who questions: governments? attention”—advertisers? some have to decisions? preset own their statistics? peer 27. Stiegler has distinguished between technologies between has distinguished Stiegler 27. “lengthen” that those and attention “short-circuit” that register to users allowing circuit, the self-technology rather in a self-attentive and act experience their Stiegler, Bernard mode. driven than compulsively Automatic Society:The Future Work of (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2017). 2014. 16, July Sarah, by review customer Amazon 28. stated comment customer cynical more rather A mouth, your it in have you once vibrates “it only that loose by fillings rattled your like you so hopefully a you which gives Chinese fork a sub-standard customer (Amazon teeth” headache and broken 2013). 4, on November etrain450 by review Michel Foucault, 29. the Prison Birth of 1977). Books, Pantheon “The Sense Mother,” Schüll, D. See Natasha 30. “Theorizing the Contemporary,” in Anthropology Brennan, (Sean enthusiast one tech This is how 31. Superhumans,” of Technology The “Awareables: what the design of 2015) imagines 9, March Wired, of wearables opposed to “awareables”—as he calls design. on” “always an “data the to logic is similar life” for “device This 32. Schüll, (see elsewhere I explore logic life” for paraphrase to meant phrase Life”)—a for “Data Dumit, Joseph life.” for “drugs idea of Dumit’s write that “sensemaking “sensemaking that write f Vonthetho and Smith 26. by and performed to outsourced is increasingly and Smith D. J. G. mechanisms.” codifying auxiliary the Exploring Numbers: by “Health , f Vonthetho B. Health,” Datafied of and Experience Practice Sociology Review Never Never (Westport, (Westport, Theoretical Theoretical 20, no. 10 no. 20, Issues in The Colbert (London: (London: Proceedings Proceedings 10 (2004): 48. 10 (2004): What happens with your your with happens What . (1913; Whitefish: Kessinger Kessinger Whitefish: (1913; 20. 19– 1 (2000): no. 21, 12. 12. 1– 2018), ACM, York: (New Fletcherism: What It Is or How I How or Is It What Fletcherism: Body and Society Body and Society New Media and Society and Society Media New (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University University NJ: Princeton (Princeton, Never Satisfied Never Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling Gambling Design: Machine by Addiction ” Dorthe Brogaard Kristensen and Minna Kristensen Dorthe Brogaard ” , January 10, 2013. 10, January , , Anchor Books, 1986. Ruckenstein, “Co-evolving with Self-Tracking with Self-Tracking “Co-evolving Ruckenstein, Technologies,” noticed have not would He –3640. 3624 (2018): with his interacted had he not he says, these things, “without the loop as he puts it, data—or, exteriorized with the instrumentalization.” humanistic psychology and the human potential movement with behaviorism and cybernetics in the name of giving people greater awareness and control over their internal states through information-conveying devices. See Donald “Biofeedback,Moss, Mind-Body Medicine, and ed., in Moss, Nature,” Human Limits of the Higher Humanistic Psychology:Transpersonal andA Sourcebook and Biographical Historical Greenwood Publishing,CT: 1998). and Slyper, Ronit Grabli, May Frey, Jérémy 22. Sharing Biofeedback “Breeze: Cauchard, R. Jessica in Technologies,” Wearable through in Factors on Human the 2018 CHI Conference of Computing Systems Do: Devices Diagnostic “What Mol, Annemarie 23. Measurement,” Blood Sugar The Case of Medicine and Bioethics “Embodied Law, John and Annemarie Mol 24. of The Example Bodies: Enacted Action, Hypoglycaemia,” Dorthe anthropologist tells Danish self-tracker A 25. senses” of “sharpening about the Kristensen came with that senses” new of “production and on the specific kinds of elaborating his tracking, “ arose: that self-attention you when and eaten, have you after blood sugar is happening? What tired? get you Do eating? are on the coating Any tickling? any feel you Do tongue? D. Schüll, Schüll, D. Vegas Las in 63–68. 2012), Press, HAPIlabs and of a founder Lepine, Jacques 16. made this statement technology, slow-control (http://workshop-iot- workshop company a at responsible-behaviors.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/ index.php/intervenant/). of during a segment Colbert made the comment 17. on the Finger” of Wag / the Hat “Tip of Report long relationship America’s of accounts For 18. with self-control, see: RobertCultural “A Crawford, Account of Health: Control, Release, and the ed., McKinlay, B. John in Social Body,” Care Health of Economy the Political Tavistock, 1984),Satisfied: CulturalA History of Diets, Fantasies and 60–103; Fat Hillel Schwartz, Fletcher, Horace 19. Sixty at Young Became 2009). Publishing, the historical discussion of a lengthier For 20. of in systems agency of and waning waxing and “LoseIt!” see Schüll, West, in the eating healthy Schwartz, The21. term“biofeedback” came into existence in 1969 to name a movement that joined 15. Elsewhere I discuss the incorporation of haptics haptics of the incorporation I discuss Elsewhere 15. modulate to as a way technology machine slot into “Touchscreens experience. the gambling and guide gestures frm play a to meant are back” touch that on “time or gambling continued and thus extend the increase to as a way case, this device”—in Natasha player. a from a machine draws revenue ,

(Ann

39, no. no. 39, New (1615). (New York: York: (New Appified: (London: (London: New York Times York New 62 (2005): 110. History of Science History of Being Digital 43, no. 2 (2012): 381. See also 2 (2012): 381. no. 43, Sport, Education and Society , November 2, 2013. 2, November , De statica medicina De statica , ed. D. Parisi, ed. , D. M. Paterson, and 5, no. 1 (2016): article 3, 18, 18, article 3, 1 (2016): no. 5, , October 15, 2012, https://www. 2012, 15, October , Digital Food Cultures Cultures Digital Food –333. 317 11 (2016): Forbes Wired BioSocieties BioSocieties See http://www.slowcontrol.com/en/. 14. 13. Elsewhere I argue that self-tracking technology technology self-tracking that I argue Elsewhere 13. that governance of forms a shift from marks to life of biological material the regulate aim to behaviors, consumer regulate aims to one that a shift from words, other and rhythms—in habits, “governance I call what to biopolitical governance Life: for “Data Schüll, D. Natasha micronudge.” by Self-Care,” and the Design of Technology Wearable Perspiration in the Long Eighteenth Century,” Century,” Eighteenth in the Long Perspiration Biological and of Studies in History and Philosophy Biomedical Sciences “LoseIt!” Schüll, “Living with the Chair: Private Dacome, Lucia 12. in Authority and Medical Health Collective Excreta, Century,” the Eighteenth 4 (2001): 467. 9. See https://www.kickstarter.com/ 9. projects/1273668931/hapifork-the-smart-fork-that- tracks-your-eating-ha-0. 1561–February 29, (March Padua of Sanctorius 10. of author 1636), 22, Picturing Acts: “Balancing Dacome, Lucia 11. Wade Morris and Sarah Murray, eds., eds., Murray, and Sarah Morris Wade Apps the and the Rise of Software Mundane See 2018). Michigan Press, of Arbor: University Eating: “Connected Berg, and M. Boztepe also S. Digital Food through Body Servitising the Human and Zeena Lupton in Deborah Technologies,” eds., Feldman, forthcoming). Routledge, Physical Education,” Education,” Physical 20 (2015): 147. Nicholas Negroponte, 7. 1995). Knopf, Tracking Calorie “LoseIt! Schüll, D. Natasha 8. Jeremy in Consumption,” and the Discipline of datasense.” Kangdatasense.” Lang and Dana“Pervasive Cu, f the Public Square,” Computing: Embedding Washington and Lee Law Review Data.” “Feeling Lupton, 5. Skin: Health- “Algorithmic Williamson, Ben 6. Technologies, Personal AnalyticsTracking and the Biopedagogies of Digitized Health and Machinic Sensibility and the Quantified Self,” communication +1 uses the term in a more specific way to mean “an rhythms, machinic temporalities, of internalization user-subjects’ into communication, of patterns phenomenological KangEarlier, equipment.” and Cu f wrote:“It is as if human beings are granted an additional in‘sense’ addition to sight, hearing taste, smell, and touch—a sort of sixth sense, a 4. Lupton similarly proposes the term “datasense” “datasense” the term proposes similarly Lupton 4. to describe“entanglements of human senses and digital sensors with sense Deborah making.” and Data Sense,” “FeelingTouch Data:Lupton, special issue of Digital Media,” “Haptic in Media and Society Archer J. (2017). Sun-ha Hong,“Data’s Intimacy: 2. Gary Wolf, “The Data-Driven Life,” Life,” Data-Driven “The Wolf, Gary 2. 2010. April 28, Wired First-Ever Announced for Agenda “Final 3. Featuring Numbers, Living by Conference: Health and Stephen Michael Graves Speakers Keynote Wolfram,” wired.com/2012/10/1693/. 1. Ewan Spence, “2014 Will Be the Year of Wearable Wearable of Year Will Be the “2014 Spence, Ewan 1. Technology,” http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ The Algorithms Have Eyes wearable/hyphen-labs Hyphen-Labs Ashley Baccus-Clark, Ece Tankal, Nitzan Bartov, Carmen Aguilar y Wedge

On where the idea of murders of Philando Castile and Alton to ward off the heaviness that hung in working collaboratively on this project Sterling. There was no space to talk about the humid air. came from: Black death at work and yet, at the time, We called up our friend and co-col- that was all that was on Ashley’s mind. laborator Nitzan and began ideating a In the summer of 2016, Carmen and Ashley Performing the empty pleasantries at work transmedia project we wanted to create lived together in a dusty, plant-ﬁlled sublet felt reckless and in complete disregard of based on reframing the rhetoric of repre- in Brooklyn. Every evening they sat on their the urgency of the moment. sentation and identity. couch, hot laptops glued to their sticky Carmen moved to New York to legs, monitoring their social media and attend the School for Poetic Computation. On how social media-inspired news feeds. Scrolling through endless During the day she attended the program NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism: videos, images, and tweets became a in order to add to the toolkit she and Ece nightly ritual—one that left them siloed in a intended to hone when they founded We started sending Snapchat videos to sea of bleakness. The incessant, extrajudi- Hyphen-Labs after graduate school. She each other. As we bounced these videos cial killings of Black people, an impending and Ece usually checked in with each back and forth among us, we realized the Trump presidency, and countless global other in the evenings because Ece lived app had captured our full attention. We crises left little to feel hopeful about. in Barcelona at the time. One night we didn’t fully understand the point of it, but Carmen lent Ashley her nazar all joined in on the check-in to talk about the ﬁlters were fun and exposed us to new choker—with its evil eyes to ward of the global politics, and Ece taught us about ways of creating ephemeral stories. The persistent anxiety attacks she started nazars, the ancient protector against evil app was a layer of levity against the grim having after watching videos of the eyes. We began wearing them in solidarity, backdrop of our looming political future.

Figures 2.6.1, 2.6.2, 2.6.3, 2.6.4: HyperFace, designed and developed by Adam Harvey in collaboration with Hyphen-Labs.

76 Hyphen-Labs - - 77 - Snapchat prompted us to ask ask us to prompted Snapchat the present into Bringing this history detection by flooding it with false faces, faces, flooding it with false by detection ability inherent the algorithm’s decreasing among a sea of discern an actual face to a countersurveillance Wearing faces. false as a nod to head is meant on one’s scarf identify, to which served the tignon laws, women. Black and subjugate categorize, plantations to adorning the headscarves adorning the headscarves to plantations wear to required were women Black that eighteenth-cen in the tignon laws under of thread a continuous Louisiana, tury despite exists and rebellion perseverance Our subjugation. Black of generations the is an homage to experience immersive women Black work unrecognized largely only challenge injustices—not done to have the globe. but also across in this country What see? do computers How ourselves: to a computer for necessary are values see all Do computers a face? recognize to values and ascribe the same alike faces see? they what to a framework create us to for is a way with interfaces technology how address HyperFace’s the past. of social practices camouflage that type of is a new pattern vision algo computer confuse aims to the con reduce goal is to The rithms. and recognition facial of fidence score

- - - - - Countersurveillance, visibility, pro visibility, Countersurveillance, the overall themes of the project: of themes the overall On how object-based design fits with object-based design On how ate anti-blackness, we were inspired to to inspired were we anti-blackness, ate There resistance. of methods Black study women Black of a rich history is already that resistance for as a tool using clothing slave Atlantic the to back can be traced to and plants using berries From trade. on slaves to given the plainclothes dye HyperFace, a facial-recognition-obfuscating a facial-recognition-obfuscating HyperFace, with pri in collaboration created we scarf vacy artistAdam livesHarvey, thematically speculative other several of roster the within transparent a including created, we objects a microaggression-deflecting sunscreen, record to able earring tech-enabled a visor, stimulation transcranial and brutality, police for extensions hair into weaved electrodes techniques. use with braiding relate they and transcendence—as tection, project our bodies—link women’s Black to in discourses contemporary broader to and philoso theory cultural the fields of Hartman Saidiya of as the work phy—such bring to and Simone Browne—seeking biomet the field of into conscious theory all the When thinking of ric technology. and surveillance in which technology ways prolifer been used to historically have - - NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism AfroFeminism NeuroSpeculative Our amulet eyes hung from hung from eyes amulet Our imagination in emerging media and object- media and in emerging imagination of include the narratives based design to color. people and people of Black how emerging technology, science, and science, technology, emerging how was The project with identity. art intersect bring a design language and to meant iden around conversations to aesthetic By visibility. and politics, womanism, tity, audience in these critical dis engaging our the lens of broaden hoped to we cussions, technology and challenge the databasing and challenge the databasing technology identities. our of We this intention. born of was (NSAF) could shift that build a platform to started and explored and perspectives power our necks. Each time this happened, the Each time this happened, necks. our about what information algorithm collected but the nazar’s a face, be considered might which the application, confused blue eyes onto a digital mask projected incorrectly we how of think began to We necklines. our trick and accessories to could use textiles our sweaty necks for weeks, and soon and soon weeks, for necks sweaty our recognize algorithm began to Snapchat’s eyes. own our it recognized them before for and waited tapped the screen When we our over layer to mask the green-gridded around on the eyes it landed instead faces, In NSAF, fashion becomes a plat- they hand over their biometric data to the Stripes, the flag of this new territory is the form to create a movement of resistance. private sector. Apple has disguised its use pixelated faces of the countersurveillance To reference Simone Browne, making of racial recognition technology by incor- textile. We—in collaboration with some a textile that can be worn to maintain porating it into cute animojis, memojis, incredible artists and friends of ours—cre- control over one’s “biometric intellectual and device-unlocking mechanisms. All the ated four other objects that sit in both the property”1 establishes a dynamic that while, the illusion of convenience eclipses physical and digital world of NSAF. As a gives individuals—not corporations or the critical discourses around the ethics and design provocation, we created a trans- government—control over the outputs of expectations of how our biometric data is parent sunscreen called UV Beams. We data produced by the body. actually being used. created video- and audio-enabled earrings For communities of color, especially With so little transparency into the modeled after Door Knocker earrings (or Black people, the LGBTQ+ community, and process, it is hard to uncover how compa- Bamboos) in collaboration with Michelle other marginalized groups, this is a tool nies are using, storing, selling, and trading Cortese. RubyCam earrings are a wear- of reclamation. We created what Browne this data. Technologies neatly subsumed able surveillance tool made to protect the calls a Black counterframing2 of biomet- in an object encourage us to forget how wearer from micro- and macroaggressions ric surveillance that questions how facial valuable our data is for upholding con- through audio and video capture. With recognition technology can both racialize sumerism, dependence, and ever-evolving these, we wanted to create a dialogue and gender surveillance. After all, Black systems of oppression. Our own images about visibility and exposing events in real people, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, drive the selfie economy—we co-sign, time and reduce the use of the cell phone and women are most vulnerable when enthusiastically, the surveillance of our to capture instances of police violence. we consider the ways surveillance subtly movements and bodies. Overall, we wanted to create a tool allowing infiltrates our lives. And the risk of misuse quick-capture recording, eliminating and abuse of these technologies dispro- On the other speculative objects unknowns, ambiguities, or conflicting testi- portionately impacts communities of color. explored in the piece: monies regarding encounters and allowing How cameras perceive and judge faces will those documenting situations to be more soon be linked to the ways in which people Each of the speculative objects we cre- protected. In VR, we reimagine the earring can move through the world. This is already ated is remixed and reimagined in our and it becomes the light tower abolishing happening on many levels. VR experience. HyperFace becomes the darkness in the second act of the piece. Most people don’t notice when flag of the world. Instead of the Stars and Next, we collaborated with [AB]

78 Hyphen-Labs 79 1. Simone Browne, “Dark Sousveillance Race, Race, Sousveillance “Dark Simone Browne, 1. The online lecture, and Resistance,” Surveillance 9, December YouTube, CUNY, Center, Graduate 2014. 21, March Web, 2013; Ibid. 2. - - Octavia Electrodes use anodal stimulation use anodal stimulation Electrodes Octavia the of in regions activity neuronal excite to motivation, pain, memory, to related brain as a use this tool We and deep learning. a reimag of in the story anchor narrative going not you’re salon where ined hair coming to you’re done, hair your get to The main mind. your and expand stimulate and world-re woman is a Black character This whole project neuroscientist. nowned the confines of free about breaking was and society current our by us to dictated could be. imagining what - - - - Finally, our most speculative object speculative most our Finally, roscientific technique called transcranial called transcranial technique roscientific do a storyline to wanted We stimulation. sim by neuroscience speculative around the In NSAF, can do. this tool what ulating another layer of immersion, identification, identification, immersion, of layer another the symbolism through and embodiment surfaces. and reflective mirrors of virtual our basis of and the thematic call the Octavia we is what experience neu a reimagined These are Electrodes. world of Brooks’ Beauty Salon by this con Salon by Beauty Brooks’ of world because it is implied ScatterViz, nection to in the this digital asset looking at by that installation in our it is displayed same way reflection own see their lookers space, This is character. our when looking at material which functions as a prism by a prism by which functions as material wave erent dif into light splitting a beam of pass through to one color allowing lengths, visor The the other. the film while reflecting VR experience in the role a starring plays wearing are characters our because all of virtual the into audience is thrust Our it. Screenwear on a visor called ScatterViz. called ScatterViz. visor on a Screenwear that visor screen This is a thermoplastic any of the gaze and obscures reflects a dichroic is made of ScatterViz onlooker. http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Beyond Wearables: wearable/lucy-mcrae The Future Is Fleshy Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae

Openness adventuring into the unknown, the curiosity research lab at the electronics company of wondering “what if.” The definition of Philips, developing a portfolio of wearable CHRISTINA AGAPAKIS: We are using wear- taking risk is to be open to danger, which technologies. This group of engineers and ables as a jumping-of point to explore the means exchanging familiarity (and com- fashion designers set the tone for a lot of intersections of the body and technology fort) for uncertainty. Scientists inevitably the work I do now. We were trying to create and the intersections of art and science. work in a state of uncertainty to discover technology prototypes that explored emo- I’m trained originally as a biologist, and I something new, but often science fictions tional sensing, testing the point at which did a PhD in synthetic biology. Today I’m lose that uncertainty. Predictions of the the body moves out of its comfort zone to the creative director of Ginkgo Bioworks. future are often sleek, fully rendered, cold. somewhere vulnerable. Could we create We are an organism design company, and Christina and I share a wish for a future of a technology that was a “maybe” like an in my role I think about the ways that we technology that it is fleshy, visceral, messy, emotion? Something in flux and uncertain? imagine, design, and communicate new elastic, and with feeling. We wanted to simulate what was happen- biological technologies. I work with artists ing to the body when you kiss someone and designers to think about the social, Correspondence for the first time or when you brush past emotional, and aesthetic elements of a stranger. We asked, “Could we make science and technology and the ways they CA: When Leila invited us to think about technology that blushed or shivered?” We intersect with culture. wearables on this panel we started by prototyped this emotion-sensing dress. corresponding. I live here in Boston. Lucy During the evenings while at Philips LUCY McRAE: I’m a science fiction artist lives in Melbourne, Australia. We had a hard I began experimenting with friend and and body architect. I’m trained in French time finding a time to talk on the phone. designer Bart Hess, working to imagine classical ballet and interior design and We were sending each other emails with how the body might evolve alongside have a background in developing emo- questions to jumpstart our thinking, and I technology. At work during the day we were tional sensing technologies, like electronic started with these very boring questions having high-tech conversations, so we had tattoos. I use the body as a conceptual to Lucy. What are wearables, what are they a thirst to work in more immediate and low- space to explore the future of biotechnol- for, and what will they enable? tech ways, asking Could the body replicate ogy, beauty, and the human condition. I collaborate with scientists, biologists, and Christina Agapakis 2/11/17 technologists, combining their expertise To: Lucy Details with the tools of science fiction as a mechanism for prototyping the future. Oh is that why there's always a little Dropbox Icon on the side of word docu- CA: As a scientist, I’ve found working with ments? We could do that but I also kind of like the idea of just email, more like artists like Lucy to be incredibly powerful correspondence than a shared essay or for exposing diferent perspectives on the something? values and potential futures of science and technology. Scientists are pressured Here are some questions to get us to project certainty and closure in public, started... whereas artists create openness and What are wearables? space to question and explore. Art can What are wearables for? have a vulnerability that science often can’t, What will wearables enable? coming with a willingness to take risks for Figure 2.7.2: Probes Bubble Dress, Philips Design, the sake of curiosity without having an See more from Christina 2006. © Philips Design, Clive van Heerden, ultimate conclusion in mind. Jack Mama, Nancy Tilbury, Lucy McRae, Sita Fisher, Loop.pH. Figure 2.7.1: Email exchange between the authors. LM: I’ve been comparing the mindsets of an artist, entrepreneur, and scientist in LM: When Christina sent me these nature? Could the skin be an accessory? the context of risk taking. An entrepreneur questions, I shut the laptop and walked We expanded the boundaries of the body (we anticipate) takes risks in the hope of away disappointed—“I’ll deal with it later.” I with simple things like soap and water, making money and with the desire to see wanted to start somewhere more challeng- balloons and pantyhose. Throughout, that their concept become reality. I speculate ing, because I’ve been asking questions sense of vulnerability in the experiments scientists take risks hoping for a discovery, about the body and technology for years. was really clear; we were coming from a to find truth and solve problems. As an My first introduction to technology started very primal and intuitive way with no idea of artist, risk taking comes from a place of in 2006 leading a far-in-the-future design what the image would end up in the end.

80 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae 81 Figure 2.7.3: Germination, Day 8, Lucyandbart, Lucyandbart, 8, Day Germination, 2.7.3: Figure Bart Hess. McRae, © Lucy 2008. Figure 2.7.4: Grow on You, Lucyandbart, 2008. © Lucy McRae, Bart Hess.

82 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae - - - 83 Indeed, the question of what is what of the question Indeed, cosmetics a wearable technology? What a wearable cosmetics about perfume? has as technology “counts” and what useful a “genetic wand” that moves us toward a a us toward moves that wand” “genetic a you if What biological perfection. of world might How dish? a petri born from are touch? of this change the phenomenon our impacts human development; Touch and our with others behaviors emotions, be lose it?Will touch we if what feelings, show TV This sci-fi engineered? genetically the human losses and gains of explores a of the eyes engineering through genetic on mascu takes and feel The look family. a more for aiming instead tropes, line sci-fi approach. feminine and notions explores work Lucy’s CA: and how beauty feminine of stereotypes chal with technology, intersect might they science what of expectations lenging our can do and technology fiction and what incorpo By like. and feel it can look what the from concepts and reimagining rating the from industries, and beauty wellness work Lucy’s perfume and beyond, spa to some of rethink has challenged me to with associated products “frivolous” these Are technology. of in the context women procreation and the body beyond earth’s earth’s beyond body and the procreation can we in which year a 2018, It’s edge. DNA. and delete replace, correct, precisely that tool -Cas9 is a molecular CRISPR in human embryos, genes defective repairs - - - I had recently seen this meme I had recently Circling back to those two words, words, two those to back Circling LM: I was soooo excited to receive these receive to soooo excited LM: I was TV been conceiving a I have questions. of about the future written) (now show ical, and the real lack of sensuality are what what are sensuality of lack the real and ical, and I change, trying to were Philips we at still technology” “wearable Today am. still and the step watches has coldness—the none of forks—and vibrating and counters need. we that the sensuality my to responded even Lucy Before CA: also really I was initial boring questions, to thinking about it and wanted bored ideas about the body on push further reasons. erent dif but for and technology, and I’ve now, pregnant months four I’m gadgets wearable been seeing all these young and women pregnant at marketed and sur monitor used to which are parents Wearable bodies and babies. pregnant veil capitalize to a way becomes technology your going on inside is really on fear—what ok? baby body?your Is 3D “onboard being an about the uterus the thought—is I had a funny printer.” technology? a wearable over uterus I sent will the “What Lucy to email saying another years?” in 10,000 clinic be like midwife when strung together—wearable and tech and together—wearable strung when me. with resonate don’t just nology—they “wearable comes with that The stereotype the clin the cold, gadgets, the technology”: Details Details 2/14/17 2/12/17 Live Lab, Lucy McRae, 2014. © Lucy McRae, Giuseppe Demaio, Cassandra Wheat, Lou Pannell of CHORUS featuring Rachel Coulson. CHORUS featuring of Pannell Lou Wheat, Cassandra Giuseppe Demaio, McRae, © Lucy 2014. McRae, Lucy Lab, Live pakis Swallowable Parfum Swallowable me Lucy Lucy McRae Lucy To: Christina Aga Christina To: Will we need to be stimulated be stimulated need to Will we from grown are we if intensely more a perrl dish? What is the future of procreation? of is the future What erent dif be drastically Will this need to environments? in weightless Is biology in this case technology? in this biology Is i like clinic look will the midwife What n 10,000years? interested you're this something Is all? in at reproduction might be interesting site to to site be interesting might reproduction people heard I've base out exploration? "3D printers"; as about uteruses talk monitoring around f stu of tons 's there and labor; during pregnancy technology babies and for wearables are there lactation. for technology Middle of night thoughts brought to you you to brought thoughts night Middle of toddler... a wakeful by event this during pregrant months 4 be I'll think I thinking!!!!) and I was What (again!!! around bodies in particular women's See more from Christina from See more See more from Christina from See more Figure 2.7.6: 2.7.6: Figure between the authors. between Figure 2.7.5 and Figure 2.7. 7: Email exchange exchange 7: Email 2.7. and Figure 2.7.5 Figure Figure 2.7.8: Sensor Salon, by Kristina Ortega and Jenny Rodenhouse, brings customizable wearable technologies to the nail salon. Kristina Ortega and Jenny Rodenhouse.

always been gendered, and many artists As we continued to send messages and designers today are challenging these back and forth, exploring birth, artificial MICROBIOME stereotypes. For example, Sensor Salon by intelligence, beauty, attraction, and cos- SPACE SKIN-BODY two students I worked with at Art Center metics, our boundaries of what might be a EDITING LIFE College of Design, Kristina Ortega and wearable became quite expansive. From Jenny Rodenhouse, shows us a future nail Lucy’s petri dish and space ship to my work salon where nail art incorporates wearable on the skin microbiome—a new platform technology—LEDs, piezoelectric sensors, for wearable technology?—we began to and more. The images of electronic com- think across many scales at once. ponents and soldering irons among the tools of the nail salon are surprising, chal- Absurdity (as a Process) lenging us to rethink what tools and people belong in gendered spaces, encouraging LM: We started at wearables, went through us to consider “useless” cosmetic technol- birth from petri dishes into space, and ogies diferently. ended up at nail art and skin microbes. This kind of exploration extends across scales Figure 2.7.10 from the microscopic to the interstellar, and across disciplines and experiences. sweat, you sweat a biologically enhanced When skin is imagined as a platform for fragrance, turning the body into the atom- technology, we can ask new questions izer—you become the bottle and the spray. about how this may afect health, beauty, A crucial part of this project was to scent, and how we communicate. use the gallery as a lab and as a place to prototype these ideas, to explore the scien- After working at Philips, I became tific what-ifs in a public arena. Using stories really interested in how we might repro- and filmmaking to communicate science, gram the body, and how the body may we can reach the fringes of culture and become the technology. I worked with a syn- explore the emotional impact of technol- thetic biologist and created a concept for ogy, and how it may redesign our body. Figure 2.7.9: Cartography of the human body. swallowable perfume, which is a cosmetic I like exploring the extremes of aug- Sonja Bäumel pill that works from the inside out. When you menting the body. If CRISPR is providing us

84 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae 85 , Lucy Lucy , Make Your Maker Your Make Alexandra Stuck, Rolien Zonneveld, Christian Christian Zonneveld, Rolien Stuck, Alexandra Chu. Nahji Weis, Lou Paulussen, Figure 2.7.12 (bottom): (bottom): 2.7.12 Figure Fransen, Maaike McRae, © Lucy 2014. McRae, Dijck, van Marlou Heilagers, frey Je Bea1991, , Lucy McRae, McRae, Lucy , Swallowable Parfum Swallowable Figure 2.7.11 (top): (top): 2.7.11 Figure Mansy. Sharef McRae, © Lucy 2014. Figure 2.7.13: Make Your Maker, Lucy McRae, 2014. © Lucy McRae, Maaike Fransen, Bea1991, Jefrey Heilagers, Marlou van Dijck, Alexandra Stuck, Rolien Zonneveld, Christian Paulussen, Lou Weis, Nahji Chu.

Figure 2.7.14: An aged cheese made with bacteria sampled from human skin bacteria, part of Selfmade by Christina Agapakis and Sissel Tolaas.

86 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae ------E. E. is - 87 - hikiko that sense dis that E. coli E. Future Day Spa Day Future in 2009, imagining a probiotic drink drink imagining a probiotic in 2009, Xiaochen Yang’s project ProbioPET ProbioPET project Yang’s Xiaochen microbial The gut and its trillions of is upon us. The is upon us. and James King in their design fiction King in their James and chromi engineered featuring an easily turbances in the gut and produce output. colored detected LM:The notion of technology for recon necting us is something that’s important in my work as well. Some posit we are living in “crisisa of touch” world, as human physical contact is replaced virtual by experiences—the modern day mori a personalized, guided experience that emotion at a moment in time. She designed designed She time. in moment a at emotion dishes petri agar incorporates that jewelry whis or a tear, a kiss, can capture that they grow, When the microbes story. pered a memory of become living representations a necklace. of can be carried as part that connect us to might wearables how shows She became microbes. via our one another who live people that in the fact interested micro their of elements share together fuse cohabit we when we biomes—that ourselves. clouds of microbial our together apart missing some live couples that Are us together, keeps that thing essential microbes? through intimacy of some form that device the ProbioPET She created via the couples living apart could exchange in sync. more microbes bring their mail to of also become a site have inhabitants technol wearable internal with intervention as or as sensors engineered Bacteria ogy. in mice and tested being are therapeutics technol This kind of clinical trials. in early Ginsberg Daisy by prophesied was ogy might enable new sorts of emotional or or emotional of sorts new enable might Ying’s Zhihan interactions. wearable playful incorporates Jewelry Microbiome project design jewelry modular a into cells living an of a memory encapsulate to as a way - Cheese is also a great object for object for a great is also Cheese photosynthesis? (See figure 2.7.3.) 2.7.3.) figure (See photosynthesis? be symbionts, wearables Will our CA: encouraging embedded with living cells, microbial own with our interactions new Will these living technologies ecosystems? with interacting of ways new encourage I taught environments? bodies and our our at the Microbiome on Design for a course Design in Pasadena, College of Art Center new explored the students where CA, and interventions. interactions microbial projects student of examples two I’ll share microbes how show that course that from is the practice of nurturing specific nurturing specific of is the practice into milk and convert grow to microbes and flavors of range varied an incredibly feel, look, Cheesemaking doesn’t textures. Artisan technologies. other like taste or the of feel learn the to have cheesemakers They and the squishiness. the smell, curd, cheeses with sophisticated their monitor often but more sometimes, instruments Producing senses. own with their than not process. cheese is an intimate bodies is on our that Technology LM: about stereotypes should also challenge technology more invite As we technology. this bodies, and inside our lives our into challenge exist to opportunity is a great and how technology of ing stereotypes with it. and live eat, consume, wear, we emotional, be soft, technology Can that with the can tinker we If elastic? fleshy, ecosystem our underpinnings of genetic arming us with via CRISPR technologies, then could people, engineer to the tools merge Will we become nature? the body from energy and harvest human with plant considering the craft of biotechnology biotechnology of craft the considering with work and might with live we and how environments, our transform to microbes Cheesemaking bodies. and our food, our - - - , what, would I absurd because I did try to to because I did try absurd that In my work I’ve also explored how how also explored I’ve work In my The film starts with the premise with the premise The film starts Make Your Maker Your Make Figure 2.7.15: The ProbioPET by Xiaochen Yang allows couples to share their microbial communities, even when they are physically apart. Design and photo by by Design and photo apart. physically are when they even communities, microbial their share couples to allows Yang Xiaochen by The ProbioPET 2.7.15: Figure Yang Xiaochen same species of bacteria live in cheese and and cheese in live bacteria of species same In eat. we what are We toes. our between microbial created we Selfmade, project our cul cheeses made with starter portraits, human donors. from isolated we that tures Synthetic Aesthetics began with an explo began Aesthetics Synthetic bacteria the and odors microbial of ration found we What bodies. our of part are that was that microbial odors in cheese and chemically are on the body odors microbial the of connected—some biologically and make photosynthetic animals when I was in was I when animals photosynthetic make school. graduate interconnected are and the body food with collaboration My microbes. through through a smell researcher, Tolaas, Sissel a crucial part of the conversation around around the conversation a crucial part of relationship and their technology, science, can design we if 2. and feeling; with culture it has then eating dish, a petri from life happened. already not It’s CA: technology in a mixing bowl—to the point the point in a mixing bowl—to technology to edible clones in order make you where experience your and enhance yourself eat In 2013 when I made this film, the world. of but I absurd, was probably the concept be needs to absurdity 1. things: two think that food and the body are inseparable. inseparable. are and the body food that lab in her see a woman you In the film she becomes a until body own cloning her In the kitchen source. food photosynthetic a makes chef a blended like clones are a liquid and ego like blending gender cake, designed body. Would we choose human human choose we Would body. designed par my if What desirable? are that traits ents could choose what traits they pass down to me? Or in the case of my project titled choose from them? with the tools to engineer people, then we can expect that we are moving toward a Figure 2.7.16 (top): Future Day Spa, Lucy McRae, Figure 2.7.17 (bottom): Future Day Spa, Lucy McRae, 2015. © Lucy McRae, Pollyanna Whitman, Machine 2015. © Lucy McRae, Pollyanna Whitman, Machine Histories, Inventors Lab, Qualcomm, Aaron Dufy, Histories—Jason Pilarski, Steven Joyner, Inventors William Crouse, Chloe Corner, Thomas Cester, Two Lab, Qualcomm, Aaron Dufy, William Crouse, Chloe Create, Ashley McGee. Corner, Thomas Cester, Two Create, Ashley McGee

88 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae - - 89

How will technology shape the way way shape the will technology How Redefining human boundaries Redefining we relate to one another? How will technol another? one to How relate we does what and bodies, own shape our ogy be human? it means to technologies will bodies and Where CA: is the What future? in the distant meet or on a changing planet the body of future outer like environment new in an extreme through change Will the body space? technological transformation, through redesign, new conditioning, or even edit ing?At the molecular level of the genome a cell, inside of processes the cellular or and altered. edited, can be rewritten, DNA clinical trialsToday, of gene editing in way. under already humans are will life what fathom to begin we do How LM: now? from generations hundred five like be environments in longer live to going are we If will we for, designed not are bodies our that in the body? I’m interested in creating in creating body?in the interested I’m their people beyond take that experiences themselves. of expectations - - - treatment treatment Future Day Spa Day Future Research has shown that hugs that has shown Research led me response This unexpected , Lucy McRae with Lotje Sodderland, 2016. © Lucy McRae, Lotje Sodderland, Daniel Gower, Ars Electronica Electronica Ars Daniel Gower, Sodderland, Lotje McRae, © Lucy 2016. Sodderland, with Lotje McRae Lucy , increase a person’s oxytocin level and pro level oxytocin a person’s increase turn in which contentment, of feelings mote Something and stress. anxiety reduces during the presen happened unexpected my supported Angeles that in Los tation vulner the public in a in engaging interest One new. something discover to able way, he and disclosed that on the bed lay client being of fear haptophobia—the ered suf he doesn’t that explained He touched. touches and nobody body other any touch transaction an emotional was There him. which to treatment, during his nine-minute and an embrace” like “this felt he said his a bed for he could purchase if asked the bed he up out of When he got home. out and hugged me! reached kinds “new these whether speculate to a like touch” of and alienation, stress, of feelings combat levels oxytocin elevating loneliness by over 100 clients, and each time we get get time we and each clients, 100 over feedback; unique pleasingly and surprising hangover”; my rid of got “it said some inside the being back like felt “it said others nightmare.” “relaxing a womb,” - at at - - - Future Day Day Future Future Day Spa Day Future The Institute of Isolation—Anechoic Chamber Isolation—Anechoic of The Institute I’m exploring ways galleries, galleries, ways exploring I’m clients lie horizontal under a pressur under lie horizontal clients Figure 2.7.18: 2.7.18: Figure Sodderland. Lotje credit: Photo Dorney. Steve Dr. Southampton, of University Enriquez, Juan Claudia Schnugg, SPARKS, Futurelab, place that is familiar. I’m interested in cre interested I’m is familiar. place that explore that experiences vulnerable ating a public, of shift the behavior may we how something discover (we) they and maybe new? the performed I’ve and the Re/code Festival Design London’s treated We’ve Angeles. in Los conference wearing a material that reveals every edge every reveals that a material wearing an imme creates the body and cascade of learned I’ve vulnerability. of sense diate my out of a place from when I operate that the outcomes vulnerably, zone, comfort a from than working far-reaching more are museums, and public experiences can be and public experiences museums, prototype to opportunities and platforms bodies engage the physical ideas that new In the audience members. of Spa is pulled around vacuum as a sheet, ized in a public setting down Lying the body. This artwork foresees the future human requiring new kinds of touch that are biomet and unusual, immersive, deeply enable relaxation, to customized rically and recovery. connection, simulates a 360-degree hug by suctioning the body. around snuggly skin” “second a Figure 2.7.19: The Institute of Isolation, Lucy McRae, 2016. Photo credit: Julian Love

90 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae 91 The Institute of Isolation— of The Institute , Lucy McRae with Lotje Sodderland, Sodderland, with Lotje McRae Lucy , Figure 2.7.21 (bottom): (bottom): 2.7.21 Figure Training Treetop Daniel Sodderland, Lotje McRae, © Lucy 2016. Claudia SPARKS, Futurelab, Electronica Ars Gower, Gardens. Kew Location: Enriquez. Juan Schnugg and , Lucy McRae with Lotje with Lotje McRae Lucy , The Institute of Isolation— of The Institute Figure 2.7.20 (top): (top): 2.7.20 Figure Trainer Microgravity Sodderland, Lotje McRae, © Lucy 2016. Sodderland, SPARKS. Futurelab, Electronica Ars Daniel Gower, Daniel Gower. credit: Photo Figure 2.7.22: Biometric Mirror: Perfection Campaign, Lucy McRae, 2018. © Lucy McRae, Science Gallery Melbourne, Rose Hiscock, Ryan Jeferies, Alice Parker and Dr. Niels Wouters. Photo credit: Jesse Marlow.

92 Christina Agapakis and Lucy McRae ------93 Biometric Biometric , a sci-fi beauty beauty a sci-fi , is an immersive is an immersive Biometric Mirror Biometric Biometric Mirror Biometric The embraces flaws in algorithms, either either in algorithms, flaws embraces thinking and doing between a team of of team a between doing and thinking and researchers interface human-computer flaws the exploring are we Together myself. what and algorithms, of and inaccuracies it gets intelligence artificial if happen may the discuss to platforms Creating wrong. technolo emerging of implications cultural expose can we that means AI, as such gies, in a public space. assumptions any casually blends the act of that installation modern with reflection one’s glancing at per on facial algorithmic perspectives sci-fi a futuristic enter Audiences fection. bio their AI scan an salon and let beauty per a mathematically reveal to data metric whose But face. own their of version fect is it really? perfection of version Mirror (thus AI datasets using crowdsourced by as a critique of biases, societal reflecting perfection and models of AI today) opaque allows for more diversity and ensures fron ensures and diversity more for allows interdisciplin an from grow will science tier view. of point than binary rather ary collaborative of is a good example salon, - and the imagination that they bring to it. it. to bring they that and the imagination and other Lucy’s like projects that I think us art and science help of intersections and fleshy is more that imagine a future and emo intuitive is more that feminine, and in storytelling is grounded that tional, a little bit more ers f o and maybe narrative it is like what of reality messiness and more But it is also futures. kinds of in these live to the in often body, the seeing of way one just about stereotypes of set another of context these up opening In femininity. and beauty to restrict to not is goal the conversations, other that show but to another, or one way define to seek don’t We possible. are ways show to but body, future a of vision one any can coexist. futures erent dif that the development of crucial element A LM: be it to is for science and technology of the fringes and accessible to transparent This openness everybody. culture—to of CA: When we start to imagine the future the future imagine to start we When CA: in and technology science of role and the place a at especially the future, shaping by monopolized vision is often the MIT, like and the aesthetic and engineers scientists eries, Alice Parker and Alice Parker eries, f Je Ryan Hiscock, Rose Melbourne, Science Gallery McRae, © Lucy 2018. McRae, Lucy , - - - - is a nine- Future Day Day Future The Institute of of The Institute Biometric Mirror: Perfection Campaign Perfection Mirror: Biometric The Institute of Isolation of The Institute , contemplates whether extreme extreme whether contemplates , For a person in the extreme envi in the extreme a person For We have discussed the power the power discussed have We , I was interested in the psychology of of in the psychology interested I was , Figure 2.7.23: 2.7.23: Figure Marlow. Jesse credit: Photo Wouters. Niels Dr. ture scenarios, such as living in space, such as living in space, scenarios, ture on earth? and knowledge life benefit the of think can we space, outer of ronment the whole spaceship even suit or astronaut technology?as wearable isolation. isolation. fictional observational, and-a-half-minute orga a futuristic featuring documentary the rigors for the body trains that nization in a living permanently encounter it would far-fu might How environment. weightless potential to design the human body from from design the human body to potential project, The next scratch. Isolation and machines can experiences physical its beyond the body take be designed to the of the results After limits. Spa craves it. Could we adapt and train the body the body and train adapt Could we it. craves to experience otherworldlyweird, deep, epigenetic any beyond go that experiences conditioning? childhood or traits the Cas9 and - CRISPR comes with that need to evolve in unusual ways. We’ve estab We’ve unusual ways. in evolve to need touch of phobic someone even that lished developed in Western countries (thus go beyond what science would be able to reflecting cultural biases, as a critique of do, perhaps. That is because of the kind the idealized Western individual beauty). of vulnerability and emotional intuition in Apps would typically not embrace such the creative process, and a willingness to algorithmic imperfection. This artwork leave that subjectivity in, whereas scien- explores the uncanny valley of algorith- tists want to remove it from the story that mic perfection and presents the potential we tell at the end. Scientists and engi- black mirror efects artificial intelligence neers want to solve problems; artists seek may have on beauty. to identify, understand, and raise aware- When science and technology ness of the problems. Without that under- meet art, the promises and challenges standing, solutions will be incomplete of the future become tangible, giving and problematic, just as in the example of physical form to things that may be other- the AI that is intended to be objective but wise incomprehensible. replicates society’s biases.

CA: The last point that we want to leave LM: To wrap up: we are living in this era with is thinking about where the creative when we are being constantly asked to process should be part of science. When reshufe and redeﬁne human boundaries. we think about the role of art and science, The creative process is a critical method often we are left thinking about commu- for presenting conditions of future possibil- nications, that is, sort of the ﬁnal step of ity. We leave you with more questions than science and technology, when it leaves answers, more problems than solutions. the lab and is communicated to the out- Is CRISPR a wearable technology? Do we side world. That’s the role of the artist—to become technology when our genes have make it presentable. In fact, we see the been edited? When the body does meet role of art at the very beginning of the technology, does the body then become creative process of science and of inno- technology itself? What next? vation. That creative process is a process of asking new and difcult questions that

94 Interweaving

Tom Özden-Schilling

In late August 2017, over one thousand incoming MIT freshman each one complete with a Call of Duty-style animated sequence were given a wearable gift: a “smart” backpack sewn with electronic ofering glorious battlefield action as proof of application. Standing fibers developed in the laboratory of MIT materials science profes- before another lab bench, we were reminded of a lecture on organic sor Yoel Fink.1 Anyone in possession of a particular app who came conductors we’d heard just a few days prior. On an adjacent monitor, near the backpack’s fabric, the students were told, would find their we watched as a tangled network of polymer chains grew rigid smartphone playing a designated song or displaying a personalized in response to an electric charge, a cartoon scene played out in image or message. Whether or not any of the nervous teenagers stick figure diagrams. As the video progressed, the chains became packed into the Kresge Auditorium that day would spend the next fibers within yet another vest, this one capable of sensing its wearer four years actually wearing the curiously common-looking white and experiencing cardiac arrest and rhythmically charging its fibers as a black JanSport bags, of course, was another question entirely. form of automated CPR. The material that strengthened on impact My own first encounter with textile science came not at the wouldn’t reach the prototype stage for at least fifteen years, another intersection of bodies and clothes but at one of a growing number postdoc admitted. The CPR-inducing fabric, though, might not of junctures between big money and speculative theory, similar to become a reality for half a century. Tightly coupled to the corporate the experience of many other undergraduates to pass through MIT development strategies of partnering companies like Raytheon and since the beginning of the twenty-first century. In 2005, I joined Partners Healthcare, yet completely untethered from any clothing two dozen fellow students for a tour of MIT’s recently built Institute likely to be made or worn in the near future, the ISN’s scientists were for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN) as part of a field trip for enroll- free to pursue abstract puzzles while leaving actual bodies behind. ees in the course Nanomechanics of Materials and Biomaterials. Throughout MIT’s century and a half of existence, bodies Presenting the visit as a pedagogical exercise, our professor have come to matter for the Institute’s would-be entrepreneurs in began each stage of the tour with references to concepts from markedly diferent ways. From the weaving loom prototypes that her lectures. We had learned several weeks before, for instance, occupied multiple rooms of the original Boston campus through about negative linear compression, a seemingly paradoxical the 1870s and ’80s, to fledgling industrial partnership programs property whereby certain materials expand in one direction even developed in the early twentieth century, to the ISN and Professor as they’re pressed in from all sides—a characteristic of squid and Yoel Fink, CEO of Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, or octopi capable of squeezing into impossibly small crevices, she AFFOA, in the early twenty-first, fabrics have been continually had informed us, even if the expansion coefcients of industrially called upon by MIT’s various spokespersons to weave continu- designed analogs remained infinitesimally slight. Eyeing a muni- ous historical narratives out of fragmentary findings and events. tions-resistant vest that not only protected its wearer but actually The very words that many of these same people use to talk about grew stronger upon impact (a fantastical premise shared by the “innovation,” however, necessarily strain these short threads. As sleek suit worn by the character T’Challa in the 2018 film Black historian Ellan Spero2 argues in her own treatment of the role played Panther), she said the ISN promised to change this. Even if the by textiles in American universities’ ongoing reconceptualization of vest itself never materialized, one of the center’s postdocs intoned, industrial training, MIT spent the entire twentieth century shifting DuPont, Gore-Tex, and other manufacturers would still have a vast faculty away from solving the immediate needs of the vast facto- new library of knowledge to draw on while experimenting with ries in Lowell and Manchester, New Hampshire, toward devising negative compression in the future. Moving between stations, our more speculative fora for fabric science. As the Institute’s own news professor followed her lecture references by directing our atten- organs make clear,3 the prestige and allure of so-called “disruptive tion to monitors showing short videos describing each project, technologies” and “breakthrough innovations” has increasingly meant that the bodies that matter most to contemporary sci- 1. Michael Rutter, “Back to School Special: Members ence—particularly those projected into the worlds of models of MIT’s Class of 2021 Get a Free Backpack—and a Glimpse at the Future of ‘Smart’ Fabrics,” MIT News, and simulations4—are no longer merely idealized, but are also April 29, 2017, http://news.mit.edu/2017/back-to- perpetually deferred. school-special-afoa-smart-fabric-backpacks-for- As an MIT undergraduate already submerged in the beguil- mit-freshmen-0829. ing language of “potential,” my own visit to the Institute for Soldier 2. Ellan Spero, “Institutes for Innovation: Nanotechnology ofered an early lesson in the science of deferral. The Emergence of Academic-Industrial For a few breathless hours after the tour, we thrilled to the notion Cooperation and Narratives of Process in the Early 20th Century” (PhD diss., Massachusetts that we had just witnessed top secret works-in-progress (and Institute of Technology, 2014). what could a project with a horizon fifty years distant even be, if not some kind of secret?). By the next day, though, most students 3. Rachel Metz, “Babel-Fish Earbuds,” in “10 Breakthrough Technologies,” Technology in the class had discovered the ISN’s website, where the technical Review, March-April 2018, descriptions we’d heard were spelled out verbatim and the videos https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/ we’d seen were playing on repeat. Perhaps the science we had technologies/2018/. learned about there had been so advanced, another student spec- 4. Chihyung Jeon, “The Virtual Flier: The Link Trainer, ulated, that no other lab would be able to produce the garments Flight Simulation, and Pilot Identity,” Technology and anyway. Much like the narrative arc our professor had deployed Culture 56, no. 1 (2015): 28–53. throughout our tour, the website organized descriptions of each 5. Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Biocapital: The Constitution project through a trio of “strategic research areas,” a promissory of Post-Genomic Life (Durham: Duke University conjuration5 already long familiar to American academics. As Press, 2006). we left the building to return to the main campus, our guide had proudly announced that the ISN had recently conscripted half a dozen new industrial sponsors, partnerships that would push the center’s operating budget above nine figures and support a new series of design competitions. While the website ofered perhaps a more convincing case that each project would be carried through to conclusion, we had repeatedly been told that most, if not all, of these imagined garments might never be worn. A few of the ISN presenters acted as if confiding their expectations to us afrmed our identities as fellow scientists. With growing numbers of students lining up to participate in ISN-led design competitions and a roster of sponsors that grew with each passing year, though, they intimated that the infinite promise of virtual clothes was getting easier and easier to renew. LIVABLE

Introduction Rebecca Uchill and Stefan Helmreich

Microuniverse Tal Danino Being Material Beings Claire Pentecost That Touch of Money Bill Maurer Standing Rock: Selma Moment for the Environmental Justice Movement Winona LaDuke, illustrated by Sarah LittleRedfeather Interleaving Tom Özden-Schilling Introduction Rebecca Uchill and Stefan Helmreich

The relation between vitality—life, as category and concept—and conditions of their planting sites;11 and Kathy High adopted genet- its material corporealities is a puzzle that has long animated ically modified laboratory rats for her work Embracing Animal inquiry in the field of biology.1 Is life a force that can be abstracted (2004).12 The ethics of gene manipulation, interspecies power from its embodiments, a formal process that can be known or dynamics, or the deployment of living material for “purposeless” understood without reference to its constituent materials? In the artistic endeavors was surfaced by these works, which simultane- late twentieth century, practitioners of artificial life—a hybrid field of ously deployed and queried maneuvers in genetic sciences. theoretical biology and computer science named to invite explicit Such critiques built upon artistic engagements already comparison to artificial intelligence—thought so. One of its found- under way in the 1990s that promoted ecological restoration and ers, Christopher Langton, described artificial life as “the attempt to environmental policy change. These works reconsidered the abstract the logical form of life in diferent material forms,”2 and he relationships among flora, fauna, and human-driven disciplines held that “life” was “a property of the organization of matter, rather of art and science attempting to restore, order, and instrumen- than a property of matter itself.”3 That Platonic view of life—view- talize these other forms of life. Bringing established traditions of ing biology as information science—was, at the time, widespread. land art to bear on the fallout of human-produced environmental Certainly it dominated transhumanists’ aspirations to upload their impact, Mel Chin’s Revival Field (presented in various versions and consciousness to computers and achieve escape from fleshy and locations in the early 1990s) reframed the “psychological space” mortal bodies.4 The view also circulated in more sober precincts of of where art fits in a discussion about science, technology, and science. Speaking of the promise of the Human Genome Project in public ecology, by planting a datura garden as an experiment in 1992, biologist Walter Gilbert declared that someday “three billion remediating a hazardous waste landfill site.13 Helen and Newton bases of sequence can be put on a single compact disc (CD), and Harrison’s large-scale Green Heart project (1995) proposed to save one will be able to pull a CD out of one’s pocket and say, ‘Here is a the biodiversity of a region imperiled by a Dutch development plan. human being; it’s me!’”5 In these pronouncements, ofered roughly Meanwhile, within gallery contexts, works such as Mark Dion’s contemporaneously with Negroponte’s Being Digital, life was framed series of Libraries for the Birds invited birds and gallery visitors as a quality that could float free of any particular material substrate. to share cultural space within functional aviaries housing tree Around the start of the millennium, however, talk about branches laden with bookshelves. materiality, physicality, and corporeality began to reassert itself By the turn of the millennium, then, artists’ working with in biology. Scientists thinking about epigenetic inheritance, the living matter took soil, plants, animals, and bioengineered genes complement of microbes in human bodies, and the evolution and organisms as materials with which to question and critique of symbiosis moved away from the informational metaphors of the possibilities and politics of biotechnology and biopower. genetic programming to recenter attention on the lives of embod- Artists and scientists shifted humans from the epistemic center ied, metabolizing organisms.6 Even the emergent field of synthetic to make way for conditions described variously as posthuman, biology, known for porting metaphors from computer science into multispecies, and symbiopolitical.14 The ethics and politics of biology and for holding to a certain faith in abstraction, did not such expanded horizons of symbiogenesis were the subject of claim to step away from the periodic table of elements in engi- many artistic actions. On invitation to create a project for the neering new life forms.7 Scientists, now working with new compu- Bundestag, the German federal parliament building in Berlin, artist tational tools for rendering molecular process visible and tangible, Hans Haacke in 1999 proposed that legislators contribute soil to continue to think of liveliness as encoded in organic material a planter in the foyer labeled with the words “Der Bevölkerung” (DNA, cells) even as they work with the tools of virtuality.8 Today’s computationally aided bioscience demands reinvigorated reference to the physical constraints that define traditional, organic life; materiality has returned to center stage in biological discourse. Alongside these shifts in the sciences have been movements in art. Bio-art of the sort included in exhibitions such as Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution at New York City’s Exit Art in late 2001 examined the history and culture of genetic technologies and sciences. While the exhibition was seen by some as reifying a genetic reductionist ethos similar to that of artificial life in science, its curatorial framing was rather intended to reeval- uate—or at least repicture—genetic determinism, commoditization, and utopianism—what science studies scholars Dorothy Nelkin and M. Susan Lindee called “the DNA mystique.”9 Transgenic artworks looked to activate scientific procedures with works that questioned the limits of a genetic and informatic vision of life, in practicality and poiesis. Artist Eduardo Kac “commissioned” a laboratory to manifest a living, glowing “GFP” (green fluorescent protein) bunny;10 artist Natalie Jeremijenko worked with laboratory scientists to create genetically identical walnut tree seedlings to Figure 3.1.1: Eduardo Kac, GFP Bunny, 2000. Alba the fluorescent rabbit. be subjected to and experienced in the diverse environmental Courtesy Galerie Charlot.

98 Rebecca Uchill and Stefan Helmreich - , - - -

23 99 The 26 , which is a , Being Ecological as Christoph Cox Cox as Christoph 24 on the planet. These on the planet. Into the Holocene the Holocene Into 25 Ailanthus altissima Ailanthus Homo sapiens Homo a multiyear “Anthropocene Project” initiated initiated Project” “Anthropocene a multiyear 22 gather together and are they all human?” they and are together gather project operates simultaneously as a living ecology as a living ecology simultaneously operates project we The pursuit of curiosity as a common thread between between as a common thread curiosity of The pursuit 21 Situating abstract ideas within the definitively material, the material, ideas within the definitively abstract Situating entanglements. In other words, life is not free from its substrates, its substrates, from free is not life words, In other entanglements. within individ pinned down easily vital resonance is its but neither the bounded identities Questioning materiality. of parcels uated about thinking expands within these systems constituents of in writes Morton Timothy As ecology. of systems many age: how things in an ecological complicated are “pronouns beings does tinuously since the mid-2010s, has brought artists and scientists and scientists artists has brought since the mid-2010s, tinuously pub and forums, web curricula, excursions, exhibitions, in together about the impact of lications no longer that an era of illustrative are forms writings and event “nature.” the human and between boundary a discrete draws that be precisely supposed to in general—is culture “Art—and place,” in the first the boundary which defines might production artistic of the platform how revealing wrote, considering space for and disciplinary forum become a natural an Anthropocene, the lines and changed dynamics of the blurred Donna Haraway what for nomenclature and contestable unsteady “time-space global thing.” has called a and treatments cancer for bacteria Danino engineers Tal of work in his bacteria types of erent dif twenty of swarm A alike. artworks Microuniverse shifting how reveals that fact provocation—a and an aesthetic worrisome, times, at and, persuasive both scales can be a practice that erences biological and political dif risking papering over Yi, Anicka artist of such as that the 2010s, bio-art of In the matter. as its social condition—is the biological as well to life—referring field work, to tethered in ways engaged in this science-art practice as But even matter. of negotiations and other practices, laboratory these from lost never material, being) to returns becomes (or life and matters—espe materials that discussions is the implication their dimension to a networked with life—have when infused cially conversations about “the numerous intersections of life, science, science, life, of intersections “the numerous about conversations and art.” of discourses art and science has also been tied to of practices epochs: the 2012 geological/environmental the reliance compared Arts Center Visual List MIT’s at exhibition and conclusions with freer representations science on existing of “speculation”; artistic con ways various running in Welt, der Kulturen der the Haus by -

, 17 - - -

20 - Paradise Now Paradise Laboratorium Laboratorium Figure 3.1.2: The so-called “Baumhaus an der Mauer”—Tree House at the Wall—built by a Turkish immigrant immigrant Turkish a by Wall—built the at House Mauer”—Tree “Baumhaus an der The so-called 3.1.2: Figure heaven,” of “tree is a The tree the Berlin wall. of in the 1980s in the shadow 2019. January Stoetzer, Bettina by and attribution Photograph in Berlin. widely grows that plant ruderal (2006), which considered tac which considered (2006), Such negotiations of terrain are are terrain of Such negotiations restating the take of of the take restating 18 19 The parameters of how humans define and define humans how of The parameters 16 Tactical Biopolitics Tactical Social Democratic Party member Gert Weisskirchen Weisskirchen Gert member Party Social Democratic 15 One participant in the “Being Material” symposium, Bettina Bettina symposium, “Being Material” in the One participant “the goals and the working methods of artists and scientists.” artists of methods “the goals and the working of The editors to proposed “Biological Century,” the to tical media approaches through interdisciplinarity of limitations bridge the communicative 2000s and the 2010s exhibition makers and others invited artists artists invited and others makers 2000s and the 2010s exhibition beyond—sci expanding inquiries as akin to—or their consider to ecological or biological around thematized often pursuits, entific scope such as Exhibitions with expansive material. and the the studio of methods the experimental that argued (1999) had much in common, library between correspondences “surprising” reveal to which sought interstitial plant life through a “ruderal lens,” as zones in which as zones lens,” “ruderal a through life plant interstitial and dissident but also of parks, cultivated of urban nature—think contestation for become an arena gardening—has marginal citizenship. the bounds of over social inclusive damaging to boundaries are their as as urgent the between procedures, these artistic Following flourishing. inscribed by a trans-Atlantic slave trade that divided the “bio divided the that trade slave a trans-Atlantic inscribed by the ocean. of arena “natural” the from people enslaved of power” ecological of era contemporary us in our haunt These questions associ and depletion, resource territorialism, refugeeism, disaster, nationalism. xenophobic of resurgences ated and migration of landscapes layered Berlin’s at looked Stoetzer, mons, asking how to define membership within the ecology of of within the ecology membership define to asking how mons, a nation. the understand do we broadly ‘How us, asks “This work proposed: citizen?’” of definition global understanding to fundamental species are across life treat was itself modernity that has argued f Nicholas Mirzoe culture: context and resonating in light of legislative changes such as the changes such legislative of in light and resonating context The Union. the European of establishment recent relatively (then) do to “what article put it) a contemporaneous (as polemic over German whether over a debate ultimately was soil” of with a trough demanded that a debate place,” or “race by defined was nationality the com and the composition of belonging, racism, to attention (“To the population”) to contrast with the “To the German People” the German People” “To with the contrast to the population”) (“To debate consequent A exterior. on the parliament’s inscription became one ultimately among lawmakers about the proposal of constituents about which living beings should be considered in the German “soil” of the loaded motif by provoked the nation, delicate interconnectedness of humans and their environments is the subject of Claire Pentecost’s contribution to Being Material. She outlines processes of bodily decomposition, reminding us of the “we” that connects humans to the soil samples illustrated in her soil chromatography works.27 Soil, the terrain of complex ecosystems as well as contested citizenships, is the material that Pentecost uses to create her provocation of the “soil-erg,” a new currency system to replace the petrodollar. Her sculptural currency was on view during the “Being Material” symposium, and the drawings that accompany this project illustrate Pentecost’s essay for this volume. Also responding to the intersections of “the livable” and its monetary circulation systems, Bill Maurer examines the materiality of digital cash, pointing to the infrastructures that make it function. Materiality underpins the circulating systems that define capital—material commodities moving between material locali- Figure 3.1.3: Claire Pentecost, soil-erg, 2012. Photograph by the artist. ties, with material impact on material lives (however abstracted from material conditions of production). Maurer reveals how cash transactions (and “making a living”) are buttressed by material sup- For example, artist Trevor Paglen, with whom Parks is in dialogue in ports and social values.28 Our embeddedness in the circulational the “Invisible” section of this volume, once created a series of pho- exchange of our “livable” surrounds is mimicked in the contem- tographs documenting the physical implications of undersea inter- porary digital ontology that scholar Mark Jarzombek describes net cables for the marine landscape. Though not always in view, as “Being-Global”: “Power and Substance are continually being these structures have significant impact on a broad spectrum of exchanged through the digital ether that nourishes them.”29 These life in underseas ecosystems and global networks alike. Questions networks of digital flow are, of course, also necessarily physical; of security, cultural preservation, and freedom arising from the as media scholar (and contributor to Being Material) Lisa Parks insertion of pipelines in indigenous lands are the subject of Winona argues, all media must be understood in terms of the supports LaDuke’s essay in this section, which describes the violent links that permit them to operate and circulate, all the way down to the between these developments and long histories of environmental elemental composition of satellite dishes, electric grids, and phys- colonialism and racism. ical data centers that house “the cloud.”30 Productive analogies From “nature” research to biological engineering, from compare the circulation of material resources to the circulation of ecology to environmental studies to artists’ engagements with both, digital media: in his “Pipelines” entry for Fueling Culture (2017), art conversations about the cultural incubation of life across the fields historian Darin Barney considers oil and gas pipelines as a form of of biological design, networked ecology, environmental remediation, media that, like digital networks, “aspire to the dream of invisibility and political economy reveal “life” and livability—livable matter—as and the fantasy of immediacy.”31 And challenges to that attempted always informed by the biotic, the social, and the material. invisibility can reveal how our environments are impacted by the infrastructures that move material matter and digital information.

Figure 3.1.4: Scotti Cliford and Juliana Brown Eyes-Cliford from the band Scatter Their Own—Concert at Sacred Stone, Cannon Ball, ND, on August 15, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah LittleRedFeather Design-Honor the Earth.

100 Rebecca Uchill and Stefan Helmreich Art of of (Durham: Staying Staying 101 , a necessary a necessary , (New York: York: (New (London: (London: Between Between (New York: York: (New Arts of Living Arts of Annual Review of of Annual Review Fueling Culture: Culture: Fueling materiality materiality (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke (Minneapolis: University (Minneapolis: University (Cambridge, MA: MIT MA: MIT (Cambridge, (Cambridge, MA: MIT MA: MIT (Cambridge, symbiontics Digital Stockholm Syndrome Syndrome Digital Stockholm Being Ecological Being Ecological Materiality In the Holocene Holocene In the (Minneapolis: University of of (Minneapolis: University The Multispecies Salon The Multispecies 115. – 97 (2018): 47 Becoming Animal: Contemporary Contemporary Animal: Becoming 198. 191– April 2012, , 28. See also Maurer on the intersections of of on the intersections See also Maurer 28. and representation, abstraction, Abstraction Matter? “Does Money in money Forms,” Financial Alternative in and Substitution ed., in Daniel Miller, 164. 140– 2005), Press, University Jarzombek, Mark 29. Age in the Post-Ontological 3. 2016), Press, Minnesota of a Toward Can Kick’: You “‘Stuf Lisa Parks, 30. Theo in David Infrastructures,” Media of Theory eds., Svensson, and Patrik Goldberg and the Digital Humanities 355–373. 2015), Press, Jennifer Szeman, in Imre “Pipelines,” Darin Barney, 31. Wenzel, and PatriciaYaeger, eds., and Environment Energy for Words 101 Fordham University Press, 2017), 269270.– Helmreich and Caroline A. Jones, “Science/Art/ Jones, A. Caroline and Helmreich an Oceanic Lens,” through Culture Anthropology and Animals Humans, “Of Cox, Christoph 24. in Monsters,” Animal Kingdom Art in the articulated Demos has further J. T. 18. 2015), Press, conditions of the human-inﬂected between the link therein interventions and artistic Anthropocene the Nature,” after “Art his article among others, in, Artforum eds., Turpin, and Etienne Davis See Heather 25. Aesthetics, among Encounters Anthropocene: in the and Epistemologies Environments, Politics, See also 2015). Press, Open Humanities (London: Anne Swanson, Heather Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt eds., Nils Bubandt, and Elaine Gan, of and Monsters Ghosts on a Damaged Planet: Anthropocene the Haraway, Donna 2017). Press, Minnesota Kin in the Chthulucene Making Trouble: with the 44. 2016), Press, University Duke NC: (Durham, Morton, Timothy 26. xvi. 2018), Penguin, of in light be considered might This work 27. of notion Jones’s Caroline impact shift in human consciousness about their art by can be facilitated change that on planetary http://culturesofenergy. perception: and aesthetic com/148-caroline-a-jones/. 22. João Ribas, ed., ed., Ribas, João 22. 2015). Press, Sternberg in the nature/ interested Anthropologists—long 23. See participate. to also keen binary—were culture ed., Eben Kirksey, See also Stefan 2014). Press, University Duke 33, no. no. 33, 16, 16, (Cambridge, (Cambridge, , 15. , , April 5, 2000. The 2000. April 5, , 3 (2009): –3 (2009): 2 no. 50, (Cambridge, MA: MIT MA: MIT (Cambridge, 8 (2006): –8 (2006): 7 no. 23, Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Art, Biopolitics: Tactical Grey Room Room Grey ,” in Tom Finklepearl, ed., ed., Finklepearl, Tom in ,” , cited above), see Beth see Beth above), cited , (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Guardian 576. On 545–576. 4 (2010): no. 25, Ecology without Nature: Nature: without Ecology Paradise Now Paradise Cultural Anthropology Anthropology Cultural (Minneapolis: University of of (Minneapolis: University (Antwerp: Dumont, 2001). Dumont, (Antwerp: Revival Field Revival —collective biological emergence—a biological emergence—a —collective After Extinction After Culture, Theory and Critique Culture, in elaborated recently has more f Mirzoe 289–305. a to Anthropocene the tether to this argument Not “It’s , f in Nicholas Mirzoe line” color “geological Scene; Supremacy White the It’s Anthropocene, the Grusin, in Richard Line,” The Geological Color or, ed., 2016). Press, Minnesota Ecologies: “Ruderal Stoetzer, See Bettina 18. and the Urban Migration, Nature, Rethinking Landscape in Berlin,” 295–323. 2 (2018): Vanderlinden, and Barbara Ulrich Obrist Hans 19. Laboratorium Kismaric, and Carole Heiferman Marvin 20. Berry, to introduction introduction Philip, and Kavita da Costa Beatriz 21. eds., and Philip, da Costa to Technoscience and Activism, xx. 2008), Press, Mel Chin in conversation with Tom Finklepearl, Finklepearl, Tom with Chin in conversation Mel Chin on “Mel Art Public Dialogues in 404. 2000), Too All “Posthuman, Braidotti, See Rosi 14. in Ontology,” Process a New Towards Human: Society and Culture Theory, Helmreich, and Stefan Eben Kirksey 208; S. – 197 Ethnography,” Multispecies of “The Emergence Anthropology Cultural sympoiesis in recent Donna Haraway by being brought term e.g., (in conversation the critical biology into years Trouble with the Staying Perspective Systems Self-Organizing “A Dempster, University thesis, (MA Sustainability” on Planning for 1998). Waterloo, of It What on Row Sparks “Artist Hooper, John 15. Be German,” to Means well as a nation, of concept very the how of question its constituents, of identities of as the designations is raised nature of the concept through is formed in Morton Timothy by Aesthetics Environmental Rethinking 2007). Press, University MA: Harvard Parliamentary The German Bevölkerung: “Der 16. Ogger, Sara trans. Debate,” 91. 2004): (Summer “Memory/History/Democracy” “The Sea and the Land: , f Nicholas Mirzoe 17. Katrina,” to Slavery from Visuality and Biopower 13. Chin negotiated objections to supporting the supporting the to objections negotiated Chin 13. Arts, the for Endowment National the from work public funding receive should work the that arguing it should that and a public concern, addressing for for than, (rather agency an arts by be supported “sculpting in a project as it was the EPA) example, another.” being to of one state from an environment

(New (New Staying Staying Nature Nature Doing Whole Acquiring Acquiring (Durham: (Cambridge, MA: (Cambridge, (Berkeley: University The Century of The Century of Tactical Biopolitics: Tactical The DNA Mystique: Mystique: The DNA (Ann Arbor: University University Arbor: (Ann Signs of Life: Bio Art Bio Life: Signs of 22, no. 4 (2016): 19–52. 4 (2016): no. 22, s, NJ: s, Clif (Englewood The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Gaze: The Molecular Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Visions of AI: Apocalyptic (Saratoga Springs, NY: Frances Frances NY: Springs, (Saratoga Making Sense of Life: Explaining Explaining Life: Sense of Making Rendering Life Molecular: Molecular: Life Rendering Synthetic: How Life Got Made Made Got Life How Synthetic: Paradise Now: Picturing the Now: Paradise (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University University MA: Harvard (Cambridge, 58And (1988): see Stefan74. (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring NY: Spring Harbor, (Cold (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Silicon Second Nature: Culturing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University University MA: Harvard (Cambridge, Body and Society Body and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). Costa and Kavita Philip, eds., eds., Philip, and Kavita Costa Technoscience and Activism, Art, 465–478. 2008), Press, MIT See also: Eduardo Kac, ed., ed., Kac, See also: Eduardo and Beyond Jeremijenko, and Natalie Thacker See Eugene 11. Manual User’s A Biotechnology: Creative 2004). Publishing, Locus+ Tyne: upon (Newcastle da in Beatriz with Rats,” “Playing High, See Kathy 12. of Michigan Press, 1995). See also Suzanne Anker Anker See also Suzanne 1995). Michigan Press, of Nelkin, and Dorothy Age Genetic 2004). Press, Laboratory Harbor of Age in the “Introduction//Art Kastner, frey Je 10. ed., Kastner, frey Je in Anthropocene” the Whitechapel and Press MA: MIT (Cambridge, 12. 2012), Art, Contemporary of Documents Gallery, Models, Modelers, and Excitable Matter Matter and Excitable Modelers, Models, 2015). Press, University Duke ed., Berry, Ian 9. Revolution Genetic 2001); Dorothy Museum, Teaching Tang Young Susan Lindee, and M. Nelkin Icon The Gene as a Cultural with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene Kin in the Chthulucene Making Trouble: with the Hannah 2016); Press, University (Durham: Duke of and the Biology Resistance “Antibiotic Landecker, History,” Sophia Roosth, 7. 2017). Chicago Press, of University (Chicago: Myers, Natasha 8. Reality Keller, Fox in Evelyn Quoted 5. the Gene 6. 2000), Press, and Dorion Sagan, Margulis See Lynn 6. Species Theory the Origin of of A Genomes: Donna Haraway, 2003); Basic Books, York: 3. Chris Langton, “Toward Artificial Life,” Artificial Life,” “Toward Chris Langton, 3. Earth Review Helmreich, World in a Digital Artificial Life of California Press, 1998). Geraci, M. Robert 4. Virtual and Intelligence, Artificial Robotics, in Heaven and Machines and Machines 2003). Press, Perpetual “Designing Kelly, in Kevin Quoted 2. Artificial the Second from Notes Selected Novelty: ed., Brockman, John in Conference,” Life Club The Reality Science: 1. 1991), Prentice-Hall, 1. Evelyn Fox Keller, Keller, Fox Evelyn 1. Metaphors, Models, with Development Biological http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Microuniverse livable/tal-danino Tal Danino

Bacteria are almost everywhere on the microbes become active collaborators In nature, this ranges from large micro- planet. They are some of the simplest that continue to evolve over time due to bial mats on rocks and in hot springs, to yet most advanced organisms on Earth. random genetic mutations or reactions to layers of bacteria and bacteria products in They are also some of the earliest, and their environment. As a result, each version fermented foods. According to the most are models for the life forms that exo- of a Microuniverse image is unpredictable recent estimates,1 within the body each biologists search for on other planets. and unique, although deeper examination person carries about as many bacteria as Trillions of them live in natural and urban reveals hidden structures and patterns that human cells, which weigh approximately environments, as well as in and on the look to viewers to be perfectly calculated half of a pound per person. One of the early human body. Recently, bacteria have been and arranged in their final morphology. instances of the Microuniverse involved discovered to have an enormous impact As these organic patterns then decay, we growing pattern-forming species of bac- on human health, not only as agents of preserve and document the complex pro- teria on petri dishes, and after drying and disease but as beneficial microbes that live cesses that comprise microbes’ transient dyeing them, explicitly cutting the agar to fit mutualistically in the body and are essential existence. Using a combination of artistic into slide mounts to frame each bacteria’s to maintaining homeostasis. They are inher- dyes used for fabrics and scientific stains unique world. Slide mounts were arranged ently part of people’s genetic and physical used for microbial classification, we color and tiled for presentational displays show- identities and thus open many new avenues petri dishes according to their species and casing the diverse world of bacteria for any for scientific and artistic exploration. type. Ultimately, this work reveals the emer- particular subject: for instance, a collection Microuniverse is an ongoing gent efects of the hidden microscopic of bacteria from a specific country, envi- series I started in 2015 that uses a blend universe on the macro scale—suggesting ronment, or even a specific species. Since of scientific and artistic techniques to that scales from the human body to the the slides and agar were semitransparent, explore the controlled and chaotic forms body politic are fundamentally reshaped this permitted their projection as slides in of the microscopic world. In this project, by biotechnology. Through the observation carousel projectors, creating an immer- myself, Soonhee Moon, and other lab of living organisms, the medium becomes sive experience by the dramatic scale of members have been sampling various the message as the synergy of scientific bacteria with multiple projections on sur- environments around the world, including and artistic techniques communicates and rounding walls. The analog projection was soil, water, and urban ecosystems, as well queries our senses of the human condi- chosen to make the connection between as food and pathogenic strains studied in tion and other creatures that we share our our rudimentary forms of biotechnology the lab. Bacteria are then set up to pro- environment with. and earlier techniques of relaying visual duce unique patterns while also enacting The scale and material quality of imagery. Each enlarged and projected slide their intricate, natural forms. Specifically, bacteria are often overlooked by viewers can be thought of as its own little universe; when growing in a petri dish under special and scientists alike. Although individually looking at an image, viewers cannot tell if conditions, bacteria swarm across the agar invisible to the naked eye, bacteria collec- the slide is something one might find at the gel surface and create complex patterns tively occupy significant physical space bottom of the ocean or might rather be a that resemble fractals and snowflakes. The and possess unique material properties. false-color image of a really faraway galaxy. This scale-invariant quality of the slides is something that allows viewers’ imaginations to extrapolate from the world of bacteria to broader implications of life in the universe. In another version of the project, bacteria are preserved within glass petri dishes, allowing real bacteria to be displayed for a close-up view in a gallery context. While the slide mounts do subtly show the rufed texture of the bacteria surface, hinting at authenticity rather than representative materials, the mounts themselves and encased bacteria are flat, and do not fully convey the original growth process of bacteria. Here the entire agar gel with bacteria grown on the surface is embedded and floating inside the circular glass petri dish, a lidded glass dish used to keep organism growth sterile (see figure 3.2.2). The use of glass and an extremely durable preservation medium such as silicon or Figure 3.2.1: Tal Danino, Microuniverse, 2016. Bacteria grown on agar and framed in slide mounts, 25.5 × 25.5 acrylic represents bacteria’s long-lasting inches. Photo: Soonhee Moon. quality. Bacteria do not age like human

102 Tal Danino 103 , 2017. 2017. , Microuniverse Glass Microuniverse Figure 3.2.2: Tal Danino, Danino, Tal 3.2.2: Figure 12 × 12 × 1 inches. in glass dish, preserved Bacteria Soonhee Moon. Photo: Figure 3.2.3: Tal Danino Microbial Rainbow, 2018. Various bacteria species grown on agar on petri dishes. Print on paper, variant size.

Figure 3.2.4: Tal Danino, Microbial Rainbow, 2018. Image sequence of Proteus mirabilis growth on petri dish from time-lapse.

106 Tal Danino - - - - - 14, no. no. 14, series in in series 107 334, no. 6053 6053 no. 334, PLoS Biol PLoS Invaders Invaders Science Nature Reviews Microbiology We displayed the by motivated These series were the microbes in our bodies. In turn, this In turn, bodies. in our the microbes our toward thoughts turns our observation connecting the similarity complexity, own the scales throughout across patterns of universe. greater Milo, and Ron Shai Fuchs, Sender, Roon 1. Human of the Number for Estimates “Revised Cells in the Body,” and Bacteria https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. e1002533, 8 (2016): pbio.1002533. 2. Daniel Field “A B. Kearns,Guide to Bacterial Motility,” Swarming al., 634–644; Chenli Liu et 9 (2010): no. 8, “Sequential Establishment of Stripe Patterns in an Expanding Cell Population,” 241. (2011): 238– two ways. The ﬁrst is as a large arrangement arrangement large a as is ﬁrst The ways. two of tiles in a space-invader, emoji pattern. use scientists what is invader-emoji This it as bacteria, about other each text to it Furthermore, creature. little a like looks represents the early development of video syn of days the early analogous to games, and the engineering-of-bac biology thetic type second The today. in are we times teria sculptures small of collection a is display of the with emoji, bacteria the of shape the in surface. the front onto decal baked bacteria little crea resemble These small sculptures bacteria of world hidden the bring that tures to life at a larger scale. evident and render explore to the desire numerous and diverse the astoundingly one By bodies. in and on our bacteria more are there made, we calculation stars are bodies than there in our bacteria identities This puts our galaxy. entire in our as part only not as humans in perspective, heteroge the cosmos but as complex, of with living symbiotically neous organisms Once viewers register images, a bacterial a bacterial images, register viewers Once family bacteria particular that of time-lapse audi deeper for This allows is displayed. with and appreciation ence engagement microbes. of hidden world the for ------Invaders Invaders ’s ability to to ability ’s though it is an

2 P. mirabilis P. coordinates its pattern pattern its coordinates Throughout this project, we have have we this project, Throughout P. mirabilis mirabilis P. growth of bacteria with the natural clay and clay with the natural bacteria of growth in the The patterns medium. ﬁnal ceramic as images but aesthetic only not series are as dynamic behavior a rich, also display cou the tiles were this, share To grow. they with system reality an augmented pled to smartphone app (LayAR). available a freely patterns on petri dishes. The process by by The process dishes. on petri patterns which characteris many to thanks emerges communication including collective tics, asknown quorum-sensing and a cyclical of and consolidation initiation of process swarmer cells to dictate synchronous ring formation (see URL adjacent to title of this contribution).The precise mechanisms be elucidated, to yet are research. of area active in bacteria portray to how been exploring The form. physical a relatable, this idea as a collab series began from Choi and DooEun curator with oration clay obtaining After Kimi Kim. artist ceramic isolated were bacteria Kimi, samples from in the laboratory. and grown the clay from on petri grew bacteria weeks several For environ composed dishes in carefully natural, their allow conditions to mental to processes formation pattern complex and trans captured Images were occur. onto decals and then baked into formed organic connect the natural to tiles, clay across a solid surface is known as “swarm as is known a solid surface across Interestingly, ing.” be associated to is known cause infection host and invade swarm to with its ability some remove you if instance, For tissue. machine from the swarming aspects of them less infectious, make to the bacteria the beautiful and distinct form do not they ------has one 5.5 inches. × 5.5 inches. 5.5 × 2.75 sculpture, Ceramic 2017. , P. mirabilis mirabilis P. Little Invaders . This species has a dual This species . One unique bacteria species that species that One unique bacteria These projects have been success have These projects of the most unique patterns in the bacterial in the bacterial unique patterns the most of concentric forming synchronously world, pat a bullseye like look come to rings that movement coordinated of pattern This tern. we have explored throughout the series is throughout explored have we mirabilis Proteus soil and in most living harmlessly nature, caus but sometimes environments water in certain condi behaviors ing pathogenic When infections). tract in urinary tions (e.g., dishes, on petri grown quality. Compared to seeing images on a seeing images to Compared quality. computer or through a microscope where scale is unknown, the authenticity of scale helps convey the message through the medium itself. ity (such as growths on food) can trigger can trigger on food) as growths (such ity quality and the material reactions, negative contexts in cultural presented bacteria of Knowing interest. extreme be of seems to in the art pieces “real” are the bacteria that explicitly see bacteria people to allows scale and physical own viewer’s the at are encountered in standard textbooks textbooks in standard encountered are such materials representative through or the real Displaying plastics. or as prints viewers’ command can strongly bacteria In learning. them for and prepare attention material seeing bacteria’s lives, daily our bacteria to diverse audiences of non audiences of diverse to bacteria have otherwise not who might scientists every the bacterial view opportunities to the unseen seeing into This type of day. sen and wonder evokes world microbial when microbes unlike sorial aesthetics, cells and other organisms; rather they con they rather organisms; cells and other collec that “sisters” divide into tinuously as a community. behave tively of lives and the world communicating ful at "Figure 3.2.5: Tal Danino, Danino, Tal 3.2.5: "Figure Soonhee Moon." Photo: Being Material Beings Claire Pentecost

God made everything out of nothing. more slowly. For instance, a mature hardwood tree and a small But the nothingness shows through. pony contain about the same amount of nitrogen, although their —Paul Valéry, Mauvaises pensées et autres, 1942 relative biomass difers significantly. Given the right conditions, the pony will be fully decomposed and recycled in a matter of weeks, We could say that the soil is both womb and grave of terrestrial while the deceased tree becomes an ecosystem in itself, yielding life. It is likely that the minerals in your body once sheltered in the its substance only slowly. During a human decomposition process, ground. With the help of a team of wild microorganisms, those your nutrient island will be warmer than the surrounding forest and minerals were made available to a plant’s roots. Collecting these will be the site of a measurable oxygen drawdown, as the feast- bioavailable minerals and absorbing the energy of sunlight, the ing microbes demand oxygen with their meals and to fuel their plant grew into something we call food. Either you ate the plant or very active reproduction cycle. Yes, they are multiplying rapidly. you ate an animal who ate the plant. Or possibly your mother ate As conditions in the various rooms of your crumbling corporeal the plant while you were gestating in her womb, building a little temple become anoxic, you will be of-gassing carbon dioxide body to carry you through this life. Before you incorporated them, (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), ammonia (NH3), and methane (CH4), to those minerals may once have been part of the bedrock, the sea, name a few. When all the soft tissue has been thus digested, there or myriad living organisms—bees and beans, badgers and belu- you will lie, a dry and disarticulated skeleton, thin enough at last! gas. In these ways you are part of a vast and highly efcient living Some remnants of your carbon content will be absorbed into and recycling system. And when you die, you have the chance to rein- sequestered in the ground, remaining in place. Meanwhile, your vest the elements present in your body at that moment; back they bones may be carried of by animals eager for a good gnaw, or go into the fertile mesh of life. Unless you consent to be embalmed may acquire the elegant teeth marks of mice, shrews, and other as is customary in the mortuary culture of the United States. In that rodents in situ. case you will be hoarding your riches in your cadaver (after a good percentage of them have been removed and, what, thrown into The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life the garbage stream?). And if your people pay for the full package, which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately what’s left of you will be entombed in something impenetrable to or in the long run. agents of the otherwise ubiquitous recycling system. —Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 But let’s say you fall dead in a forest. When your heart stops beating, your cells will quickly be starved of oxygen. Carbon So we could say that, in order to grow itself, new life harvests what dioxide increases and pH decreases. Waste products collect it needs from old life. Death provides. As we eat our way through in your cells, poisoning them and triggering the enzymes that the years, we are continually harvesting from the soil and from perform autolysis, or self-digestion. This releases enzymes called the labor of the decomposers who convert the mineral riches lysosymes, which break down the matter of the cells into mole- of the dead into bioavailable sustenance. Botanist and adept of cules of their constituent materials, liberating nutrients that will the plant wisdom of her Anishinaabe forebears, Dr. Robin Wall first be ingested by the microbes that have been living in and Kimmerer articulates the concept of the honorable harvest, fur- on your body. These resident symbionts will get the message of nishing guidelines for extraction of resources.2 The imperatives of your demise and will unleash their microbial appetites on your the protocol include: infrastructure. Soon the abundance of nutrient-rich fluids leak- ing or erupting out of you will become food for the bacteria and fungus living in the rich leaf litter of the woods. In short, your death becomes a fertilization event, a potlatch redistributing nutrients. Your necrobiome is a pop-up food web, a transient hot spot releasing the elements that built your body and facilitated the life you’ve called your own.1 Meanwhile avian and mammalian scavengers are quick to respond to the presence of a fresh cadaver. Right behind them come the flies, laying eggs so that larvae can hatch and grow fat on the bounty. Carrion beetles will also arrive punctually. Then come the secondary consumers, organisms that feed on the primary revelers (e.g., the bacteria and the maggots). This party will include nematodes, protozoa, slime molds, wasp ants, birds, butterflies, worms, even predators who zero in to lay eggs in the living bodies of the maggots. The soil where you lie will darken as it receives the seepage of compounds being remineralized and snatched up in the cause of new life. This can be described by a decomposition curve. As an animal, your curve will be sharper than that of a plant of roughly the same mass. You are a fairly concentrated nitrogen fertilizer, Figure 3.3.1: soil-erg currency: Thoreau, Claire Pentecost, graphite and soil on but a plant will have a higher ratio of carbon, which decomposes paper, 2012.

108 Claire Pentecost - - - 109 , Claire Pentecost, 2018. Pentecost, Claire , Soil Chroma, soy field, Wisconsin field, soy Soil Chroma, You have probably heard that one of the worst causes the worst one of that heard probably have You the miraculously most salmon exemplifies of cycle The life Figure 3.3.3: Figure against the current back to the precise place of their birth, where where birth, their place of the precise to back the current against becomes and die also spawn they Where and die. will spawn they nutrients precious the releasing fruitful decomposition, of the site sea prof a gift of bodies become Their sea. the salmon accrued at in the mountains. fered the excesses of synthetic nitrogen make a field very attractive to to attractive very a field make nitrogen synthetic of the excesses biocides, of rounds more necessitating pests, and other weeds this time, Over soil is annihilated. the dimension of the living until desertifi of a kind lends the land to extraction relentless kind of Bad profit. Corporate Sterility. inputs. More . f Runo Inputs. cation. circle. vicious The food. is the wanton States pollution in the United and river stream of the turns out that It fields. our to fertilizer synthetic of application thriving is in the bodies of nitrogen of reserves store place to best each and to particles available to Gluing themselves bacteria. will hold which the nitrogen in microaggregates form they other, When rain. heavy the first with flushed downriver be and not fast that for nutrient other any or nitrogen, call for plants of the roots amount. appropriate it up in the and fungi give the bacteria matter, and it and when, much it wants how just has a sense of The plant and know) as we far via chemical messages (as this communicates the more, What’s and starches. sugars of in exudates trading by soil struc to contributors necessary are microaggregates irregular is the soil it, Without and water. oxygen of enhancing the flow ture, home for making a cozy go anaerobic, to and destined compacted it works. This is how Really. pathogens. in the shallows, Born up river back. giving something of practice the sea. for and then make growing year first spend their the fry themselves hoist heroically they the ocean, in life a mature After heavy machinery. In this field the collective work of a microscopic a microscopic of work collective this field the In machinery. heavy raw of dusting or spray a of in favor been bypassed has community Our (NPK). nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium primarily vitamins, do nothing we Meanwhile food. on processed raised are plants worse, matters make To sprout. they the soil where replenish to - - -

- , Claire Pentecost, 2018. Pentecost, Claire , Soil Chroma, Hoh Forest, Washington Forest, Hoh Soil Chroma, don’t waste what you have taken; have you what waste don’t take; you what share received; have you what for thanks give taken. have you what for a gift in reciprocity give know the ways of the ones who take care of you, so that that so you, of care take ones who the of ways the know them; of care take may you take only what you need; you what only take Let’s say you fall dead in a field of genetically modified genetically in a field of dead fall you say Let’s Does our current system of industrial agriculture give — — — — — — Figure 3.3.2: Figure install a maggot nursery in your flesh. But the microbial action the microbial But flesh. your in nursery a maggot install and crushed by pesticides by stymied wanting, will be seriously soybeans, a monocrop of identical plants, engineered to resist resist to engineered plants, identical of a monocrop soybeans, industrial will learn that you there, Lying the herbicide glyphosate. and mam The avian places. some lonely for makes agriculture belt of soy in the toxic can persist those that malian scavengers, up to And the flies will show you. will find American Midwest, the gen-rich (green or fresh) ingredients and carbon-rich (brown or or and carbon-rich (brown ingredients fresh) or gen-rich (green dried). It can be achieved with a light application of attention, a help this pro to engage worms can even You time. your little of cess along. Compost. Oxygenated decomposition. Fertility. Good food. TheLife. virtuous circle. soil? the to back coli, and other organic disjecta, and let the microbes take it back it back take the microbes and let disjecta, organic and other coli, to the soil. Compost is the process oxygenatedof decomposition. notIf asoxygenated, when buried in the anaerobic conditions of a city dump, the good biology gives way to the pathogenic, and we meet the odorWe can of rot. get complicated about it, but it’s pretty straightforward;you want to maintain a balance of nitro A codeA of ethical gathering reminds us to care for the soil as the site of an essential,vivifying alchemy. Besides dying, how part of that not waste We the soil? Compost. to back give do we our harvest we might otherwise Realizing throw away. that there actually is we noknow such that place organic as“away,” waste will only rot in a landfill, producing methane. So we reserve the broc yellowing the pulp, the seedy the rinds, the stems, husks, Just as the forest and the field are distinct, so is the sub- so easy. All he can really say is that he was a captive and eager to strate of any other given terrain. Wanting to see these diferences, change his status. “I imitated because I was looking for a way out,” in 2013 I took up making portraits of soils collected in the course of much as a human infant gurgles, squeals, and screams until capa- my comings and goings. These images, made by a process of soil ble of the imitation that will guide her into subjecthood and civiliza- chromatography, demonstrate the ordinary and astonishing fact tion. In exchange for the privilege, humans surrender any memory that any given stretch of earth is diferent from any other. The dif- of whatever constitutes the subjectivity of our primate cousins ferences, expressed through the separation and staining of paper or even our own prelinguistic state. Although language allows us with soluble substances in a subtle range of tones and marks, to articulate almost anything we can imagine, recollection of our reflect the specific geological, climatological, biological, and essential animality is of-limits; it has long been the negative hallu- cultural history of a given place. These are connected not only with cination in our linguistically conscious panorama. place but also with time. Soil undergoes continual changes, so Today, given the rise of critical animal studies, plant studies, the image that appears is one directly corresponding to a passing and speculative realism, many humans seem eager to disidentify moment in that patch of earth’s life. with their own species or at least shift their weight deeper into the Back in the forest near where you have been falling apart, network of previously disavowed biological and material kinship. the resulting putrescine, cadaverine, and roughly four hundred Will we also embrace the return of our corporeal weight to the other compounds of decomposition dissipate. Then we can feel soil, in the previously disavowed process that is death? And what and smell a sweet friable soil resulting from generations of fallen is the fate of this desecrated planet? If it should become too hot plant life. Figure 3.3.2 is a chromatograph of such a soil, with finely to host the range of exquisite life recently enjoying this globe, will articulated rings and feathery rays in warm tones. Alternatively, over it be swept by the soot of its own decay? The hospitable atmo- in the soy field where you are waiting to complete the disbursement sphere in which we have evolved itself evolved, along with the first of your mineral accumulation, the takers are more thin in the ground. single-celled algae and bacteria that consumed the CO2 swirling Figure 3.3.3 reveals the graying, organic void of the factory that is around at the time and processed it in their bodies, exhaling O2. industrial agriculture. The question is not so much where you would Carbon has built the biological structures while oxygen has main- rather die, but where you would rather cultivate life. tained the wildly diversified life of this known world. The masses of carbon-dense exoskeletons and endoskeletons accumulating Every creature who walks the earth feels a tickling at his heels. under pressure over geological time furnish the fuels we can’t —Franz Kafka, A Report to an Academy, 1917 seem to stop burning. Now that an economic system based on incessant growth is serving up enough carbon dioxide to change These words are spoken by Red Peter, an ape who has acquired earth’s atmosphere yet again, what is the likelihood of some- language and lives as a human, in Franz Kafka’s “Report to an where down the line generating an atmosphere congenial to a Academy.” What is that tickling? Is it the life in the soil eager to range of species comparable to what is being destroyed now? reclaim us? Is it our fear of such a reclamation? Perhaps it is our Or perhaps our future dehydrated planet will start to crumble, unacknowledged kinship with (nonhuman?) beings that for centu- expressing our collective dust into the galaxy and on to the gal- ries have been considered ontologically diferent, inferior, at times axies beyond this one and those beyond those, to a world where even repulsive. Red Peter would like to gratify the expectations of new life forms in unknown air. the “academy” by accounting for his transformation, but it’s not

Figure 3.3.4: soil-erg currency: Kafka, Claire Pentecost, graphite and compost on paper.

110 Claire Pentecost 111

, Claire Pentecost, charcoal and graphite on mylar, 2016. on mylar, and graphite charcoal Pentecost, Claire , Braiding Sweetgrass Braiding Death Is the Food of Life of the Food Is Death researcher at the Body Farm at the University of of the University at Farm Body the at researcher Knoxville. Tennessee, Kimmerer, Wall Robin 2. 2014). Editions, (Minneapolis: Milkweed 1. For making the course of human taphonomy human taphonomy of making the course For 1. a DeBruyn, Jennifer Dr. thank to I want clear, and scientist and environmental microbiologist Figure 3.3.5: Figure That Touch of Money Bill Maurer

Bank tellers who spot counterfeits almost always say the same Physical currency has taken a bad rap. It is associated with thing to investigators when explaining how they came to suspect crime, drugs, money laundering, disease, or just inefciency—it a particular banknote: “it just didn’t feel right.” In a time when takes people time to count it and calculate with it. An anti-cash cashless futures are invoked with increasing frequency, the feel lobby exists today, cross-nationally, driven in large part by tech- of money remains remarkably consistent. Engravers and artists nology companies as well as state governments seeking to root who make US banknotes proudly boast of their craft, and of the out informal markets for the purposes of sweeping them into their specific features of design, printing, and paper that make the US revenue collection eforts and attempting to thwart criminal activity dollar a unique artifact among the world’s moneys. Intaglio printing by going after the cash flow. Payment systems have chokepoints— in particular imparts a texture. The paper, sourced from only one critical nodes or portals at which the details of transactions can be company since 1879, drapes and crumbles just so, unifying touch, viewed and the flow of money stopped. sound, and smell in a perceptual ensemble. That touch of money! From 2013 to 2017, the US Department of Justice instituted What tellers feel, however, is something that is not quite the a program called—fittingly—Operation Choke Point, designed to firmness of paper but rather its dappled absence, the indentations scrutinize transactions taking place through one of the United between the raised lines created by intaglio. They detect, in other States’ most important payment systems, the ACH. The ACH is a words, a gap as their skin fills the grooves of the ink and paper payment system with rules set by a not-for-profit—formerly the weave. In this essay, I contrast the physicality of banknotes with National ACH Association or NACHA, now called NACHA: The the backbone of contemporary electronic transfers of value, the Electronic Payments Association—which relies on two indepen- Automated Clearing House (ACH). My aim is to upend—or, better, dent operators for the transfer of value (so as to avoid monopoly decompose—the description of cash as material and electronic control). Banks follow NACHA rules when using the ACH to transfer transfers as digital, and to suggest a diferent description—one value, and also provide data with each transaction warranting that that allows for the melded and mingled. I am not, strictly speaking, transaction in order to comply with regulations aimed at prevent- advocating a shift in our perspective on the material and the digi- ing money-laundering and fraud. There is a lot going on in the tal, for perspective is part of the problem; rather, I want to give us a background whenever a US worker receives a direct deposit or diferent feel for these phenomena. sets up an automatic bill payment. Consider the act of payment, of buying something. Such acts Operation Choke Point sought to track ACH transfers for a exist within a payment system. A physical banknote is, of course, set of business types the Department of Justice deemed at high part of a payment system, one that encompasses multiple parties risk for fraudulent activities—payday lending companies, ammu- involved in creating the note as a physical and legal object, sur- nition providers, pornography businesses, dating services, and rounding it with various forms of authority and negotiability, as well others.2 The common denominator of such businesses was their as the manufacturers, suppliers and maintainers of cash distribution use of the payment system to debit people’s accounts automati- systems, from printing presses to armored trucks and automatic cally and often without their knowledge, as well as their association teller machines. There are much larger payment frames, however, with potentially illicit activity, tax evasion, or money laundering. set up by the payments industry, that little understood but ubiqui- A customer of a payday lender might not know that by handing tous patchwork of physical-world tills, cables and wires, wireless over bank account information the lender would have the ability to networks, banking consortia, payment card networks, rules and draw from that account for any type of payment associated with guidelines, pathways of connectivity and technology. Paying is never the business—a fee or an additional interest or principal payment. just about money, for money itself—what we think of as money—is Another category of business targeted by Operation Choke Point generally one part of a collection of infrastructures for the transfer of included those ofering “lifetime guarantees”—which provide value. Visa is a system that consists of both a set of rules and codes a means of holding on to customers over the long term while for transactions and the technical infrastructure for facilitating them deducting small payments as dues or membership fees over the (it is, in the words of a payments industry expert, both a “scheme” for course of the life of the product. The kinds of businesses targeted the transfer of value and a “rail” over which that transfer takes place).1 by Operation Choke Point were “risky” because of the nature of the

Figure 3.4.1: ACH instructions, Treasury Software, available at http://www.treasurysoftware.com/ACH/Create- ACH-File.aspx

112 Bill Maurer 113 del Oro, Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia. Colombia. Bogotá, la República, Banco de del Oro, permission. used with Rodríguez, M. Clark Photo: Figure 3.4.2: Malagana nose ornament, gold nose ornament, 3.4.2: Malagana Figure Museo Colección , O33312 object number collection products and the payments associated with them. Take porn: the fears the enclosure of everyday purchasing decisions by corporate automatic payment for membership at a porn website is exactly entities that sell user information to the highest bidder, as well as the kind of thing a person might challenge, denying they’d ever the exclusion of the poor, without access to digital accounts, from authorized it, to defend themselves from an angry spouse, thus everyday economic activity. There are payment deserts in the posing a risk to both the business and the bank. These businesses United States today: places where, if you don’t have a plastic card were also targeted because the business model of many of them or mobile phone, your custom cannot be accepted. depends on steady, ongoing, recurrent payments—a revenue Beginning in 2007, I have been privy to conversations in stream that looks more like rents than profits. governments, philanthropic organizations, payments industry busi- The right wing went crazy (and this was in the days before nesses, and advocacy organizations about the changing nature Trump). They accused the Department of Justice of unfairly of transactions. Because I directed an institute funded by the Bill targeting businesses that were politically unpopular with the and Melinda Gates Foundation, focused on researching mobile- Obama administration or associated with the political right (like phone-enabled digital payment in the global South, I was at gun and ammunition sales). They painted authoritarian scenarios times regarded as an anti-cash person. So called “mobile money” of the government spying into everyone’s electronic transactions, services were touted as an on-ramp for the financial inclusion of taking advantage of the ACH to choke of any payment based on the world’s poor as well as a means for governments to collect political whim. William Isaac, former FDIC chairman, opined in the revenue by formalizing informal payments in digital networks. Yet Washington Post: the preponderance of the research I helped support pointed to the ways people use diverse payments methods all the time: not that This Justice Department program … sets a dangerous digital was replacing cash, but that digital was serving some use precedent. The same power the government uses today to cases, while cash was retained for others.9 My colleagues and I deprive ammunition dealers or check-cashing businesses argue that there is a public interest in payments, that cash is a of banking services could tomorrow be used against con- quasi-public infrastructure for value transfer and a democratic venience stores selling sugary sodas, restaurants selling means of payment. It is available to anyone and for any kind of high fat foods, or family-planning clinics. Congress should payment, and settles at face or par value, instantaneously, without act immediately to choke of Operation Choke Point.3 the need for other technological apparatuses in that moment of payment. (There is, of course, a huge institutional and technolog- After Congressional inquiries, the program was shut down. ical assemblage behind and before the moment of the physical Operation Choke Point was not the first time that elec- transfer of a banknote from one hand to another. There are also tronic payment systems’ role in the movement of money was in costs associated with cash—from loss owing to theft or misplace- the political spotlight. Three years earlier, PayPal and later Visa ment, to the costs of cash registers, armored trucks, and guards.) and MasterCard froze payments to Wikileaks. Wikileaks’ support- Digital money proponents from government and law ers responded by launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) enforcement communities routinely emphasize that digital pay- attacks on the payment networks, causing moderate disruption. ments permit a kind of vision: regulators and investigators can This skirmish in the usually backgrounded payment rails was “see” the transactions, can peer into the networks shuttling elec- called by one blogger “the first great cyber war.”4 tronic value—and can choke of the flow, shut down the gateways, It wasn’t. It did, however, prefigure the role of money and lower the toll barrier when they see something they do not like. payments in the 2016 US presidential election, from cash pay- Digital payment also allows revenue collection agencies a window ments to former Trump mistresses to Russian Bitcoin payments into the comings and goings of people’s money. Even cryptocur- for domain name registration and the servers used to hack the rencies like Bitcoin generally reside in a public ledger: individual Democratic National Committee. All of this is in the context of transactors’ identities may be concealed, but the system depends what my colleagues and I have termed the Cambrian explosion on all participants in the network having the ability to “see” transac- in payments: the proliferation of devices, networks, protocols, and tions in real time to thwart any digital duplication of tokens of value. interfaces for the transfer of value that took place beginning around The problem with cash, say the critics, is that it cannot 2008—after the launch of the iPhone and M-Pesa, the Kenyan be seen. There is no way for you tell how much cash I have in my mobile-phone-based money transfer service.5 The Cambrian explo- wallet without physically taking it from me, but you could—with the sion in payments is also aligned with the so-called “war on cash”:6 proper warrant or hacking skills—investigate my digital accounts. the efort by private-sector businesses to create digital platforms for Cash’s materiality pushes back against the spatiotemporal afor- payments in order to suture the consumer to specific enterprises or dances provided by digital networks: for, of course, cash can be vendors, all the while gathering transaction fees, or, more impor- seen. I can show you the cash in my wallet quite easily in fact. It is tantly, transactional data for the purposes of marketing.7 more of a challenge to show you an electronic transfer. I can show And surveillance. As I write, in China millions of people are you the result of that transfer—a change in the numbers represent- using mobile phone applications like WeChat Pay and Alipay to ing my balance, either on a screen or a piece of paper. If I wanted send and receive money from one another, to purchase items at to get fancier, I could show you (again, on paper or on the screen) the point of sale, to order food, buy movie tickets, find a dog walker, the ACH instructions typed by a bank teller or translated into or unlock a bicycle from bike sharing services like Ofo. And the alphanumeric symbols by a computer initiating the instructions. Chinese government is using machine learning to spot patterns But these are representations of the initiation of the transfer, not of behavior associated with activities it might not like—political the transfer itself. To show you the latter, I would need an array of organizing, aggregation of news stories from sites outside the equipment allowing us to see (again, a representation of) the data country, discussion of air pollution, or simply patterns of move- flowing between nodes in the ACH’s interbank computer network. ment, purchasing, and consumption that add up to something it It is a representation of it made for me and you, of course, not for wants to keep tabs on.8 the machines in the network itself. The data flow involved in the In the United States, the war on cash generates alarm on transfer is made by machine for machines.10 both the left and the right. The right fears government intrusion An ACH data file is a fixed-width, alphanumeric document; into daily life via the monetary transactions that sustain it; the left each line is always ninety-four characters in length, and there are

114 Bill Maurer - - - - 115 : it is not just just not is it : 11 of Bits The Stuf of The ACH is what a computer scientist might call a legacy legacy call a might scientist a computer is what ACH The to merely want I ACH, the on primer a providing Without as signals, themselves virtual objects manifest those materially with be grappled must that and states charges, con own and which come with their in digital systems the human to which bleed through straints—constraints within which the social arrangements and to experience embedded. are virtual entities digital and Figure 3.4.4: “Payment Services 2200,” bank teller from the future, Atlanta Atlanta future, the from teller bank 2200,” Services “Payment 3.4.4: Figure https://www.frbatlanta.org/ Atlanta, of Bank Reserve Federal Museum, Monetary about/tours/virtual/a4.aspx format that was designed to free up space on the punch cards on the punch cards up space free designed to was that format the but preserves bits) those extra encoding using additional for format. fixed-width ninety-four-character many of source which is the format using an old data system, profession industry among payments and complaints jokes cards. uses punch still ACH the that think Some even als today. PayPal, companies like technology financial Contemporary better developing by “innovate” and Stipe can simply Square, the file is just discussed I have What ACH. the into interfaces user I (and obviously ordances, f and a constraints its own format—with in transfer ACH types in an record the five of on two touched only con will always file transfer ACH and each discussion above, my is much more But there type). each record of instances tain several into software client banks’ uploaded by files are ACH the system: to firewalls. are there encryption; is PGP there servers; FTP secure Dourish in Paul made by a point amplify but that infrastructures, material on relies virtual the digital or that realized that eighty-character cards would not hold enough data. data. hold enough not would cards eighty-character that realized which format, ninety-four-character own their developed They spe even and lists, printed tape, on magnetic be employed could character ink magnetic for ink using magnetic vouchers cial paper 7-bit encoding (a ASCII uses ACH the Today, (MICR). recognition - one be able to use the ACH to transfer $10 transfer to ACH use the one be able to should It also tells us something about the original systems on the original systems about us something tells also It UNIVAC computers. The ACH builders such as Rich Oliver (who (who Oliver such as Rich builders ACH The computers. UNIVAC out with the started with me) his experiences shared generously quickly But they in mind. standard punch card eighty-character as the standard shortly after NACHA was formed out of a number a number out of formed was NACHA after shortly as the standard for allowed Those cards associations. payments regional of char in a specific kind of characters, eighty and later ninety-six Coded Decimal Interchange Binary encoding (Extended acter in turn designed so was that an 8-bit format EBCDIC), Code or one another to be so close not would the holes in the cards that Sperry-Rand apart when run through fall to cause the card as to million? Should one be able to transfer $10 million at all? What What all? $10 million at transfer to Should one be able million? why, require, transfer such a large would checkpoints or barriers whom?). by set fixed-width The ninety-four-character, built. was ACH which the adopted IBM punch cards the original from derives format data denominated are recorded in numbers of cents: so a $100 transfer transfer so a $100 cents: of in numbers recorded are denominated the file by allowed the maximum transfer and as 10000, is recorded their set however, and regulators, Banks is $9,999,999.99. format is there That this amount. below limits far maximum transfer own commitments about institutional us something tells limit an upper and reasonableness as theories of as well and arrangements, ( morality even Header Record, contains information about the originating bank bank the originating about information contains Record, Header are There example. for the transaction, of and time and the date For transfers. ACH the encoding of to peculiarities counterintuitive is although it is numeric, number, an individual account instance, does number the account if zeros of spaces instead padded with be to And amounts it. for characters allotted fill the seventeen not five types of lines, containing specific information related to the to related information specific containing lines, types of five File the record, The first “record.” a line is called Each transfer. Figure 3.4.3: Tsembaga men examine shell valuables. Roy Rappaport Papers. Rappaport Papers. Roy valuables. shell men examine Tsembaga 3.4.3: Figure UC San Diego. Archives, Special Collections & MSS 0516. It is easy to fall into the argument that cash is material and digital information, respectively”20 but that they frequently confound one transfers are virtual and leave it at that, as Negroponte might have another to the point where it can become difcult to separate done in the 1990s.12 If we forget for a minute the spools of mag- visual and auditory inputs.21 netic tape, the MICR-printed vouchers, and those original punch And here is where we come to that touch of money. The cards, we could imagine digital banking data moving around at particular feel of the US banknote is imparted not by its brute light speed. A colleague in the payments industry, Carol Benson, materiality but by the complexities of texture that are at once about however, tells the story of how “the guy who hand-carried the physical, substantial material and its absence, the missing bits or ACH tape to the New York Automated Clearinghouse … sat in the the efect of gaps between lines produced by intaglio printing on passenger seat of the van that was taking bags of checks to the unique paper. US banknotes are characterized by a paper made by clearinghouse—the enormous [ACH] tape reel was held on his lap.” only one company, Crane Currency, which has held the exclusive Building on Dourish, just as virtual objects manifest as contract to produce US banknote paper since 1879 (in contrast to states with material constraints, objects we would deem “material” the ACH, which, as noted earlier, was set up to have two opera- manifest as immaterial depending on their particular constraints tors, the Federal Reserve and a privately held company called The and afordances. For example, many material objects signifying Clearing House Payments Company, specifically to avoid monop- the power of money were made to be seen, to present spectacles, oly control over electronic payment). Crane embeds some security to dazzle the observer and sometimes to obfuscate the bearer. and counterfeit detection features into the paper itself, which is When a high-ranking person in the Andes between 100 BCE and called the substrate of the banknote, before it is delivered to the 300 CE wore an elaborate nose ornament attached at the septum Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau of Engraving and and covering the mouth, the dangling pieces suspended by small Printing houses and operates the printing presses that turn the hoops would move, shimmer, and make noise. Ear spools from paper into cash. which large gold disks hung would create a similar efect. From US banknotes are printed using an intaglio technique a distance the wearer of such objects would appear to be pos- involving printing presses capable of delivering extreme pressure sessed of a “luminous power.”13 (20,000 lbs/sq in). Metal plates are etched with the design. Rollers Shell valuables from Melanesia in the twentieth century distribute ink over the plate, which sinks into the grooves of the functioned similarly. They were, as Marilyn Strathern put it, “devices design work. Wipers clean the non-engraved surfaces of the plate, of concealment and revelation.”14 So while their materiality mat- which is then pressed into the paper. The non-engraved surfaces tered—the shine of the opalescence of the shell, the heft of the thing press into the paper, creating hollows, while the paper presses up in the hand—these were items of display, inviting their observers to into the plate at the engraved lines, picking up the ink and emboss- see, and also providing insight into indigenous theories of vision.15 ing the paper. The ink transfers to these newly raised surfaces. The As Lana Swartz and I have noted, digital transactions result is a design that is tangible to the human fingertip, adding depend on an array of physical things, from plastic cards to point- another layer to the distinctive texture of US banknotes. You might of-sale devices to phones.16 The ACH cannot easily be viewed. even see one day a teller or cashier rub his or her finger over the It is a bunch of servers and cables as well as rule books, train- jacket lapel of the US president portrayed on the face of the bill. If ing courses, and instructions that can be viewed on a screen or they received any counterfeit detection training at all, they will have printed. The Atlanta Monetary Museum at the Atlanta branch of learned to feel for the intaglio printing, and on most denominations the Federal Reserve houses a “Payment Services 2200” exhibit, the raised ink lines characterizing it are densest in those lapels. featuring a bank teller from the future who explains ancient pay- The banknote is tangible in a very particular way. This matters ment methods: cash, checks, credit cards, debit cards, and ACH more, at least in counterfeit detection, than its materiality. deposits. A printout of an ACH deposit request is carefully (if ironi- Scientists who study haptic perception show that the sense cally) preserved on black felt behind glass. “Virtuality,” Paul Dourish of touch is comprised of several elements. There are receptors in writes, “is an achievement.”17 The ACH, to stay with this example, the skin and receptors in the joints, muscles, and tendons. There is made up of diferent material objects and relationships than are two kinds of receptors: mechanoreceptors are activated by is cash. Being able to “see” transactions that “pass through” the force, thermoreceptors by temperature. The mechanoreceptors ACH is dependent on those materialities and relationships. “The in the joints, muscles, and tendons provide the sense of the limbs fact that one cannot rip a page out of a virtual book is not simply moving in space. Cutaneous inputs in the skin include both mech- a discounting of its book-ness; it speaks to the material relations anoreceptors and thermoreceptors. The mechanoreceptors in the between elements that make up the diferent objects,” writes skin detect skin deformation; the thermoreceptors detect changes Dourish.18 That the ACH would provide an enduring and reliable in skin temperature.22 portal into transactions also depends on its continued upkeep as a Intriguingly, what cutaneous mechanoreceptors detect is set of material infrastructures and institutional arrangements. Our not the raised elements of a surface, but the “gap between the ele- bank teller from the future starkly reminds us of this fact when she ments that constitute the surface” of an object.”23 “Groove width” tells us that these are dead technologies. has a greater efect on our perception of roughness than “ridge If Melanesian theories of vision turned on relationships that width.”24 We think of roughness as the bumps or irregularities on could alternately be concealed and revealed, and the jingling noise the surface, but those bumps are not what our cutaneous recep- from an Andean nose ornament contributed to the dazzle of the tors actually detect. Instead, they detect the spaces between the gold and the obfuscation of the sources of power, contemporary bumps. Specifically, cutaneous mechanoreceptors’ detection of Euroamerican theories of vision and hearing are about knowing the deformation of the skin into a depression between raised ele- where and when things are, about fixing spatiotemporal location, ments of a surface creates our sense of texture. It is when I press not hiding anything. You need to see it to believe it, and you know myself into the surface that I feel its roughness pressing back by something is up when your ears are burning, as the sayings go. detecting the groove between surface features. The distinction between sound and not-sound is a cultural as In inserting ourselves into the spaces on the surface of much a psychophysiological achievement.19 Cognitive scientists the banknote, in feeling its texture (and judging its authenticity) even write that vision and hearing are similar to one another not through those gaps, we give the lie to one of our folk theories only in that they provide “highly precise spatial and temporal of the skin as a boundary between inside and outside, me and

116 Bill Maurer

29 - 117 That Touch of of Touch That The digital is “sustained by … complex complex … by “sustained The digital is 28 won’t get married till he can pay for it in cash. I told him him I told it in cash. for married till he can pay get won’t Some stores. department hotels, everything: people charge they’ll these days One of money. take even places won’t later. pay die now, funerals: charge even And yet the digital transfers of the ACH evince a similar a similar evince ACH the of the digital transfers yet And in the 1962 film scene remarkable is a There going with a man who and I’m on credit, The whole world’s in which Cary Grant plays Philip Shayne, a wealthy financier, financier, a wealthy Philip Shayne, plays Grant in which Cary The joke is that if there is nothing more material and final than material more is nothing there if is that The joke really, how, for fictitious than credit, more is nothing there death, interpenetration of bodies, systems, and worlds. The philosopher The philosopher worlds. and systems, bodies, of interpenetration ACH, describing the Smith could be computing Brian Cantwell of the preserve to necessary all the work in his discussion of in fact, writing about was He future. them in the read digital media so as to ACH: the substitute but one can readily compact disks, media like the that and mechanisms” routines of structure “the surrounding servers as FTP as well rule books, formats, of—file consists ACH is sup that the digital abstraction up” “prop and the like—only d’être. its raison posedly policies.” and normative procedures, mechanisms, of networks Mink “computer an unemployed Timberlake, Cathy plays and Doris Day his having seduce Cathy—despite to failing After programmer.” she (where on shopping sprees her taken wined and dined her, to away her and spirited mink), of touch that experiences first American the in a job at up and places her gives Bermuda—Philip investor. a major in which he is presumably Company, Credit Cathy’s and musing on men and life, While sorting punch cards fiancé: own complains about her Miriam, co-worker, - - - as a model for theory and our cognitive cognitive and our theory as a model for 27

26 Instead, there is active comingling between me and the comingling between is active there Instead, 25 them mingle. fea detection counterfeit most that therefore, is a pity, It and the felt, it defines their common edge. Contingency Contingency common edge. their it defines and the felt, and the body in it the world means common tangency: intersect and caress each other. I do not wish to call the place in which I live a medium, I prefer to say that things mingle with each other and that I am no exception to Skin inter with me. which mixes I mix with the world that, venes between several things in the world and makes Michel Serres writes of touch: of writes Michel Serres The skin is a variety of contingency: in it, through it, with it, the world and my body touch each other, the feeling seeing is believing, rather than the experience of that touch of of touch that of than the experience rather seeing is believing, create to the impetus too, Hence, well. so know tellers that money sent transactions into “see” one to allow that digital infrastructures ACH. the like via systems tures built into US banknotes rely on visual not haptic perception. perception. haptic visual not on rely US banknotes into built tures are embedded in the paper; there fibers small colored are There are there the light; can be seen when held up to that watermarks depending on denom colors erent dif glow that embedded strips appears that ink variable is optically There light. in black ination the is as if It the note. depending on the tilt of change color to in which a world from proceeded devices detection counterfeit There is a short distance between Serres’s notion of fabric with fabric of notion Serres’s between short distance is a There and wrinkles” “pleats its skin and world. of the infolding of writing scientists’ not-me. texture. and its tangibility This is part of banknote. Figure 3.4.5: ACH deposit printout, preserved in the Atlanta Monetary Museum, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Courtesy of Amy Hennessy, used with permission. Hennessy, Amy of Courtesy Atlanta. of Bank Reserve Federal Museum, Monetary Atlanta in the preserved deposit printout, ACH 3.4.5: Figure could I pay after I die? But the contours of what’s material and wiped out, is to align the digital existence of cardholders’ account what is not are confounded by all the equipment surrounding our information with the people and their communities themselves, two characters. They are in a large, loud room filled with UNIVAC their living and physical existence. Thus, Cathy is like an atom punchcard computers and card sorters. All they do all day is bomb: confounding the orderly sorting of the paper punch cards, handle and sort large numbers of such cards, and Cathy even she destroys entire cities. Philip seals the metaphor with his refer- remarks, while holding a paper booklet, that she will need to spend ence to the Nevada test site: an “empty” place in the contemporary the night memorizing the codes for specific New England cities US imaginary where vaporization of the landscape would have before the work starts up again tomorrow morning. The fictitious- been the vaporization of a nothing, a no-place, as virtual from the ness of credit and the virtuality of these early digital transactions start as what it would be rendered by this most terrible weapon. depend on the human memory, the human muscle (those mecha- The film thus does not just show digital credit’s undeniable noreceptors!), and machinic and paper components of the UNIVAC. materiality. It surfaces the Euroamerican attempt to separate the Later, when another coworker cattily reveals to Cathy that material from the virtual as well as its continual failure, the dream she only received her position at American Credit through the that animated Negroponte’s Being Digital and sparked the charter intervention of Philip, Cathy, in a fit of anger and betrayal, mashes for the symposium that gave rise to the volume of essays before the controls on the machine (“he thinks he can push my buttons!”), you. This in itself suggests a call for reflection on their comingling, causing a tornado of punch cards to fly around the room and end the impressing of the skin back into those gaps in the intaglio print, up in heaps all over the floor. The next morning, the manager, Paul, giving the sensation of texture, the infolding of I and world. shows the devastation to Philip: I opened this essay arguing not for a shift in perspective but a decomposition of the description of cash as material and Paul: It’s awful. Bufalo gone. Hartford, Connecticut almost electronic transactions as virtual. To decompose a description: to wiped out. … It’s sabotage! She’s an undercover agent for reverse the putting down of writing so as to capture that moment the Diners Club! of holding the pen, pressing the key, feeling the heft and pressure and resistance as the body presses into the world in order to Philip: No. No, I’m the one who placed this atom bomb here. inscribe it, leaving marks and traces that can be felt, not just seen. I should have dropped her over the desert. If Andean slaves at the start of the first millennium would need to tear the nose masks from the faces of their overlords to begin to This disturbing line turns on viewers’ living memory of cities vapor- challenge the luminous power of their authority—and thus unseat ized by nuclear weapons. When Paul says that Bufalo is gone, of the theory of vision sustaining that power—perhaps we can engage course, he means that the account information for cardholders in in a kind of haptic exploration of the money-things animating our Bufalo is in a hopeless mess in the unsorted punch cards on the world. This would entail a re-membering of ourselves as beings floor. In theory, a talented computer programmer like Cathy, with always becoming in and with the world, muddling inside/outside, her memorized knowledge of all the city codes and her kinematic rather than submitting to money-things, the digital or the material, knowledge of which card goes where in the machine, could re-sort and their abstract authority to determine our lives and wills. the cards and put them back in their proper order and place in the UNIVAC. But to say that Bufalo is gone, and that Hartford is almost

Figure 3.4.6: UNIVAC scene, That Touch of Mink, American Eastmancolor, 1962. Screenshot by the author.

118 Bill Maurer 119 Helmreich. I would also like to thank Taylor Nelms, Nelms, Taylor thank to also like I would Helmreich. comments for f Boellstor Tom and Dourish, Paul for Lana Swartz paper, this of versions on earlier infrastructures on the contributions thoughtful her Carol friends in payments, and my money, of for Oliver, and Rich McQuerry, Elizabeth Benson, Research ACH. the of history the into insights their the National by has been supported on payments and the Law from grants under Science Foundation 1455859 and SES (SES Social Sciences program conclusions and findings, opinions, Any 0960423). are in this material expressed recommendations or reflect necessarily and do not the author(s) those of Foundation. Science National the of views the Acknowledgments “Being the of the organizers thank to like I would Institute the Massachusetts at symposium Material” and participate to the invitation for Technology of due are thanks Special this essay. contribute to and Stefan Boucher, Marie-Pier Uchill, Rebecca , (Los (Los Golden Golden Paid: Tales Tales Paid: (2016), doi: doi: (2016), (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke , 80. , Attention, Perception, and Perception, Attention, Learning to See in Melanesia See to Learning The Audible Past: Cultural Cultural Past: Audible The The Five Senses: A Philosophy of of Philosophy A Senses: The Five (London: Continuum, 2008), 80. 2008), Continuum, (London: 71, no. 7 (2009): 1439. 7 (2009): no. 71, Psychological Science Psychological of Bits The Stuf of Seams: The Role of Computation in a Successor in a Successor Computation of The Role Seams: a workshop for written position paper Metaphysics,” the At and Society: Computers, “Biology, on ‘Virtual’—Cultural and the ‘Real’ the of Intersection Vitalizing Code,” and on Coding Life Perspectives 9. p. University, Stanford 1994. –4, 2 June Michel Serres, 26. Bodies Entangled 81. Ibid., 27. 4. the Seams,” Apart at “Coming Smith, 28. Ibid. 29. 14. Marilyn Strathern, Strathern, Marilyn 14. Books HAU Series 2 (Chicago: Class Master HAU 23. 2013), Press, Chicago of and University 24. Ibid., 15. eds., and Lana Swartz, Bill Maurer 16. Stuf Money and Other Checks, Dongles, of 2017). Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Dourish, 17. Ibid. 18. Sterne, Jonathan 19. Sound Reproduction Origins of 2003). Press, University “Haptic Klatzky, L. and R. Lederman J. S. 20. Tutorial,” A Perception: Psychophysics “The Brain’s Shams, and L. Odegaard B. 21. but Stable Signals Is Audiovisual Bind to Tendency General,” Not 10.1177/0956797616628860. 1440. Perception,” “Haptic and Klatzky, Lederman 22. 1443. Ibid., 23. 1444. Ibid., 24. the Apart at “Coming Smith, Brian Cantwell 25. 13. Joanne Pillsbury, “Luminous Power: Luxury Luxury Power: “Luminous Pillsbury, Joanne 13. Pillsbury, Joanne in Americas,” Ancient the Arts in eds., Richter, N. and Kim Potts, Timothy Americas Ancient Arts the in LuxuryKingdoms: Research and Getty Museum Getty Paul J. Angeles: 1. 2017), Institute, , ,” , (Oxford: (Oxford: New New (New York: York: (New , December December , The Long+Short Guardian 59 (2014), https:// 59 (2014), (Cambridge, MA: MIT MA: MIT (Cambridge, Wall Street Journal Street Wall Operation Choke Point Choke Operation Being Digital e-flux –481. 4 (2012): 474 no. 20, Theory, Culture and Society and Society Culture Theory, , Glenbrook, July 17, 2018, https:// 2018, 17, July Glenbrook, , of Bits: An Essay on the An Essay Bits: The Stuf of , July 8, 2018, https://www.nytimes. 2018, 8, July , 11. Paul Dourish, Dourish, Paul 11. Information of Materialities 202. 2017), Press, Nicholas Negroponte, 12. 1995). Knopf, A. Alfred 9. Bill Maurer, Musaraj Smoki, and Ivan Small, eds., eds., Small, and Ivan Smoki, Musaraj Bill Maurer, 9. on Global Perspectives the Margins: at Money and Design Financial Inclusion, Technology, 2018). Berghahn, Paglen, Trevor compare On machine seeing, 10. Images,” “Operational www.e-flux.com/journal/59/61130/operational- 2018. 4, accessed September last images/, Social Anthropology Anthropology Social Dystopian “Inside China’s Mozur, Paul e.g., See, 8. Cameras,” of and Lots Shame, AI, Dream: Times York com/2018/07/08/business/china-surveillance- 2018. 4, accessed September last technology.html, Payments: Innovation, Trust, Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin, Trust, Innovation, Payments: Sharing Economy,” . 2F0263276417746466 https://doi.org/10.1177% (2017), on Cash,” War “The Scott, Brett 6. https://thelongandshort.org/ 2016, 19, August 2018. 8, August accessed last society/war-on-cash, and Data,” Debt the Party: to “Late Bill Maurer, 7. August 8, 2018. 8, August War Global Cyber The First Backlash: “WikiLeaks 4. Claim Hackers,” Begun, Has https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/ 2010, 11, accessed last dec/11/wikileaks-backlash-cyber-war, 2018. 8, August “Social Collaborative, Research Money of Future 5. Committee Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Reform, on Regulatory Subcommittee Committee 2014. 17, July Law, Antitrust and Commercial, an Industry? Like Send “Don’t William Isaac, 3. Bankers,” Its to a Message https://www.wsj.com/articles/ 2014, 21, November william-isaac-dont-like-an-industry-send-a- accessed last message-to-its-bankers-1416613023, pv.glenbrook.com/payment-rails-and-other-tales/, pv.glenbrook.com/payment-rails-and-other-tales/, 2018. 8, August accessed last Innocent? Proven Until “Guilty Levitin, Adam See 2. for Authority and Legal the Propriety of Study A Department’s Justice the of Professor Levitin, J. Adam of Testimony Written the before Center, Law University Georgetown Law, Judiciary Representatives of House States United 1. Russ Jones, “Payment Rails and Other Tales,” Tales,” and Other Rails “Payment Jones, Russ 1. Views Payments Standing Rock: Selma Moment for the Environmental Justice Movement Winona LaDuke, illustrated by Sarah LittleRedfeather

I would like a political system that works. In fact, I would like to be interests has come to the heart of the Missouri River Basin— a law-abiding citizen. Having spent the majority of my life ﬁghting Lakota, Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa territory—today known as dumb projects, I can say that I tried to work within the process. I North and South Dakota. This time, instead of the Seventh Cavalry have served as an expert witness in countless legal proceedings or the Indian police dispatched to assassinate Sitting Bull, it is and have found myself in front of the United Nations trying to Enbridge and Energy Transfer Partners come to build the Dakota elucidate for these learned individuals how their mine, pipeline, Access Pipeline (DAPL). road, or other development projects will impact the earth and the The Missouri River, called Mnisose, a great swirling river, by Indigenous People that depend on that land for survival. Sometimes, the Lakota; she is a force to be reckoned with. She is breathtaking. despite how much money a corporation has or how many politi- “The Missouri River has a ﬁxed place in the history and mythology” cians have accepted favors or hearty friendships with lobbyists, the of the Lakota and other indigenous nations of the Northern Plains project should not go ahead, in the interests of the public. We are to Dakota, Goodhouse explains to me. believe that the regulatory process and state and federal agencies In the time before Sitting Bull, the Missouri River was the represent the public. This is the way the law should work. epicenter of northern agriculture; the river bed so fertile, the terri- This has not been my experience. tory was known as the fertile crescent of North America. That was It is 2016, and the weight of North American corporate then—before the treaties which reduced the Lakota land base.

Figure 3.5.1: Prayers extended to Oceti Sakowan Camp that displayed the “White Stone Hill Massacre 1864” from Sacred Stone past the Cannon Ball Farm. Prayer at Cannon Ball River on September 5, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah LittleRedFeather Design—Honor the Earth.

120 Winona LaDuke, illustrated by Sarah LittleRedfeather - - 121 The health of Mnisose has been taken for granted. granted. for Mnisose has been taken The health of Every day found a new chapter of horror unfolding in North in North unfolding horror of chapter a new found day Every care. seems to and nobody choking on hate We’re Bibens Angela —Attorney Was this project about“energy independence” or hate Hunkpapa the of homeland the is Reservation Rock Standing were once two hundred and the fifty species nativeof Today grass. require who cattle, million twenty-eight by replaced gone, are alo f bu a single GMO of now the fields are of Many and hay. water, grain, are butterflies monarch the that pesticides many so of full crop, remains. old world that memory, In my being wiped out. increases each project Sloan Dam projects, Dammed in the Pick Dakota. Hundreds of people were teargassed, tasered, attacked by by attacked tasered, teargassed, people were of Hundreds Dakota. hundred four Over sirens. eardrum-shattering to subjected dogs, naked stand to forced were women strip-searched, people were with and covered in dog kennels, locked fcers, male o of in front nine hun the roughly by were these attacks of majority The tarps. twelve counties, seventeen fcials from o enforcement law dred “public These the state. who came to states four and from cities, and public constituents their attack funds to used public servants” project. a private protect and profits? million buf the fifty can remember you eyes, your close you If Oceti. falo—the single largest migratory herd in the Theworld. pounding of There grow. grass the make and Earth the vibrate would hooves their - - That is how people are made poor. Today, well over two- over well Today, made poor. people are is how That Forced into the reservation life, the Lakota attempted to to attempted the Lakota life, the reservation into Forced This theft was part retaliation against Sitting Bull (and Sitting Bull (and against part retaliation was This theft For decades, Mnisose remained in Lakota hands—in the in Lakota Mnisose remained decades, For thirds of the population of Standing Rock are below the poverty the poverty below are Standing Rock of the population of thirds level; and the land and Mother River are what remains, a constant for the people.That is what the ProtectorsWater at Standing Rock sought to save. Over two hundred thousand acres on the Standing Rock and and Rock on the Standing thousand acres hundred two Over the flooded by were in South Dakota reservations River Cheyenne the Lakota but a loss of relocation only not forcing Oahe Dam itself, a reser Randall dams created and Fort Oahe, The Garrison, world. wildlife of and 75 percent timber of 90 percent eliminated that voir on the reservations. were assassinated at the hands of police. One truth: the Lakota One truth: the Lakota police. the hands of at assassinated were much. survived people have Sloan project The l944 Pick the dams. until society, their stabilize lands bottom taking the best tribes, flooded out the Missouri River and Dakota. the Lakota Arikara, and Hidatsa, the Mandan, from by the United States. the United by secure and part to the Little Big Horn) of the Battle at victory the This is a story interests. corporate deposits for mineral valuable recog often truth not and is a dark Island Turtle common across or Matter Lives Black to In a time prior American citizens. by nized Horse Sitting Bull and Crazy like leaders great Matter, Lives Native 1868 treaty, she was used as a boundary delineating US land from US land from delineating used as a boundary she was 1868 treaty, Hills the Black of This changed in 1877 with the theft Land. Lakota Figure 3.5.2: Sage Against the Machine. Prayer at Cannon Ball River on September 4, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah LittleRedFeather Design-Honor the Earth. Design-Honor LittleRedFeather Sarah by and description Photo 2016. 4, on September Cannon Ball River at Prayer the Machine. Against Sage 3.5.2: Figure Figure 3.5.3: At the shores of the belly of the Black Snake. Prayer Canoeing Action from Cannon Ball River to Missouri River where DAPL had its drill pad ready to cross their pipeline under the Missouri River on August 20, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah LittleRedFeather Design—Honor the Earth.

contamination and reduces her health. Today, Mnisose is the sev- Council. As Chairman David Archambault II would explain in a New enth most polluted river in the country. Agricultural runof and now York Times story, fracking have contaminated the river. During our time at Standing Rock, my sister and I went fishing. She caught a gar—a giant pre- The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of historic fish—only to find it covered with tumors. the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic In January 2015 saltwater contamination from a massive Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural pipeline spill reached Mnisose. The belief that “dilution is the heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer solution to pollution” has long been discarded by public health and Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the environmental professionals. Not in North Dakota though. In the company’s assessment of the planned route through our bafing way of state and federal agencies, North Dakota’s Health treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe. Director David Glatt did not expect harm to wildlife or drinking The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from water supplies because the water was diluted. Blacktail Creek and Day 1 using the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which the Little Muddy River were contaminated by nearly three million grants exemption from environmental reviews required by gallons of saltwater with elevated levels of toxic chloride. the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy And now comes the risk of an oil spill. Pipeline compa- Act by treating the pipeline as a series of small construc- nies generally discuss a 99 percent safety record, but studies tion sites. … Without closer scrutiny, the proposal breezed have found that to be grossly inaccurate. In fact, a leak detection through the four state processes.2 study published by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2012 reported that, “the ‘average’ pipeline therefore has a 57 percent There’s a quick way, it seems, to get a pipeline in these days—use probability of experiencing a major leak, with consequences over loopholes to get your way. The National Environmental Policy Act the $l million range in a ten-year period.”1 Not good odds. Every (NEPA) dictates that “agencies … shall prepare supplements to major pipeline project in North America must cross Indigenous either draft or final environmental impact statements if … there lands, Indian country. That is a problem. are significant new circumstances or information relevant to Under the standards of the United Nations Declaration environmental concerns and bearing on the proposed action or on the Rights of Indigenous People, each and every one of these its impacts.” The Corps avoided this transparent review process projects should receive free, prior, and informed consent from for DAPL by approving each of the thousands of water crossings impacted Indigenous People. In reality, consultation of the tribes along the pipeline route under the fast-track Nationwide Permit 12 whose land the pipelines cross rarely occurs. In the case of the process, essentially the segmenting of massive interstate pipelines DAPL project, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe represented by such as DAPL by artificially treating the thousands of water cross- Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for ings as separate projects that each qualify separately under NWP the District of Columbia against the US Army Corps of Engineers. 12. In this way, the Corps has approved the 1,168-mile DAPL crude Standing Rock maintained that the project violates federal and oil pipeline under NWP 12 without any project-specific §404 review treaty law. Standing Rock also filed an intervention at the United process. The Sierra Club with Honor the Earth and the Indigenous Nations, in coordination with the International Indian Treaty Environmental Network have maintained that this does not meet

122 Winona LaDuke, illustrated by Sarah LittleRedfeather 123 burials of women resting on this hill. Photo and Photo on this hill. resting women burials of Design— LittleRedFeather Sarah by description the Earth. Honor Figure 3.5.5 (bottom): Horse Nations Water Water Nations Horse 3.5.5 (bottom): Figure the for Hill praying Island Turtle at Action Protectors County The Morton 2016. 2, on November Water assaults using began their Department Sherrif’s Protectors. Water and mace upon the bullets rubber two are Place and there Hill is a Sacred Turtle and description by Sarah LittleRedfeather Design— LittleRedfeather Sarah by and description the Earth. Honor Figure 3.5.4 (top): We Are Unarmed Rally in Rally Unarmed Are We 3.5.4 (top): Figure Photo 2016. 18, August on Dakota North Bismarck, Figure 3.5.6 (top): Sage and Prayer Against Figure 3.5.7 (bottom): Nahko Bear and Winona the Machine. A day of action prayer with Water LaDuke observing and praying at the site where Protectors at Cannon Ball Farm. The Morton DAPL continued construction on September County Sherrif’s Department stated that they 8, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah respected the rights to protest, but began LittleRedfeather Design—Honor the Earth. trespassing arrests on August 15, 2016. Photo and description by Sarah LittleRedfeather Design— Honor the Earth.

124 Winona LaDuke, illustrated by Sarah LittleRedfeather - - 125 Standing Rock brought the reality of places like Honduras Honduras places like of the reality brought Standing Rock “the only King once said, Mathew leader Lakota The great We We are the Protectors,Water and we are defending the land and water of NorthAmerica. We were told that the pipeline was needed for independence. energy energy real is I think what me present but let dence, indepen Excess Dakota the of tag price the billion, $3.9 spent had we If 5 kw per gotten have would we energy, on renewable Pipeline, houses, 64,629 for the needs) half (about solar residential house of of most power enough to plants, wind power 323 two-megawatt North andDakota, 161,000 retrofits worth about $8,000 apiece for in year about $300 a some homeowners saving individual homes, is spending on mil Dakota North what just spent we If costs. heating most be enough for would that down, people itarizing and stripping of the folks on Standing Rock. Now that’s energy independence. take batons in, sweep Troops Americans. home for El Salvador or on people; and Morton gas is poured tear hands and heads, aim at individuals facing and cavity-search strip the need to feels County Standing people at of a lot were There charges. misdemeanor Knee in Wounded at f the long stando who remembered Rock a nation. of and the future dignity for battle similar l973—a thing sadder than an Indian who is not free, is an Indian who does us reminded Standing Rock be free.” it is to what remember not all of that struggle for freedom and the future of a people. If I ask is pretty the answer Sitting Bull do?” would “What the question and fifty he said one hundred me what remind would He clear. years ago:“Let us put our minds together to see what kind of future we canThe make time for our children.” for that is now. - - revealed that the U.S. Army Army the U.S. that revealed Instead the pipeline went upstream from from upstream the pipeline went Instead 3 Bismarck Tribune Bismarck —Tribal Chairman David Archambault II Archambault Chairman David —Tribal This demolition is devastating, these grounds are the are these grounds This demolition is devastating, cairns and The ancient ancestors. our places of resting In one day, be replaced. cannot rings there prayer stone ground. hollow land has been turned into sacred our Then there is the problem of the desecration. There are are There the desecration. of is the problem Then there Sarah LittleRedfeather Design—Honor the Earth. Design—Honor LittleRedfeather Sarah Figure 3.5.8: Day of Horse Nations Water Protectors. Riding the shores of Cannon Ball River along Sacred Stone Camp on October 18, 2016. Photo and description by by and description Photo 2016. 18, October Camp on Stone along Sacred Cannon Ball River of the shores Riding Protectors. Water Nations Horse of Day 3.5.8: Figure protectors of the site entered the construction area, private secu private area, the construction entered the site of protectors spray. them with dogs and pepper attacked guards rity Rock submitted to court detailed findings on rare cultural sites, sites, cultural findings on rare court detailed to submitted Rock and other rings, prayer stone graves, which include twenty-seven locations—directly discrete hundred four artifacts—nearly sacred DAPL morning, the next Early pipeline. the proposed of in the path the and bulldozing crews bringing in construction by responded When filing. in their Standing Rock described by specific areas source water protection areas that are avoided to protect munici protect to avoided are that areas protection water source wells.” supply pal water the Lakota. for intake the main drinking water profit, of pursuit In their sites. and sacred historic protect to laws On them. disregarded and Enbridge Partners Transfer Energy Standing weekend, Day Labor before the day 2, September Friday, Rock’s ancestral lands and under its drinking water supply to avoid avoid to supply its drinking water lands and under ancestral Rock’s North Bismarck, of supply the water for sources are that wellheads in the planning process, early that, reported The paper Dakota. about 10 the Missouri River crossing considered Access Dakota the due to in part, option, that but rejected Bismarck, miles north of wellhead to “proximity as as well additional length and crossings the requirements of the intent of the law. Then there’s what’s fair. fair. what’s Then there’s the law. of the intent of the requirements the 18, August On Standing the pipeline through had routed Engineers Corps of 1. David Shaw, Martin Phillips, Ron Baker, Eduardo Munoz, Hamood Rehman, Carol Gibson, and Christine Mayernik, “Final Report: Leak Detection Study—DTPH56-11-D-000001,” Final Report No. 12-173, December 10, 2012, U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, 6–8.

2. David Archambault, “Taking a Stand at Standing Rock.” New York Times, 24 August 2016: https:// www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/opinion/taking-a- stand-at-standing-rock.html

3. Amy Darlymple, “Pipeline route plan ﬁrst called for crossing north of Bismark,” Bismarck Tribune, August 18, 2016.

Some of the material in this essay originally appeared in previous writings on websites such as: https://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/ an-oil-pipeline-and-a-river-what-would-sitting- bull-do-20160829; http://www.indianz.com/ News/2016/08/26/winona-laduke-corporate- interests-come-t.asp; https://www.laprogressive. com/protesting-dakota-access-pipeline/

126 Interleaving

Tom Özden-Schilling

The audiences of MIT Professor of Polymer Materials Science the fascination (and, in some circles, cynicism) associated with and Engineering Michael Rubner are often made to imagine living the term. Initially promoting her work on wildlife habitat modifi- scenes in granular detail. As fog rolls across a desert landscape, cation to emphasize the potential usefulness of biological theory beads of moisture condense on the back of a tiny beetle, slowly to industrial design, Benyus and others soon began encouraging gathering into droplets that slide down its shell and into its mouth. companies to describe the chemical and mechanical processes Rain strikes the petals of a lotus flower before immediately balling manifested in their products through metaphorical comparisons to up into perfect spheres, swiftly rolling down an awaiting stem physiological functions. Taken up by Nike, Boeing, and hundreds of toward a thirsty root system, or of the end of the petal and away. In other manufacturers, a proliferation of commercial applications of every story, the starring plant or animal lingers. “We want to be able biomimetics quickly joined renewable energy research at the van- to cover glass with surfaces that can do that, too,” he tells us, “but guard of an emergent “green capitalism.”3 From gecko-inspired, plants and animals are more complicated than a lot of chemists glass-gripping gloves4 to aircraft coatings modeled on drag-re- give them credit for.” The images aren’t meant to be simple heu- ducing dolphin skin,5 a bevy of bio-inspired products have been ristics, we’re told; if we let them, they’ll surprise us again and again. sold and theorized in the last two decades, often while drawing on When I first met Professor Rubner as an undergraduate in his class beguiling comparative metaphors. The imagined border between on polymer chemistry, I marveled at the deftness with which he benign naturalism and fetishism, though, Stefan Helmreich sug- brought us to inhabit the languages of his craft. We were welcome, if gests, is a murky one.6 Replacing conventional design idioms with we liked, to treat butterfly wings and insect carapaces as analogies inspiration from “natural” forms, advertising campaigns attending to technical examples we’d worked through in other classes, he told new products suggest, will embed new technologies with the us. At some point, though, he gently warned, we would have to let capacity to self-correct the naive and unsustainable urges of go of these comparisons and begin thinking about each object on human engineers. Some of the stories that Rubner often shared its own terms. Throughout the early weeks of each course, we had as he taught made clear that he was sensitive to the diference heard Rubner’s pleas for patience as we worked our way through between deferring attributions of mastery and evading the con- problem sets covering the counterintuitive laws of chirality and the sequences of design. A popular industrial reagent called carbonyl byzantine conventions developed by chemists for drawing long, dichloride, or phosgene, that often found its way into the equa- complex molecules on flat pieces of paper.1 Even as we gradually tions we used to analyze polymerization reactions, he told us, had mastered the simpler formalisms of polymer science, however, the been a key ingredient in the poisonous gases used in World War living things that accompanied his lectures continually escaped our I. Insistent that we not treat its wartime use as a historical aber- analogies. Thickening his descriptions of each object as the semes- ration, he reminded us that derailments of trains bearing tanks of ter wore on, we learned humility not through obeisance to biological the substance had killed hundreds of people in the decades since. complexity, but by confronting the limits of technical language. Preventing a similar legacy from following biomimetic materials Not all materials scientists share Rubner’s mistrust of meta- research would be harder than we probably assumed. phor. Around the same time that the prefix “nano” began attaching Precisely what scientific language owes to the living things itself to projects all over MIT, academic and industrial interest in that shape and get named by it has long been a topic of debate in “biologically inspired design” was changing the way many materi- the social sciences. In his polarizing ethnographic research in the als scientists were called upon to explain their work as well. Since Ecuadorian Amazon, anthropologist Eduardo Kohn7 takes up what popularizing the term “biomimicry” in the late 1990s, biologist and he calls an “anti-nominalist” stance toward the trees, dogs, and industrial consultant Janine Benyus2 has become emblematic of other beings that make up the worlds of Runa forest dwellers. The trees that Runa hunters hit to pass misleading messages to the 1. Historian David Kaiser refers to the simultaneous monkeys high above them are not merely passive instruments in disciplining and broadening of the imagination that accompanies this kind of work as “stick figure human-run traps, Kohn argues, but are rather active participants realism.” David Kaiser, “Conventions, Reification, in the messaging process. Taking inspiration from semiotician and the Persistence of Feynman Diagrams, Charles Peirce and structural anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, 1948–64,” Representations 70 (2000): 49–86. Kohn inverts the latter’s famous invocation that animals and other 2. Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry: Innovation nonhuman beings are “good to think with” by insisting that the Inspired by Nature (New York: HarperCollins, 1997). trafc in symbols and suggestions that humans call “thinking” is 3. Karen Bakker, “The Limits of ‘Neoliberal Natures’: carried out by other things as well. While some accuse Kohn of Debating Green Neoliberalism,” Progress in Human mobilizing the same kinds of fetishisms that frame the promises of Geography 34, no. 6 (2010): 715–735. bio-inspired design,8 Michael Rubner does unwittingly share key 4. “Geckos Inspire ‘Spider-Man’ Gloves,” aspects of Kohn’s circumspect theories of human agency, includ- BBC News, Science and Environment Sec., ing his portrait of language as a lively, unruly thing. Rather than November 19, 2014, https://www.bbc.com/news/ ofering lotus flowers as mere “examples” of physical structures to science-environment-30119330. be copied or refined, Rubner and his collaborators have embraced 5. Rebecca O. Bagley, “Biomimicry: How Nature a dynamic interplay that troubles the boundary between author- Can Streamline Your Business for Innovation,” ship and idea. A good scene or image should linger, he often told Forbes, April 15, 2014. https://www.forbes.com/ sites/rebeccabagley/2014/04/15/biomimicry- his classes, long after you think you’ve finished describing it. Any how-nature-can-streamline-your-business-for- inspiration worthy of the name, he might have added, should also innovation/#cafc38438095. provoke questions and doubt. 6. Stefan Helmreich, “Species of Biocapital,” Science as Culture 17, no. 4 (2008): 463–478.

7. Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013).

8. Lucas Bessire and David Bond, “Ontological Anthropology and the Deferral of Critique,” American Ethnologist 41, no. 3 (2014): 440–456. INVISIBLE

Introduction Stefan Helmreich and Rebecca Uchill

Ways of Absence: or, The Unbearble Heft of Being Materialized Sandy Alexandre Invisible Images Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen Mediating Animal- Infrastructure Relations Lisa Parks

Persistent Ephemeral Pollutants Nicholas Shapiro To See or Not to See? Dilemmas in Imaging and Intelligence George Barbastathis Interstitial Tom Özden-Schilling Introduction Stefan Helmreich and Rebecca Uchill

The organizing question for the pieces gathered under the head- necessary to see, and where a seeable thing falls on one’s list ing of Invisible is this: How do we see—or not see—material things? of things to see, are a consequence of how seeing is wielded And who is the “we” who is seeing—or being seen or not seen? and who or what is doing the seeing in the first place. And what, after all, is “seeing”? For this book about materiality in the digital age, such queries can be given more precision: As new As Jonathan Crary noted in Techniques of the Observer, seeing kinds of machine and robotic vision change the material capacities has become, after the arts of photography, a practice at once and possibilities of seeing—of who and what can see what, when, optical, technical, phenomenological, and subjective.1 And, to be and how—how might this remap what can be rendered visible and sure, political. invisible? When it becomes possible to hide objects in plain sight— Artist Trevor Paglen asks after just such political modes of using the sort of cloaking under development by MIT professor seeing. Paglen is known for exploring and documenting com- of mechanical engineering George Barbastathis—how shall we monly invisible infrastructures, ranging from secret corporate and understand what the human eye discloses? When governments government sites to networks made visible through technologies and citizens mobilize material networks of monitoring, surveillance, of nonhuman, machine vision—through the making of what film- and data capture, across a range of purposes and intentions, how maker Haroun Farocki once called “operational images,” images does this change the scales at which seeing and visibility are oper- that machines make to communicate with other machines.2 Here ationalized? And if material things often bear traces of their condi- in Invisible, Paglen, in conversation with Lisa Parks, asks about tions of production and circulation that are invisible to the unaided images that, as we look at them, look back at us. Think of facial eye (as carbon footprints, as toxic waste, as chemical residue) how recognition technologies that show us our likenesses even as they might this demand new ways of seeing the environments around also scan such images in order to sift them through algorithmic us, and of reckoning with our responsibilities for them? These filters that discern biometric and other patterns.3 The medium of questions are not only about seeing in some literal, sensorial reg- photography in such conditions no longer directs us to such sub- ister, but also about old and new modes of pattern recognition—as strates as, for classical photography, silver nitrate, silver halide, technical, political, and cultural practice. and cellulose acetate, nor, for digital photography, charge-cou- When we staged the panel out of which this segment pled devices, but now also to neural nets, classifier systems, and grew, Sandy Alexandre ofered some framing words, which other algorithmic networks that capture images in databases. bear repeating: In Paglen’s Sight Machine project in collaboration with Kronos Quartet, the musicians are surrounded by cameras The visible is in the eye of the beholder. What the beholder outfitted with computer vision and artificial intelligence software, can see is contingent; it is neither absolute nor univer- technologies that provide algorithmic analyses of performers’ sal. What counts as worthy of being seen, what counts as ages, genders, gestures, and emotions, all of which are then

Figure 4.1.1:Trevor Paglen, Sight Machine, 2017, performance at Pier 70, San Francisco, January 14, 2017. Photo: Robert Herrick, © Trevor Paglen.

130 Stefan Helmreich and Rebecca Uchill - - —that —that as a digital digital But 7 131 being and point to a ques to point Invisible Man Man Invisible of of the organic world, Black Lives Matter Lives Black being aware being aware Cloaking, of course, has a course, of Cloaking, 8 Harry Potter , the “cloaking device” became device” “cloaking the , , who can render intelligible the intelligible who can render , and material beings Star Trek Star narrator Star Trek Star , Romulan spaceships in deep space). Harry Harry spaceships in deep space). Romulan , Alexandre argues that double-consciousness that argues Alexandre 6 Star Trek Star , used, in submarine telephone cables)—demands , experienced against the history of US racism, creates creates racism, US of the history against experienced , entangled with the entangled Media scholar Lisa Parks examines the hidden animal an creating for is known Barbastathis George Contributor , 2013. HD video, single screen in architectural environment, 15 minutes, 52 15 minutes, environment, in architectural single screen video, HD 2013. , Fontana in the 1960s in her script for an episode of the science an episode of for script the 1960s in her in Fontana program fiction television making things mode of as a possible technological famous (in invisible playful—instance recent—and is a more cloak” “invisibility Potter’s literature. fantasy from cloaking: what of read people when they many comes to tion that White person eager to upload his consciousness by finding a new a new finding his consciousness by upload to eager person White his brain. for body between oscillating state as a particular material the Black conditions for Being material and invisibility. visibility of a politics of workings Ralph Ellison named in with what is reckoning the bright time by any at exposed be might that identity cloaked and physical. symbolic both violence, racist White of lights that also means declaring being material envi complex, the prison-industrial police brutality, of the realities remain not must health care and eviscerated racism, ronmental combated. and materially and can be narrated but must invisible, The communication. of infrastructures in and around elements thickly infrastructure—already communications of materiality organic (think only of gutta-percha, derived from trees of genus Palaquium as networking digital the 1s and 0s of say, of, think we that beings living, flourishing, decaying, dying, sufering. Being material is being animal is being infrastructural. it make may that system crystal a calcite cloak, invisibility optical hide objects in plain sight. possible to C. D. writer named by First origin. association—and pop cultural science-fictional, body-snatching twist, as a vessel for an aging for vessel as a twist, body-snatching science-fictional, - - - and and its eventual and its eventual as a model for as a model for In other words, words, In other 4 Get Out Get looking at materials double-consciousness —is made possible by machinic delegates How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File .MOV Didactic Educational Fucking A Be Seen: to Not How The desires and forces of digital images take . Think of the 2017 film of Think . 5 —both in the sense of in the sense of —both Who is visible, and who is invisible? Who is surveilled? Who is surveilled? and who is invisible? visible, Who is materials that see being material reveal that the main character, Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), (Daniel Kaluuya), Washington Chris the main character, that reveal home in the suburbs, girlfriend’s White visits his man who a Black as a service exploitation for family her by is being evaluated in the film’s literally, accessed quite be might one that able body, E. B. Du Bois’s notion of of notion Du Bois’s B. E. in the wake as formed particularly American consciousness, Black “the a division between by it as haunted and rethinks slavery, of as others being seen by and a sense of feeling” space of mental in racial struggle The condition of a serviceable thing.” “merely is an embodiment bondage, of scars with its psychic history, ized of in the material of the image as well as in the desires and forces it accumulates.” algorith of materials in the new surveillance of vectors shape as digital photographs. networked mically W. revisits Alexandre and systems? In which contexts Ignored? tools that continue to materialize oppression. materialize to continue that tools seeing material of in her Alexandre, Sandy order. embedded in a social and cultural contribution, cites Hito Steyerl’s concept of participating in the image in a way that is useful for understanding what Paglen is getting participate at:“To in an image would… mean participating -the-shelf, commercially commercially -the-shelf, f o are vision the machine algorithms for uses and in the commercial In this artwork, instruments. available with invisible visible traces become photographs such software, of such invisible-to-users that notes Paglen ends. back infrastructural enforcement law as state such forces to connect infrastructures be therefore, may, and they profiling, racial age of in the (long) live-streamed to a large screen that forms the backdrop to the to the backdrop forms that screen a large to live-streamed turned on are cameras the event, for In an encore performance. visual the and programs creates studio Paglen’s the audience. but the this artwork, for programs and optimization representation Figure 4.1.2: Hito Steyerl, Steyerl, Hito 4.1.2: Figure Berlin. Schipper, and Esther York, New Gallery, Kreps Andrew the artist, of Image courtesy Steyerl. Hito CC 4.0 Image seconds. Figure 4.1.3: Nicholas Shapiro, Where Have All the Trailers Gone?, August 27, 2015. FEMA trailer with sticker (upside down) in window indicating “Not to be used for housing.” The image was created for a video about the potentially hazardous conditions, resale, and use of FEMA trailers.

will the technology be used for? Good or ill? War? Peace? Spying? our everyday lives—formaldehyde emanating from laminate floor- Who is funding it and why? The questions are vital. And the mate- ing, for example—discusses how materials that are invisible, but rial constitution of the technology itself bears attention so it can be not altogether insensible (they can give rise to headaches, even linked to its ethical dimensions. nightmares), sufuse and alter our bodies. Barbastathis’s contribution gives techniques of cloaking Shapiro asks not so much or only about the strongly toxic just that attention. Back in 2011, he sought to create an approach substances around us, but also about those chemical arrays at the to cloaking that would work at frequencies of visible light. As MIT edges of experience that warp and distort material life rather than News explained, present as unequivocally lethal. He experiments with calling some of these substances—the ones that are particularly evanescent The object to be hidden (a metal wedge in the experiment, but pumped into our environments at such scale and with such or anything smaller than it) is placed on a flat, horizontal regularity that they appear to be everlasting—persistent ephemeral mirror, and a layer of calcite crystal—made up of two pieces pollutants or PEPs. Shapiro’s fictive classification system plays on with opposite crystal orientations, glued together—is the existing term persistent organic pollutants, which describes placed on top of it. When illuminated by visible light and DDT and PCBs, chemicals that have been globally banned. What, viewed from a certain direction, the object under the calcite Shapiro asks, would it mean to bring PEPs into what historian of layer “disappears,” and the observer sees the scene as if science and “Being Material” symposium participant Michelle there was nothing at all on top of the mirror.9 Murphy calls “regimes of perceptibility,” making them bureaucrat- ically legible?11 Shapiro is thinking both with regulatory science— The article points to the importance of the air around the cloaking attempting to elevate chronic, corrosive, and cruddy exposures to process—a medium that makes a diference in how visibility will bureaucratic legibility—and beyond the one-molecule-at-a-time work or not. In his initial run of cloaking experiments, Barbastathis scale of regulatory whack-a-mole. An oxymoronic nomenclature had to submerge the apparatus in water, so that the refractive may be fitting for contemporary regulatory science as, Shapiro indices would work out just right. The medium matters for this claims, toxicities “do not start and stop where industrial chemistry message—or, more precisely, for the message’s erasure. If invisibil- and the regulatory state think they do.” Being and becoming toxic ity becomes technologically achievable, it will only be because of is not only a consequence of material properties at the molecular the materiality—not the immateriality—of the world. scale, but also of shifting chemical relations and combinations at This insight animates Barbastathis’s contribution to this the scales of bodies, institutions, and landscapes. book. He provides a taxonomy of things invisible and visible or, How do we see—or not see—material things? Making visi- more exactly, a classification of how things in the physical world ble or invisible, the authors in this segment of Being Material teach can, through engineering and computational techniques (such as us, is a matter of directing or redirecting attention, understand- deep neural networks), be concealed, revealed, hallucinated, and ing technologies of visualization, and contesting settled ratios even conjured.10 Computer-aided vision, he argues, multiplies the between the visible and invisible. possibilities of seeing, or not seeing, material. Nicholas Shapiro, writing on the toxic materials present in

132 Stefan Helmreich and Rebecca Uchill 133 Physical Physical (Durham: (Universal (Universal , January 25, 2011, 2011, 25, January , (New York: Random York: (New Get Out Get 106, no. 3 (2011): 033901. no. 106, MIT News MIT Sick Building Syndrome and Building Syndrome Sick Invisible Man Man Invisible 121, no. 24 (2018): 243902. (2018): 24 no. 121, 8. B. Zhang, Y. Luo, X. Liu, and G. Barbastathis, Barbastathis, G. and Liu, X. Luo, Y. Zhang, B. 8. Light,” Visible for Cloak Invisibility “Microscopic Letters Review Physical New A Plain Sight: “Hidden in Chandler, David 9. Closer Much Cloaking Gets Invisibility to Approach Simple and Using Version, the Science-Fiction to Materials,” Inexpensive http://news.mit.edu/2011/invisibility-cloak-0125. Shuai Arthur, Kwabena Goy, Alexandre See 10. Count Photon “Low Barbastathis, and George Li, Deep Learning,” Using Phase Retrieval Letters Review Michelle Murphy, 11. Politics, Environmental Uncertainty: of the Problem Workers Women and Technoscience, 2006). Press, University Duke 6. Jordan Peele, director, director, Peele, Jordan 6. Productions/QC Pictures/Blumhouse 2017). Entertainment, Ralph Ellison, 7. 1952). House,

2, 2, 10

e-flux e-flux e-flux (New York: York: (New e-flux Journal Journal e-flux Surveillance and Society Surveillance Society and Techniques of the Observer the Observer of Techniques Algorithms of Oppression: 15 (April 2010), https://www.e-flux.com/ 15 (April 2010), (November 2014), https://www.e-flux.com/ 2014), (November

(November 2009). (November markets—a zone that has long been subjected to an ongoing original accumulation and to massive (and, to a certain extent, successful) attempts at privatization.” One decade such later, unwelcome images inundate us alt-right(e.g., memes) even while digital circulation systems are threatened by repeals of net neutrality and not incentivized to protect data in the public interest. See Hito Steyerl, “In Defense of the Poor Image,” In Steyerl’s 2009“Defense of the Poor Image,” which considered the activist possibilities for remixing“poor images” (think low-resolution, poorly composed, and cheaply made GIFs), she cautioned that an economy of poor images is not speech, “Hate emancipatory: always necessarily spam, and other rubbish make their way through digital connections as well. Digital communication has also become one of the most contested 4. Saﬁya Noble, Noble, Saﬁya 4. How Search Engines Reinforce Racism 2018). NYU Press, andThing HitoMe,” You Like5. Steyerl, “A Journal journal/15/61298/a-thing-like-you-and-me/. 2. Trevor Paglen, “Operational Images,” Images,” “Operational Paglen, Trevor 2. 59 journal/59/61130/operational-images/. “Picturing Wood, and David Introna Lucas 3. Facial of The Politics Surveillance: Algorithmic Systems,” Recognition 198. – 177 –3 (2004): 2 no. 1. Jonathan Crary, Crary, Jonathan 1. 1990). Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Ways of Absence: or, The Unbearable Heft of Being Materialized1 Sandy Alexandre

But suddenly she saw her hands and thought with a clarity to “go on strike” as it were, for returning the body to itself—that as simple as it was dazzling, “These hands belong to me. is, of course, if a body rendered serviceable for years can ever These my hands.” Next she felt a knocking in her chest and recognize itself again6—or for transcending the body altogether. discovered something else new: her own heartbeat. Had Perhaps one way to think about what it would mean to decouple it been there all along? This pounding thing? She felt like being material from being of service is to imagine what it would a fool, and began to laugh out loud. … She couldn’t stop look like to be the obverse of a serviceable corporeal. That would laughing. “My heart’s beating,” she said. … She covered her mean being either out of service or out of range of service. To mouth to keep from laughing too loud. actualize that idea would require that Black serviceable corporeals —The narrator of Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1989) describing be disembodied somehow, for example, or that they have an out- how Baby Suggs, a formerly enslaved person (just newly of-body experience. I won’t include dead bodies in the category of freed), views her freedom in corporeal terms2 the corporeally out of service, because, as historian Daina Ramey Berry informs us, during slavery there was a chance that even a Listen to me I’m begging y’all, you’ve gotta come back …! dead Black body could be summoned to work. Sometimes after LOOK, GEORGE (Waves dirty rag aloft.) I brought the rag enslaved persons were dead and gone (and depending on who you wax the car wit’ … Don’t this bring back memories, was responsible for their deaths, including enslaved persons who George, of all the days you spent shining that automobile to died by suicide), slave owners would nevertheless make sure to shimmering perfection …? exhaust the work potential of their valuable pieces of property by —Douglas Turner Ward, Day of Absence (1965), an excerpt pursuing ways to continue reaping economic benefits from them.7 from the white mayor’s television appearance, during which In other words, there was no “resting in peace” for the ever-likely- he makes a personal appeal to all of the missing/disap- to-be-resuscitated Black dead. peared Black people, begging them to come back3 So in trying to reach this safe, sanctuary state of disembod- iedness or in trying to simulate an out-of-body experience, how In a work titled “‘The Deeds Done in My Body’: Black Feminist exactly does one go about bypassing the material reality of an entire Theory, Performance, and the Truth about Adah Isaacs Menken,” body? The answer is: creatively and particularly through narration. Daphne Brooks coins a phrase that I find marvelously suggestive. In Indeed, the imaginative and innovative ethos of literary studies has the essay she briefly discusses how Sojourner Truth’s physiological much to teach us about the varied and often surreal techniques that presence—from the deep tones of her voice to her strong arms— people might use to evade bodily exploitation. I argue in this essay had often been viewed as an instrument of amazing grace, seeming that when Black personas, in creative works, describe a scenario to possess the ability to galvanize the otherwise complacent white where their bodies seem to take on a life of their own, that moment moderate by dint of her mere comportment. Brooks writes that of free-indirect narration is a very instructive form of out-of-body she regards this very narrow view of Truth as a “problem wherein experience.8 And when that narrator creates meaning out of the the Black abolitionist is reduced to the serviceable corporeal.”4 ways Black characters reckon with this kind of dissociation, the And there it is—serviceable corporeal—that turn of phrase which narrator charts the bittersweet struggle of Black self-awareness so pithily conjures up whole bodies and even discrete body parts coming into its own and in service only to further eforts toward either involuntarily or unconsciously at work at the behest of others. Black self-acceptance (or at the very least toward anti anti-black- Whether you are an enslaved person, the African-American folk hero ness). Black narrators who narrate by way of this kind of free indirect John Henry who allegedly competed with a drilling machine and discourse give us crucial insight into what it could mean to succeed lost his life in the efort, or an especially charismatic presence on the at sloughing of one’s body, distancing oneself from it, or amputating abolitionist lecture circuit, the phrase “serviceable corporeal” seems a part of it for freedom’s sake. Like Baby Suggs, we discover that capable of encompassing a range of references in which bodies— to be an out-of-service corporeal is to have not only the precious and particularly Black people’s bodies—are expressly put to work freedom but also the precious time to be a critical thinker—to see, and are valued primarily because of that laboring prowess.5 deliberate, and think, at long last, with some perspective as well as It would seem that the most basic, unremarkable aspect some satisfying and self-serving clarity. of the human condition—that of being material—is nevertheless I start from what one might call this desacralized place of fraught with danger for those corporeals specifically racialized objectified bodies (serviceable corporeals) and vacated bodies Black. But there is no need to be coy about this assertion; US his- (out-of-body experiences) in order to remind us about what I see tory has been consistent in its teachings about the various ways as our analogous capacity to be self-referential and to compart- in which Black people’s materiality—from the size and shape of mentalize ourselves, particularly in the way that W. E. B. Du Bois their crania to their musculature—was used to begin and sustain explains African Americans intuitively know how to do thanks to the institution of slavery. the concept of double-consciousness. As Du Bois explains: The phrase “serviceable corporeal” certainly defamiliarizes human bodies by objectifying them as work machines, but in its The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted formulation seems to inhere a strategy for empowering the body with second sight in this American world,—a world which

134 Sandy Alexandre ------135 (2009), (2009), At the very least, least, very the At 14 13 Poems of the Black Object the Black of Poems of how the thing really names less an object really the thing how of of a changed relation to the human subject and to a changed relation of of objects asserting themselves as things, then, then, as things, objects asserting themselves of story during the Civil Rights Movement corresponds corresponds Movement during the Civil Rights story story witness What are the poetics of the Black body suggested in the suggested body the Black of the poetics are What and then exploded as the excised, self one’s of realization the ways are what particularly, More the re-configured? pieces into detaches that self one imagines a revised that its own of the process mark whose embodied fragments and exhibition, has been arrested, however momentarily. momentarily. however has been arrested, and exhibition, The is the thus the subject-object relation. than a particular degrad in Blackness by value creates narratorship Black Another way to think about this separation of the corporeal the corporeal of about this separation think to way Another objects when they the thingness of confront begin to We when the car drill breaks, us: when the for working stop within flow when their filthy, get when the windows stalls, consumption and distribution, production of the circuits following questions: following Narratorship is the thing—that is, it is the position from which sub it is the position from is, is the thing—that Narratorship The be named. discernable and able to are ject-object relations “thing”; this redi assumes the appellation narratorship of activity rection is a corrective that opens up new ways of seeing, naming, and understanding the narrated no longer merely as things to be discussed but as actual lives on the line.The object of study and narration in this case is Black Thuslife. narrators have an accu rate sense of the weight of their responsibility.They possesses a kind of metavisual understanding of the broader picture, because mate are identities racial how analyze can see and the narrator rialized to benefit some, on the one hand, while constraining others on the other hand. that economic and sociopolitical systems very in the value ing Wilson’s Ronaldo serviceable things. people merely Black render titled poems, collection of perform to in order self-amputation vision of Fanon’s from borrows a serviceable to is specifically that way Blackness in a radical Speaking on the and realization. self-awakening Black of project pose the to attempt they he claims that these poems, subject of that it ends up looking like a violent rejection of the physical body body the physical of rejection violent a looking like it ends up that the to notion the raise to chooses likely most And he altogether. unequiv show, to because he wants taking it literally of extreme and imprisoned. dislocated up with feeling he is fed that ocally, being made into of violence the reveals narration While Fanon’s show violent commensurately and the a serviceable corporeal it also reveals engenders, a designation such that indignation of safety the through and relief finds release ultimately Fanon how the amputation Narrating violence. and fictional hypothetical of however, does, Narrating so. the amputation make actually doesn’t his but also to himself to only not clear crystal his twoness make him for it meant what of understanding Baldwin’s James readers. a be to of “Part writes: He narrator. the Black of conception with my exactly and as freely as largely move to as a witness was responsibility my it out.” get and to story, the write to as possible, bodiless. actually not if and fluid, be safe must the narrator-witness makes Bill Brown that the distinction is through and the narrator a specialized of the doyen Brown, a thing and an object. between writes: “thing theory,” called studies in literary critical theory of form Fanon’s “third-person consciousness” is DuBoisian double-con DuBoisian is consciousness” “third-person Fanon’s a nar being of the concept mean by I is also what It sciousness. objective narration—and Fanon, For existence. own one’s of rator he repudiation; a bloody possible after only that—is at narration so literally body” of “out being of the notion takes intentionally - - - - - 9 - - - - - 12 The ability to observe oneself oneself observe to The ability 10 Literarily speaking, the condition of double-con the condition of speaking, Literarily 11 from my own presence, far indeed, and indeed, far presence, own my from f o far myself I took me but an else could be for What an object. made myself my spattered a hemorrhage that an excision, amputation, blood? with Black whole body man’s eyes. An unfamiliar weight burdened me. The real The real me. burdened weight An unfamiliar eyes. man’s the man world In the white claims. challenged my world his of difculties in the development encounters color of a is solely the body Consciousness of schema. bodily On … consciousness. is a third-person It activity. negating with be abroad unable to dislocated, completely day, that imprisoned me, who unmercifully man, the white the other, Consider the gratuitously literal version of distress that that distress of version literal the gratuitously Consider the white meet when I had to And then the occasion arose Du Bois emphasizes the peculiarity of double-conscious of the peculiarity Du Bois emphasizes dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. being torn it from alone keeps dogged strength peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense sense this double-consciousness, this sensation, peculiar of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of in on looks that world a of tape the by soul one’s measuring two-ness,—an his feels ever One pity. and contempt amused unrecon two thoughts, two souls, two a Negro; American, whose body, dark one in ideals warring two strivings; ciled yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him him lets only but self-consciousness, true no him yields a is It world. other the of revelation the through himself see Franz Fanon uses to describe how it feels to have double-con have to it feels describe how uses to Fanon Franz be body as well describes might ectively f he e What sciousness. disorder: dysmorphic ingly, the measuring tape of white supremacy is at once pseu is at supremacy white the measuring tape of ingly, narratorship Black people. Black against and rigged doscientific the breaking in the service of work iconoclastic of a site thus, is, reinforce that the narratives and countering ossified stereotypes narratorship Black people; consequently, Black of the thingification distress emotional the kinds of of the rawness expose also helps to cause. those stereotypes that white supremacy foists on Black people as a group. These as a group. people on Black foists supremacy white that Black how to antithetical outright align with and are images do not at an accusing finger point to In order themselves. value people sense primary people’s Black aftermath, and its supremacy white the secondary out of human beings steps as worthy themselves of surpris Not society. supremacist a white by created self sense of the narrator of their own existence, not least because the tem least not existence, own their of the narrator double-con double-consciousness is retrospection; of porality and so much good thinking time, sciousness is on retrospective And often, time. span of can happen during that and rethinking their of in each points erent dif discover—at narrators Black what those images reject to violently the need and in retrospect—is lives that this kind of psychological dissociation may also reap some also reap may dissociation psychological this kind of that learning. worth lessons well dou by created the distance and from clearly, more erently, dif and self-sympathy, ble-consciousness enables critical thinking, perspective. who on the person status narrator confers ectively f sciousness e be someone to Double-consciousness allows has the condition. performance of white magnanim white of performance f a one-o for evidence material else’s somebody for sustenance material are you or token), (a ity mammy). (a infant a burden of as something it and characterizes ness as a sensation the possibility consider us to but I want it, who has the person for For how clearly he diagnoses one psychological consequence of consequence of he diagnoses one psychological clearly how For DuBoisian adapt to I want America, in be Black it means to what as the instead, split, American/Negro see the to in order twoness you that being aware human while also fully feeling split between either are You a serviceable thing. as merely perceived often are new becoming? These are the questions that drive my Indeed, the very attempt to get the world to realize that the critical project, and to a large extent, help to frame my stereotypes or the fetishized images of you do not actually repre- intent throughout the second book of poems, one I hope sent reality is heroic stuf. But we should certainly not discount the is captured in the title, a way of distancing myself from and pitiable facet of heroicism in my use of the term here. A hero can engaging with the Black Object, a way of giving over to the be admirably more courageous than the rest of us but a martyr too, idea of Black subjectivity as something intrinsic and at a after all. Participation is heroic in this manner: at once laudable and constant remove from the speaker of the text.15 pitiable because it entails thrilling danger, on the one hand, and probable self-sacrifice on the other. It is difcult to imagine partic- In the collection, he appropriates degrading stereotypes often ipation as subsumable under the category of “the out-of-service associated with Black people as if performing an undercover oper- corporeal,” but Steyerl’s suggestion that participation allows one to ation to infiltrate the workings of those stereotypes and to unravel be a method actor while also being fully aware of the implications their logic. In “The Black Object’s Deportment” he writes: of that kind of immersion means that there can be an out. An out-of-service corporeal engaged in participation could In a post ofce line, the black object sees an image of be an invisible person for example. Again, the creative license a Black, drawn in charcoal, who is supposed to be in a that literary studies surrounds and emboldens its adherents with hoodie, but whose upper torso and face emerge like a head makes this leap possible and even unremarkable, since Ralph in a pod from a bag. Ellison’s novel Invisible Man (1952) already provides a more fully Without a wholly visible head, there is only a flat layer developed precedent for this comparison. The first-person narra- of eyes that float from a sketched surface. Nothing is recog- tor is the protagonist is also the self-diagnosed “invisible man” of nizable beyond the shape of a nose, and the cross hatching the novel, and he discovers that he is figuratively invisible to white around the eyes. people because they don’t see him for who he truly is; they only Just when the black object begins to think about see him as the stereotypes, racist epithets, and “image[s] drained that partial Black face, how the head is sealed or not sealed of humanity” that serve to reinforce white supremacy.19 This state in hood or plastic, a Jheri Curled object with a light Black of being figuratively and involuntarily invisible is imposed on him. baby, screams: “Hurry up!” or “You next!”16 His so-called invisibility is yet another form of body dysmorphia. And his decision to play along with the infuriating farce that is his In this scenario, the recurring “black object” is my conception of meticulously socially constructed function in the world means that the Black narrator. Like an Ebenezer Scrooge figure allowed to he has resigned himself to playing the part of the unseen seen. see himself outside of himself—not through ghosts, in this partic- This participation takes a toll on his psyche. Participation can ular case, but through “image[s] of a black”—the black object has be heroic only for so long, especially when it is the forced kind. the opportunity to see how it is itself seen. I consider this kind of It wears on nerves; it frays them. It can make one come undone. undercover operation akin to what the artist and writer Hito Steyerl External invisibility is an out insofar as it protects an inner core. identifies as the radical practice of participating in an image: A figuratively invisible person participates as an out-of-service corporeal when they “wear the mask that grins and lies”;20 when To participate in an image … would mean participating they’re not “all there”; when they can be physically accounted for, in the material of the image as well as in the desires and but their heart’s not in it. In other words, this kind of out-of-service forces it accumulates. How about acknowledging that this corporeal labors under the assumption that the real in corporeal— image is not some ideological misconception, but a thing that the real corporeal—is not actually accessible to their employer, simultaneously couched in afect and availability, a fetish enslaver, exploiter.21 To be an out-of-service corporeal—a corpo- made of crystals and electricity, animated by our wishes real that cannot be of service or refuses to be of service and that and fears—a perfect embodiment of its own conditions of consequently foils plans—ultimately shocks racist systems to the existence? As such, the image is … without expression. It point of malfunction, creating glitches in entrenched and ideologi- doesn’t represent reality. It is a fragment of the real world. It cal ways of being in the world. is a thing just like any other—a thing like you and me.17 Although the grandfather character in Ellison’s novel has never been described as someone who is himself “invisible,” I First of all, I think that is easy enough to say, especially if participa- want to take the liberty to do so here because he describes his tion is voluntary. Because of their skin, and its attendant maligned own eforts at participation by using metaphors of espionage and color, Black people participate, albeit involuntarily, in the material- concealment. In order to take Steyerl’s argument to what amounts ity of images about them every day by merely existing, by merely to its tragic conclusion for Black people, I want us to see Steyerl’s being in the skin they’re in. They feel and absorb the negative vibes concept of participation as analogous to the grandfather’s sense of anti-Blackness directed at them.18 They participate by bearing that he was basically a “spy in the enemy’s country.” These are the the brunt of Steyerl’s fanciful idea about participation. While Steyerl grandfather’s dying last words to the protagonist: seems to think that participation might ultimately expose the absurdity as well as the Achilles’ heel of the image—that participa- “Son after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I tion could defang the image and remind us of its mortality—being never told you but our life is a war and I have been a traitor a Black participant means being the embodied hope of racism’s all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I eventual end, which would also mean that the onus is, once again, give up my gun back in Reconstruction. Live with your head on Black people to destroy the social construct that they did not in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ’em with yeses, even create themselves. In other words, Black participation has undermine ’em with grins, agree ’em to death and destruc- always existed and often without Black consent. To assume that tion, let ’em swoller you till they vomit or burst wide open. … participation is merely a fun exercise constitutes a missed oppor- Learn it to the young’uns.”22 tunity to do an intersectional analysis of participation, which would make it patently clear that Black participation can’t help but be a The grandfather fancied himself savvy enough to have gone risky and sacrificial enterprise. unnoticed in his surreptitious plot to induce an implosion of the

136 Sandy Alexandre - - - - - 137 For Spillers, Spillers, For 24 was a thing natu was of serviceof In her role as a narrator who acts as an intermediary who acts as an intermediary as a narrator role In her 25 Perhaps the best way to summarize my sense of what this what sense of my summarize to way the best Perhaps In other words, performance is the decoy, and making and making is the decoy, performance words, In other coming by this essay a conclusion of toward work to I want between the uninterpellated and the interpellated Black subject, subject, Black and the interpellated the uninterpellated between people Black for retreat she is nimble while she charts loopholes of and of in light both anew, themselves reinvent radically seeking to ideological exigencies. of the persistence despite the whole admit that, to first, accomplish is, to has attempted essay an anthropologist of assume the role trying to actually I was time, full circle. I want us to recall the brief discussion regarding the discussion regarding the brief recall us to I want full circle. narratives, in political conversion deployment body’s female Black feminist Black what consider to in order which begins this essay, influential in her regard does in that Spillers Hortense scholar begins the piece by Spillers Maybe.” Papa’s Baby, “Mama’s essay names she has been and and sundry various the all of recounting woman: because she is a Black America simply can be called in Because name a few. to “Sapphire,” and Sugar,” “Brown “Peaches,” need obsessive America’s like therefore, feel, begins to what of a serviceable merely she is not concludes that she her, brand to needs me, country “My that: but an indispensable one at corporeal be invented.” to have I would here, not I were and if altogether— pre-service like looks service” of “out I call being what being before society of a state is, that dou of adaptation Her people in particular. Black of expected rally is indeed while there concede that ble-consciousness seems to formula racialization’s flesh precedes body’s that body,” dark “one the flesh proper, the body Unlike Blackness equals inferiority. that a of prepossessions” “mythical and the assessments to is prior by made body irreparably flesh was The gaze. supremacist white Spillers, to According people serviceable. Black make to the greed constitutes body flesh to uninterpellated from transformation that as I see her flesh, of definition her Borrowing wounding. violent a in which fleshing out the ways of doing the work narrator a Black being on their people has been contingent Black of value the bodified. How exactly do you outsource stereotypes associated with you you with associated stereotypes outsource you do exactly How but also corporeal own your only not while preserving a decoy to the grandfather verbs is in the I think, sanity? own The answer, your “agree.” and “undermine,” “overcome,” uses: your and you between erence dif the of aware are you that sure con peril of the fatal from you will save is what self performing hopes will work grandfather the But perhaps what the two. flating in the context self-destruction people from Black in saving best perfor such a paradoxical that is the promise society a racist of destroy to has the capacity actually obeisance violent mance of And so it timing is everything. words, In other eventually. … racism of his deathbed—can, the grandfather—on is no coincidence that especially time delimits, that the way forget conveniently course, vir the up; he can extol is proverbially in particular, since his time, subjectivity temporal a from and endurance patience Black tues of prudent, the most his advice is not if But even will soon expire. that his and synthesize analyze to his ability that evidence ers f it o worth is actually the analysis with his sense that (along path life’s his summarizing from is a consequence of posterity) for preserving who for he can see himself With hindsight, in retrospect. deathbed as Even kill and destroy. on a mission to spy he was—a he fancies life, his own of narrator unreliable and once an omniscient he is at who and unashamed of is self-aware the grandfather-as-narrator person. be that do to he had to he is and what his own identity and the one that has been foisted on him. Deceive Deceive on him. been foisted has the one that and identity his own of the face on corporeal serviceable horse—a Trojan with a them in traitorous proves ultimately one that but term, in the short it and is laugh last the so that decoy them with a Deceive the long term. remains: But the question advise. seems to the grandfather yours, - - - There is a There 23 , 1998. Silkscreen on canvas, two two on canvas, Silkscreen 1998. , Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Black Features / / Features My Black Exaggerating Self-Portrait To confront a life in commodified, objectified, and stereo objectified, in commodified, a life confront To This kind of infiltration, in which a Black person is trans person in which a Black infiltration, This kind of of himself but a version of him that the adversarial “they” have have “they” the adversarial him that of version but a himself of doesn’t the grandfather What themselves. imagined and created man doesn’t the invisible that is the possibility account into take between out and distinguish separate who he is and so can’t know typed form is simultaneously to expose the cruelty and absurdity of of absurdity and cruelty the expose to simultaneously is form typed such a human-to- for allow would that the sociological processes of way by human life that resacralize and to thing transformation, one’s between bare lays such a revelation the disconnection that In other be a narrator. is to It fgy. e and one’s experience lived the protagonist that recommends the grandfather “you” the words, version an authentic actually is not swallow people to white allow to do all of humankind the service of freeing it into wakeful living wakeful it into freeing humankind the service of do all of to mattering Black human corporeals—the very the of the cost but at humankind. of the makeup to contribute lives—that of form thingness in a perverse Black performing thin line between detriment. own one’s and becoming it to protest spiteful One can’t narrate honestly from that entangled position. And if And if position. entangled that from honestly narrate One can’t the conflation from oneself honestly—recusing narrate one can’t one on—then insists which the world Blackness and thinghood, of free. get eventually can’t a kamika into or curative vomit-inducing a best—into formed—at attempts call that wake-up violent a constitutes weapon ze-like the counsel “Kill them with kindness,” or better yet “If you can’t beat beat can’t you “If yet better or them with kindness,” “Kill the counsel revenge with eventual and always spitefully join them [albeit them, white acquiescence to advises cloying The grandfather in mind].” Here, people. Black of and misconceptions perceptions people’s is perhaps that a serviceable corporeal of is an example therefore, entirely. yourself losing risk You well. a little too work to being asked 100.6 cm). Credit: © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy © Glenn Ligon; Courtesy Credit: cm). each 120 × 40 inches (304.8 × 100.6 panels, and Angeles, Los Projects, Regen York, New Augustine, Luhring the artist, of London. Thomas Dane Gallery, place. him in the first created that system supremacist white very of adaptation me as an interesting passage strikes This famous Figure 4.2.1: Glenn Ligon, Glenn Ligon, 4.2.1: Figure Features White My Exaggerating Self-Portrait of Black narrators in order to arrive at that intended accom- of its self-appointed power to name and racialize; to be appalled plishment. Almost twenty-five years of reading Black-American into speechlessness by both the bizarreness and the audacity of literature warrants this fanciful self-accreditation. And the main labeled assemblages to rename themselves without permission. lesson that I have learned from immersing myself in the world of In his piece titled Self-Portrait Exaggerating My Black Black narrators is that Black narrators are anthropologists in their Features / Self-Portrait Exaggerating My White Features, the own right. The anthropology of Black narration reveals that Black American conceptual artist Glenn Ligon reuses and repurposes narrators are out here unabashedly telling the truth on who has the visuals and words that go into producing race in order to show been spreading various strains of double-consciousness and how arbitrary the assignment of these parts really are. By reusing how. But in addition to pointing out the culprits, they also demon- the same photograph of himself in the second silkscreen and strate how Black people’s awareness of double-consciousness, applying the caption “white features” to describe what the first along with its efects, eventually endows Black people with the silkscreen had already described as his “Black features,” Ligon not audacity, moral authority, and righteous indignation to disown only suggests that those captions are recyclable and can be used what Alexander Weheliye has aptly called the “racializing assem- in any context for and by anybody but also that they are discard- blages” customized specifically for them.26 Most illuminating about able by virtue of being recyclable in the first place. As Ligon himself Weheliye’s neologism is how it allows us to visualize what it means explains, the material conditions of his photographs-turned-silk- for race to be socially constructed. The term “racializing assem- screens help facilitate the revelation that these are “images that blages” so cleverly evokes a race assembly plant—where parts fall apart the closer you get to them.”28 That secretly embedded are fabricated and put together to produce race. The imaginative obsolescence is a reminder that the construction of race can possibilities inherent in that neologism, in works of literature, and come apart at the seams at any time, but more than likely only if in works that borrow from literature’s mode of fanciful thinking we are willing to scrutinize it more closely. It’s not just that our eyes ultimately allow us to visualize an image of Black people figura- deceive us; it is the very system that produces what our eyes see tively hurling their self-amputated body parts directly at the ones that manipulates our understanding and acceptance of reality. who redefined and recruited their bodies for service in the first Ligon’s deadpan expression almost dares us to question his cap- place. However bizarre (and precisely because it is so bizarre), the tion choices, particularly for the second silkscreen; his expression hurling gesture attempts to force a very material confrontation with encourages us to be uncomfortable with what might otherwise be the Black bodies that white supremacy has done a disservice to our impulse to laugh at “white features” as being an apt, ekphrastic by creating those bodies in the first place. It is ultimately a deli- descriptor of the second silkscreen. ciously petty form of revenge—to register your absence, to tender How can we laugh at or in the face of such a serious mien? your resignation by force-feeding someone (who fails to see you Ligon doesn’t find his self-portrait funny; he doesn’t think you or appreciate you for who you truly are) your Spillersian “body.” It is should find it funny either, it seems. James Baldwin once told us a diferent kind of body shaming—the kind not where the body is that whiteness is a moral choice, and Ligon here shows us that shamed but where the body (as a shell of its former flesh) is used it can be an artistic choice too—one that unsettles, disturbs, and to shame the misnamers and captors of the flesh. The transforma- provokes us as viewers to think about how race, and how we tion from being one’s own flesh to being someone else’s body was denote it, can be wielded.29 What can be constructed can also be a process, which means that to do justice to a critical analysis of deconstructed and also repurposed to discombobulating and illu- that process, and perhaps to begin to undo it as well, requires that minating efect. Whether they are parsing a social construction or the truth (as told by a Black narrator) can only reveal itself and thus a racializing assemblage, narrators have their proverbial fingers on be served in retrospect. the pulse of how the materialized Black body can be broken down In addition to the concept of double-consciousness, Du into its component parts by way of how Black characters describe Bois’s notion of second sight also appears in The Souls of Black their double-consciousness and how it makes them feel. Ligon, the Folk; according to Du Bois, second sight grants a special privi- artist as Black narrator, not only helps to carry but also to explain lege to Black sight, to Black ways of seeing, because of how he the weight of what it means to be constructed, assembled, and figures it as a visual skill created as a consequence not only of materialized. Ultimately, the creative license that Black writers survival instincts but also of dialectical appraisal. Du Bois seems and artists give themselves to show how black people live with to suggest then that, unlike their white counterparts, Black people double-consciousness also allows us to see how Black people understand that they are not Black people in a vacuum; they are can hypothetically excuse themselves from that bind. Sometimes Black in relation; they are aware of themselves as being interpel- the separation is violent. Sometimes it is funny, confusing, or at lated subjects. Reading Du Bois’s famous passage on double-con- least provocative. But it is almost always a relief. The exercise of sciousness for the umpteenth time, it occurs to me that there is facing oneself by imagining one’s own twoness is revealing; it is something, dare I say, panoramic, about that Black perspective. In knowledge; it is power. It lays bare the physical implications of all essentials, that perspective is Walter Benjamin’s notion of the being of the world and the transcendent-like wisdom of seeing “optical unconscious” in action. Long before Benjamin suggested right through it. that the camera and its attendant photograph expose the limits of human visual perception, granting us access to those things we can’t see with the naked eye—the optical unconscious—Du Bois had proposed not a technology but the very humanity of Black sight as more than capable of gaining access to the optical unconscious.27 To adapt an old saying: In the land of people with psychological blind spots about their fellow Americans, the person gifted with second sight is king. The ambassador of Black people’s second sight is the Black narrator; the Black narrator is America’s opportunity to truly see itself for who it is. The Black narrator is America’s opportunity to be chastened; to be confronted by the gravity of the racializing assemblages it created; to be relieved

138 Sandy Alexandre

13, no. no. 13, (New (New 17, no. 2 no. 17, 139 Screen Screen Illuminations: (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke Diacritics (New York: Vintage Vintage York: (New Shadow and Act Act and Shadow Habeas Viscus: Habeas (New York: Schocken(NewYork: Invisible Man Man Invisible , ed. with an introduction by Randall Kenan Randall Kenan by with an introduction ed. , (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1924), 71. 1924), Mead, Dodd, York: (New The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Uncollected Redemption: of The Cross The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Laurence Paul of Poems The Complete 27. See Benjamin’s two essays on the subject: “A “A on the subject: essays two See Benjamin’s 27. (1931), Photography” of Short History of Age in the Art of Work “The and 26, 5– 1 (1972): Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) in Essays and Reflections 1968). Books, Fall Self-Portraits “Glenn Ligon’s From 28. of Museum video clip on San Francisco Apart,” https://www.sfmoma.org/ Art website: Modern glenn-ligons-self-portraits-fall-apart/. and Other White “On Being Baldwin, James 29. in Lies,” Writings 137. 2010), Books, Pantheon York: (New slanted against him that when he approaches for a for when he approaches him that against slanted an image drained discovers he himself glimpse of 25). – (24 humanity” of Mask,” the Wear “We Dunbar, Laurence Paul 20. from Dunbar is Clifton Tod where the novel The scene in 21. a sambo doll is a with busking on the streets outsource to like it looks what of example perfect figurine. a dummy to serviceable corporeality Ralph Ellison, 22. 16. 1997), Books, here; is intentional reference The kamikaze 23. War World marine in in the merchant Ellison served soon after very writing the novel and he began II, 1952. 1945 to the war—from Papa’s Baby, “Mama’s Spillers, J. Hortense 24. Grammar,” American An Maybe: 1987): 65. (Summer 25. I consider the “bodified”word another term for what I have called“materialized” throughout this essay. Weheliye, G. Alexander 26. and Black Biopolitics, Assemblages, Racializing the Human Theories of Feminist 2014). Press, University 19. Ralph Ellison, “20th-Century Fiction and the Fiction “20th-Century Ellison, Ralph 19. in Humanity,” of Mask Black the most “Perhaps 25. 1964), Random House, York: segregation of form understood and least insidious for Thus it is unfortunate … word. the of is that of formations powerful most the that the Negro been so have fictional words American modern , trans. trans. , (Durham: (New York: New New York: (New (Philadelphia: University of of University (Philadelphia: , directed by Raoul Peck, Raoul Peck, by directed , Poems of the Black Object the Black of Poems (Chicago: University of of University (Chicago: The Souls of Black Folk: Essays Essays Folk: Black The Souls of In the Wake: On Blackness and Wake: In the , March 2010, http://www.bookslut. 2010, March , Black Skin, White Masks White Skin, Black Embodied Avatars Avatars Embodied (Chicago: A.C. McGlurg & Co., 1997), 3. 1997), Co., & McGlurg A.C. (Chicago: Things ect Theory Reader TheoryReader ect f A The Bookslut (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016). Press, University (Durham: Duke 15, April 2010, https://www.e-flux.com/ April 2010, 15, I Am Not Your Negro Your Am Not I 14. Bill Brown, Bill Brown, 14. 4; emphasis mine. 2004), Chicago Press, V. with Ronaldo Interview “An Wilson, V. Ronaldo 15. Wilson,” com/features/2010_03_015753.php. Wilson, V. Ronaldo 16. 15. 2009), Books, (Futurepoem and Me,” You Thing Like “A Steyerl, Hito 17. e-flux journal/15/61298/a-thing-like-you-and-me/. “performing of notion McMillan’s See also Uri in objecthood” 2015). Press, University York and analysis a comprehensive For 18. see vibes, these negative of contextualization Sharpe, Christina Being 8. Free indirect discourse conflates the thoughts thoughts the conflates discourse indirect Free 8. and narrators, characters a text’s of and speeches the between distinguish to making the ability and meaningful, once interesting, at groups two Berlant, Lauren to According difcult. productively the impossibility performs discourse indirect “free in one intelligence an observational locating of to the reader forces and therefore body, any or unfolding of open relation more erent, a dif transact and thinking being, judging, she is reading, what to “Cruel the essay from Excerpted she understands.” in Optimism” 96. 2010), Press, University Duke Du Bois, B. E. W. 9. and Sketches double-consciousness what least, very the At 10. a self- not people are Black us is that teaches navel-gazing. to people prone centered I with one another, be confused the two Lest 11. self- between a distinction make to like would is about active The first and self-pity. sympathy second is about passive The oneself. kindness to resignation. Fanon, Franz 12. Press, Grove York: (New Farrington Constance 109. 1994), 13. L. Baldwin and Samuel James by performances 2016). Entertainment, Home (Magnolia Jackson 7. Daina Ramey Berry, “‘Broad is de Road dat dat is de Road “‘Broad Berry, Ramey Daina 7. and Enslaved Capital Human Death’: ter Leads eds., Rockman, Seth and Beckert Sven in Mortality,” American History of New A Capitalism: Slavery’s Development Economic 2016). Press, Pennsylvania , For Colored Colored For , which is a satirical is a satirical which , Recovering the Black the Black Recovering (New York: Random York: (New Happy Ending and Day of of and Day Ending Happy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers NJ: Rutgers Brunswick, (New Beloved Beloved (New York: Scribner, 1997), 50–51. 1997), Scribner, York: (New For Colored Girls Who Have Who Have Girls Colored For Day of Absence of Day put in service to someone without the put in service to : Two Plays by Douglas Turner Ward (New (New Ward Turner Douglas by Plays Two : almost almost makes it STO…LEN.” Ntozake Shange, Shange, Ntozake it STO…LEN.” makes the Suicide/When Considered Have Who Girls Enuf Is Rainbow Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf Is Suicide/When the Rainbow Considered f stu ”; “her of demands the return in green the lady some of are f stu her of list included in an itemized wit?/some me left you this is “who parts: body her things/i my wants bad attitude!/i simple bitch/widda the wit leg my mark/& birth the wit arm my want language quik & feet calloused my want burns/i bike yrs/ it make shit don’t my stealin … mouth in my back the steam drill, during construction of the tunnel for the C&O Railway May Co. God grant that we and be of and strong the great respect always others.” service to a body where about an instance I think Here 6. is Shange’s In Ntozake consent. the body’s of owner choreopoem Vanessa D. Dickerson, eds., eds., Dickerson, D. Vanessa African by Body: Self-Representations Female Women American 46. 2001), Press, University Virginia,Westplaque A 5. that Talcott, in commemoratesJohn Henry’s life ends with the following Henry words: “John died from a race with House, 1987), 167. 1987), House, Ward, Turner Douglas 3. Absence 12. 1994), Service, Play Dramatists York: Body’: Deeds Done in My “‘The Daphne Brooks, 4. Truth and the Performance, Theory, Feminist Black and Bennett in Michael Menken,” Isaacs Adah about ects of the aforementioned problems—slavery, problems—slavery, the aforementioned ects of f e vivid made more consequently etc.—are racism, the between who mediate Narrators and heinous. objectified and the are characters Black that ways about that thoughts own their process they ways the bare lay to poised uniquely are objectification problems. these problems’ of particulars Morrison, Toni 2. conceptual implications of the recurring double- the recurring of implications conceptual people, Black wherein consciousness motif in these participate to not preferring repeatedly exaggerated the most do so in choose to systems, imagine they what especially including and ways, refusals Because these bodies. own their doing to attempted of forms violent by denoted often are the example), for (self-amputations, absence bodily fantasy about an imaginary Southern town where where town Southern an imaginary about fantasy disappeared. suddenly have people Black all the in ways imaginative the examines This essay up the Black er f o to refusals people’s which Black capitalism, racism, slavery, service to in body are gaze supremacist and the white exploitation, meditate that in literatures particularly portrayed, people. Black of on the double-consciousness the understand to tries ectively f e The essay s on Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 1965 Ward’s Turner s on Douglas rif This title 1. play one-act Invisible Images Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen

LISA PARKS: Trevor and I first met at the Transmediale Festival in circulation of media yet are rarely recognized or thought about by Berlin about ten years ago. At that time we both shared an interest most people. For more than a decade, I have been exploring how in satellites. Trevor was trying to photograph satellites from difer- technological objects, facilities, and labor relations are organized ent sites on earth. I was trying to study their political, economic, to circulate signal trafc throughout diferent parts of the world. and cultural implications. We shared an interest not only in satel- These objects range from satellites in orbit to mobile phone towers lites but also in other things such as telecommunication infrastruc- in rural regions to broadcast transmission stations on nearby ture and the electromagnetic spectrum. He contributed a chapter hilltops. A goal of this research has been to create new modes for to a book I co-edited called Down to Earth.1 understanding how media are materialized and sustained across At one point I ended up traveling with Trevor for a couple diverse locations and to extend the conceptual rubric of media of days while he was shooting military installations in the Nevada studies beyond the screen or interface.3 desert near Groom Lake. I got a palpable sense of the intense Some of my research, for instance, has explored the labor undergirding his artwork as he was lugging cameras and destruction of the socialist telecommunication system during equipment up a steep mountain trail. He has done this many times the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia and its rapid replacement to photograph secret government installations throughout the with foreign-owned privatized satellite and wireless systems. In American west and beyond.2 Trevor and I found that we not only Mongolia I investigated a unique mobile telephone infrastructure shared interest in satellites, but also had a commitment to field- organized by walking phone workers who use their bodies and based modes of investigation and critical inquiry. knowledge of trafc flows to help carry and facilitate signal flows. As a media scholar, I use materialist and phenomenological In rural Zambia I explored how people with limited electricity approaches to explore infrastructural sites or processes that are leverage local resources and knowledge to “reinvent television” culturally invisible or unintelligible—sites that are integral to the and participate in the global media economy. And in my essay

Figure 4.3.1: Performance still, Sight Machine, 2017. © Trevor Paglen.

140 Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen - - - - 141

. That has almost nothing to to nothing has almost That . to each other about what some what about other each to talk talk Humans don’t see with edges see don’t Humans You write a simple thing that can create an image that is an image that can create a simple thing that write You erences between between erences the dif about things like scientists with computer see with “Humans and human optics. “vision” computational edges.” of part But the other those conversations. can have You do with it. these distinc is thinking about the consequences of the project a joke. is kind of This tions. LP: Just so I understand, could these images, if there were such were there if could these images, so I understand, Just LP: and be put in as input queries engine, visual search a thing as a sharks? images of a bunch of return of way is a cruder That taking. we’re that step the next That’s TP: is that some work talking about is actually are you What doing it. In networks. which is using neural be possible now, to starting only proj doing these object recognition of way advanced the more we What see things. to how network a neural train one can ects, to learned how have you artificial intelligence, “Okay, can do is say, You a shark.” of me a picture draw Now is. a shark what recognize the get basically We do that. you when images back interesting get it’s, confident 99 percent are we until that images like “evolve” AI to Then we time—which is interesting! every erent dif It’s a shark. say, me an image, “Evolve saying are we Where . f stu weirder doing are a is happening at what me an image of evolve network, neural visual that of a hidden layer is typically in what neuron particular to invented have you what me an image of Show process. ization photo-realistic weird these get You objects.” of kinds other recognize made up. network the neural that exist don’t things that images of the extends computationally in one sense, vision, LP: So machine “seen”? can be human about what and reeducates “see” to ability in big fights I get erent. dif really qualities are its formal TP: Exactly, tograph, a kind of a representation of images that facial recognition recognition facial that images of representation a of kind a tograph, this into further and further get can we And use. might systems visualizingworld, “fingerprint”the faces… of someone’s of samplings, digital approximations, be these Would LP: face based on a machine looking at multiple images of that face? these sorts of for vocabularies have don’t We exactly. TP: Exactly, a language inventing the project: part of another That’s images. can so we within the studio calling a are we image that is a kind of There are. these things of do object recognition. to way and dirty a quick It’s classifier. linear a million images take may you is do in this technique you What a thousand classes into organized are and those million images basketballs, sun, grapefruits, apples, Oranges, objects. erent dif of you. have what classes should erent those dif all of what for a template like almost represents an image that create you words, In other like. look look to likely object is most a given an image of what statistically Or a rose. Or a candle image. could create we example So for like. is just example last that for is doing this technique What a shark. this and saying a shark image of every of pixel every going through in the middle because that’s gray of version be some is going to be on the outside would The pixel is. the shark where probably in the ocean. is probably blue because the shark some kind of images that show us, humans, what the particular system is looking looking is system particular the what humans, us, show that images Someat. computervision They systemslook very simple. are for the next—things and one image between relationships lines, edges, to” “speaks of One image kind operations. formal purely are that a pho on algorithms overlaid a series of visualized We’ve another. - , - - - - - Here Here feels feels 4 what is what that during the during that invisible images invisible not at all at not images they produce that that produce images they . And they see in profoundly see in profoundly And they . New Inquiry New What do you mean by this? mean by you do What are are 5 images that are made by machines for machines for made by are images that are are All of this adds up to a world in which most images are images are in which most a world this adds up to All of But this extends even to domains of image making that we we that image making domains of to even But this extends There are many examples. You can go with facial recogni can go with facial You examples. many are There by asking a quite general question, Trevor: Trevor: question, general asking a quite by f o start to I want orts to specify the diverse material diverse the specify orts to f e these Alongside TP: I run an art studio. We use the research of others, and we don’t don’t and we others, of the research use We TP: I run an art studio. as develop as well tools -the-shelf f find o We do original research. draw to systems vision computer prompt to order in tools own our erently than the erently dif operate do they And then how machines? other humans operate? other humans for images made by way these images of production about the material talk you LP: Can a sense can get we so that examples specific us through and walk these processes render to try done to you’ve that the work of us? to intelligible made by machines for other machines other machines for made by visual The whole field of humans see. than we ways erent dif about think be modified to criticism has to and literary studies in see and also do work these nonhuman imaging systems how aspects of out the formal figure to been working I have the world. What these processes. like is going on. But, in the background, that is that in the background, But, is going on. like powerful very and sorts, of a database feeding are You going on. your mining continually are networks algorithms and artificial neural about us, metadata extract trying to are They social media images. who images, those in are objects of kind what relationship, our about things. sorts of those learn from can we what is in those images, manufacturing quality control. quality manufacturing example. for In social media, as being human-to-human. of think The metaphor you. on social media with something share I might imagines us as sharing is one that exchange that for have we that it what That’s album together. a photo looking at or photos system that is invisible to us. There There us. to is invisible that system vision the machine humans can diagnose how made so that are need those. But it doesn’t is working. system and shopping centers. tion in cities and airports and smart phones chains, used in supply vision systems computer about can talk You last decade visual culture “has become detached from human from detached “has become visual culture decade last become invisible.” and largely eyes machines make that thinking about images I’m PAGLEN: TREVOR basic exam very A machines. with other communicate to in order infor collect some kind of has to It car. be a self-driving ple would But it uses an imaging in which it is driving. about the city mation equation of image production and consumption. So in this conver and consumption. production image of equation calls Trevor on what focus to going are we sation and in the built environment being used increasingly which are transactions. everyday of shift in the materialities signal a major piece in a provocative in argued You select and strike targets in the context of the war on terror. the war of context in the targets select and strike Trevor’s. with somewhat intermingle interests research again my these issues take however, and artwork, research recent His most into deeply delving more by further imaging a step overhead of operational and political dimensions of technical, the aesthetic, us get is trying to work current Trevor’s vision. machine or imagery the from removed humans are happens when about what think to ities of media infrastructure, I have also analyzed technologies technologies also analyzed I have media infrastructure, ities of those organized particularly and militarization, surveillance of This research and orbit. the air domains of vertical the through and drones satellites images from overhead how has explored and populations, secure territories, monitor been used to have that follows in this book, I explore the mediation of animal-infra structure relations. But what that ends up in very quickly is a situation like Ferguson. You have these incredibly predatory municipal structures that are going to disproportionately afect people who are under surveillance or have had encounters with the law and haven’t been able to take care of that. That’s one type of consequence, but there are many diferent kinds of them—from the practical to some that are more philosophical and can have scary implications. I think when we are talking about progress, the assertion of rights, or self-determination, I feel like social struggles are always struggles over meaning, right? When we think about the history of civil rights or feminism or things that most of us would agree are good things, like a huge part of those projects was to try to rename things, right? Create diferent kinds of associations, and that has come up a number of times here. How that frangibility of meaning is actually a really important means by which we exercise power and self-determination.

LP: Is your concern related to the idea that the image is now produced in a way that its interpretation is already encoded within it? That is, the image has already been machine-read and possibly acted upon before the human eye has a chance to even begin to make sense of it? Is that what you are getting at?

TP: Yes, but it’s also part of an automated system, right? The license plate reading thing is a very obvious example. The license plate has a warrant attached to it and that triggers this state intervention into somebody’s life. But there is no way easily to contest Figure 4.3.2: Paglen Studio Research Image. © Trevor Paglen. Courtesy of the artist. that operation. Not that there are good ways to contest it either way, but it solidifies our relationships that already exist. Here is a funny image. It is a neural network, this is definitely a red and green apple, right? And this is, I think this is kind LP: Historically, there have been various kinds of surveillance of funny, but this to me is a very scary image. This image actually systems put into place based on images that are collected terrifies me, you know what I mean? For a lot of diferent reasons. photographically or electronically. What is really new or diferent When you are talking about the deployment of automated vision or about this shift in visual culture that you are exploring in your work autonomous vision, vision is probably the wrong word. We should on machine vision? Is it about the scale of image data collection, probably be saying sensing. That’s another thing: we use corporeal the sorting and processing power related to the image, ease of analogies. The diference between hearing and seeing, for exam- machines accessing and acting upon image data? I’m trying to get ple, doesn’t apply when you enter this world. you to talk a little bit more about the paradigmatic shift that these But thinking about consequences in the visual or human- technological transformations facilitate. sensed world, none of these things are built or deployed in a vacuum. They are always designed for particular kinds of interests, TP: I think the paradigmatic transformation is the fact that you and those interests in our society tend to be either money making don’t need the human anymore and that you can operate at scale. or law enforcement/state power. Those are the big things that You can literally perform operations on trillions of images, right? drive much of this work. It’s just something that humans cannot do, right? And because you And you can do all kinds of enormously powerful things can do that, you can set up enforcement mechanisms for whatever with systems like this. So, for example, in a town in Texas there was you want at massive scales. a thing called “vigilant solutions.” They were going around with You can easily imagine a smart sensing city that can cameras mounted on the back of police cars and all the cameras enforce all jaywalking, can enforce every speed limit, every were doing was reading cars’ license plates, creating huge data- no-turn-on-red, or can ticket every car that exceeds the speed bases of where cars are. One of the projects they did a few years limit, every car that makes a right-on-red right turn on a red light. ago was in partnership with a county in Texas. They said okay, we You can increase these efcient mechanisms of enforcing rules have our huge database of license plates. We have our cameras you want to enforce, whether state rules or rules having to do with that can read license plates. Why don’t we put our cameras on the insurance or credit or that sort of thing. And I’m concerned that back of all of your police cars for free, and you attach your cam- that comes at the expense of liberty, really. eras to the people in your database who have outstanding arrest Take the example of software that detects gender. You can warrants or tickets, whatever. While the cops drive around with be male or female like in the software. But gender is very much the camera, they will automatically get pinged if the camera sees contested right now. Gender is no longer binary for many people. a car that has a fine or warrant or whatever associated with it. The But software makes a judgment, puts a kind of enforcement mech- cops have a credit card reader and can pull the person over and anism in place. say you have an outstanding warrant or fine. You can pay it now with a credit card. Vigilant Solutions says we get a $25 service fee LP: You were saying earlier that you feel as though current the- every time you use it. The municipality loves it; it’s a way for them to ories of representation are insufcient for allowing us to under- generate money very easily. The company loves it. It’s free money stand the kind of lexicon of machine vision and what its implica- for them too. tions might be.

142 Lisa Parks in conversation with Trevor Paglen - (London: (London: 143 Down Down e-flux e-flux (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke The New Inquiry The New . They can be retro can They . Between Humanities Humanities Between (New York: Aperture, 2010). Aperture, York: (New (Urbana: University of Illinois of University (Urbana: c: Critical Studies of fc: Critical Studies of Tra Signal Invisible: Covert Operations and Operations Covert Invisible: (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015), 2015), Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Rethinking Media Coverage: Coverage: Media Rethinking (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University University NJ: Rutgers Brunswick, (New They don’t go away go don’t They 4. Lisa Parks, Lisa Parks, 4. Terror on War and the Mediation Vertical eds., Kaplan, Caren and Parks Lisa 2018); Routledge, Warfare Drone of Age in the Life 2017). Press, University Images: (Your “Invisible Paglen, Trevor 5. You),” at Looking are Pictures https://thenewinquiry.com/ 2016), 8, (December invisible-images-your-pictures-are-looking-at-you/. Images,” “Operational Paglen, Trevor 6. https://www.e-flux.com/ 2014), 59 (November journal/59/61130/operational-images/. “Visibility Art podcast of Gallery National 7. Farocki with Harun Conversation A Machines: for with Center coordinated Paglen,” Trevor and 2014, 4, November Visual Culture, Design and Art, https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/audio/faroki- paglen.html. 1. Lisa Parks and James Schwoch, eds., eds., Schwoch, James and Lisa Parks 1. and Industries, Technologies, Satellite Earth: to Cultures 2012). Press, Paglen, Trevor 2. Classified Landscapes and Nicole Lisa Parks instance, for See, 3. eds., Starosielski, Infrastructures Media Theory a Toward Can Kick’: You “‘Stuf 2015); Press, Theo Goldberg in David Infrastructures,” Media of eds., Svensson, and Patrik and the Digital 355–373. of accumulation of images. images. of accumulation of And the this as well. to dimension is another that So mined. actively stuck become we extent what about is to I worry that that part of is going that network a neural creating are you Because if in time. the past it images from give to have you data, of a body analyze to data or from the Thepast. past can be a bad place.The past can pass down stu f that is patriarchal and racist. So whenyou teach these kinds of systems with data from the past,you almost are creating the precondition, the conditions through which that past reproduced. is continually TP: I think that I have come to think about it along two axes. There There axes. two about it along think to come I have that TP: I think doing picture, taking the the camera axis of horizontal is this a shooting or a missile is shooting that whether with it, something also on But then rating. credit ecting somebody’s f a or strike drone is the concept is new thing that because the other axis, a historical - - - He was was He 6 ? How can you as a you can ? How look Between then and now that becomes the becomes that then and now Between 7 Do you have any final things that you want to mention? mention? to want you final things that any have you Do to notice that the image exists. I think that’s a really important thing to follow up on and intervene in. TP: Absolutely. TP: LP: We need scholars, critics, artists, and scientists to be thinking sit back time to have not it means to about this shift and what and analyze“read” whator we are seeing. Machines are reading images for us and acting on them before we even have the time they can hardly be distinguished temporally. Image acquisition and Image acquisition and temporally. be distinguished can hardly they a concern This is certainly one and the same. becoming action are Virilio anticipated Paul and something warfare, drone to in relation So the perception. of a logistics decades ago with his idea of to something not intervention, of becomes the theater image really field. logistical but a gesture in a contemplative at look Madeleine Albright released satellite images of mass graves in mass graves images of satellite released Albright Madeleine the satellites after six weeks released and these were Srebrenica, discussion about the of a lot was And so there them. had acquired could be they so that these images in releasing delay problematic But and possible intervention. formation policy used as means of accu image data is that work your in exploring are you what now that happening so quickly are processing and computer mulation recognize everybody. They get an image; they can create a record a record can create they an image; get They everybody. recognize domains in which this has erent dif many are There everybody. of right? happened, this in 1995, I remember it is happening. fast how is incredible LP: It State of when then-Secretary Yugoslavia in during the war was TP: Well, the insurance companies are doing that. Law enforce Law doing that. companies are the insurance Well, TP: cam a body bought just Taser doing that. companies are ment if an idea that have We company. recognition facial and company But a bit better. police themselves cams they body the cops wear can so they right, sensor, an active cam into turned the body they human describe how a machine looks or sees? How it reads? How How it reads? How sees? or looks a machine human describe how it senses? been have that power of the forms to senses according TP: It it. coded into is doing that? what so who or LP: Ok, dominant form of image making in the world. I do think Farocki Farocki I do think image making in the world. of form dominant exploded. but it happening, this thing was there noticed definitely invisibly. But largely computational of a lot with and looking at working After LP: machines think you do how images, TP: Yes, absolutely. I think the work is very much a kind of exten much a kind of very is work the I think absolutely. Yes, TP: and images, did on operational Harun that the work sion of eye did Farocki—he But Harun also. Galison has done that Peter 2000s. articles in the early other machines and wrote images kinds of these other weird,” “It’s it and said looking at emerge. to started LP: As an extension of and response to theories of representation, representation, of theories to response and of extension As an LP: Beyond ect and imaging. f on a work recent of has been a lot there as media, in logistical interest be a growing to seems there this, you Do image.” “the operational called Farocki Harun as what well into deeper delve to as an attempt now doing are you see the work image? the of the power visual and the of those understandings TP: Yes. TP: sets out to delineate a “continuum of media- Mediating Animal- natures where the natural ecology is entirely entangled with the technological one.”7 Infrastructure Relations1 To explore the encounters and entanglements of animals and infrastruc- Lisa Parks tures, I also embrace Karen Barad’s notion of “intra-action.” As Barad explains,

intra-action queers the familiar The triptych in figure 4.4.1 below materi- incarnate the ideas of feminist theorists sense of causality (where one alizes a set of relations, or intra-actions, such as Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, and or more causal agents precede between animals and infrastructures. I others, who conceptualize technology as a and produce an efect), and more became interested in such relations after site of human-animal-machine hybridiza- generally unsettles the metaphys- noticing animal traces at media infra- tions.4 Even if this is the case, infrastructure ics of individualism (the belief that structure sites that I visited and studied is not typically imagined or specified as there are individually constituted over the years. Paw prints, scat, nests, and such. More often, its conceptualization agents or entities, as well as times gnawed cables prompted me to consider oscillates between the systemic and the and places) … “individuals” do how animals become part of infrastructural architectural, the invisible and the spectac- not pre-exist as such but rather materialities. Animals and infrastructures ular, the mundane and the monumental.5 materialize in intra-action. That is, (and artists!) are defined by their ability to Rarely are nonhuman species considered intra-action goes to the questions of mark territories. As Rosi Braidotti writes, as part of infrastructural materialities in making diferences, of “individuals,” “Like artists, animals mark their territory critical humanities discussions, which rather than assuming their indepen- physically, by colour, sound or marking/ is surprising given that infrastructures dent or prior existence. framing. In order to mark, code, possess or are surrounded by biomatter, from roots frame their territory, animals produce sig- beneath them to fungi on top of them to “Phenomena,” in Barad’s sense of agen- nals and signs constantly. … It is non-verbal wildlife around them. tial realism, “are the entanglement—the communication at its best.”2 But how do To draw further critical attention to ontological inseparability—of intra-acting animals mark infrastructures? Put another animal-infrastructure relations, this essay entities.” She continues, “It is through spe- way, what kinds of intra-actions material- draws upon visual media to describe and cific agential intra-actions that the bound- ize animals and infrastructures in relation analyze a series of animal-infrastructure aries and properties of ‘individuals’ within to one another?3 intra-actions. From the perspective of the phenomenon become determinate Philosophical definitions of “animal” media studies, the challenge of investigat- and particular material articulations of the and “infrastructure” are expansive and ing these relations is not to fixate upon or world become meaningful.”8 Building on complex. I will not rehearse them here; canonize particular species that have been these ideas, I hope to reinforce the onto- instead, I mobilize these terms tactically integral to media and telecommunication logical inseparability of animals and infra- as a media scholar interested in extending histories—such as the horse, pigeon, or structures by exploring their intra-actions. the ontology of the infrastructural. For the dolphin—but to recognize instead the While intra-actions materialize purpose of this analysis, “animal” refers to myriad potential intra-actions that shape animal-infrastructure relations all the time, organic nonhumans existing in a technol- and afect infrastructures’ more general they are often elusive. In what follows, ogized global environment. “Infrastructure” conceptualization and materialization. In I explore these relations through three is a dynamic sociotechnical formation this way, my approach builds on the work examples: ospreys and cell phone towers; with multiple parts that are distributed and of media scholar Jussi Parikka, who has a chimpanzee on a power grid; and wildlife situated in particular material conditions. called for “broader definitions of media and crossings at highways.9 I selected these The “socio” of sociotechnical includes the aesthetics” that allow us “to consider the examples based on my own phenomeno- animal. Since infrastructures are designed, connections of the organic human bodies logical and mediated engagements. While installed, and used within biospheres, they in the organic and nonorganic surround- researching and analyzing these rela- are always already animal. As such they ings.”6 Like Haraway and Braidotti, Parikka tions, I photographed and drew particular

Figure 4.4.1: Triptych of diferent kinds of animal-infrastructure relations created by the author.

144 Lisa Parks - - -

15 145 The broader 16 A case in Virginia Beach is instruc and was disturbed by its sudden and potentially illegalThe removal. segment concludes, with however, a statement from an Ntelos engineer who insists, “We had permission from Game and Inland as the reporter And, do it.” Fisheries to dis to “The blue tarp is there sums it up, courage the osprey from returning.” interfere with or compromise the value of of value the compromise with or interfere equipment. operators’ the network tive. In 2011 a company called Ntelos decided to remove an osprey nest that had been on top of a cell tower for two years. Ntelos wanted to install its cellu lar equipment Afteron taking the tower. down the nest, workers put a massive tarp around the tower top to prevent the ospreys Ntelos from returning.Yet may have acted illegally as the nest was still active. Ospreys are covered by the federalAct, which Migratory BirdTreaty protects their nests, eggs, and feathers, even on private property. community only learned of these issues when a localTV news station produced a segment aboutAs it. reporterAndy Fox stands beneath the cell tower explaining details of the the controversy, camera tilts the tower of views low-angle reveal up to top covered by a large blue tarp after the nest’s removal. Fox then interviews Eric Moore, a resident of the area who had watched this osprey nest for twoyears - - In Florida 45% 11 14 Cell towers have been 13 A Flint, Michigan news 12 Osprey nests on cell towers can on cell towers nests Osprey relation to the tower. The nests usually stay stay usually The nests the tower. to relation during which months several for active eggs, five up to lay may time an osprey Thus, hatch. to days about fifty which take you if on a second life takes the cell tower mobile phone signals routing only not will, Problems birds. but also serving migratory maneuvers when osprey however, emerge, decades, ospreys have transformed the horizontal mounting platforms of many cell towers into nesting sites. In the past these large, fish-eating birds, which often have a six-foot wingspan, established their nests in high-canopy or dead trees. Since they perchesfavor with a clear which is usually the cell tower, approach, fifty to two hundred feet high, has become site. nesting an optimal of the cellstate’s towers are home to osprey nests. the species’ headline attributes paper revival in the area to cell tower installation, proclaiming:“Osprey return gets boost towers.” cell from described as“encouraging” ospreys to extend their breeding range into new areas, including densely populated urban regions near water. one biologist, to According large. be quite and be big a ton half can weigh the nests Once sit inside. to a person enough for behav osprey established, are these nests in reorganized are patterns and flight ior - - - - - I hope that the description the description I hope that 10 As cell phone towers have popped works. In areas throughout the United and electri cell phone towers States, cal poles (see figure 4.4.2) have also become prime habitats for raptors such as ospreys and eagles. Over the past two one that recognizes the potential to (re) to the potential recognizes one that materials/ kinds of various organize distributed into objects/bodies/resources sustaining. are that entities up throughout the world, they have linked mobile phone net to users billions of to extend materialist conceptualizations conceptualizations materialist extend to I use Ultimately, the infrastructural. of animal-infrastructure this ensemble of expan a more for argue to intra-actions and political unpredictable, perverse, sive, the infrastructural, of economic ontology inseparability becomes more intelligible intelligible becomes more inseparability Innis’s Harold Adopting and analyzable. “the col that belief Benjamin’s Walter and could itself rich empirical detail lection of philosophical and historical be a mode of reflection,” can help these relations of and analysis entitled “Nesting, Escaping, Crossing” in Crossing” Escaping, “Nesting, entitled Miha artist with Slovenian collaboration viewed which can be videos, The Vipotnik. circle bring forth, designed to are online, animal-infra and mediate layer, around, ontological their so that relations structure raptors claim these high perches near rivers and use them to raise their young and hunt fish. Photo by the author. by Photo fish. and hunt young their raise use them to and rivers near high perches claim these raptors and also gathered sites infrastructure These media were online. visual materials vignettes video three create then used to Figure 4.4.2: This photograph of an osprey nest on an electrical tower near the Bitterroot River in Missoula, Montana reveals how the how reveals Montana in Missoula, River the Bitterroot near electrical tower on an nest an osprey of This photograph 4.4.2: Figure Figure 4.4.3: Screen capture of video showing workers removing an osprey nest from a tower in Florida. Reproduced under the fair use doctrine.

The segment not only demonstrates landings. Another preferred method has amidst a snowy landscape. Their task is to the awkward discourse of news producers been to install an artificial platform nearby, protect workers who have been assigned trying to provide balanced coverage of encouraging ospreys to occupy it rather to repair a cell tower where there is an animal-infrastructure relations, but also than the cell tower.20 Other techniques are active nest. This video is set to a rock guitar reveals what a bird-blocked cell tower more extreme. One wildlife specialist tells number; as the Wildlife Shield workers looks like. Fox’s report ultimately privileges his corporate clients to remove and bag up climb up the tower they use a head- the position of Ntelos by sanctioning the all the nest materials, drive them away in a mounted camera to reveal a nest as well nest’s removal and casting osprey-nesting truck, and dump them in the woods.21 as a squealing osprey flying above the as an act of commercial interference. A Several online videos document linemen as they work. After the repair is Wall Street Journal article reinforces this professional nest interventions on cell completed, the workers climb down and point by suggesting that osprey nesting on phone towers. One five-minute video report a successful mission. Their “wildlife cell towers directly impacted market com- called “Osprey Nest Removal” features shield” protected them from the distressed petition between US mobile providers.18 two linemen who climb a cell tower in osprey, and they managed to keep the nest In 2012, when Sprint was trying to expand Lexington, North Carolina and remove a intact.24 Both videos celebrate the bravado its national LTE network to compete with large nest. The removal was recorded with of the linemen, turning cell tower nest Verizon, the company had to contend with a head-mounted camera and turned into interventions into a kind of extreme sport. osprey nests on seven hundred cell phone a music video edited to the Busta Rymes At the same time, however, these videos towers. This became known in the industry song “Touch It.” After the linemen climb the materialize the osprey–cell tower relation as “avian delays,” as ospreys refused to tower, the video speed accelerates as they as a site of interspecies relations, sug- move from cell phone towers. dismantle the nest piece by piece, placing gesting the need for a broader infrastruc- Because of this, mobile operators branches, sticks, strings, and other nest tural ontology. and tower owners have explored various materials into a large cloth bag that is shut- Drone service operators such as “deterrent strategies” designed to prevent tled up and down to the ground several SkyShots, AirShark, iSky, The BuzzAbove, osprey–cell tower entanglements. The times using a pulley (see figure 4.4.3).22 The and DartDrones now sell cell tower main- Federal Communication Commission video not only reveals how massive and tenance and monitoring services that has issued guidelines encouraging tower complex osprey nests are—reverberating include bird-nesting checks.25 Promotional owners to self-regulate by altering their with what Ashley Carse calls “nature as videos show drones flying to the top of equipment to protect migratory birds and infrastructure”23—it also enables the viewer cell phone towers and circling around prevent nesting.19 For instance, some try to imagine how much efort is involved in them, recording videos that can be used to evict the osprey using a new device creating and destroying them. to determine whether nests exist, are called OFF-sprey, a “raptor deterrent” Another video from Canadian active, and have eggs, whether equipment device made of a stake and metal cross- company Wildlife Shield features a team has been damaged, and whether signal ings installed on tower tops to block bird deployed to a cell tower near Toronto strength has been compromised.26 A short

146 Lisa Parks - - - 147 —one that —one that 33 bird watching bird TV news crews, wildlife activists, activists, wildlife crews, news TV changing materialities and morphologies. changing materialities for various reasons. Such media, I want I want media, Such reasons. various for a encourage can be used to suggest, to kind of erent dif a technol as part of the osprey recognizes the and acknowledges environment ogized within infrastructural integration species’ nest ﬂights, osprey’s The materialities. have relocate to refusal and construction, sites, cell tower of the morphology ected f a operation position and temporal the spatial performed labor the kinds of networks, of and local tourist employees, network by Such conditions vicinity. economies in their an infrastructural the need for suggest tower osprey–cell recognizes that ontology as opposed entanglement, infrastructure about in Thought aces it. f e one that to and cell towers ospreys terms, Barad’s rather, entities; as discrete exist do not intra-action, their through materialize they to becomes intelligible and this process lan perception, of acts through humans the infra Imagining and mediation. guage, structural in such keeps thea way category agential multiple, of the dynamisms open to forces and accounts for the possibility of its own bodies, which are subject to constant constant to subject are which bodies, own amendment.” technological to used media linemen have and network encounters tower osprey–cell document

- 32 A - 30

29 Cell towers and artificial Cell towers 31 Beyond complying with federal federal complying with Beyond reconstituted ecosystems that include their their include that ecosystems reconstituted regulations and unpredictable conditions, conditions, and unpredictable regulations with the contend must providers network The species is itself. the osprey of force attachment, nest tenacious have to known year. after year nest the same to returning after even move to refuse the birds Often spec Biologists destroyed. are nests their being now are ospreys young that ulate as nests. cell towers seek to socialized indi report Wisconsin County, 2016 Door and bald eagles were ospreys that cated artificial because of thriving in the area cell towers, placed near platforms nesting significantly the raptors of and the return drawing by the local economy boosted and making it a bird-watching tourists destination. the to thus be related may platforms as the in some areas, “rewilding” osprey’s within an rebounds or to species returns displaced. or being threatened after area nesting provided have also may towers Cell had ospreys that areas various in a sites Weston As Kath before. inhabited not “These days, us, reminds powerfully scientifically in and through live organisms infrastructure, one that can alter its form its form alter can one that infrastructure, of number any to in response and location glitches software from ranging conditions, hurricanes. to nesting bird to - - - - - Such inspec 27 In this way, In this way, 28 In such scenarios, drones fly and fly drones In such scenarios, Figure 4.4.4: Screen capture of viral video showing workers trying to tranquilize Chacha. Reproduced under the fair use doctrine. the fair under Reproduced Chacha. tranquilize trying to workers video showing viral of capture 4.4.4: Screen Figure provide additional coverage when equip additional coverage provide has been damaged. ment modular, a more materializes the drone network and programmable flexible, ratized infrastructure and its economies. and its economies. infrastructure ratized and other Sprint this point, Reinforcing for only not use drones now networks net mitigate also to inspections but tower placing temporarily By interruptions. work is shut that a tower near in the sky a drone networks functioning properly, not or down and render its flight paths and views as views and paths its flight and render and computers to intelligible are that data become the drones In this way, humans. birds, “good” or domesticated of equivalent with raptors when contrasted especially corpo disrupt or damage, occupy, that lations, as tower owners are not allowed to disturb the nests of migratory birds 31. August April 1 and between the ospreys much like above, see from the is that ers dif What monitoring. are they capture to has been programmed drone the ground; their hydraulic crane or cherry cherry or crane hydraulic their the ground; picker is dissolved andaway replaced with a drone that they use to efortlessly inspect a nearby tower top. network to integral are tion technologies providers’ compliance with federal regu video loop on drone retailer Advexture’s Advexture’s retailer loop on drone video on men maintenance two features website I want to turn now to a more Photos from the Great Apes Information Science fiction is able to confront anxieties spectacular and sensational animal-in- Network reveal his cramped, prison-like around animal-infrastructure relations by frastructure encounter. On April 14, 2016, pen, and inspectors noted his “inactive- experimenting with them in various set- twenty-four year-old chimpanzee Chacha ness” and “unconcern.”36 Also overlooked tings and modulating and reversing their escaped from the Yagiyama Zoological in press accounts was the fact that Chacha relative power and dynamism through film Park in Sendai, Japan. After freeing himself could have gone in any number of direc- narration. As Kristin Whissel reveals, sci- from the primate pen, the chimp climbed tions. A view of the zoo’s location in Google ence fiction cinema’s most recent primates up a power pole in a densely populated Earth reveals a massive green space in are computer-generated figures used residential area nearby. He maneuvered one direction and endless buildings and to mediate life and death in the fictional across the power cables for nearly two infrastructure in the other. Why did Chacha worlds in which they appear. “These digital hours, giving satellite TV trucks time to seek refuge on the power lines instead of creatures,” she writes, “are charged with stake out and capture the event live (see in the trees? News media declared that an excess vitality that compensates for figures 4.4.4). Unable to coax Chacha the chimp swung across the cables “as if the fact that they are often pure code and down, the zoo’s staf went up in a lift and they were rainforest vines”37 and described never existed in space and time.”41 Indeed, shot a tranquilizer dart into the chimp’s him as “lounging and relaxing” on top of Hollywood’s primates are inseparable from back. Cameras were rolling on the ground a power pole.38 Some wondered how he digital infrastructure: they are brought to and through residents’ apartment windows, was not electrocuted (recalling the fate of life via processes of data collection, pro- capturing the encounter from multiple van- another infamous animal, Topsy the ele- cessing, rendering, matting, and editing. tage points. In one video Chacha appears phant, whose extermination was filmed by Although videos of Chacha’s startled as the injection dart penetrates the Edison Film Company in 1903 to show- escape in Sendai had viral appeal because his back. The chimp lunges toward the case the power of electricity). As the video the scenes resonated with science fiction zoo staf, turns around to pull the needle of Chacha’s escape ricocheted around cinema, the videos documented an event out of his back, and jumps further down global media circuits, it became apparent that actually occurred. What does this the power lines. As Chacha approaches that the scene’s attraction and currency hypermediated encounter between the a thick crossroads of cables, the sedative were grounded in its familiarity.39 chimp and the power grid tell us about the begins to take efect. The chimp falls part For decades, science fiction films infrastructural? What does this intra-action way and clutches a lower cable until he is have concocted and reiterated a hyper- materialize exactly? out completely and his limp body tumbles bolic formula in which primates conquer Chacha was born in captivity at to the ground, where a cluster of uniformed urban infrastructures—from the art deco the Sapporo Maru-yama Zoo on March 3, zookeepers wrap him in a blanket and skylines of King Kong, to the crackling 1992 and moved to the Sendai zoo in 1995. stick him in a van back to the zoo. Chacha electrical plants of King Kong vs. Godzilla,40 His father Tonny and mother Chaco were survived and is still in the zoo. to the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge in also born in captivity in Japanese zoos in Videos of Chacha’s escape on the Hollywood’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. 1979 and 1980 respectively. Chacha has power lines went viral and were replayed The visual pleasure of these sequences is had four ofspring—three females and one online and in news outlets around the anchored in the ease of primates’ move- male, with two diferent mates, Pocky and world.34 What remained undiscussed were ment through an urban environment Medaka, all born in captivity in Japanese the conditions the chimp was escaping.35 built by and for humans (see figure 4.4.5). zoos—of whom one died.42 Chacha comes

Figure 4.4.5: Screen capture of Nesting, Escaping, Crossing showing images of King Kong and Godzilla conquering human-built infrastructure. Video by Lisa Parks and Miha Vipotnik.

148 Lisa Parks - -

46 149 The final animal-infrastructure rela The final animal-infrastructure videos online management Wildlife raccoons to bears to bobcats to skunks— to bobcats to bears to raccoons roads under or above can be seen crossing canter deer In Colorado 4.4.7). figure (see the into and disappear freeways across a barbed wire , f In Ban landscape. western a crossing, the end of is placed at fence snif Wolves its purpose. defeat seeming to tion I wish to explore is the wildlife crossing. crossing. wildlife the is explore to wish I tion ani facilitate to humans built by corridor A a highway, beneath or above passage mals’ a broader is part of crossing the wildlife (see “ecoducts” called systems of group crossings decades wildlife For 4.4.6). figure the around sites at been installed have fragmentation, habitat mitigate to world and collisions, wildlife-vehicle reduce In Europe ethics. environmentalist promote have public resources America, and North “natural-looking” build to been allocated species inviting highways, above corridors as Just them unfettered. through move to cell of changed the morphology the osprey moose, coyotes, deer, have so too towers, roads. reshaped and bears National f in Ban crossings animals at show in Canada; the Salish and Kootenai Park the Sonora in Montana, Indian reservation Basin in the Prado Arizona; Desert in in Colorado, 70 I- and Highway California; wildlife. for Wall” “Berlin as the known species—from Depending on the area, ------

materializations, which become most which become most materializations, entan of us in instances to intelligible In and intra-action. relationality, glement, the of and force the power these instances, be acknowl must nonhuman, or animal, displaced, be simply edged and cannot resolved. or contained, kept the lights on at zoos across Japan. Japan. across zoos on at the lights kept become infrastruc These chimps have be without its the zoo would What tural. upon draws Electric Tohuku As animals? electricity transmit to plants power regional only it not Sendai, throughout customers to computers, lighting, electrifies the zoo’s the it also energizes systems; and security and mobile broadcast, media equipment, and distrib produced that phone networks escape as a media event. Chacha’s uted entanglement—this this transitory Thus, grid intra-action—enables chimp–power and intersecting layered of recognition from the infrastructural, dimensions of regional to reproduction primate regulated media networking. to distribution power opera and distributed These sustaining intra- tions congeal in this mediated than built installations more Much action. the infrastruc operations, technical or multiple of crossroads is a material tural and animal, human, and inorganic, organic specification. require that machine forces it a given; is not then, The infrastructural, dynamic and hybrid through is constituted 45 - When 44 Both Chacha and Tohoku’s power power Tohoku’s Chacha and Both Tohoku Electric Power, a private a private Electric Power, Tohoku Tohoku Electric Power now has now Electric Power Tohoku 43 his natural habitat. Perhaps, because of of because Perhaps, habitat. his natural lines function as sustaining and distributed and distributed lines function as sustaining Chacha and his kin decades, For entities. and , f sta supported walls, filled the have connected to a grid sourced by nuclear, nuclear, by a grid sourced to connected plants power thermal and hydroelectric, the on osprey the like region; the throughout to potential the had actions his tower, cell damage. cause property or service interrupt homes 1,848 reported Electric Tohoku escape. during Chacha’s power lost briefly nies. fourth and is the 12,400 employees almost Japan, in company utility electric largest and business million residential serving 7.6 prefectures. in seven customers his body the cables, across Chacha moved grid in Sendai, owns the power cables the power owns grid in Sendai, The company on which Chacha climbed. Allied Powers when the in 1951 formed a approved McArthur US General under and privatize reorganize plan to Japanese industry, power electrical the country’s nine such compa and it became one of 1960s. The artificial environment of the zoo the zoo of The artificial environment 1960s. is enchanting more grid was the power this, than the forest. the operates that company Japanese , Canada. Photo by author. by Photo Canada. , f Ban near crossing highway wildlife of Photo 4.4.6: Figure has been chimps that of a family from populate within and used to reproduced since the zoos Japanese pens in primate the ground around it and appear tentative to move, so the logic goes, the crossing is resources and investments. In the United about crossing, possibly catching the scent working, and the species is supported. This States, vehicle collisions with deer alone of bears in the vicinity. In the Sonora Desert logic is problematic because of its reduc- generate $1.1 billion in vehicle damage per a snake, fox, warthog, and skunk enter a tionism and implicit anthropocentrism: it year.49 Though some animal rights activists drainage tunnel. The warthog enters the reimagines the animal as an “auto-mobile” and wildlife biologists have been involved tunnel until his nose smudges the camera, that needs its own “roads” in order to move in the development of wildlife crossings, a revealing how everyday tactile curiosities and endure. It also treats all animal move- guiding principle for their emergence has can generate animal-infrastructure rela- ments as if they are visible, “trackable” been to protect human lives, property, and tions. GPS and Google Maps track a bob- and manageable, and in doing so absorbs investments, and thus to sustain species cat’s nighttime prowl back and forth across animal populations into systems of govern- hierarchy. Here, infrastructural transfor- a highway near a suburban development mentality.47 That highways have been rede- mation is as much a product of actuarial in the Prado Basin of California, turning its signed to serve animals may at one level science as it is of environmentalism. moves into digital matter. be environmentalist and progressive, yet The potential for animal-vehicle As these scenes imply, wildlife the emergence of wildlife crossings also collisions not only produced a material crossings are equipped with media enables humans to suppress or neglect restructuring of highways; it also com- systems designed to capture photos or other material efects of transportation pelled the redesign of automobiles. Some video of animals as they approach or pass infrastructure, whether water, air, and noise cars and trucks are now equipped with through the corridor. Closed-circuit surveil- pollution or fossil fuel dependency. motion-detecting headlights and infrared lance technologies, which have saturated Perceived in another way, these options that allow drivers to see deer at urban markets and are being phased out videos confirm the success of wildlife night. In 2014 Mercedes S-class vehicles by biometrics and sensing devices, find crossings so that the global automobile were installed with infrared cameras new application in wildlife management. and oil industries can continue with less designed to “recognize living, breathing These systems are often solar- or bat- interruption—less road kill, less property obstacles like cows, moose, and deer.”50 In tery-powered and, depending on their damage, less litigation, and more fuel use. 2017 Volvo equipped some cars with the location, may be connected to the grid or a Capturing the night and day movement of Large Animal Detection System, which generator. The wildlife crossing videos rely animals across their own roads becomes a uses radar to detect animals at night and on daylight for illumination, and motion- perverse way of rationalizing and sus- slows the car down more or less accord- activated lights or infrared filter are used to taining the global extractive order.48 It is ing to the animal’s size, proximity, and track animals at night. The primary function symptomatic of what might be called an movement (see figure 4.4.8). The compa- of this footage is to confirm the use of infrastructural compulsion—that is, the ny’s engineers used machine learning to wildlife crossings for the agencies and the construction of massive public works as a teach cars’ computers how to read animal publics that funded them and to identify way of blocking changes to the fossil fuel presence.51 Other vehicles are equipped and count the species that cross. economy or other logics of global capital- with enormous wildlife-proof bumpers Wildlife crossing videos thus docu- ism. Ideologies are harder to change when with brand names like BuckStop or Moose ment human aspirations to build success- they are built into massive public works. Guard, which are designed to prevent the ful technologies as much as they advance Like the artificial nesting platforms killing of humans inside them.52 Just as environmentalist ethics. The ways wildlife created by mobile operators for osprey, chimps become infrastructural for zoos, managers use these videos—to count the wildlife crossing was motivated first wildlife becomes infrastructural for sec- species and confirm their use of the cross- and foremost by cost-benefit calculus and ondary automobile markets: their unpre- ings—reduces animal presence—wild life— risk assessment conducted by agencies dictable movements are used to catalyze to movement. If an animal can continue and companies seeking to protect their and sustain subsidiary economies of the

Figure 4.4.7: Screen captures from Nesting, Escaping, Crossing showing images of various animals using wildlife corridors. Video by Lisa Parks and Miha Vipotnik.

150 Lisa Parks - - - 151 part of this process. this process. part of mobile phone networks, electrical grids, or or electrical grids, mobile phone networks, as also mediate, Infrastructures highways. mark they in that the outset, at I suggested through existence and signal their territory and operation. scale, form, location, their is how media scholars for The question and the historical build the animal into to media technologies of accounts oretical the or the figurative exceed that in ways only not would process Such a metaphoric. osprey, of the flights how exploring involve the highway a chimp, of the captivity the activities of (and wildlife of crossings become infrastruc species) other untold such kinds of also approach it would tural; global ecologies to as integral intra-actions the establishment and economies and to the infrastruc If analyzing them. of ways of organizing of the process involves tural that system a sociotechnical and operating sustained and territory across distributed is thinking about of as ways time as well over then the animal is inherently system, that - - - - - designed by designed by elusive. As Braidotti As Braidotti elusive. . No infrastructure infrastructure No . 53 remain remain Finally, all infrastructures are are all infrastructures Finally, natural infrastructures infrastructures natural mediate. As these videos have suggested, suggested, have videos As these mediate. and net graphics, maps, photos, drawings, used are storage) of processes (and works for, scouting locations of in the process maintain operating, building, designing, and use fciency the e and analyzing ing, whether infrastructures, contemporary of ect eco f and a installations infrastructural animal on the other, And nomic relations. can be harnessed bodies and energies for as support systems and reorganized motivate economies or human-attention reinforce that products the design of in the built environment investments past I What species hierarchies. and sustain be might what discussed are not have called briefly mentioned a nest, such as animals, as complex which are section, in the first some infrastruc Perhaps and important. to ought tures deterritorialize, to “How states: poignantly the human-animal interac nomadize, or tion becomes… the We have challenge.” to be able to imagine “a life that does not require the supervision of the human mind endure.” to in order media infrastructures and all infrastructures goes unmediated - - - - become infra Conclusion . On the one hand, animal actions On the one hand, . for animal actions, but also simultaneously but also simultaneously animal actions, for animals how demonstrates structural of and operation the morphology alter the historical development and operation and operation development the historical mate and infrastructural media systems of of the intra-actions Considering rialities. with cell and wildlife the chimp, the osprey, only not and highways lines, power towers, understand materialist extend to works accounting by the infrastructural ings of relations serve as useful sites for exca for sites as useful serve relations and political materialisms elusive vating I would the infrastructural. economies of I want First, points. close with two to like relations unpredictable that emphasize to part of objects are kinds of erent among dif and industry to protect drivers and save and save drivers protect to and industry fuel world a fossil while sustaining animals, is killing us all. that order animal-infrastructure of Visual mediations fossil fuel industries, whether manufacturers manufacturers whether industries, fuel fossil motion-detecting or bumpers massive of shield” “wildlife the Like vision machines. the osprey linemen from protect used to the wildlife cell towers, repair while they governance of enables the forces crossing Figure 4.4.8: Volvo publicity shot used to promote its Large Animal Detection System. Reproduced under fair use doctrine. https://www.caricos.com/cars/v/ use doctrine. fair under Reproduced System. Animal Detection its Large promote used to shot publicity Volvo 4.4.8: Figure volvo/2017_volvo_s90/images/52.html 1. This essay was first developed as a keynote 15. “Birdwatch: Information You Need to Know for 28. Marguerite Reardon, “Sprint Turns Drones lecture for the Transmediale Festival in Berlin in Nesting Season,” American Tower, http://www. into Mini Cell Towers,” CNET, September February 2017 during the Becoming Environmental/ americantower.com/Assets/uploads/files/PDFs/ 27, 2017, https://www.cnet.com/news/ Becoming Infrastructural session. I am grateful to Americantower_compliance_bird-watch_brochure. sprint-turns-drones-into-cell-towers/. questions and feedback I received there as well pdf. A wildlife biologist suggests ways to protect as when I presented the paper at the Medium/ ospreys: “Minimizing excess wires, securely 29. The flexibility and modularity of drones is Environment Conference at UC Berkeley in April attaching wires to the tower structure, and shrink connected to the swarming networks and intelligent 2018. I also thank Miha Vipotnik for collaborating wrapping or taping wires together to reduce the systems that Jussi Parikka discusses in Insect with me on three related videos. number of small spaces to insert wings, heads or Media: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology feet can lower the risk of entanglement.” See Brian (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010). 2. Rosi Braidotti, Metamorphoses: Towards a E. Washburn, “Human-Osprey Conflicts: Industry, Materialist Theory of Becoming (Cambridge, UK: Utilities, Communication, and Transportation,” 30. A patent applicant for a nest exclusion device Polity Press, 2003), 133. Citing Borges, Rosi Braidotti Journal of Raptor Research 48, no. 4 (2014): 387– insists there is a “probability that those young also writes, “Animals … come in three categories: 395, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/ Ospreys hatched and raised on cell towers will those we humans eat; those we watch television nwrc/publications/14pubs/14-108%20washburn.pdf. automatically … upon reaching adulthood, adopt with and those we are frightened of (wild, exotic or the same type of structures for raising their families. untamed ones)” (121). 16. See Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, U.S. Fish We can therefore expect more and more manmade and Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/laws/ towers to become occupied by a geometrically 3. Also see Richard Grusin, ed., The Non-Human Turn lawsdigest/migtrea.html. increasing Osprey population over time.” See (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017). https://www.google.com/patents/US20120174498. 17. YouTube video removed and a copy of it is in 4. Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women author’s possession. 31. “Eagle and Osprey Numbers Continue (London: Routledge, 1991), and Staying with the to Climb,” Door County Pulse, December Trouble (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017); 18. Gryta and Monga, “Unflappable Raptor Puts 29, 2016, https://doorcountypulse.com/ Braidotti, Metamorphoses. Cellphone Carriers on Hold.” eagle-osprey-numbers-continue-climb/.

5. Susan Leigh Star, “The Ethnography of 19. FCC, “Fact Sheet: Raptor Nesting on Towers,” 32. David Foreman, Rewilding North America: Infrastructure,” American Behavioral Scientist October 9, 2015, Federal Communication A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century 43, no. 3 (1999): 377–391; Stephen Graham and Commission, http://wireless.fcc.gov/migratorybirds/ (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004); Caroline Simon Marvin, Splintering Urbanism: Networked raptor_nesting_on_towers_fact_sheet.pdf. Fraser, Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Infrastructures, Technological Mobilities and the Conservation Revolution (New York: Henry Holt, Urban Condition (London: Routledge, 2001), 20. 20. “Eagle and Osprey Numbers Continue to Climb,” 2009); George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Door County Pulse, December 29, 2016, https:// the Sea, and Human Life (Chicago: University of 6. Jussi Parikka, A Geology of Media (Minneapolis: doorcountypulse.com/eagle-osprey-numbers- Chicago Press, 2015). I am grateful to Dan O’Neill University of Minnesota Press, 2015), 62. continue-climb/. A 2016 report from Wisconsin for pointing me to Monbiot’s book, and for his found that 75 percent of the 542 osprey nests inspiring research on the rewilding of sites near 7. Ibid., 63. Parikka calls for “alternative accounts of across the state were on artificial platforms erected Fukushima, Japan. how to talk about materiality of media technology” (45). near utility poles, cell phone towers, or other tall structures. See “Eagle and Osprey Surveys 33. Kath Weston, Animate Planet (Durham: Duke 8. I first encountered Barad’s concept of intra- Document Record Number of Nests,” December 20, University Press, 2017), 10. action in her book Meeting the Universe Halfway: 2016, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter https://dnr.wi.gov/news/weekly/article/?id=3815. 34. Japan Times featured multiple video and Meaning (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017). perspectives. See “Chimp Caught in Residential I subsequently found an interview with her very 21. Gryta and Monga, “Unflappable Raptor Puts Area after Escaping Sendai Zoo,” Japan Times, helpful, and the quotes in this paragraph are taken Cellphone Carriers on Hold.” April 14, 2016, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ from it: “Intra-actions: Interview of Karan Barad news/2016/04/14/national/chimp-caught- by Adam Kleinmann,” 77, https://www.academia. 22. “Osprey Nest Removal,” posted by Pedro Garcia residential-area-escaping-sendai-zoo/#. edu/1857617/_Intra-actions_Interview_of_Karen_ Senior, September 20, 2015, YouTube, https://www. Barad_by_Adam_Kleinmann_. youtube.com/watch?v=UYXAojXl4no. 35. “Chimpanzees (List) in Sendai Yagiyama Zoological Park,” Great Ape 9. As Donna Haraway suggests in Staying with the 23. Ashley Carse, “Nature as Infrastructure: Making Information Network website, 2009, https:// Trouble, “It matters what matters we use to think and Managing the Panama Canal Watershed,” shigen.nig.ac.jp/gain/ViewIndividualList. other matters with” (12). Social Studies of Science 42, no. 4 (2012): 539–563. do?chim=true&bono=false&gori=false& This issue would be interesting to explore further, oran=false&tena=false&zoo=5&livingOnly=. 10. John Durham Peters makes this observation particularly given research by wildlife biologists about their work in The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a such as D. H. Ellis et al., “Unusual Raptor Nests 36. “Chimpanzee: Chacha,” Great Ape Information Philosophy of Elemental Media (Chicago: University around the World,” Journal of Raptor Research 43, Network website, 2009, https://shigen.nig.ac.jp/ of Chicago Press, 2015). no. 3 (2009): 175–198, which explores the unusual gain/ViewIndividualDetail.do?id=54. nesting materials used in construction of osprey 11. https://fresc.usgs.gov/products/papers/2345_ nests, including paper money, rags, metal, antlers, 37. Sean Kane, “Watch This Angry Chimp’s Daring, Henny.pdf. and large bones. Failed Escape from a Japanese Zoo,” Business Insider, April 15, 2016, http://www.businessinsider. 12. Thomas Gryta and Vipal Monga, “Unflappable 24. “Osprey Nest on Telecom Tower—Wildlife com/chimp-escaped-from-a-japanese-zoo-2016-4. Raptor Puts Cellphone Carriers on Hold: Osprey Shield,” posted by Wildlife Shield—Wildlife Removal Nests, Weighing Up to Half a Ton, Impede Wireless Professionals, April 5, 2016, YouTube, https://www. 38. Milafel Dacanay, “Chacha the Chimp Breaks Upgrade,” Wall Street Journal, September 17, 2012, youtube.com/watch?v=3pR6NgLz_-g. Loose from Japanese Zoo … Almost,” Tech https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100008723963904 Times, April 16, 2016, http://www.techtimes.com/ 44433504577650050132680794. 25. pnelson, “Could Drones Bring Better Wireless articles/150528/20160416/chacha-chimp-breaks- Networks with Safer Operations?,” RF Assurance, loose-japan-zoo.htm. 13. Liz Shaw, “Osprey Return Gets Boost from October 4, 2015, http://main.rfassurance. Cell Towers in Genesee and Lepeer Counties,” com/?q=node/104. 39. See, for instance, Associated Press, “Chimp Flint Journal, July 11, 2012, http://www.mlive.com/ Escape: A Real-Life Planet of the Apes,” The Herald, news/flint/index.ssf/2012/07/osprey_return_gets_ 26. “Cell Tower with Bird’s Nest,” posted by The Buzz April 15, 2016, http://www.heraldonline.com/news/ boost_from.html. Above, May 2, 2016, YouTube, https://www.youtube. nation-world/world/article71983742.html. com/watch?v=RXoe_EzzLNk. 14. Cliford M. Anderson and Placefull, Inc., “Raptor 40. Godzilla was conceived as a cross between Nest Exclusion Device,” US Patent US8434274B2, 27. Advexture Aerial Drone & Film Systems website, a gorilla and a whale. See Steve Ryfle, Ed May 7, 2013, Google Patents, https://www.google. July 20, 2018, https://advexure.com/pages/ Godziszewski, et al., eds., Ishiro Honda: A Life in com/patents/US20120174498. cell-towers-drones?_vsrefdom=adwords Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa (Middletown, CT: &gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkfSAw76m3AIVgYTICh35 Wesleyan University Press, 2017). UgTzEAAYASAAEgL0S_D_BwE.

152 Lisa Parks 153 , January January , , 135. , Wired , April 19, 2016, https://www. 2016, 19, April , Metamorphoses ExtremeTech Car?,” Car?,” extremetech.com/extreme/193402-what-is-night- vision-how-does-it-work-and-do-i-really-need-it- in-my-next-car. Braidotti, 53. 51. Eric Adams, “Volvo’s Cars Now Spot Moose Moose Spot Now Cars “Volvo’s Adams, Eric 51. You,” for the Brakes and Hit https://www.wired.com/2017/01/ 2017, 27, volvos-cars-now-spot-moose-hit-brakes/. How Vision, Night Is “What Bill Howard, 52. Next in My It Need and Do I Really Work, Does It , New West New , 2011, https:// 2011, , Philosophy and the Politics of of and the Politics Philosophy (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan, Palgrave York: (New , August 30, 2013, https://gizmodo.com/ 2013, 30, August , techniques, where the logic of government, derived derived government, logic of the where techniques, human to its legacy owes power,’ ‘pastoral from See Dinesh animals.” of domination of systems in Truce,” and “Counter-conduct Wadiwel, Joseph ed., Cavalieri, Paola Animal Liberation 225n32. 2016), $10M Build to “Wyoming Yamanaka, Jackie 48. website, WNYC Crossings,” Highway Wildlife http://www.wnyc.org/ 2010, 30, December story/284073-wyoming-to-build-10m-wildlife- highway-crossings. Highway of “The Use Donaldson, Bridget 49. Virginia in Mammals Large by Underpasses ectiveness,” f E Their Inﬂuencing and Factors the of Journal Record: Research Transportation Board Research Transportation 17. - trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/abs/10.3141/2011 Have Vehicles “Mercedes Liszewski, Andrew 50. Animals Now,” Can Recognize That Vision Night Gizmodo mercedes-vehicles-have-night-vision-that-can- recognize-1226656905. 46. Allen Best, “Wildlife and Highways: New Ideas Ideas New Highways: and “Wildlife Best, Allen 46. Wall,’” ‘Berlin Colorado’s for Sought 2010. 1, November that suggests Wadiwal Joseph Dinesh 47. should be governmentality of modern techniques of a conjoined set “of as the emergence understood , ,

Guardian Asahi Shimbun (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke , October 22, 2014, https:// 2014, 22, October , Film Quarterly ects f Digital E Spectacular the Onagawa nuclear power plant that Tohoku Tohoku that plant power nuclear the Onagawa Rigidity 70% Cracks, “1,130 See on. Electric relies Building,” Reactor Onagawa at Lost http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/ 2017, 18, January .html. 201701180054 AJ 20, 2018, http://www.tohoku-epco.co.jp/english_f/ 2018, 20, about/overview/. Alert after Sparks “Chimpanzee Smart, Richard 45. Zoo,” Japan from Electrifying Escape https://www.theguardian.com/ 2016, April 14, world/2016/apr/15/monkey-alert-electrifying- reported less often are What escape-japan-zoo. in loss in rigidity and 70% cracks the 1,000+ are Shaboten Park). Shaboten History,” Inc. Company, Electric Power “Tohoku 43. http:// undated, website, Universe Funding www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/ tohoku-electric-power-company-inc-history/. July website, Electric Power Tohoku Us,” “About 44. Cinema,” Cinema,” ﬁlmquarterly.org/2014/10/22/kristen-whissel- ects-cgi- f talks-about-spectacular-digital-e Whissel’s see Also and-contemporary-cinema/. book 2014). Press, University and one in Sendai spring remain f o Two 42. (Izu zoo Japanese another to distributed was 41. Regina Longo, “Kirsten Whissel Talks about about Talks Whissel “Kirsten Longo, Regina 41. and Contemporary ects: CGI f E Digital Spectacular Persistent Ephemeral Pollutants Nicholas Shapiro

It wafts through remote arctic air in high levels due to snowpack The parts of the argument that invoke irony, parody, or oxy- photochemistry. It is buried deep in the cellular functions of mam- moronic turns of phrase are in no way intended to make light of the malian bodies and emitted at low levels in every human breath. It caustic atmospheres that hang heavy in homes across what is now of-gasses from felled timber. Geophysicists are even speculating known as the United States. The farcical valences of this essay that it may be the source of organic carbon solids in our solar emerge not from the all-too-serious harms of chronic chemical system and thus centrally bound up with the possibility of biotic life exposure, but from systematic shortcomings in addressing these on our planet.1 Closer to home, this compound, formaldehyde, is issues. The point of evincing what PEP or any established regula- found in the adhesives that hold together the engineered woods tory category of chemicals can’t do is to rethink how materials and (plywood, particleboard, hardboard, medium-density fiberboard, relations become toxic in order to rethink how to detoxify. oriented strand board, luan, etc.) that make American housing construction quick and cheap. In the home, it is difcult to rival the PEP Talk immobilizing, adhering, hardening, painting, lacquering, disin- fecting, laminating, or reinforcing work of formaldehyde. Slowly Take a reassured breath. Formaldehyde is not only essential to of-gassing from the myriad commodities that assemble into the the building techniques propagated by industrial capitalism but home, formaldehyde is the most common and toxicologically also to life itself. Formaldehyde predates carbon-based life forms understood pollutant in indoor air,2 the air from which nine out of on earth and likely played an important role in the origins of life in ten breaths are drawn. The most elevated levels of this compound primeval oceans. In the human body, the chemical is an indispens- reside in small and poorly ventilated low-income housing, new able metabolic intermediary in the biosynthesis of two of the four housing, and tightly sealed “green” homes. building blocks of DNA and of some amino acids and molecules In this essay, I’ll track how regulatory science attempts that play a role in blood pressure control and hormone signaling. to evacuate the toxic risk posed by formaldehyde from the built Formaldehyde can also be the by-product of breaking down a environment. The framing of this story around a single compound, number of pharmaceuticals, food additives, and potentially hazard- a framing inherited from science and governance, is fundamental ous environmental chemicals.6 At any given moment your blood to it never reaching resolution. If we don’t merely think of toxicants carries detectable levels of formaldehyde. Your brain likely hosts as discrete material entities with particular properties, but think two to four times the level present in your blood.7 of those qualities together with the vast array of social relations Now, let that breath out. Formaldehyde is an irritant, an that move through unevenly distributed toxicants, we can see that allergen, a neurotoxin, and a known human carcinogen. Its pres- chemical relations do not start and stop where industrial chemistry ence in mammalian bodies can destroy enzymes that maintain and the regulatory state think they do.3 Regulating at the molecu- bronchial tone, strip axons of their sheathing, dysregulate gene lar register will almost always fail to address toxics’ larger relations. expression, break chromosomes, misfold proteins, exacerbate In this, the story of formaldehyde is by no means anoma- asthma, and create deficits in behavior, cognition, and learn- lous. It is the upshot of globally pervasive petrochemical violence ing.8 The range of formaldehyde concentrations that have been and constrictive horizons of detoxification that envision change shown to distort the function of human brain cells in vitro overlaps through the very infrastructures and assumptions that beckoned with the levels of formaldehyde commonly found in the brain. our present environmental crises.4 In an attempt to think with and Neurochemists increasingly suspect that this nearly omnipres- beyond dominant idioms of regulatory science, I approach both the ent chemical has a role in neurodegenerative diseases such as specific issue of formaldehyde and a general issue of environmental Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis.9 The chemical is both toxicants through the novel technoscientific category that gives this essential and routinely destructive to biotic functioning, to the essay its title.5 To be clear, this category is not a preexisting one. As I material substrates of life. will detail below, the classification of “persistent ephemeral pollut- Formaldehyde protects home construction materials from ants” (PEPs) is a legitimate farce. Legitimate insofar as it identifies a insect, bacteria, and fungal decay while also hastening the decay class of chemicals that are insufciently reckoned with because of a of human inhabitants. Ironically, this chemical not only decom- purely material definition of persistence. And a farce not just due to poses human bodies, but an average of 3.5 gallons of formalde- the logical opposition of “persistent” and “ephemeral,” but because hyde is injected into the veins of the American dead to fend of toxic chemical relations exceed the rubrics of toxicant categoriza- postmortem decomposition.10 The compound chemically tugs tion, regulation, banning, and replacement that hold a monopoly on Americans toward death and then defends their inanimate bodies the imaginative horizons of chemical environmental change. In other against biological disintegration: the removal of biotic life to main- words, the category “PEP” bears an element of ludicrousness that tain an immaculate form. In the body, the role of formaldehyde is is intrinsic to the dominant means of halting the release of toxicants neither strictly physiological nor pathological. Take a step back and into bodies and landscapes. PEP sharpens a scalpel for a set of the multiple, oppositional roles that formaldehyde occupies are issues that cannot be removed by surgery. also those of the engineered home: an agent of preservation that The hybrid argument of PEP aims to manifest a more is also an agent of decay, a shelter that is the seat of exposure. robust understanding of toxicant persistence, elevating chemicals And that is where the analogy ends. That mammalian like formaldehyde toward a threshold of potential banning, while bodies continuously produce the chemical at barely detectable pushing the principal paradigms of environmental regulation to their levels does not render natural—or apolitical—the continuous logical breaking points: diferently classifying individual chemicals or industrial manufacture that maintains its suspension in indoor classes of chemicals is an approach that ensures perpetual toxicity. air at concentrations that bear the capacity to take and warp life.

154 Nicholas Shapiro - - - - large- even if even 155 Even if Even decrease with fasting with fasting decrease

17 not It is not to create a new a new create to is not It 16 Scientists have asked whether whether asked have Scientists 15 Yet blood samples from fasting patients have have patients fasting blood samples from Yet 14 airs. airs. f a of state indulge in a hypothetical Let’s The point here is not to list all of the chemicals that fall fall the chemicals that all of list to is not here The point understood to be intolerable to regulatory science, PEPs also cast also cast PEPs science, regulatory to be intolerable to understood and not politics, erent dif chemicals foster erent dif on how light qualities. material brute their because of ects of f the e apprehend better to conducted were scale studies and common levels, bodies at various on exposures PEP an imaginary to when submitted these studies, the findings from PEPy endocrine disruptor Bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is a high-volume is a high-volume BPA (BPA). A Bisphenol endocrine disruptor PEPy line that and resins plastics make is used to that petrochemical The human juice boxes. tin cans to from containers and drink food of blood and urine within hours from BPA eliminates often body its introduction. did levels BPA perplexed. scientists left the enters BPA 95–99% of found that studies previous time despite and drink. via food human body needed they whether or, routes, exposure be nonfood might there the compound of the half-life of understanding their revisit to the pharma between The indeterminacy within the human body. and its environ with the body) it interacts (how BPA of cokinetics its PEPiness. of is indicative hypersaturation mental PEPs. of category paradoxical the into can scientists of which a board chemicals through of grouping com of a list creating the unbearable, of the threshold adjudicate partially least is at as a category PEP be banned. must pounds that subverts oxymoron This administrative burlesque. a bureaucratic chemicals what alone dictates makeup molecular the idea that eco are chemicals that only date, To threats. toxic pose sustained been banned have emission) continual (without persistent logically than More POPs. is, that registers: and international on national pollution are chronic of certain forms only on how light casting - - - - - This is true of the similarly the similarly This is true of 13 —there are many paths that that paths many are —there Environmentally persistent persistent Environmentally 11 12 Despite having been embroiled in simmering health crises been embroiled having Despite support late-industrial life that their pathways of exposure eclipse exposure of pathways their that life support late-industrial are formaldehyde of Molecules intervention. potential the scale of tissues; but form into penetrate to them quickly allowing small, fail. big to is too market aldehyde’s ments to formaldehyde have yielded what might best be thought be thought best might yielded what have formaldehyde to ments imbued with is sociotechnically that a pollutant as a PEP, of are While POPs transitory. being chemically despite persistence chemical structures—predominantly specific to confined largely molecules organic halogenated example, For a PEP. a compound being considered could lead to that in the infrastructures so imbricated some compounds are that are as old as the EPA itself, and despite photo-oxidation photo-oxidation and despite itself, as old as the EPA are that form elevated the air, it from removing and continuously rapidly breathing intimate in the most remain concentrations aldehyde no is by presence This continued States. the United spaces of disproportionately are as high concentrations means uniform, commit material Late-industrial housing. in low-income found imately one hour in its gas state. one hour imately the outside of and trackable countable easily more chemicals are more are POPs As a result half-lives. lab than those with shorter by harm endorsed of science and the metrics regulatory legible to to likely and more regulation, environmental of techniques Western intervention. governmental garner due to its intrinsic material longevity, an ability to maintain stability stability maintain to an ability longevity, material its intrinsic due to those com Unlike the atmosphere. amid the chemical flux of such as (POPs), pollutants organic “persistent as pounds known long in bodies and environments remained have that PCBs, or DDT formaldehyde’s prohibited, been legally have the pollutants after approx averages half-life Its is short-lived. fate environmental Figure 4.5.1: Advertising setup for plywood, the building material of a thousand uses, from 1955. Plywood is a primary source of formaldehyde in the home. Image in the home. formaldehyde of source is a primary Plywood 1955. from a thousand uses, of the building material plywood, for setup Advertising 4.5.1: Figure Public Library. Tacoma source: spaces is not breathing in our presence continued Formaldehyde’s Figure 4.5.2: A natural gas gathering pipeline surfaces in a middle-class backyard in Pennsylvania. Photo by Nicholas Shapiro

PEP expert regulatory panel, compelled them to advocate strin- of intervention for issues of toxic exposure? How might those gent standards that would efectively ban the chemical (because seeking to detoxify the environment step back from the fetishiza- recommended levels would not be economically viable), the most tion of chemicals as the problem of toxicity as well as from endless likely outcome would be for formaldehyde (or any other PEP) to appeals to “more data” in ongoing practices of assessment?23 be substituted by another diferently toxic compound. This is the Rather than delving deeply into the alternatives to reformism, for story of BPA being substituted by Bisphenol S (BPS), which can this essay I am focusing on why large and radical changes are cultivate germline cell death and serious damage or death to necessary for robust detoxification. With this history I hope to embryos.18 In some applications BPA was already a replacement illustrate how reformism, that bastion of pragmatism, is a type of for PCBs, a group of POPs that have been globally banned. Flame escapism, a means of change that guarantees sameness. retardants, too, have gone through multiple cycles of use, documented harm, and replacement by diferently toxic compounds.19 Between Media and Molecule It’s not only observers from the social sciences and humanities who have noted the limitations of this one-molecule-at-a-time In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a mounting environmental move- model. Considering a family of chemicals known as PFASs, which ment and a series of chemical controversies began to expose are used to make a broad array of products from cosmetics and the cracks in existing environmental policy and stir public and textiles to firefighting foams, a team of engineers, chemists, and governmental desire for the further regulation of potentially toxic toxicologists recently wondered if these substances constitute substances. From pesticides to PCBs, the proliferation of industrial an “intractable, potentially never-ending chemicals management chemicals was seen by both the public and environmental experts issue that challenges the conventional chemical assessment and to be outrunning attempts to monitor, manage, and mitigate management paradigm adopted by society since the 1970s.”20 their detrimental efects. As negotiations and debate about toxic Together, these failures of science and regulation to relay evidence substance regulation dragged on for years, the fledgling EPA was of molecular violence into less toxic worlds21—the bouncing of the increasingly adamant that even freshly minted legislative tools promissory checks of regulatory science—indicate further satirical were inadequate to stem the steady flow of upstream pollution— valances of PEPs. such as the non-point source entry of toxicants into the environ- How might we reimagine what an appropriate response to ment via consumer products. John R. Quarles, deputy administra- toxic compounds and emissions might be if we consider both the tor of the EPA, noted in a 1975 press release that the Clean Air Act provocation of PEPs and the empirical obstacles of formaldehyde (1963), the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1972), and the Safe regulation? How does a fictive, sociotechnical pollutant category Drinking Water Act (1974) dealt “with the problem at a point where help us understand how purely technical conceptions of toxicity the contaminants are very difcult to control.”24 By the time toxi- consign the exposed to perpetual corrosion? Further, how might cants in public airs and waters accumulated to the extent that they we buck the scientific22 and imaginative infrastructures that inform attracted the attention of regulators, parsing responsibility among a nearly global assumption that the molecular level is the place individual contributors and prioritizing interventions became a

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- - - 35 - - - 157 The law 32 federal air air federal only the interior space that is tested tested is space that the interior not In eight years of research on domestic on domestic research of years In eight 34 To be clear, it is be clear, To 33 These standards remained the only federal interven federal the only remained These standards short-lived FEMA’s before a month 2008, of In March In 1987, OSHA set an eight-hour permissible exposure permissible exposure an eight-hour set OSHA In 1987, medium density fiberboard. The letter begins in the post-Katrina post-Katrina begins in the The letter fiberboard. medium density the FEMA of study the federal the findings of summarizes rubble, to trailers the FEMA and scales up from atmosphere, toxic trailers’ formaldehyde residential excessive of pervasiveness the address was the EPA June By intervention. for in its argument exposure woods in all composite formaldehyde regulate plans to circulating 2010, 10, June On housing. those in manufactured just and not containing anything near 0.4 ppm. After spending less than half spending less than half After ppm. 0.4 near anything containing lie I needed to ppm in Rhode Island, in a home with 0.120 an hour air. gasping for yard, in the front down the Federal when 2008, April of until quality air indoor tions into all that a policy (FEMA) enacted Agency Management Emergency the by acquired trailers”) (“FEMA housing units emergency future 0.016 below levels formaldehyde ambient register must agency to response the bungled federal out of emerged This policy ppm. the storm, house those displaced by To in 2005. Katrina Hurricane interior elevated bore that trailers 150,000 over acquired FEMA victims claimed disaster thousands of of Tens levels. formaldehyde caused nosebleeds, atmospheres the formaldehyde-laden that and cancer. sickness, pet headaches, rashes, attacks, asthma emergency FEMA’s 2011, in October rescinded quietly was it Until the was regulation housing unit formaldehyde the home as its legal space of the air took that regulation quality reg to the momentum short-lived, was While this measure object. trailer FEMA publicized the highly by spurred formaldehyde ulate over. not was incident Club, Sierra the from an organizer put in place, was regulation trailer the FEMA revealed science that which funded the citizen signa with some 5,000 a petition sent problem, formaldehyde the of regulation federal calling for administrator, the EPA to tures and particleboard, plywood, hardwood emissions of formaldehyde workers in the apparel industry. The EPA delegated responsibility responsibility delegated The EPA industry. in the apparel workers of the Department to these groups of the exposure mitigating for Occupational and the (HUD) Development Urban and Housing respectively. (OSHA), Administration and Health Safety indoor and other factories, schools, fces, o ppm for 0.75 limit of emis formaldehyde regulating HUD began In 1985, workplaces. housing. in manufactured utilized woods the composite sions from and (ppm) million parts per 0.2 at plywood limit for upper the set It regulations These commodity-based ppm. 0.3 at particleboard for less contained that atmosphere interior yield an to designed were ppm. than 0.4 that materials construction many the of forms but two regulated or For concentrations. formaldehyde domestic elevated to contribute maximum recom Organization’s Health World the comparison, the day-in-and- not exposure, half-hour a mere mended limit for times than four is more in the home, incurred exposure day-out threshold. but unmonitored than this intended ppm) (0.081 lower (ATSDR) Disease Registry Substances Toxic for Agency The US ppm can 0.008 over exposure formaldehyde chronic that notes times is fifty that a level health impacts in humans, cause negative the HUD regula furnished by quality air than the intended lower and the is lacking, standard HUD’s of enforcement Further, tions. agencies governmental other by disparaged openly is standard voluntary.” “essentially as an atmosphere experienced never I have exposure, formaldehyde The administrator agreed. Congressional investigations, a lawsuit lawsuit a investigations, Congressional agreed. The administrator of the dismissal and Council, Defense Resources the Natural from followed. soon Gorsuch M. Anne administrator EPA as a formaldehyde designated EPA the after withdrawn suit was and home residents mobile populations: two for compound priority ------TSCA TSCA no indus 25 too hard to to hard too The EPA’s The EPA’s 28 Attending to com to Attending 29 27 30 . Clay recommended to the EPA admin the EPA to recommended Clay 31 , and what have you. So, there’s no value in value no there’s So, you. have and what , ce of Toxic Toxic Ofce of EPA’s of director former But as Don Clay, 26 worth it. It was going to be too hard to do. There’s There’s do. to hard be too going to was It it. worth try oppose to standpoint, TSCA a from … air indoor regulating the findings make We tried to regulate indoor air. [We] thought about and thought [We] air. indoor regulate tried to We be going to it wasn’t and decided no, on it, a paper wrote something by tomorrow night? These are all new tools in tools all new These are night? tomorrow by something seeing the first start you when 1970s, in the late the toolbox scary and/or exciting was It … on formaldehyde. information view. of depending on a certain point The first 4(f) that came in, I think, it might have been on have it might I think, came in, that 4(f) The first 9 use Section need to Do we … in 1979. formaldehyde, agencies and do those other and get defer to authority Although never conceptualized as such by the EPA, TSCA’s TSCA’s the EPA, as such by conceptualized Although never The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 1976 was was in 1976 (TSCA) Act Control Substances Toxic The for indoor workplace air? Bearing this in mind, and likely also and likely air? workplace Bearing this in mind, indoor for with the conversations closed-door bearing in mind sustained industry, formaldehyde regulation. for be prioritized not formaldehyde in 1981 that istrator cult to difcult to too it was is that The first status. priority formaldehyde the enor across collect the data to hard the findings—too make made on largely which were homes, in the types of variation mous and perhaps Secondly, locations. built in centralized and not site produces that industry is no particular there importantly, more would How be regulated? would exactly Which industry air. indoor regulations related with be in conflict or interact such regulation Clay cites two basic issues in his decision to deny indoor air and air indoor deny in his decision to basic issues two cites Clay quickly subdued in the politico-bureaucratic hum of the agency. the agency. hum of subdued in the politico-bureaucratic quickly the Reagan in 1981 under EPA at his position took When Don Clay immedi pressing from transitioned formaldehyde administration, an impossibility: to acy The terror and exhilaration of implementing this new law were were law this new implementing of and exhilaration The terror ce of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxics, Toxics, and Pesticides Prevention, Ofce of EPA’s of administrator this harried inception: remembers the nearly ubiquitous chemical formaldehyde. As the 1970s transi As the 1970s chemical formaldehyde. ubiquitous the nearly in white-collar quality air concerns about indoor ’80s, the tioned to studies coalesce and new fces and mobile homes began to o toxicity. formaldehyde’s demonstrated increasingly an expe for the chemical nominated Substances Toxic Ofce of the agency for priority labeling it a top by review regulatory dited assistant former Aidala, James TSCA). of section 4(f) (invoking Substances, succinctly notes, a toxicant “has got to be in some to got “has a toxicant notes, succinctly Substances, TSCA].” [by regulated it can be thing before limit. its and also defines this law of agility modities enables the is perhaps no sur It on. early encountered limit was commodity of way by evident made first were shortcomings the law’s prise that is the backbone toxics regulation in the United States. As well well As States. in the United regulation is the backbone toxics every the to production of the site from as turning its attention it world, our populate that the commodities of potential toxic day as substances risky of with the agency grapple to also attempts water, air, at separately looks that legislation outmaneuver they and environmental human a line between draws soil and that or impacts. cient sites of intervention given the steady flow of toxicants into the into toxicants of flow the steady given intervention of sites cient environments. extrahuman human and risk” “unreasonable an if and, surveilling of task with the charged circulate began to they chemicals before restricting of posed, were commodities. of and dynamic constellation vast within a Sisyphean task. The traditional loci of environmental regulation—a regulation—a environmental loci of traditional The task. Sisyphean insuf facilities—were industrial monolithic of number discrete President Obama signed into law the Formaldehyde Standards for of industrial capitalist and nationalist progress, empire, and settler Composite Wood Products Act, which incorporated formaldehyde colonialism.41 True to form, environmental regulation of formalde- emissions standards into TSCA. hyde heaps disproportionate exposure on the poor, who typically The rigorous testing protocol advanced by this regulation inhabit smaller less ventilated spaces likely to harbor higher levels centers on the chamber testing of composite wood products in of formaldehyde. isolation, rather than the regulation of the total indoor air and the This regulatory “success story,” spurred on a national level suggested emission rates for construction materials to achieve by the formaldehyde poisoning in the FEMA trailers, is designed in the intended level.36 The regulation does not take into consider- such a way that it is precisely diminutive homes like the FEMA trail- ation how the materials it regulates are diferently assembled and ers that the regulation abandons. Mobile homes, which bear two to arranged. The same composite wood products can be used to four times the indoor formaldehyde levels of conventional homes, create spaces that vastly difer in size and ventilation. The lack of represent the largest source of nonsubsidized afordable housing accounting for the diferent atmospheres that such commodities for lower- and moderate-income families in the United States.42 can cultivate depending on their configuration puts the weight of Because most of the land Native Nations possess through the exposure on very small spaces with very poor air exchange. Such colonial reservation system is held in trust by the US government spaces are exemplified by the 250-square-foot FEMA trailers, the and only available for lease and not purchase, Native Nations have very spaces that drove the regulation into existence. As residential a particularly high use of mobile homes. In 2016, 49.1 percent of floor space—which should be understood here as room for toxi- American Indian and Native Alaskan home mortgages in census cants to dilute—and ventilation decrease with income, the com- tracts that lie mostly on reservation land were for mobile homes, modity-based legislation perpetuates the market-driven asymmet- over twenty-one times the percentage for the United States as a rical distribution of exposure. whole.43 In this way, formaldehyde is a key agent of ongoing settler The problems of shared water and air and the difculties in colonial violence. Regulation ensures the uneven persistence of attributing responsibility to the piecemeal contributions to envi- this ephemeral toxicant, especially for those that gain least benefit ronmental contamination inform the development and structure from capitalo-nationalist progress. of TSCA. To avoid a loss of control in accumulative downstream If a question of this volume is how we might live diferently environments, power would be exerted at pre-market tributary in material terms, a lesson from the history of toxics regulation is sources. Yet, in relation to the case at hand, the regulation went so that interventions that stay too close to the material are key to far upstream that it lost sight of indoor airspace itself. The driving maintaining larger infrastructures of harm. PEPs are a simulta- force of the legislation became making legible and pragmatic neously legitimate and parodic category that I have created in demands on a particular industry, rather than achieving a specific the hopes of indicating the absurdity of regulating toxicants as atmospheric level of formaldehyde that is derived from a health- the problem of environmental toxicity. The practices that make a based standard. PEPy compound scale and/or persist, the practices indicted in This is not to say that the regulation will not help clear the expansive conceptions of chemical relations, do not lend them- air of the American home. The precursor to the federal regulation selves to easy uptake by regulatory apparatuses. The immaterial was enacted in California by the California Air Resources Board. logics, subjectivities, and ethos that undergird industrialized In preparing the policy, state scientists estimated that every year environments might better be thought of as drivers of robust 900 tons of formaldehyde sublimates into the air of California attempts at detoxification. from composite woods.37 Put diferently, some 6,600 barrels of Walking back from the question of how much formalde- formaldehyde are privately, silently, and invisibly distributed into hyde should be allowed in building materials (as a proxy for how the indoor air spaces of the state. California’s regulations, which much formaldehyde should be allowed in our homes as a proxy were adopted by TSCA with only minor alterations, are thought to for how much formaldehyde should be allowed in our bodies) and have cut the chemical load by 500 tons per year. This is indeed a reorienting interventions into toxicity issues can take us down substantial purification of domestic air space, yet estimates even many paths. I could, for example, ask a question of ventilation: after the regulation is enacted are that between 51 and 134 excess why do we seal up our homes in such a way that makes formal- cancer cases per million will still result.38 Extrapolated to a national dehyde such an issue indoors? Very quickly this question at the level, this adds up to between 16,320 and 42,880 cancer cases due scale of home construction becomes a critical inquiry into how to formaldehyde exposure, down from 27,520 to 73,920 before the engineers and architects have, over the past century, increas- regulation was implemented.39 While the reduction of exposure ingly relied on partial and insufcient understandings of thermo- is significant, so is the remaining risk. The regulation reduces the dynamics, which have encouraged isolation and insulation as endangering of domestic air space to just low enough to protect the primary means of cultivating comfortable indoor climates. against further public outcry, in essence preserving a sizable por- Architect Kiel Moe notes that building homes like refrigerators— tion of chemical risk—particularly for low-income households—that the more sealed, the better—turns a blind eye to some of the is now likely rendered immune to further regulation. fundamentals of thermodynamics, such as large-scale and nonlinear energy dynamics. Beyond this isolationist logic, elements Detoxification, Otherwise of which Moe notes could be read into the architectures of gated communities and border walls, a more robust engagement with This quick history of asymmetrical chemical exposure becoming the logics of dissipative energy points to the promise of struc- hardened through federal regulation contributes to a growing body tures built with highly porous materials that are able to maintain of work that documents how regulatory science makes envi- comfortable indoor temperatures without mechanical aid. While ronmental injuries allowable.40 As chemical wounding becomes this vision remains a mixture of some premodern traditions and allowable, the state sanctions it and morally reinforces it as speculative materials, it would both displace major sources of legal. This alibi for sustained toxicity justifies harm as necessary formaldehyde exposure in the home and vastly increase air circu- to maintain certain facets of the status quo such as commod- lation, which would minimize disproportionate exposures to other ity price points, standards of living, and viable markets. These concentrated indoor toxicants (so long as you don’t live in a place rubrics confuse maintaining livability with the viability of projects with severely polluted outdoor air).44

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- - - not 159 Contrast the calculated submission of this approach to to this approach submission of the calculated Contrast petrochem violence of invisible the (largely) visible Making and therefore rematerialize building and moving at scale. The story The story scale. at building and moving rematerialize and therefore to lends credence view, in my pollutants, ephemeral persistent of into interventions robust as potentially alterity radical at attempts toxicity. persistent engineering—utilizing resources without extracting them and without extracting engineering—utilizing resources trajectories— elemental with preexisting aligning human desires the overcoming of dream pursued with the impossible but always sealed buildings held together building tightly environment—of the envi and controlling interrupting This logic of with biocides. engineering Euro-American of the ethos overdetermines ronment molecular issues through toxicity to “solutions” orient and helps to attempt allied projects and other Aerocene The manipulation. to better control, ban, or substitute materials that are the most proximate agents of harm but to encourage abandoning the larger assumptions that result in rapidly changing climates and sufocating atmospheres. of mitigation short- and medium-term vital for ical pollution is such evils so-called necessary mitigating the same time, At harms. tin can linings BPA or building materials as formaldehyde-based make that harm and the infrastructures molecules of can entrench and how whether adjudicating reformism, Toxic them necessary. a quasi-plau only is empirically is bearable, y x or toxicant much of the Given equitable and saludogenic atmospheres. to sible route neces make to how envisioning science, regulatory of limitation and prag also be urgent me to to appears unnecessary evils sary but forensics halt toxicological to is not goal here My work. matic reconceptualize aim to that projects alongside it for room make to Figure 4.5.3: Dawn launch of an Aerocene solar balloon at Craters of the Moon the Moon of Craters balloon at solar Aerocene an launch of Dawn 4.5.3: Figure Nicholas Shapiro. by Photo 2017. 21, August Monument, National ------. Before it Before . 2 Methane Methane 45

47 This is just a brief glimpse of the toxicities of of the toxicities glimpse of a brief This is just 46 Here, Moe’s provocation for the home may serve as a serve the home may for provocation Moe’s Here, “You can’t argue with free,” a former industry chemist chemist industry former a free,” with argue can’t “You Domestic toxicity is of course not just an accumulation an accumulation just not course is of toxicity Domestic erent directions and speeds (jet directions erent in dif altitudes blow erent dif at that trajectories flight hour!), miles per 250 up to winds are stream yield altitude changes can multiple winds through together weave travel. precise relatively energy of the sun into dense electricity to be stored in batteries, in batteries, be stored to dense electricity the sun into of energy interconti gain lift and fly to as heat its power leverage but rather a balloon Visualize and ecological cost. monetary without nentally toward face turning the dark By black. and half white is half that it more making heat, absorb more the sun the balloon is able to the white the balloon so that Rotate and gaining altitude. buoyant As winds and it will plunge. the sun, is toward surface reflective world in ways that do not assume the need for electricity or tens of of tens or electricity assume the need for do not that in ways world in percolating One such imaginary roadways? miles of millions of as known is a project and universities hackerspaces, art spaces, rays solar omnipresent weak, leverage to seeks that Aerocene the solar The mass transportation travel. air basis of as the energetic and feeble the omnipresent convert do not the project balloons of the thermodynamic imaginary that unites both petrocapitalist and petrocapitalist both unites that the thermodynamic imaginary energy? renewable of visions dominant miasma as a modern-day formaldehyde eliminate to not model, the multi understand but to enclosure, of the upshot is solely that envision and to thermodynamic imaginary current our of ple costs and inhabit the move we might How its successor. and implement nological milestones like the gasoline-fueled internal combustion internal the gasoline-fueled like nological milestones sources energy renewable for hydrocarbons Substituting engine. infrastructures immaterial and material the overhauling also without as prove undoubtedly will present corrosive our co-constitute that ectiveef as substituting one toxic chemical One for another. alterna replace we might How ask: to be might issue this framing of way tive argument against formaldehyde in the language of capitalism. Such Such capitalism. of language the in formaldehyde against argument work will but not beeven this easy, is not enough. PEPs teach us that or persistent pollutants make that properties material just it is not even pollutants. Hydrocarbons, too, become multiply toxic at a mas of and expectations infrastructures, values, the scale through sive tech before well emerged that Europe industrial) later imperial (and reminded me after a talk I’d given about demoralizing thethe tenaciousfrom Far presenceatmospheres. of indoor in formaldehyde such be, to intended I assume it was that political economic fact decarbonizing of importance the underlines merely statement a words, In other work. detoxification cross-cutting for supplies energy an render to helps markets energy hydrocarbon from divesting within the envelope of the home. Attempting to detoxify only the only detoxify to Attempting the home. of within the envelope environmental the many apprehend to fails ventilation via home Intervening chains. supply petrochemical into violences baked the spaces of from and upstream the molecular, up-scale from spread violences the siloing of can minimize exposure, immediate forces. and geophysical species, space, time, across even reaches homes to be burnt as natural gas or chemical plants chemical plants gas or as natural be burnt to homes reaches even leaks methane and then formaldehyde, methanol turned into be to the climate to similar roughly chain are the US supply throughout plants. power coal-fired the nation’s all of impacts of primary levels—the ozone global surface to also contributes smog. of constituent accumulates and it becomes formaldehyde before formaldehyde consumption and circulation that dwarf the domain of home home of domain the dwarf that and circulation consumption is that persistence formaldehyde’s to Key architects. construction is Methane gas. as natural also known methane, from it is derived compound is a The oil. for when drilling as a freebie acquired often con times greater twenty-five gas with a greenhouse hyperpotent CO change than climate to pound, pound for tribution, issue. Formaldehyde is directly implicated in horizons of energy energy of horizons in implicated is directly Formaldehyde issue. 1. George D. Cody, Emily Heying, Conel M. O. 11. Debra A. Kaden, Corinne Mandin, Gunnar D. 22. Hepler-Smith, “Molecular Bureaucracy.” Alexander, Larry R. Nittler, A. L. David Kilcoyne, Scott Nielsen, and Peder Wolkof, Formaldehyde, World A. Sandford, and Rhonda M. Stroud, “Establishing Health Organization, 2010, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. 23. Nicholas Shapiro, Nasser Zakariya, and Jody a Molecular Relationship between Chondritic gov/books/NBK138711/. Roberts, “A Wary Alliance: From Enumerating and Cometary Organic Solids,” Proceedings of Environments to Inviting Apprehension,” Engaging the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 48 12. “Halogenated” means that one or more of STS 3 (2017): 575–602. (November 29, 2011): 19171–19176, https://doi. the elements that are known as halogens (F, Cl, org/10.1073/pnas.1015913108. Br, At) has been introduced into the molecule. 24. EPA, “Quarles Testifies on the Need Halogenated compounds tend to bioaccumulate in for Toxic Substances Act,” Speeches, 2. Tunga Salthammer, Sibel Mentese, and fatty tissues. After writing the above sentence about Testimony and Transcripts, July 10, Rainer Marutzky, “Formaldehyde in the Indoor the smallness of the chemical and the largeness 1975, http://www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/ Environment,” Chemical Reviews 110, no. 4 (April 14, of its financial entanglements, I heard Michelle quarles-testifies-need-toxic-substances-act. 2010): 2537. https://doi.org/10.1021/cr800399g. Murphy say something similar, but both more general and succinct, “chemical molecules are 25. “Toxic Vessels Control Act” might have been 3. Michelle Murphy, “Alterlife and Decolonial small but their relations are large.” more apt as a name, because only when a Chemical Relations,” Cultural Anthropology 32, no. 4 substance was included in a commodity could it be (2017): 494–503, https://doi.org/10.14506/ca32.4.02. 13. Nicholas Shapiro, “Attuning to the Chemosphere: regulated. Radon exposure is a large exception to My phrasing “chemical relations do not start and Domestic Formaldehyde, Bodily Reasoning, and this rule as it is not industrially produced or sold but stop where industrial chemistry and the regulatory the Chemical Sublime,” Cultural Anthropology 30, is geologically emitted into indoor air. state think they do” comes close to Murphy’s work no. 3 (2015): 327, https://doi.org/10.14506/ca30.3.02. without being a direct quote because it is through In terms of mass, BPA (C15H16O2) is more than 7.5 26. Jody A. Roberts, “Unruly Technologies and her direct and indirect guidance that I am able to times heavier than formaldehyde (HCHO). PFOA Fractured Oversight: Toward a Model for Chemical make the stronger arguments in this essay, and (C8HF15O2), one of the highest-profile toxicants Control for the Twenty-First Century,” in Boudia and not being able to keep up is likely the source of my today, is nearly 14 times heavier. Jas, Powerless Science? lesser points. 14. For comparison, formaldehyde is metabolized 27. Don R. Clay, interview by Jody A. Roberts and 4. Evan Hepler-Smith, “Molecular Bureaucracy: within minutes of entering the bloodstream. Kavita D. Hardy at Koch Industries, Inc., Washington, Toxicological Information and Environmental DC, March 16, 2012 (Science History Institute, Protection,” Environmental History 24 (2019). 15. Richard W. Stahlhut, Wade V. Welshons, Philadelphia, Oral History Transcript # 0684). and Shanna H. Swan, “Bisphenol A Data in 5. “With and beyond” is my adaptation of NHANES Suggest Longer than Expected Half- 28. Michelle Murphy, Sick Building Syndrome and Murphy’s “posture of working with and Life, Substantial Nonfood Exposure, or Both,” the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, against technoscience” (Michelle Murphy, The Environmental Health Perspectives 117, no. 5 Technoscience, and Women Workers (Durham: Economization of Life [Durham: Duke University (May 2009): 784–789, https://doi.org/10.1289/ Duke University Press, 2006); Janet Ore, “Mobile Press, 2017], 495). Elsewhere I discuss why “beyond” ehp.0800376. Home Syndrome: Engineered Woods and the can do the work of “against” without centering that Making of a New Domestic Ecology in the Post- which you are opposing. 16. Suppressing the urge to make lists is difcult. World War II Era,” Technology and Culture 52, no. 2 Benzene is another key PEP. For an introduction (2011): 260–286. 6. National Toxicology Program, “Report on to the life of this world-altering compound see Carcinogens, 12th Edition,” Department of Health Rebecca Altman, “How the Benzene Tree Polluted 29. James Aidala, interview by Jody A. Roberts and Human Services, Public Health Service, the World,” Atlantic, October 4, 2017, https:// and Kavita D. Hardy at Bergeson & Campbell National Toxicology Program, Research Triangle www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/ P.C., Washington, DC, May 20, 2010 (Chemical Park, NC, 2011, 289. benzene-tree-organic-compounds/530655/. Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, Oral History Transcript # 0660). 7. Ketki Tulpule and Ralf Dringen, “Formaldehyde 17. This is cautionary to social theorists who dive in Brain: An Overlooked Player in deep into the commodity pathways, environmental 30. The Toxic Substances Control Act: from the Neurodegeneration?,” Journal of Neurochemistry dispositions, and corrosive encounters of particular perspective of Don R. Clay, interview by Jody A. 127, no. 1 (October 1, 2013): 7–21, https://doi. compounds and then theorize chemical violence Roberts and Kavita D. Hardy at Koch Industries, org/10.1111/jnc.12356. and resistance writ large from the vantage of Inc., Washington, D.C., 16 March 2012 (Philadelphia: those specific material forms—like my own work Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History 8. National Toxicology Program, “Report on and some of my greatest inspirations; cf. Timothy Transcript #0684); emphasis mine. Carcinogens, 12th Edition”; Tulpule and Dringen, Choy and Jerry Zee, “Condition—Suspension,” “Formaldehyde in Brain”; Anton C. Groot, Mari- Cultural Anthropology 30, no. 2 (May 25, 2015): 31. Nicholas A. Ashford and Charles C. Caldart, Ann Flyvholm, Gerda Lensen, Torkil Menné, and 210–223, https://doi.org/10.14506/ca30.2.04; Technology, Law, and the Working Environment, Pieter-Jan Coenraads, “Formaldehyde-Releasers: Shapiro, “Attuning to the Chemosphere”; Murphy, rev. ed. (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996). I have Relationship to Formaldehyde Contact Allergy. The Economization of Life; Max Liboiron, Manuel discussed elsewhere the ways in which chemical Contact Allergy to Formaldehyde and Inventory Tironi, and Nerea Calvillo, “Toxic Politics: Acting in exposure is actively un-known (Nicholas Shapiro, of Formaldehyde-Releasers,” Contact Dermatitis a Permanently Polluted World,” Social Studies of “Un-Knowing Exposure: Toxic Emergency Housing, 61, no. 2 (August 2009): 63–85, https://doi. Science 48, no. 3 (June 1, 2018): 331–349, https://doi. Strategic Inconclusivity and Governance in the org/10.1111/j.1600-0536.2009.01582.x. org/10.1177/0306312718783087. US Gulf South,” in Emilie Cloatre and Pickersgill Martyn, eds., Knowledge, Technology and Law 9. Jing Lu, Junye Miao, Tao Su, Ying Liu, 18. Yichang Chen, Le Shu, Zhiqun Qiu, Dong Yeon [London: Routledge, 2014], 189–205). Delayed and Rongqiao He, “Formaldehyde Induces Lee, Sara J. Settle, Shane Que Hee, Donatello scrutiny is a go-to move of liable parties in chemical Hyperphosphorylation and Polymerization of Tau Telesca, Xia Yang, and Patrick Allard, “Exposure to controversies. It is perhaps unsurprising that at the Protein Both in Vitro and in Vivo,” Biochimica et the BPA-Substitute Bisphenol S Causes Unique time of his oral history Clay worked as the Director Biophysica Acta 1830, no. 8 (August 2013): 4102– Alterations of Germline Function,” PLOS Genetics of Environmental and Regulatory Afairs at Koch 4116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2013.04.028; 12, no. 7 (July 29, 2016): e1006223, https://doi. Industries Inc. which owns Georgia-Pacific a top Tulpule and Dringen, “Formaldehyde in Brain.” org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006223. formaldehyde producer. While employed by Koch he sat on the EPA Clean Air Act Advisory Committee 10. Embalming is a practice that is most commonly 19. Alissa Cordner, Toxic Safety: Flame Retardants, for more than a decade (1998–2009). practiced in North America (Jessica Mitford, Chemical Controversies, and Environmental Health “Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain,” in The (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016). 32. Gorsuch and some twenty EPA ofcials American Way of Death Revisited [New York: were pressured to resign in 1983; the “dubious Alfred A. Knopf, 1998], 466–473). To take a brief 20. Z. Wang, J. C. DeWitt, C. P. Higgins, and formaldehyde risk analysis” was one of number of darker plunge, when looking at the constituents I. T. Cousins, “A Never-Ending Story of Per- controversies. See Mark R. Powell, Science at EPA: of ordinary American atmospheres, embalming in and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)?,” Information in the Regulatory Process (Washington, formaldehyde seems like the only honest way to Environmental Science and Technology 51, no. DC: RFF Press, 1999), 30. Cf. Sheila Jasanof, The go. Death is a swaying in the balance of agency 5 (March 2017): 2511, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs. Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers in the human body that is always a multispecies est.6b04806. Thanks to Evan Hepler-Smith for (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), afair—formaldehyde is an intervention into that pointing me to this article. for full history of the early days of the EPA’s changing of the guard, the changing of substance, formaldehyde review. the debasing of forms. 21. Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas, eds., Powerless Science? Science and Politics in a Toxic World (New 33. CSC, “An Update on Formaldehyde,” US York: Berghahn Books, 2014). Consumer Safety Commission, Washington, DC, 1997, 4.

160 Nicholas Shapiro 161 361, no. 6398 (2018): 6398 (2018): no. 361, Science Geophysical Research Research Geophysical 4, https://doi. 25-4, 1– 19 (2002): 25- no. 29, “Assessment of Methane Emissions from the U.S. Oil Oil U.S. the from Emissions Methane of “Assessment Chain,” and Gas Supply This https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar7204. 188, – 186 hasAs methane time horizon. a twenty-year is for contribution gas greenhouse greater times many a atmospheric shorter a but dioxide carbon than 31 to drops years twenty at equivalency this half-life, horizon. time a hundred-year over percent Streets, G. D. Field, D. B. Jacob, J. D. Fiore, M. A. 46. “Linking Ozone Jang, and C. Fernandes, D. S. Case for The Change: and Climate Pollution Methane,” Controlling Letters 015601. 2002GL org/10.1029/ McKenna Bill and Illari, Lodovica Flierl, Glenn 47. and Atmospheric Earth, of Department the of Institute Massachusetts the Sciences at Planetary Tomas artist with collaboration in Technology of balloon solar a developing been have Saraceno The data. wind global utilizing visualization trajectory float.aerocene.org. at can be found prototype current 44. I should note that Moe does not claim that his that claim does not Moe that note I should 44. thermodynamics architectural of readings larger I am pollution. air indoor for a panacea will be this story. into his work reading T. D. Lyon, R. D. Zavala-Araiza, D. Alvarez, A. R. 45. Hamburg, P. S. and … Brandt R. A. Barkley, R. Z. Allen, Public Public Osgoode Hall Law Law Osgoode Hall , forthcoming; Teresa Teresa forthcoming; , 46, no. 2 (September 3, 2008): 293–343. 2008): 3, 2 (September no. 46, 539, –539, 519 2016): 1, 3 (September no. 28, Pollution Is Colonialism Is Pollution Violence on the Ground, “Violence Montoya, Anthropology,” the Ground—Cultural below https://culanth. 2018, 15, accessed December org/fieldsights/1018-violence-on-the-ground- Scott, Nadine Dayna violence-below-the-ground; Socio-Legal A Pollution: Chronic “Confronting and Precaution,” Risk of Analysis Journal “Is Alan Schlottmann, Boehm and Thomas P. 42. for Alternative a Good Housing Manufactured American the from Evidence Families? Low-Income and Housing of US Department Survey,” Housing Development Policy Ofce of Development Urban 2. 2004, December and Research, “The Todd, M. and Richard Johnson Kevin 43. American to Loans Home Manufactured for Market in Indian Borrowers Native Alaska Indian and for Center Concentrated,” Highly Remains Country In 2017. 1, December Development, Indian Country the advocating I am not making these statements orts f as those e lands, reservation of privatizing and ongoing common with earlier much in have lands. indigenous steal orts to f e 40. Shannon Cram, “Living in Dose: Nuclear Work Work Dose: Nuclear “Living in Cram, Shannon 40. Exposure,” Permissible of Politics and the Culture Liboiron, -3511526; https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363 Politics.” “Toxic Calvillo, and Tironi, Liboiron, Max volume); (in this Winona LaDuke 41. Hazards Hazards , 87. The 87. , Sick Building Sick (Chapel Hill: University of North North of Hill: University (Chapel be subject to neurological, dermatological, or or dermatological, neurological, be subject to times be many likely ects would f e pulmonary than these figures. higher location of monitoring advanced by the regulation. by advanced monitoring of location “Proposed Board, Resources Air California 37. Reduce to Measure Control Toxic Airborne 20. Emissions,” Formaldehyde ES-6. Ibid., 38. still individuals who would of The number 39. by the hope that would depoliticize and therefore and therefore depoliticize would the hope that by Sellers, C. C. science. their professionalize Environmental to Disease Industrial From Job: the of Science Health 186; Murphy, – 141 1999), Press, Carolina Uncertainty of Problem and the Syndrome site as the preferred the chamber of valorization in the type and force is a discursive assessment of Formaldehyde Emissions from Composite Wood Wood Composite from Emissions Formaldehyde 2007. 9, March Products,” Exposure.” “Un-Knowing Shapiro, 35. a move is in line with approach chamber The 36. the of the messiness from hygiene in industrial been has a shift that lab, the of purity the field to is fueled that and one a century almost for afoot 34. California Air Resources Board, “Proposed “Proposed Board, Resources Air California 34. Reduce to Measure Control Toxic Airborne To See or Not to See? Dilemmas in Imaging and Intelligence George Barbastathis

Our eyes, for those of us who are sighted, produce vivid impres- changed back into a physical representation before it reaches my sions of things around us. We see shapes, colors, shades, and gaze. I am not seeing my friend’s party, but rather a mediated repre- movements. We experience emotions and desires—afection, sentation resulting from these processes of conversion. disgust, hunger, and arousal—because of what we see. But we also Let us assume that people like me—scientists and engi- know not completely to trust our vision. We may perceive bicycle neers who design imaging systems—have the best of intentions. wheels rotating backward, flickering presences under strobe Even then, it is fair to ask: as images go through various transfor- lights, and mirages on hot days in the desert. Such perceptions mations, are the final mediated results always faithful to the origi- present to us phenomena that are not physically, objectively nating physical processes? And if image makers go rogue, how far there, in and of themselves, yet we perceive them just as vividly can they go in misrepresenting the imprint of the physical world? as if they were. How shall we understand such images? And, I have composed a diagram (see figure 4.6.1) to help us to how, additionally, shall we think of things that are there—and that think about these matters. It shows four diferent ways that medi- should be available to normative eyesight—but that we cannot ated representations can interfere with the impress of the physical see because they are somehow concealed, because of angles of world upon perception. The first three are elaborated upon in this light, of tricks of mirroring, and more? chapter. The technological means for the transformations may be These questions are complicated enough even if we define as elementary as a one-way mirror or distorting lens or as elabo- vision as a job for our eyes and brains alone. But in contemporary rate as a set of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms or a physical life, many of us receive visual inputs mediated through instruments: protocol for optical cloaking. cameras, microscopes, televisions, and computers. A picture of my Concealing: removing a physical representation from the friend’s party on Instagram, for example, has been registered by accessible range of an instrument of optical relay or reproduction, the digital camera on her smartphone, then stored as an electronic rendering objects that would ordinarily be visible invisible. My memory in her computer (or, more likely, on the Cloud), then trans- research group at MIT’s SMART Labs in Singapore demonstrated mitted, and finally displayed on my own smartphone’s light-modulat- such a concealing device, called an optical cloak, using two pieces ing screen. To put it in more technical language, the physical signal of calcite crystal glued together.1 representing my friend’s party has been converted to an electronic Revealing: bringing a physical representation back signal, abstracted into a mathematical representation, and then within the accessible range of an instrument of optical relay or

Figure 4.6.1: Modes of appearance: concealed, revealed, hallucinated, conjured, along with how the modes are arrived at depending on the presence or absence of physical objects, their mediation, and the continuum between the objects’ visibility or invisibility.

162 George Barbastathis

- 10 - - and 163 11 and Pendry 9 The Invisible Man Man The Invisible 1. Concealing 1. . In 2006, two British and two American scientists American scientists British and two two In 2006, . It is based on the fact that, if one designed a medium such if that, is based on the fact It The experimental realization of the carpet cloak, shown shown cloak, the carpet of realization The experimental So it seems that, as long as light reaches a scene, visibility visibility a scene, reaches as long as light So it seems that, Two ways of achieving that result, one according to the orig in 2011. In this case, the path of the rays going through the assembly of of the assembly going through the rays of the path In this case, in 2011. 8 12 Harry Potter glued together. (Calcite is a purified form of beach sand.) beach of is a purified form (Calcite glued together. in figure 4.6.4, shows the efect as well its limitations: the cloak tons,” impacting objects exposed to the light. Upon impact on any on any impact Upon the light. to objects exposed impacting tons,” the photons leaf, a tree of the tip say in an object, point particular a pool game. of the beginning happens at what to similar scatter, balls colored and the tip, ball as the leaf billiard the white of Think When collision. of as a result in all directions spreading as photons, (cornea, the optics eyes, our reach photons, aka balls, the billiard on the tip is formed the leaf an image of and them, focus lens) eye point other every for less, or more is the same, The process retina. see. we this is how tree; on the entire and on the leaf, an object “cloak,” or conceal, wish to we if But what is inevitable. many of the imagination has captured This concept person? or from makers, and movie science fiction writers to and published back-to-back had an insight simultaneously almost into making this fantasy of way out a scientific pointing papers reality. than being scattered the object rather around “slide” photons that become invisible. object would the it, by principle “carpet” modified slightly a with one and papers 2006 inal illustrated are 2011, in back to back also published mirror, a involving optical special requires method 2006 The 4.6.3. and 4.6.2 figures in The trajectories. curved into rays light bend can that materials way, and cheaper simpler in a can be implemented cloak carpet and way specific a in oriented crystal calcite of pieces two using The science of seeing appears deceptively simple. Vision origi simple. deceptively appears seeing of The science Think “scattering.” called waves light of a basic behavior from nates “pho called balls, billiard tiny of as an incoming flux sunlight of Pendry been reflected had they the rays of the path pieces replicates crystal calcite two objects Thus, the device. of the bottom placed at mirror a simple planar by were the calcite as if invisible, rendered are region placed in the gray-shaded as well. region filling that a under cloaked is partially note Post-It piece of rolled-up A (right): 4.6.4 Figure a mirror like and appears yellow in is marked region The cloaked “carpet.” calcite the to perpendicular a direction from (Seen piece. the calcite of the bottom at 4.6.3.) figure of orientation in 2006. An observer on the right-hand side receives a parallel ray bundle, bundle, ray a parallel side receives on the right-hand An observer in 2006. seemingly undisturbed by the cloaked region Therefore,shaded any gray. objects placed in this region are rendered invisible, as if the cloaked region were empty space. Zhang Baile by proposed cloak The carpet bottom): (left 4.6.3 Figure Figure 4.6.2 (left Thetop): original cloak proposed by Leonhard - - -

4 5 . This is a contentious topic, because topic, This is a contentious . In my labs at MIT and SMART we have been have we and SMART MIT at labs In my 2 reality anything seems possible. anything even when the illumination is so weak that to the ordinary ordinary the to that is so weak when the illumination even In an age when the likeness of Obama can be seamlessly Obama can be seamlessly of In an age when the likeness 7 3 6 Note that I have carefully avoided characterizing physical physical characterizing avoided carefully I have that Note Conjuring: deliberately creating a hallucination, in order to to in order a hallucination, creating Conjuring: deliberately Hallucinating: unintentionally generating a false represen a false generating unintentionally Hallucinating: the observations, clearly a model is not going to resolve it. Instead, Instead, it. resolve going to is not a model clearly the observations, has sought since Galileo and Newton, empirical science, what checks, sanity theories, methods, edifice of is a self-consistent I will declare satisfactory, entirely While not and self-corrections. the and revisit on, carry be good enough to to self-consistency I conclude. before matter fanities, as representations and physical reality, of on a definition is no consensus even there scientific all, After one. in providing helpful very not sciences are on based explanations logical models built by just are explanations origin of about the deeper dispute is any there If observations. instead falsely reveal familiar objects. familiar reveal falsely instead frightening, or be entertaining may The results audiences. deceive Deep Google’s example, for view; of point depending on one’s Dream. him shouting pro have might videos that “Deepfake” into edited tation of the physical scene. AI approaches, like the one we used to used to one we the like AI approaches, scene. the physical of tation exam For this artifact. to prone often are objects, invisible reveal that discovered own) our later (and Japan in group a research ple, the difusing medium objects hidden behind reveal AI trying to an AI When the hallucinations. generated glass sometimes frosted of the machine may hidden objects, on unfamiliar algorithm is tested ordinarily penetrate. ordinarily viewed be ordinarily not may which “phase objects,” on working engines built using special computational with Yet visible light. with objects on a computer invisible such can reveal we AI principles, screen, darkness. as total be perceived it would human observer reproduction, when ordinarily it would not be. X-ray images do do images X-ray be. not it would ordinarily when reproduction, cannot visible light where body the human of the interior for that device itself is inescapably visible; and it only works in one orien- trying to conceal earlier; but phase objects do not leave the light tation: if one were to rotate the device by 90 degrees, the cloaked intact either. They delay it. region would be revealed. However, it illustrates how a relatively Such a phase delay cannot be detected by our eyes, simple manipulation of light physics may frustrate the interpreta- because it is of the order of 2 × 10−15 sec, i.e. two millionths of a tion of a scene. Moreover, it is worth noting that this is not a magi- billionth of a second. The first optical instrument to convert phase cal trick relying on the limitations of observers’ senses to deceive delay to brightness and thus reveal13 phase objects was Frits them: a scientific instrument replacing the human observer Zernike’s 1942 “phase-contrast” microscope, for which he won the would have been similarly unable to detect the presence of the Nobel prize in 1953.14 The principle is shown in figure 4.6.5 for one cloaked region. of the simplest phase objects, a glass prism. The prism delays the light a little at the sharp edge, and most at the thickest side; its 2. Revealing phase image is a grayscale gradient, from maximum darkness at the minimum delay end to maximum brightness at the maximum Might there be classes of objects for which invisibility is the default delay end. The phase image is similar to a conventional photo- state? Actually, such objects are all around us. When I look at my graph: it can be seen with the naked eye or registered by a digital window, I see through the glass the buildings across the street, camera. However, it is monochrome because there is only one and perhaps I see evidence of the glass’s presence because of quantity being displayed, the phase delay.15 dust or rain droplets on it; but I do not see the glass itself. When I Nowadays, my research community avails itself of look at my friend’s eyes through his eyeglasses, I may notice their advanced physics techniques, such as holography,16 and compu- efect—if he’s nearsighted, my friend’s eyes when seen through his tation, neither of which had been available to Zernike, to develop eyeglasses will appear to be somewhat smaller than their actual instruments that can image phase objects with much higher quan- size—but I don’t see glass of the eyeglasses themselves. (I do see titative accuracy and precision.17 This is useful for many scientific the frames, of course.) studies, for example in biology: most biological cells are transpar- Window glass and eyeglasses belong to the class of ent, i.e., they are phase objects. Revealing them provides useful “phase objects.” Because they are transparent, phase objects information about their shape, nuclear density, etc. The general do not scatter light in the same way as the tree leaf we had been approach goes like this:

Figure 4.6.5 (left): Revealing a simple invisible object: a prism and its phase image.

Figure 4.6.6 (right top): Revealing a more complicated invisible object, mimicking the contours of a person’s face. The bottom left is phase delay, so it would not be visible to unaided human eyes or a digital camera; the brightness visible in the ﬁgure represents phase delay, a more complicated pattern than the prism of ﬁgure 4.6.5. Concerted transformations by physical and computational action convert it to a phase image, which is visible like any conventional photograph.

Figure 4.6.7 (right bottom): Transforming modes of appearance to reveal a phase object, as in ﬁgure 4.6.6 but now a bell instead of a face. The red arrow is executed physically, i.e., using laser light in the laboratory, whereas the green arrow is executed computationally using an AI algorithm.

164 George Barbastathis - in - - 20 - 165 Similar is Similar 21 3. Hallucinating 3. The last example of revealing phase objects from noise is noise is from phase objects revealing of example The last these materials in tissue aggregate into structures of the size of a of the size of structures into in tissue aggregate these materials not scatter to waves causing light visible light, of wavelengths few but multiple times. section 1, of example as in our once, glass and frosted suspended in air, droplets the water to due fog ordi an object that If glass surface. the of the roughness due to medium, fuse” “di visible is placed behind such a be would narily the scrambles as it passes through the light of multiple scattering the object invisible. rendering thereby image, raw and incomplete, but it points PhENN into an eventual revelation of of revelation an eventual into PhENN but it points and incomplete, quality. much higher sensi often Biological samples are curiosity. a scientific just not may the samples overexposed, if illumination; of level the to tive results. changes with destructive genetic chemical or undergo community research in the interest strong moreover, is, There X-rays normally This is because phase objects. imaging of X-ray promi most structure skeletal calcium in the body, reveal only on imparts phase delay only hand, on the other tissue, Soft nently. tissue soft concerned, are X-rays as as far words, other X-rays—in early-stage especially diseases, certain object! For is an invisible If come from. the indications tissue that soft it is exactly cancer, it may then but by X-rays, visible to it becomes calcifies, the tumor tumors these invisible revealing Thus, the patient. for late be too be not it would the same time, At medical diagnosis. is crucial for of amounts large to patients the exposing do so by to acceptable visible applied at was though PhENN Even radiation. X-ray harmful be straightfor should X-rays to extension its future wavelengths, this problem. address to way and a good ward sugars, water, of composed mostly tissue—flesh—is soft Human visible wavelengths. at all transparent are These materials and fat. is that The reason bones? our to see through we then can’t Why for invisible objects. We found that, as originally trained, PhENN PhENN trained, as originally that, found We objects. invisible for better even it can do dark; but in the objects invisible can recover comparison The in the training. physics from “hints” include we if on transformations of and the sequence 4.6.8 in figure is shown noisy is itself hint physics The 4.6.9. in figure appearance mode of - -

- - - 19 and is referred to to and is referred 18 PhENN turns out to be robust to noise in the raw image, image, noise in the raw to be robust turns out to PhENN In fact, the computational transform used in the demonstra transform the computational In fact, The computational imaging procedure for a phase object is a for procedure imaging The computational reveals the object. the reveals intermediate “raw image” registered on a digital camera; and a digital camera; on registered image” “raw intermediate 2) transfer the raw image to a computer for processing, which which processing, for a computer to image raw the 2) transfer 1) design a physical transformation to convert the light to an an to light the convert to transformation physical a design 1) as happens when the available light is limited. We know from from know We is limited. light as happens when the available with a room in a dark when snapping photos that, experience objects for these are grainy—and appear the pictures smartphone, visible. been have conditions would normal lighting under that conditions darker even under operate to challenged PhENN We the relationship into an AI algorithm nicknamed PhENN (for “phase (for AI algorithm nicknamed PhENN an into the relationship was PhENN complete, was training After network”). neural extraction the and reveal system a physical image from the raw receive able to phase for even 4.6.7, in figure as shown phase object, corresponding during its training. encountered objects it had never shown in figure 4.6.7. Note that the revealed image is not perfect: perfect: image is not the revealed that Note 4.6.7. in figure shown the because of This is inevitable, been lost. have some details the physical of and limitations in the measurement noise present transforms. and computational known of thousands used We AI. of form a was 4.6.6 figure of tion “train” images to raw corresponding and their phase objects of pairs naked eye as well as to a digital camera. The propagation of light light of The propagation a digital camera. as to as well eye naked the where image, the raw producing transformation is the physical see we what however, Clearly, revealed. object has been partially further A satisfactory. nor informative is neither image in the raw the reve completes computer, by performed now transformation, is appearance in mode of transformations of The sequence lation. illustrated in figure 4.6.6. Physically, such an object could be imple such an object Physically, 4.6.6. in figure illustrated one surface onto etched the features as a glass slide with mented see not one would the glass slide, at Looking variations. as height illumi we if however, the etchings; of evidence faint much beyond dis some propagation after beam, glass slide with a laser the nate the visible to now variations, actual brightness observe tance we This chain of transformations is more generally applicable beyond beyond applicable generally is more transformations of This chain tomography, computed for e.g., phase objects, imaging.” “computational as Figure 4.6.8: PhENN, with and without physics hints, at ample light and dark conditions. Clearly, without Clearly, conditions. and dark ample light at hints, with and without physics PhENN, 4.6.8: Figure much less detail. reveals PhENN hints, physics Figure 4.6.9: Transforming modes of appearance to reveal a phase object in Figure 4.6.10: IDifNet attempting to reveal objects rendered invisible by a the dark. The sequence of transformations is the same as in figure 4.6.7 but the glass difuser, and not always succeeding. Note that the raw images look like intermediate raw image mode is even less informative. salt-and-pepper, somewhat reminiscent of the PhENN case in figures 4.6.8–9. However, the physical origin of the salt-and-pepper signal here is diferent, as is its mathematical description.

This is the most difcult of all revelation challenges; many 4. Some Concluding Provocations25 research groups around the world, including my own, are working to alter this assessment, but as of this writing it remains fair. The scientific construct not only is good in explaining many The machinery of computational imaging, including AI, has been physical phenomena that we experience; it also provides mecha- applied but with mixed results, as can be seen in figure 4.6.10. nisms for predicting and inquiring whether phenomena might exist Here we trained a deep neural network called IDifNet with pairs of that ordinary humans never experience, leading to experiments known objects and their difuse images through frosted glass. We attempting to reconstruct these phenomena, prove or disprove then tested IDifNet with previously unseen objects through the the relevant piece of the construct, and on and on; this process same strong difuser.22 is called scientific discovery. The LIGO experiment is a spectac- We trained one IDifNet with Chinese characters and tested ular example of a construct in action: a gravitational wave is by it again with Chinese characters disjoint from the training ones. far unlike anything an ordinary human might experience, yet an The revelations of the unknown characters were imperfect but extraordinary instrument proved it to be consistent with the logical still discernible. We then trained a diferent IDifNet with faces and construct of Einstein’s general relativity theory from almost one discovered that if we tested it with a diferent class of objects, e.g., hundred years ago. cars, it would still see faces. In other words, it was hallucinating. I will use the scientific edifice to bypass the difculty of Similar efects were reported by another group before us, using a whether a reality exists for an imaging system to represent. I will diferent AI architecture.23 take the position that for me, and for the generic imaging scientist Explaining this phenomenon requires taking into account or engineer, it is good enough to check the fidelity of images that I the complexity of the invisible objects. Chinese characters are produce against the corresponding objects’ consistencies within composed of relatively simple shapes combined through dis- the construct. Another term for this approach is the existence crete strokes; this makes the characters sparse, as very few of “ground truth.” For example, let’s say that I have designed an pixels have content whereas the rest are zero. Scrambling by the optical instrument to look at microscopic objects that an ordinary difuser “encodes” the object information into the salt-and-pep- microscope couldn’t resolve. How can I trust the images from my per signal. An IDifNet trained exclusively on Chinese characters instrument? I can use another instrument with proven higher fidel- can manage to learn this encoding and decode the strokes from ity, say an electron microscope, to look at the same microscopic salt-and-pepper. objects and compare the images. If the images from the two Faces, on the other hand, are not sparse.24 In the picture of instruments are similar within a certain margin, I will declare my a face, almost all of the pixels are simultaneously turned on with new optical instrument a success.26 Even when there is no ground grayscale values following complex patterns that define features: truth because no alternative instrument exists to observe the same eyes, nose, mouth, hairline etc. The encoding into salt-and-pep- phenomenon, as is the case for LIGO for example, then the mea- per now becomes so complicated that the neural network can no surement is to be trusted as long as it agrees with the remaining longer learn it except for the narrow class of objects it was trained edifice of logical consistencies and predictions. The image is in the to—the faces, in this case. Even when the encoding is one of a car, eye of the beholder. But “eyes,” in the age of new kinds of optical the neural network reveals a face. and photographic mediation, fresh sorts of computational imagining, and novel projects in physical cloaking, are ever-changing material things and networks.

166 George Barbastathis Being 167 and for their patient commenting and commenting patient their and for members Zhang Zhengyun, Alexandre Goy, Maciej Maciej Goy, Alexandre Zhang Zhengyun, members Arthur, and Kwabena Deng Mo, LiShuai, Baranski, particular members—in group former and all my AI: into foray recent on our those who worked into foray older Sinha; and our Ayan and Lee Justin Xiaogang and Liu Yuan, Luo cloaking: Zhang Baile, intellectual of source been a constant (Larry)—have Mentors, and sparring. stimulation, inspiration, Demetri in particular and friends, colleagues, Hui Shen Zuowei, Situ Guohai, Brady, David Psaltis, Lanza, (Dick) Richard Gupta, Rajiv Berthold Horn, Ji, my influenced Akinwande, (Tayo) Akintunde and machine learning of thinking about the intersection in everything imaging; pitfalls with computational This research all mine. course, of are, said here I’ve Research Advanced Intelligence the funded by was project the RAVEN through (USA) Activity Projects (Singapore) Foundation Research and the National Research Alliance for Singapore-MIT the through Centre. (SMART) Technology and Acknowledgments Uchill, Rebecca Helmreich, Stefan to I am grateful in me involving for Boucher and Marie-Pier Material delayed, and always multiple, editing through group current My this manuscript. of versions 20 62 Optics Letters Letters Optics Optics Letters Letters Optics 261; 258– 2 (2006): Optics Letters Letters Optics Physical Review Review Physical Physical Review Letters Letters Review Physical Nature Physics Physics Nature 2538; Stefan W. Hell and Hell W. 2538; Stefan 2535– 62 (1989): for Chemistry. William Esco Moerner and Lothar and Lothar Moerner William Esco Chemistry. for of and Spectroscopy Detection “Optical Kador, in a Solid,” Single Molecules Letters Resolution the Difraction “Breaking Wichmann, Jan Stimulated-Emission- Emission: Stimulated Limit by Microscopy,” Fluorescence Depletion Method “Proposed Betzig, Eric 782; – 780 19 (1994): Imaging,” Optical Molecular for B. Andrew Dickson, M. 239; Robert – (1995): 237 Moerner, William Esco and Tsien, Y. Roger Cubitt, Single of Behaviour Blinking and Switching “On/Of in a Solid,” Molecule 2538. 2535– (1989): is itself here The comparison proposed 26. contentious.An image is a multidimensional representation, for example a 1M pixel image may live in a space consisting of anything between a few thousand and exactly 1,048,576 dimensions; yet comparisons can only be made between scalars (single-dimensional numbers).What’s the best way to convert two thousand-dimensional images into two respective scalars soyou can compare them? Maddeningly, diferent ways to convert lead to diferent results in the comparison. on which agreement is no universal There conversion methods are better than others, and the purpose for which the images are intended to be used influences the choice: for instance, if the images are to be used for medical diagnosis, the way to compare them may be diferent than it would be for images of cars for a trade show. Ray Sources,” Sources,” -Ray X Haris Qin Miao, Petruccelli, C. Jonathan Tian, Lei Barbastathis, and George Nagarkar, Vivek Kudrolli, Based on Tomography Phase X-ray “Compressive Equation,” Intensity of Transport the –3421. 3418 38 (2013): tissue, soft by scattered multiply not are X-rays 21. times of thousands are wavelengths X-ray because tissue soft Thus, than the tissue structures. smaller earlier. saw as we X-rays, to is invisible “Imaging and Barbastathis, Sinha, Lee, Deng, Li, 22. Connected Densely Using Glass Difusers through Networks.” Convolutional “Learning-Based Tanida, and Takagi, Horisaki, 23. Media.” Scattering Imaging through correct becomes technically This statement 24. “in the qualification sparse” “not appending to by transformations Mathematical space.” native their objects such as faces; sparsify that do exist of the foundation at are such transformations sensing. compressed mediations, complicated more aside even Leave 25. looks happens when a scientist what e.g., individual molecules within biological cells at hundred than one smaller and microtubules, the human hair. of the cross-section thousandth of capable microscopes inventing ingeniously For Hell, Stefan Betzig, Eric things, seeing such tiny of Prize the 2014 Nobel shared William Moerner and 19. Technically, as low as one photon per pixel, pixel, per photon as one as low Technically, 19. energy times less one billion to corresponds which in daylight. taken photo than a and Bunk, Oliver Weitkamp, Tim er, f Pfei Franz 20. erential f and Di “Phase Retrieval David, Christian with Low-Brilliance Imaging Phase-Contrast ,

312 (2006): Physical Review Review Physical 1125. – 4 (2017): 1117 –32. 54 (2001): 27 Proceedings of the of Proceedings Science Optica Optica Physical Review Letters 986; Frits –986; Frits 9 (1942): 974 13743; Shuai Shuai 13743; 13738– (2016): 24 Computed Tomography: Physical Physical Tomography: Computed Physics Today Today Physics Physica (1949): 454. (1949): 197 A 1780; John B. Pendry, Pendry, B. John 1780; – 1777 312 (2006): 121 (1955): 345–349. Opt. Express Express Opt. 121 (2018): 243902. 121 (2018): 161 (1948): 777; Dennis Gabor, “Microscopy “Microscopy 777; Dennis Gabor, 161 (1948): 5 (2018): 803–813. 5 (2018): 17. Keith Nugent, David Paganin, and Tim Gureyev, “A “A Tim Gureyev, and Paganin, David Nugent, Keith 17. Phase Odyssey,” Seeram, Euclid 18. and Quality Control Applications, Clinical Principles, 2016). Elsevier, York: (New 4th ed. 15. Whereas15. color pictures mix three quantities: the of and blue components green, the red, spectrum. color Principle,” Microscopic New “A Dennis Gabor, 16. Nature Wavefronts,” Reconstructed by Society Royal modes starker. Method a New “Phase Contrast, Zernike, Frits 14. Transparent of Observation the Microscopic for II,” Objects Part Phase Contrast,” I Discovered “How Zernike, Science 12. Pendry, Schurig, and Smith, “Controlling “Controlling and Smith, Schurig, Pendry, 12. Fields.” Electromagnetic the technical “revelation,” and “reveal” of Instead 13. are described here the operations for terms maintain We “reconstruction.” and “reconstruct” the make as they in this essay, terms the former and hallucination the concealment to contrast 1782. – 1780 Mapping.” Conformal “Optical Leonhardt, 9. “Controlling Smith, and Schurig, Pendry, 10. Fields.” Electromagnetic Mapping.” Conformal “Optical Leonhardt, 11. 6. https://deepdreamgenerator.com. 6. https://www.youtube.com/ 7. . 0 54GDm1eL watch?v=cQ 8. Ulf Leonhardt,“Optical Conformal Mapping,” Science David Schurig, and David R. Smith,“Controlling Fields,” Electromagnetic 5. Ryoichi Horisaki, Ryosuke Takagi, and Jun Tanida, Tanida, Jun and Takagi, Ryosuke Horisaki, Ryoichi 5. Scattering Imaging through “Learning-Based Media,” and George Sinha, Ayan Lee, Justin Deng, Mo Li, Glass Difusers “Imaging through Barbastathis, Networks,” Convolutional Connected Densely Using Optica 3. Ayan Sinha, Justin Lee, Shuai Li, and George and George Shuai Li, Lee, Justin Sinha, Ayan 3. Imaging Computational “Lensless Barbastathis, Deep Learning,” through and Shuai Li, Arthur, Kwabena Goy, Alexander 4. Countphase Photon “Low Barbastathis, George Deep Learning,” Using Retrieval Letters CloakVisible for Light,” 033901. 106 (2011): radiation; electromagnetic of a form are X-rays 2. the that except visible light, to similar are they thus, a by light visible than shorter are wavelengths X-ray instruments X-ray Thus, more. or ~10,000 of factor “optical.” as qualify used in hospitals ordinarily 1. 1. BaileXiaogang Luo, Zhang,Yuan Liu, and Invisibility “Macroscopic Barbastathis, George

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Tom Özden-Schilling

Nanoscientists often reflect on the technical feats required to “see” and instruments involved in nanoscience research also often the unseen.1 Along the eastern end of MIT’s Infinite Corridor, scan- pushes its proponents to collaborate in unexpected ways. For ning tunneling microscopes, nano-indenters, and other devices for Dresselhaus, establishing an immensely powerful (and to all but turning tiny things into pictures without the aid of visible light greet the most naive of undergraduates, visible) position within MIT onlookers like exotic specimens encased in a giant aquarium. did not mean celebrating the wonders of expensive machines As anyone who has spent significant time at the Institute should that only a very few scientists could access. Instead, she built up acknowledge, however, seeing the people who populate places much of her sense of meaning by tending to relationships outside like the Nano Lab, including the many scientists tacitly excluded the Institute. Returning to MIT to begin a PhD in anthropology from them, often requires a diferent kind of light, as well. During several years after learning who she was, I decided to introduce the time I spent as an undergraduate lab assistant on the third myself to Millie and to ask how she had come to form bonds with floor of Building 13, from 2003 to 2006, I became familiar with her many collaborators in the Global South, where work at the the sight of Mildred Dresselhaus’s diminutive form slowly walk- nanoscale still remains largely unseen. ing down the hallway to the elevator, usually wearing a colorful She told me then that she had traveled several times each sweater below her snow-colored braids. Though I then knew none year for nearly four decades to diferent parts of Brazil to meet of her many accomplishments, I later learned. By turning Raman scientists and learn about their work. Impressed with the work spectroscopy (a form of electromagnetic wave analysis, in which she encountered in the country, she began recruiting Brazilian atomic bonds are perturbed and observed using lasers) into a graduate students to visit her lab or to come to MIT to pursue their workable tool for seeing and working with carbon nanotubes, for degrees. While some of her early graduate students had gone instance, she and her collaborators helped to wrench nanoscience on to play powerful roles in the Brazilian federal government, away from theoretical physics and render it workable for inventors she saved most of her admiration for those who had started lab and engineers. In the half century she spent on the MIT faculty groups of their own. As we met, one of her earliest students, Sérgio between joining the Department of Physics in 1967 and her death Rezende, was then serving as the Brazilian federal government’s in 2017, Dresselhaus dramatically changed the way science—the Minister of Science. (“Surely you heard about him when you went combination of researchers (men and women), instrumentation, to Brazil, yes?” she politely inquired.) This wasn’t why Millie brought and objects of study—engages the nanoscale. him up, though. Upon returning to Brazil from MIT in the 1970s, Treating nanotechnology as a constantly transform- Rezende had left the prestige and professional safety of his home ing tangle of humans, specimens, and instruments is crucial in Rio de Janeiro to work in Recife, a poorer city of several million in for making sense of what—and who—gets seen into these the northeast of the country, where he eventually helped to estab- futures. In some ways, the unruliness of the tangle has opened lish a physics department that became one of the best in Brazil. up lines of sight to scientists often left unseen. As I tried to Other collaborators’ journeys were perhaps still more profound. show in my exploration of Angela Belcher’s research group in “Souza Filho was the first reader in his family,” Dresselhaus proudly “Interdigitation,” the perpetual restructuring of disciplinarity in remembered. Over time, the exchange became reciprocal: by the nano-oriented labs ofers fewer hiding places for the norms time we met in 2009, Dresselhaus was sending nearly all of her attending conventional laboratory hierarchies (although as Stefan students to spend at least a month working with one or another of Helmreich2 has argued, old ideas of sexuality, gender, and other her Brazilian collaborators, during which time she expected them social forms are always quick to colonize new spaces). Cyrus to design a project and collect enough data to publish a paper Mody3 has shrewdly argued, too, that the novelty of the ideas from their subsequent analysis. “When my students go down there, they expect fancy 1. Colin Milburn, Nanovision: Engineering the equipment like we have here,” she chuckled. Showing of expen- Future (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008); Natasha Myers, Rendering Life Molecular: Models, sive machines as MIT was so often wont to do, she suggested, did Modelers, and Excitable Matter (Durham: Duke a disservice to the scientists who were making do with diferent University Press, 2015). equipment. “They have to teach twice as much as we do,” she 2. Stefan Helmreich, Silicon Second Nature: complained, “and they have very little support structure.” Since Culturing Artificial Life in a Digital World (Berkeley: many Brazilian universities require distinctions of seniority for University of California Press, 2000). primary investigator status on large projects, intradepartmental 3. Cyrus Mody, Instrumental Community: Probe competition for titles is fierce. “It’s easier for them to collaborate Microscopy and the Path to Nanotechnology with me than with each other. We compete with the world, but they (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011). have to compete with each other. It’s not good.” The bonds that form through these exchanges, then, have been powerful for both groups. Visiting students from Recife get to take their own samples into the Nano Lab aquarium, producing pictures that may help them earn new positions back home. MIT PhDs get to watch as distant colleagues meet unimaginable demands, hopefully changing their own views on status and privilege in the process. Through the tangle, for a little while at least, small glimpses of lives’ futures in nano become visible. AUDIBLE

Introduction Evan Ziporyn On “Land”: Evan Ziporyn in conversation with Dewa Alit

Air Maya Beiser Magnetic Resonances Arnold Dreyblatt Born-Digital Musical Instruments Victor Gama Hey Exit: Every Recording of Gymnopédie 1 Brendan Landis Vessels: Being as Material Grace Leslie Musical Trojan Horse: Uncontrollable Sounds Paweł Romańczuk Gymnopédie Z (Erik Satie, arr. Ziporyn) Evan Ziporyn Introduction Evan Ziporyn

Sound indicates presence, literally. At the very least it indicates the the materials from which it was made, and of course the molecules presence of air molecules pushing against and receding from the bouncing around in it, that is, its hidden resonances, its acoustics. cilia in our ears. These inner ear fields of receptors vibrate and bend, Like a magician who reveals all the secrets only to make the trick little flags flapping in the microscopic wind, opening pores that acti- more magical, Lucier made it all manifest, gave the game away. He vate neural signals to the brain, which in turn understands that we’ve sat up all in night in Middletown, Connecticut, replicating Bose’s “heard something.” No air, no sound; nothing there, silence. The only process, recording “the sound of my speaking voice,” playing it possible exception for us as living beings might be what John Cage back “again and again,” knowing that a sonic trace of the room heard in the Harvard Anechoic Chamber in 1951: “The high one was would stick to his voice with each repetition, like motes, like dust, your nervous system in operation, the low one was your blood in cir- gradually thickening the parts of his voice’s sonic spectrum that culation.”1 Perhaps even these sounds would be inaudible if we were resonated, gradually obliterating those that didn’t. At the beginning living in a vacuum. But we don’t, we can’t, so “there is no such thing of the piece, all Lucier, no room; by the end, all room, no voice at all, as silence.”2 Sound means something is there, proximate, present. “with the possible exception of rhythm.” And just to make sure you Sound without an identifiable source equals mystery, possibly recognized the primacy of place, the primacy of presence: “I am danger. The wind, a distant howl, an echo from across a reverberant sitting in a room, diferent from the room you are in now.”8 valley—still a presence, but an invisible, uncanny one.3 Sounds surround us, saturate us, the sound of the natural Over time we canned the uncanny, tamed the echo, built it world itself often drowned out by the appliances that warm our into our concert halls, and eventually sent sound engineers around bodies, chill our food, regulate our humidity. Peal that layer back, the world, dropping pins in many of them, and in caves, cisterns, open the window, and be most likely greeted by the sounds of and, yes, reverberant valleys, to generate impulse responses.4 We other machines—car motors, garbage trucks, lawnmowers, sirens, then packaged those to sell back to one another as Convolution passing planes. Luigi Russolo encouraged a full embrace of this Reverb Plug-Ins for our Audio DAWs. The single most important in 1913: his L’arte dei rumori (generally translated as “The Art of attribute in sound reproduction is “fidelity”—faithfulness to the orig- Noises,” though literally “The Art of Sounds”), an interventionist inally present sound, which had at some particular moment in time manifesto, prescribed making a music of “trolleys, autos and other excited the diaphragm of a microphone, which in turn sent electrical vehicles” (also, presciently but more alarmingly for 1913, “gunshoot- signals to be etched onto wax cylinders or vinyl discs, or to reorient ing … ammunition-wagons … copper plates knocking against each the oxide particles on magnetic tape, or to be encoded digitally onto other … Bulgarian battalions … flames flames flames flames flames hard drives.5 The presence of a sound source became immaterial.6 flames …”). We collectively followed that advice, all too well, overtly The uncanny sonic valley was traversed in 1969, when com- and covertly. Just as prior centuries had taken the world’s endless poser Alvin Lucier got wind of work being done by MIT Professor variety of modal systems and regimented them into equal-tem- Amar Bose.7 Bose was testing the fidelity of his speakers by using perament tonality, so the late twentieth century took our innate them to play back sounds he had recorded in the same room, love of musical repetition, born out of our own bodies (heartbeat, rerecording, and repeating the process. Lucier realized there was breath, walking, dancing), and made it mandatory, machine-like another aspect of the operation, another presence mediating the and machine-controlled (via click track, a diferent kind of hidden sound’s generation and capture. That mediating agent, that hidden presence in most recorded music). Russolo advised us to “rejoice” presence, was the material reality of the room itself, its dimensions, in the noise-sounds of electricity, and we did just that, harnessing

Figure 5.1.1: John Cage (1990), the Festival des Hörens, Erlangen. Photo by Erich Malter. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust.

172 Evan Ziporyn - - - . - - (New York: York: (New 173 [emphasis [emphasis , trans. Robert Robert trans. , Gymnopédie allows you you allows The Soundscape: Our Sonic The Soundscape: Our The Art of Noise Art of The and Satie’s first first and Satie’s Having successfully distilled sound sound distilled successfully Having 11 10. R. Murray Schafer, Schafer, Murray R. 10. World the of Tuning and the Environment 1977). Knopf, https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/ 11. speakers/portable_speakers/soundwear- companion.html?mc=25_PS_WC_BO_DT_GO& 3OH7LO 7IDiBRCLARIsABIPohh gclid=Cj0KCQiA -36d9kBx- 4Ux8EBQNbEFgLZm6 j13DnjOTeMLx n9tZlQeVEaAnfJEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds. 9. Luigi Russolo, Russolo, Luigi 9. 6-8. 2004), Filliou (Ubu Press, , is a live, entirely acoustic remix of Brendan’s elec Brendan’s of remix acoustic entirely is a live, , Air on the G String Air Experience Grace Leslie and Arnold Dreyblatt reclaim the human body the human body reclaim Arnold Dreyblatt and Leslie Grace It can be argued that every person living today who today living person every that be argued can It this of section “Audible” the in represented musicians The (Durham: Duke (Durham: Duke as musical instrument, using the very tools we use to objectify and objectify to use we tools very using the as musical instrument, to and in doing so bring music back and MRIs, EEGs it, measure ł and Pawe Gama, Victor Alit, Dewa roots. and somatic its neural on instru and perform compose for, build, design, ńczuk Roma these of the severance re-fusing invention, own their of ments sound and source. and reconnecting practices, creative entwined in traditional rooted are ways, erent dif very each in musics, Their in and refocused recast and Poland, Angola, Bali, from practices and to evolve to continue living traditions us that remind that ways Landis use digital technol and Brendan Beiser Maya be relevant. the western of standardbearers two and rehear reframe to ogy Bach’s canon, and their digital production of tools musicians use standard Both to which, distance types of create capabilities to expressive own these to intimacy closer of feelings engender paradoxically me, contribution, own My artifacts. cultural familiar extremely already Gymnopédie Z Orchestra Ambient the eighty-piece by performed marvel, tronic on guitar. himself with Brendan program, not stifle their cough, or dare to clap between movements, movements, clap between to dare or cough, their stifle not program, anechoic the in epiphany his after year a 1952, Cage—in John until proceedings the stop and start to had simply he chamber—realized at precise times to make the silence theitself lack (or thereof) the Professor the late by the Bose Corporation—founded As for music. writing is the Soundwear this as of product recent Bose—its most “that audio system a wearable Companion, surroundings,” your as well music as your with be present added] to out shut and headphones on slap to want always don’t “you because everything else aroundyou.” (as music) out of its environment, we can now pay for the it. I want privilege wish list. on my but it’s , f I sco putting it back. of is out what is also engaged with teasing engages with music as a passive, or ort can be active f The e is not. what from material the other, or One way bystander. innocent even or listener, maker, erent dif at answers erent with dif time, choosing—in real all are we part what and it matters part of places—what erent times and in dif immaterial. simply, it is, of and perform designers, builders, instrument book—composers, and thought-pro in conscious all engaging with materiality ers—are music their and themselves positioned have They ways. voking commandeering above: described space liminal the in somewhere the mediate that technologies music—the of materials new the on themselves. them back folding medium itself—and Medieval cathedrals used to contain cacophonies, with liturgical liturgical with cacophonies, contain to used cathedrals Medieval the to migrated we Slowly many. sound among being one music hall, concert the modern of room prayer silent and sacrosanct classical of condition necessary the as isolation sound fetishizing their rustle who might anyone shush-shaming music performance, (New York: Faber and Faber York: (New , 2014, musical score. musical score. 2014, , The Audible Past: Cultural Cultural Past: Audible The Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural Aural An Sound Forever: Perfecting I Am Sitting in a Room: For Voice and Voice For Am Sitting in a Room: I We channeled We 6. Jonathan Sterne, Sterne, Jonathan 6. Sound Reproduction Origins of 2003). Press, University in “Mediating,” Uchill, See Rebecca 7. 51. 2016), Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, Lucier, Alvin 8. Tape Electromagnetic 5. Greg Milner, Milner, Greg 5. Music Recorded History of 2009). Faber, 9 often includes music often 10 (Cambridge, MA: The Soundscape of Modernity: (London: Continuum, 2010). Continuum, (London: Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship The Mediumship Resonance: Sinister A Year from Monday: New Lectures Lectures New Monday: from Year A (London: Calder and Boyars, 1963), 134. 1963), and Boyars, Calder (London: The overused term “soundscape” term The overused , the Burlington Winter Farmers Market, and many places and many Market, Farmers Winter the Burlington , 4. Emily Thompson, Thompson, Emily 4. ArchitecturalAcoustics and the Culture of 1900–1933 America, in Listening 2002). Press, MIT 1. John Cage, Cage, John 1. Writings and Ibid. 2. Toop, David 3. the Listener of the tumult of the agora, a tradition still upheld at the Balinese upheld at still a tradition the agora, the tumult of odalan art, our and frame isolate to us tend of But many in between. it isn’t. it is and what what between erentiate can dif so we simply twenty-first-century technology: phone, tablet, computer, several several computer, tablet, phone, technology: twenty-first-century cassette minidisk, CD player, in the drawer, iPod of generations In an “consumables.” my for just And those are turntable. deck, without irony, the sentence, wrote I actually today, email earlier music these days?” for system delivery preferred your is “what part of sounds, “real-world” of making among the panoply proximate air molecules. Now it needs to be mediated, of course course of be mediated, it needs to Now molecules. air proximate possibly one another, of music within earshot make people still is performance live but before, than ever more as much as or overwhelmed but it’s there, music: it’s of House Up the Seattle eight least at by I sit surrounded this, As I write quantity. sheer by and twentieth- of a history devices, sound-generating erent dif the dronings of our refrigerators and fish tanks. refrigerators our of the dronings the compressed we and distortion; fuzz tones warm them into electronic amenable to bandwidths more into sounds themselves the had been the medium, music itself Traditionally, conveyance. the instrument— of voice, the The sound—of system. delivery those handily by Telephone a game of like the ear passed to Figure Alvin5.1.2: Photo Lucier. by Michael Schroedter. Courtesy of Lovely Music, Ltd. those passing planes and backfiring cars, learned from we what http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ On “Land” audible/dewa-alit Evan Ziporyn in conversation with Dewa Alit

Yeh Ngetel (“Dripping Water”), movement 4 from Tanah Sedang Bicara (“Land Is Talking”)

EVAN ZIPORYN: Over the course of your lifetime, Pengosekan [Alit’s village in central Bali] went from being an unelectrified hamlet surrounded by rice fields to a hub of international tourism: your own home is now next to a five-star hotel, there is trafc all day, many of the rice fields have been turned into guest houses or strip malls. There’s a pizza place around the corner from you. I’m guessing no one bathes in the river anymore. The title of your piece and the movements seem to reflect these changes. You translate Tanah Sedang Bicara as “Land Is Talking,” but it could also be translated “The Land Still Talks” or “The Land Continues to Speak.” This, combined with the titles of the five movements—“Creation and Energy,” “The Power of Land,” “Root Water,” “Dripping Water,” and “Deaf/Not Hearing”—and of course the music itself— these create a very clear and powerful narrative. What is the relation between the titles and the music itself?

DEWA ALIT: From childhood I loved planting trees and flowers everywhere, in my backyard, in the garden, even in the village temples. But it wasn’t easy because not everyone had the same liking, even in my own family. So my dream was to have my Figure 5.2.1: Dewa Alit’s graphic score to Yeh Ngetel, p. 1. own piece of land where I’d have the freedom to grow anything I wanted, a space for my creativity. evolve …). And that everything has a right the actual sound of water movement. So The beginning of the idea for to live, a right that should be respected by I chose the sounds first and then con- this music comes from my dream and all other creatures. structed the musical patterns. connection to land. A wish to express my Because “Creation” and “Energy” are The final movement “Not Hearing” response and disappointment with my so abstract, I tried to find sounds as well as is us, humans. It seems that humans environment today. Like, why trafc jams? musical expression (rhythm and melody) today can only talk and not listen. People Why so much rubbish everywhere? Not that are unusual for music culture in Bali, but do not “listen” to my music, nor to other respecting the rivers like in the old days? which represent my particular imagination. people’s music, nor to their environment/ Why does no one care? The following three movements nature, so they cannot know/understand For this composition I started with are dedicated to certain aspects of the the changes, importance, and meaning. In the structure—five movements, telling environment (i.e., land and water) that I this movement I tried to make strong, loud a story. I placed “Creation and Energy” thought important to us, and thus should polyrhythmic “noise” as elements of anger, as the first movement because I wanted be praised or paid more respect these irritation, being annoyed, like when we talk to declare that everything that exists days. For these aspects it was easier with someone who is not listening. (creations/creatures) in this world has than with “Creation” and “Energy” to grab and needs energy, and because of energy their “images” (visual and/or sonic), like EZ: Your group is called Salukat, a com- they/we can develop (flourish, grow, deeper sounds for the land (big gongs) or bination of two Balinese words, salu and

174 Evan Ziporyn and - 175 ). I also used a ). Gamelan Evolusi Gamelan Evolusi ) I wanted for some keys. some keys. for ) I wanted erent tunings. tunings. erent in dif recorded were , petuding getaran ngumbang-ngisep getaran and design a scale that satisfied me, and and me, satisfied a scale that and design a tuner with the instruments then I retuned willing and who was understand who could of know I only So far desires. my follow to and worked I sat who can do it. one person my retuning straight days three with him for the distance explained I simply gamelan. and the each pitch, between I wanted same keys between vibrations desirable ( him the basic show to keyboard western ( pitch my understand a while to the tuner took It the it, understood but once he idea fully, retuned I’ve smoothly. quite went work twice since the original the instruments times the tuning and both tuning, (ordinary) The before. time the from erent dif very was CDs, Salukat two first Genetic with the tuning satisfied And I am quite traditional play cannot although we now, anymore. instruments pieces with our DA: I started out with the instruments the instruments out with I started DA: gamelan, Balinese for ordinarily tuned I I knew beginning the from although the normal tradi depart from to wanted find I tried to there So from tional scales. - - - - . Yeh Ngetel Yeh springs or seeping groundwater). That’s That’s seeping groundwater). springs or making the patterns the idea of I got where “calculated” I carefully piece. I use in the each make to the spaces in the patterns and fill out with others, or part interlock sound mechan makes what that’s maybe are also there I found electronic. ical or the from emerge ects that f sound e subtle could each instrument that interlocking I hear and that alone, produced have not as well. electronically somewhat EZ:As mentioned,you custom-designed instruc your taking these instruments, tions for both the tuning and the instru mental design to a traditional pandé [gamelan maker]. How didyou convey of in terms particularly wanted, you what scale? Didyou make recordings of the pitchesyou wanted? Or describe it in terms more of traditionalother, scales? Was he able to achieve whatyou wanted some know to love away?right I would about this process. thing more DA: Since I was little, and even now, I could now, even and little, Since I was DA: dripping water watching just hours spend in and dripping leaves and trees from often (water the river by or rain, the after small the jungle from of the wall drips from - - - - -

That is, you made this piece in your your piece in made this you is, That —meaning “house of cyclical regenera cyclical “house of —meaning Figure 5.2.2: Dewa Alit and members of Gamelan Salukat performing performing Gamelan Salukat of Alit and members 5.2.2: Dewa Figure acoustic). Can you talk about these con about these talk you Can acoustic). bit? a little nections and contradictions from nature and natural forces. Yet even even Yet forces. and natural nature from and micro-commonalities, with the macro- tradi like nothing music sounds your made have you Instead, tional gamelan. natural more sounds both that something and artificial dripping) actual water (like music though it is entirely electronic (like “Dripping Water”—every individual sound Water”—every “Dripping one could find in a is something use you and these are Balinese music, of moment that patterns interlocking in organized And Balinese cycles. in fifteen-beat unfold its titles and imagery takes music often well, and who were all trained in traditional in traditional all trained and who were well, while use, you The instruments gamelan. every in almost you by custom-designed with are and acoustic, physical detail, Balinese gamelan a type of out question construction material their of in terms on focus to And just form. and general piece I see this played out in the musicians musicians out in the played I see this piece them in the instruments with, work you in the musical material. and selves, with musicians Pengosekan, village, birth as up there part grew the most who for kat In this center!”). “recycling maybe (or tion” http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Air audible/maya-beiser Maya Beiser

We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that Air is my private Bach is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a Bach as I heard it in a distant morning home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to on my father’s turntable. use our own voice, to see our own light. A little girl hearing this music for the ﬁrst time —Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) hanging on to every mysterious note as a lifeline, a revelation. The purity of this iconic melody as it emerges through the In the second half of the twentieth century the ultimate goal of a crackling noises of an old LP. classical music recording was to create pristine, perfectly exe- A retro Bach, a childhood Bach. cuted, impeccable iterations and reinterpretations of the great musical masterworks of the past. With advances in digital technology, a certain technique was developed and followed by just about all major classical record producers: they captured performance in numerous mini pieces and, after many diferent takes, edited their selection into one “perfect,” superhuman recording. The environment was ﬂawlessly quiet, and the sound was polished with the help of digital gadgets. In my recorded art, I try to capture the imperfect nuances that make my individual musical memory. I try to ascribe diferent sonic environments to these audible images that my mind produces.

Figure 5.3.1: Maya Beiser and her cello. Photos by ioulex.

176 Maya Beiser 177

Figure 5.3.2: Maya Beiser and her cello. cello. and her Beiser 5.3.2: Maya Figure ioulex. by Photos http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Magnetic Resonances audible/arnold-dreyblatt Arnold Dreyblatt

Magnetom, 2017 (21:10 min.) Artist and composer Arnold Dreyblatt’s the machine especially for these record- Recorded live on March 22, 2017 works with audio recordings of resonance ings, searching for software settings that at The Kitchen, New York imaging scanning have resulted in a would generate a desired sonic output, number of performances and installations rather than as an apparatus for scanning reflecting his interest in tuning, timbre, and body areas, as this machine is normally acoustic resonance. used. Dreyblatt has created a palette of In Magnetom (2017) as well as in acoustic signals and patterns which have his previous composition, Spin Ensemble been analyzed, deconstructed, and then (2011), Dreyblatt has created a palette of recombined as a musical composition, but acoustic signals and patterns derived they have emphatically not been digitally from a recording project (2004) involving treated or altered in any way. a magnetic resonance imaging scanner The recordings were originally (specifically the Siemens Magnetom used as the acoustic element of the Symphony Maestro Class) in the Martin- audiovisual installation Turntable History, Luther-Hospital in Berlin. This device could which was installed at the Singuhr Gallery be understood as a Tesla coil, in which in Berlin in 2009. Recordings of Turntable rotating radio frequencies gradually alter History and the later composition Spin the alignment and resonances of pow- Ensemble were issued by Important erful magnetic fields. Under Dreyblatt’s Records as CD Imprec322 and as a cas- direction, Siemens technicians operated sette, SAUNA14, respectively.

Figure 5.4.2: Nicola Tesla, US Patent Drawing, Coil for Electro Magnets, patented Figure 5.4.3: R. Damanian, US Patent Drawing, Apparatus and method for January 9, 1894, Patent No. 512,340 (excerpt). detecting cancer in tissue, patented February 5, 1974, Patent No. 3789832

178 Arnold Dreyblatt 179 Figure 5.4.1: Recording at Power Station, Berlin, 1984. Photo: Penelope Wehrli. Penelope Photo: 1984. Berlin, Station, Power at Recording 5.4.1: Figure Figure 5.4.4: Arnold Dreyblatt, live performance, Serralves Museum, Porto, 2016. Photo by Pedro Figueiredo Pedro by Photo 2016. Porto, Museum, Serralves performance, live Arnold Dreyblatt, 5.4.4: Figure http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Born-Digital Musical audible/victor-gama Instruments Victor Gama

This contribution elucidates a method their design, development, and construc- quickly—thanks to the many learning tools of composition that includes the devel- tion could be an integral part of a method on the web—that embracing the tools of opment of the musical instruments for of music composition. In this method a our time is constantly leading us to efect which a score is written and with which it musical instrument is ﬁrst and foremost cultural change. In the musical ﬁeld each is performed. The design of such instru- a formless container of meanings, and its new technical advance seems to spawn a ments is a variable that depends on the design evolves in direct relationship with series of pieces that exploit the new efect. conceptual domain of the composition, i.e., the symbols, ideas, and concepts of a com- Technology pushes the music, which pulls its meanings, symbols, ideas, and con- position or series of compositions intended the technology along with it.3 cepts. The instrument becomes a symbolic for its use. It is therefore a guiding interface system or semiotic interface created by the or mediation between the composer and From Digital to Physical composer and crafted in the digital domain the symbolic material that he has collected using 3D modeling software and digital to arrive at a particular musical lexicon. The onset of digital technologies has made fabrication tools. A physical instrument Such an instrument brings with it possible to dematerialize4 acoustic musi- made this way has two entities, one phys- it an additional set of variables that are cal instruments. It has allowed instruments ical and another digital. Its development used in the development of the com- to be performed and used by the com- becomes an integral part of the compos- poser’s work. Allowing the design of the poser or musician from within a domain er’s writing process, and the composer instrument to become part of the writing other than the physical, in which certain can now control new parameters such process required the use of current digital once-constant parameters have become as those associated with design and technologies. Technology itself can also be variable. These same technologies are material properties. viewed as an activity that forms or changes now also being used to materialize a new In the mid ’90s I started creating culture.2 The digital era ofers an array type of musical instrument. Created in the a series of acoustic musical instruments, of technical methods, fabrication pro- digital domain using CAD (computer- which I now call Instrmnts,1 in the belief that cesses, and skills that can be acquired so aided design) and resulting in a physical

Figure 5.5.1: Victor Gama playing acrux at the Royal Opera House, London (2012). Photo: Rui Peralta

180 Victor Gama - - - - - (2003) (2003) 181 Quatro Quatro One of the pieces in the One of One of the instruments the instruments One of 8 7 Pangeia Instrumentos Instrumentos Pangeia released on my own label own on my released A recent series of pieces for pieces for series of recent A My first results using this method results first My board. A 3A board.D model of the acrux can be seen at 7'17" in thevideo file included with above). URL (see this book the album on acrux is featured Momentos in 2016. Pangeiart ology were a number of pieces recorded pieces recorded of a number were ology on the album label on his Twin Aphex launched by Records. Rephlex on the album is the acrux (figures featured design This instrument’s and 5.5.2). 5.5.1 con Cross the Southern by inspired was sky visible in the night is only that stellation Each com the southern hemisphere. of with a the acrux is associated of ponent The constellation. that aspect of particular transparency of the universe that allows the use of motivated stars the at look us to glass for its soundboard.The hemispher ical sound box represents the southern hemisphere.The instrument has been in constant development since it was created using 3D modeling software and digital fabrication such as laser cutting and CNC machining. Digital testing using FEA (finite element analysis) software is used to determine the pitch relative to the geometry of itsvibrating lamellae or the modes on its glass sound of distribution

In the method I outlined above, In the method This born-digital physical instru This born-digital physical acoustic instrument. acoustic does instrument acoustic the physical engine. depend on a sound-rendering not Instead its acoustic and performing capabilities can be extended by its digital counterpart. ment is free of the finite, fixed-design fixed-design the finite, of is free ment can as the composer/performer paradigm, The digital parameters. its originating alter coupled can be so intimately instrument they that instrument with the physical as two together, be understood now must the physical the same instrument; of facets its of can become the controller instrument compromising without losing or digital self, a traditional, typical of quality the acoustic ers This dif musical instrument. acoustic virtual instruments the from significantly in his essay to Smith refers O. Julius that Instruments: Musical Acoustic “Virtual physical “sensitive as and Update” Review sound rendering coupled to controllers a sound mode,’ ‘traditional In engines. virtual a implement engine may rendering algorithm; sound synthesis acoustic the range is no limit to there alternatively, new of sounds controllable by the player.” of representation In this case the physical thevirtual instrument is a controller that may or may not resemble a traditional - - - - exhibition at Fundación Carlos De Amberes, Madrid (2012). Photo: Victor Gama. Victor Photo: (2012). Madrid Amberes, Carlos De Fundación at exhibition INSTRMNTS The instrument is now a per is now The instrument 5 What is proposed is that these is that is proposed What and its physical embodiment is an instru embodiment and its physical and used in live can be played that ment as an in much the same way performance musical instrument. acoustic sonal matter, and the composer controls controls and the composer sonal matter, What before. than ever parameters more is an instrument this method from emerges One in the existences. has two now that com created, it was where digital world, virtual instrument, a prises a sound library, digital components; and other a 3D model, the composer creates; or, as Elzbieta as Elzbieta or, creates; the composer interface a semiotic puts it, Kazmierczak She proposes in the digital domain. crafted as diagrams all designs be regarded that individual and collective maps of mental of cultures. new variables can be integrated into the into can be integrated variables new the same at writing process composer’s in the physical parameters variable as level sustain, attack, duration, domain—pitch, name a few. to harmony, rhythm, dynamics, a of is a result musical instrument This new system a symbolic meanings, collection of this process generates design parameters design parameters generates this process the measurements, such as component and con used, materials of properties as can be used that processes struction variables. additional Figure 5.5.2: Acrux in the Acrux 5.5.2: Figure where digital fabrication, use of object by a digital file, made from are components Figure 5.5.3: Toha in the INSTRMNTS exhibition at Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Évora, Portugal (2018), Photo: Victor Gama.

182 Victor Gama - 183 , Rephlex, CAT CAT Rephlex, , Journal of New New of Journal , Pangeiart, Pangeiart, , Canadian Journal of of Journal Canadian , 2012, https://vimeo. 2012, , , Comissão Organizadora do do Organizadora Comissão , 304, DOI: 283–304, 3 (2004): no. 33, The Music Machine: Selected Selected Machine: The Music Quatro Momentos Quatro Vela 6911 Vela Pangeia Instrumentos Pangeia Instrmnts 19, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 45–59. 2003): 2 (Spring no. 19, –360. 351 3 (2006): no. 31, 10. Dillon Marsh, Assimilation series, http://www. series, Assimilation Dillon Marsh, 10. dillonmarsh.com/assimilation07.html Fenacult 2014, Luanda, http://tinyurl.com/yajxh3z8 as a Cultural “Technology Borgmann, Albert 2. and Grifn,” Alena For Force: Sociology Curtis Roads, 3. Journal Music Computer from Readings xi. 1989), Press, MA: MIT (Cambridge, “dematerialization” this essay, purpose of the For 4. synthesizing sampling or of the process to refers and musical instrument an acoustic the sound of programs, software aid of using its sound with the controllers. or computers, Making: Meaning as “Design Kazmierczak, Elzbieta 5. From MakingThings to the Design ofThinking,” Design Issues Musical Acoustic “Virtual Smith, O. Julius 6. and Update,” Review Instruments: Research Music 10.1080/0929821042000317859 Gama, Victor 7. https://tinyurl.com/ycyrjebn 2003, 135 CD, Gama, Victor 8. https://vimeo.com/182079021 2016, 108 CD, PAN Gama, Victor 9. com/59298136 1. Victor Gama, Gama, Victor 1. ecting change, trig change, ecting f e an agent become while technology digital current by gered materiality. a new back bringing ------Many of us still view acoustic musi acoustic view us still of Many and conceived by the symbolic material material the symbolic by and conceived to has chosen in order the composer that musical language. own her or his at arrive has instrument musical type of This new any other resulting data that might be inter might that data resulting other any provides Such a network explore. to esting instru the physical between an interface and allows and its digital counterpart ment be touch-sensi to the instrument parts of in perfor too, and used as a controller, tive the control The musician can thus mances. time the same while at digital instrument embodiment. its physical playing a luthier of as the outcome cal instruments technolo in traditional steeped workshop, objects hand-made centuries, past gies of evolved highly design, and finite fixed of made for. were they in what fcient and e experience of This enormous amount with which we knowledge, and preserved highly of generations by been gifted have can be and women, craftsmen specialized digital bridged with twenty-first-century musi type of a new allow to technologies the between continuum A cal instrument. instruments musical of paradigm ancient estab design can be and finite fixed of which the by paradigm lished with a new in the digital domain is crafted instrument 5.5.4). A network of sensors embedded in embedded sensors of network A 5.5.4). can serve instruments physical born-digital of areas up all picking as microphones, and resonators, soundboards vibrating the and proximity, impact, tension, measuring

10 - - - and Instrmnts Instrmnts , a multimedia a multimedia , PiecesAcrux for and Vela 6911 Vela Constantly in development development in Constantly 9 The toha (figure 5.5.3) is another another is 5.5.3) (figure The toha recently presented at the Buskirk- Intelligent resonators, the future? the resonators, Intelligent Figure 5.5.4: Embedded piezo film sensor on toha’s upper resonator. Photo: Victor Gama Victor Photo: resonator. upper on toha’s film sensor piezo 5.5.4: Embedded Figure digitally fabricated components (figure (figure components fabricated digitally (see URL above). with embed experimenting I am currently or laminated into film sensors ding piezo one at the bottom where a second, bigger bigger a second, where the bottom one at pole. or the tree the base of is at nest 3D-printed, were components Several used CNC machining was while extensive to cut laminated sections itsof carbon a 3D model of Watch base resonator. fiber the toha atin 13'41" thevideo file included birds from the Namib and Kalahari deserts and Kalahari deserts the Namib from birds that from Weavers Africa. southern of in big nests collective build their region poles. telephone or trees bundles around one resonators, two features The toha and is, the nest where the top placed at concerto for acrux, toha, dino, and classi dino, toha, acrux, for concerto in 2012 at premiered that cal instruments commissioned in Chicago, Theater Harris Orchestra/ Symphony the Chicago by Now. Music is the toha created, first since it was sociable weaver of the nests by inspired ChumleyTheater in Bloomington, Indiana can be watched in the includedvideo file (see URL above). series in the instrument in is featured solo performance Toha http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Hey Exit: audible/brendan-landis Every Recording of Gymnopédie 1 Brendan Landis

Released on Sonido Polifonico, #SP010, 2018 Every Recording of Gymnopédie 1 was 1) Have the idea while making toast conceived, assembled, and published in (or similar). an afternoon using rudimentary DAW skills 2) Obtain as many performances of the and an internet connection. It comprises piece was you can find and load them fifty-seven diferent recordings spanning into your favorite DAW (any one with many decades, from many countries, all time-stretching capability will do). time-stretched to the length of the longest 3) Optional: remove alternate arrange- recording, or about six minutes. ments (diferent instruments, diferent A few people have commented or notes being played, etc.). written asking me to produce versions of 4) Align each performance such that the the other two Gymnopédies, or of Satie’s first notes are played simultaneously. Gnossiennes, or of Ravel’s Boléro, or 5) Turn down the volume on each track other pieces. I haven’t yet, but I’m sure so that the sound won’t distort, unless it this arrangement would sound beautiful sounds cooler that way. applied to many other compositions (par- 6) Choose a length for your piece, and ticularly anything for a solo instrument that time-stretch each performance such that has been recorded many times). With that the final notes are played simultaneously. in mind, here are the steps one would take 7) Put it somewhere on the internet. (And to reproduce this piece: please let me know, I’d love to hear it!)

Figure 5.6.1: All recordings of Gymnopédie 1, aligned such that the ﬁrst note is played simultaneously in each recording.

184 Brendan Landis 185

, , with , Gymnopédie 1 Gymnopédie 1 simultaneously in each recording. in each simultaneously Figure 5.6.2 (top): All recordings of of All recordings (top): 5.6.2 Figure distortion. prevent to lowered volume of All recordings (bottom): 5.6.3 Figure occurs note the last that such time-stretched http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Vessels: Being as Material audible/grace-leslie Grace Leslie

Vessels is a brain-body performance prac- into massive sound structures. Through Background tice that combines flute and electronics a daily practice of improvising with this improvisation with EEG (electroenceph- system, I have developed a paradoxical I have been developing brain-music alogram brainwave data) sonification. In form of “introspective expression” that was interfaces in solo explorations and with this piece, I record raw EEG, electrodermal enabled by training my body and percep- colleagues for several years. These proj- activity (EDA), and electrocardiogram tual mechanism with custom-engineered, ects, as with those by many other friends (ECG) signals and use them to actuate musical biofeedback. In Vessels, the sonic and colleagues around the world, typically sound samples recorded from my flute and material is an almost static, digital and vir- rely on descriptors and labels: running voice. Slow impulse trains generated by my tual space, and the musical narrative slowly online calculations that report back about physiology become a series of finger snaps emerges through an unfolding of cognitive a listener’s or performer’s level of focus, that reveal this static virtual space over and afective states. meditation, or mood, sometimes match- time, while faster ones become a wet finger Vessels was originally conceived in ing this real-time data to experimental running along the rim of a glass, activating 2015 and has evolved over three years of models of cognition and afect built in the a virtual resonant enclosure. performances over several countries and lab. These calculations are derived from My natural inclination was to impro- continents. The documentation included in listeners’ EEG (brainwave) data and are vise on the flute while using this sonifica- this volume is part of a site-specific record- used to direct a musical or audiovisual tion system, and I quickly learned to pare ing project that took place in September feedback mix that may serve to influence down my playing, and limit any overt phys- 2016. This selection presents one contin- their cognitive or afective state. Thus, ical expression or gross musical gestures, uous take from these recording sessions. using a classic brain-computer interface as the muscle artifacts produced would Max Citron engineered this recording in the for musical purposes requires listeners or flood the “vessels” with unwanted noise. Eero Saarinen Chapel at the Massachusetts performers to match their cognition and The music that emerges from this practice, Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, behavior to models derived experimentally enabled by interactive electronics, allows Massachusetts, where at the time I held a from their own past cognition and behavior, slow breathing and long tones to bloom position as a Visiting Scientist. or that of thousands of subjects. When I adopted the EEG as a part of my flute and electronics practice, I encountered the following cognitive modeling process as a creative roadblock. Paradoxically, a system that is designed to adapt itself to an operator’s inherent cognitive capacities prevents the operant from adapting to that system, and in doing so limits their capacity to build an expressive language through the use of that tool. In contrast, musicians know intuitively that their expressive language is born out of a decades-long process of adapting their brain and body to a physical instrument. The constraints and limitations my flute playing ofered me, particularly regarding the size of my lungs and strength of my posture, became the set of rules that led to an expressive, improvised language based on the breath. When setting out to design a performable brain-body music system, I sought to approach my cognitive state in the same way as I approach my acoustic instrument. I imagined discover- ing this brain-body instrument, picking it up for the first time, and learning the space of possibilities for myself through a slow habituation to my own limitations through the human-computer interaction process. I could then, in theory, adapt my cognitive-afective mechanism to this system, Figure 5.7.1: In one section of Vessels, Grace Leslie sonifies her heartbeat by moving an EEG sensor from her and in doing so learn how to systematically headset over her heart. Photo by Michelle Proksell. explore my cognitive state while on stage

186 Grace Leslie - - - - 187 11, 2 no. by relating relating by Vessels Vessels uses a digital process uses a digital process to blossom and fill the blossom to Musicality JournalVisual of Culture Vessels Vessels Vessels Vessels 1. 1. Pauline Oliveros,“Auralizing in the Sonosphere: A Vocabulary,” (2011): 162. Citron provided invaluable engineering for the the engineering for invaluable provided Citron and webpage, on the event’s displayed recording which allowed was This recording MIT. Saarinen Chapel at Eero Arts. the Council for the MIT in part by supported http://www.graceleslie.com Acknowledgments following 2015, began in practice This performance with colleagues and collaboration study of years and Department the Music at and mentors Neuroscience Computational for Center Swartz Max San Diego. California, of the University at to systematically explore on stage. This on stage. explore systematically to turning as a slow presented process changed my dramatically and has inward I have music improvisation. to approach comes system an EEG-based learned that ordances. f a performative of with a set the sonification of the sensitivity Owing to and the limita movement to methods the protocol, rejection artifact tions in any I can attention of limits the amount system and expressiveness physical overt to pay This inward. expression that forced has ect f e drastic a had thus has system digital into expression turning by musicality, my on melodic con down and slowing impression a of time the takes shift subtle each so tours practice this in act aesthetic real The breath. the align to made have I adaptation the is system. digital a with body musical that I have explored in explored I have that sonic static, to rhythms inner time-varying, structures. the into the hearing downward extend to the technospheric auralize to sonosphere, the infra into inward extend that layers rhythms bodily occupied by sonic range ect. f supporting cognition and a of years two almost of the course Over devel I’ve with this system, practice daily I can attempt map that oped a cognitive 1 - - - - - is not is not , Lucier Lucier , occupies auralization auralization the analog electronic, the analog electronic, Solo Performer Solo Performer that connects a wide range connects a wide range that Music for Solo Performer for Music rests in the digital. This brain-body This brain-body in the digital. rests extended with the aid of technology. Pauline Oliveros conceptualizes a conceptualizes Oliveros Pauline as sonosphere the of conceive I earth the of core the at beginning increasing ever in radiating and vibrating connections, fractal and encircling through sonically includes sonosphere The earth. the perceived be can that sounds all by humans, animals, birds, plants, ears Human and machines. trees, to 20hz approximately to limited are be can range this However, 20khz. and individuals some by exceeded Oliveros’s metaphor of of metaphor Oliveros’s a static of beautiful in its imagery only a sys through explore we that architecture but also cre sounding, of process tematic metaphor pertinent a technologically ates the acoustic realm, and Rosenboom’s and Rosenboom’s realm, the acoustic the Skin of Ecology Vessels dig on a new relies practice performance inner of the ethos to return to ital process early these artists’ inspired that exploration in the medium. explorations sonosphere the beyond which extend vibrations of in the case of and, human hearing, of range the below waves, brain studied our of most human hearing: of range ort to reveal inner rhythms through through rhythms inner reveal ort to f an e and in doing so revisits sonification, direct pieces music performance seminal brain Lucier Alvin and composed by performed in the 1960s and Rosenboom and David In 1970s. couples his amplified band physically percus signal with acoustic passed EEG body vast Rosenboom’s sion instruments. brain- of the application delineates work of aesthetic to biofeedback and body-based analog in relating in particular experiment, control. attention selective to synthesis Lucier’s Where ------uses a digital process to sonify bodily rhythms supporting rhythms bodily sonify to uses a digital process Ancestors Method of Sonification Sonification of Method Vessels uses new digital techniques in digital techniques uses new Although I developed this technique technique this developed I Although One could conceptualize this One could conceptualize Figure 5.7.2: 5.7.2: Figure Lisa Marks. by Illustration musical performance. expressive Vessels for my performance practice, it may prove prove may it practice, performance my for have I purposes. practical more for useful con research to applied this technique Dartmouth- at group neurology a with ducted we which in Center, Medical Hitchcock seizure diagnose to uses clinical its explored and as a music-based therapy. activity, the time-varying features of the brain and and brain the of features time-varying the changing, slowly A it. drive signals that body using built is architecture sonic static almost and brain the of features time-varying the “performed.” being are signals that body of brainwave activity is a finger rubbing is a finger activity brainwave of each vessel, a digital ringing against archi an inner of one layer representing a single mode of by and actuated tecture EEG. the using measured rhythms brain the sound of sound is a wash The resulting to according changes that timbre and color stream with the musical sound. stream the impulse train imagining that by process is acting as brainwaves in my I measure vibra A running along a glass. a finger each channel as if tion builds up slowly, technique takes an incoming live stream stream an incoming live takes technique and data, breath or ECG, EDA, EEG, of and flute my of the sonic quality imprints The stream. data the live sound onto voice cross-synthe signal is a real-time resulting data physiological the time-varying sis of I needed a way to bypass the labeling bypass to I needed a way directly data EEG my and convert stage a digital sonifica I developed sound. into cross-syn me to allows that tion method time in real data and body brain thesize This voice. and flute my with sounds from without being constricted by predefined predefined by without being constricted and behavior. cognition models of http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Musical Trojan Horse: audible/pawel-romanczuk Uncontrollable Sounds Paweł Romańczuk

Human understanding of the universe of seed, it had to fall on fertile ground to suc- musical instruments (the saw, the foghorn, sound has developed over thousands of ceed. The family of woodwind instruments glassware, etc.). I deliberately leave out years. People have explored the possi- developed by Adolphe Sax might have electronic, acousmatic, and computer bilities of sound, processed it, and made been doomed to oblivion if his saxophones musics, as they have no natural acoustic numerous discoveries and inventions. had not been smartly incorporated into and object-related potential, no physical With technology becoming ever more military orchestras, resulting in a high sound-producing form. Considering the advanced, the last few centuries in particu- demand for his innovation and presaging direction of the development of innovative lar have seen the emergence of hundreds its survival and development. musical instruments, the second half of the (or even thousands) of humanly created The popularity of new inventions twentieth century and the early twenty-first sound sources, including musical instru- hinged on the possibilities they ofered as century have seen very few new instruments, with all their variations and hybrids, determined by their performance potential ments. Reigning supreme are instruments ranging from the most primitive to the and virtuoso possibilities, their dynamics, with a metal resonator (the cristal Baschet, most advanced, from single, handcrafted diferent timbre, range, and how useful they the steel cello, the waterphone) and Stroh instruments to mass-produced, factory- were in creating new varieties of chamber string instruments, whose acoustic amplifi- made products. These objects, which and orchestral music. Instruments have cation solutions use an early gramophone proliferated especially in the nineteenth always been expected to exhibit the char- tube, needle, and mica chamber. Much century, made it possible to experiment acteristics desired by their contemporane- rarer, but very spectacular, is the combin- with sound. Performers, composers, and ous musicians and audiences. In the twen- ing of the natural vibrating properties of instrument makers have inspired one tieth century, as music pushed beyond wood with a simple amplification system another to discover, modify, and grow the boundaries of functional harmony and that includes a piezoelectric pickup, which music instrument industries, which some- traditional musical forms, instruments German luthier Hans Reichel used in his times resulted in the creation of an could also impress with other qualities. The daxophone concept. instrument with new sonic qualities. This is ever-growing demand for exploring new For sure, nature and physics still how many instruments have entered the sonic territories not only generated interest hold sonic possibilities, which future world canon and instrumental traditions. in newly invented instruments, but it also inventors will use to design new instru- Such experiments, however, have extended the catalog of formal instruments ments. Looking back at the inventions that not always been successful. Even if a new to include sound-generating objects have been made so far, I wonder more now idea represented a significant, innovative that did not have the typical attributes of about how the supply of new instruments

Figure 5.8.1:Wheel Harps, constructed by Paweł Romańczuk, 2016, photo by Figure 5.8.2:Wheel Harps, constructed by Paweł Romańczuk, 2016, photo by Łukasz Rajchert. Łukasz Rajchert.

188 Paweł Romańczuk - - - - 189 The most important in my own work, work, own my in important most The control to humans, are exempt from these from exempt are humans, to control us with providing in part, least at issues, the stretch often that musical structures and compositional, creative, our bounds of imaginations. performing however, the toy piano always surprises piano always toy the however, a those with ers f and o the performer The exploration. for ample room ear trained an contain which often ects produced, f e these objects a make chance, of element has been planted that horse Trojan musical and within the chromatic with impunity for envisaged system even-tempered instruments. modern keyboard mecha sound-producing are however, controllable, partially only are nisms that multilay ect of f the special e yield which planes overlapping melo-rhythmic ered a real, making in an unplanned manner, musical of human-made object a center human control. is beyond that creativity impro of the areas reflects This situation the of vised music in which the details Improvising unpredictable. ect are f final e in ected f una not are however, musicians, ingrained decisions by spontaneous their and automatic patterns, habits, reactions, aes limit their which may analysis, auditory and automatic Mechanical choices. thetic ering less f those o particularly devices, The more ambitious among them made them among ambitious The more claim lay could that products better-quality In terms instruments. educational being to or dynamics, timbre, decay, intonation, of mechanism, the keyboard of the operation - - - - - Considering, however, the relation however, Considering, piano, a mechanical instrument with a real with a real a mechanical instrument piano, vibrating a of in the form sound source of years and fifty one hundred Over rod. have its makers existence, piano’s the toy as children’s products their viewed always instruments. as professional never toys, the second avant-garde, a parallel move a parallel avant-garde, the second can which we developing has been ment increasingly art,” “sound as to refer now vocal and with the instrumental doing away this movement due to is chiefly It canons. using music generated in the field of that, the term of field the semantic objects, real so limitless, virtually has become “music” meaning it can encom in its current that the even sound phenomena, pass any ones. extreme most way that music conceived ship between or instrument a new of and the creation asking it is worth object, sound-generating help find a quality might which features aes their people and by uncontrolled definitely Such features experience. thetic intonation microtonal include uncontrolled reso randomly and a wide spectrum of produced aliquots and overlapping nating I system. and resonator vibrator the by find these qualities in sound-making toys not are objects that and sound-producing musical instruments. like remotely even is the toy such a toy of One good example ect desired by what what by ect desired f an e seek to tend we brain and analyzing ears hearing our to. accustomed become already have of manifesto since the Futurist Fortunately, since especially and brothers, the Russolo - - - - - czuk, 2016, photo by by photo 2016, ńczuk, ł Roma Pawe by constructed , Wheel Harps If one looks at the most recently recently most the at looks one If Figure 5.8.3: Figure Rajchert. ukasz Ł from today’s auditory habits. When we we When habits. auditory today’s from due to the case that, it is often experiment, sonic experience, and our culture, tradition, that cannot be used to perform popular popular perform be used to cannot that should not pieces, Vivaldi’s from e.g., parts, is to music new of The role be dismissed. inconsistent, behavior—atonal, find it a new we this, achieve to In order nonrhythmic. expectations our unshackle to have would music and push it forward, and how much and how music and push it forward, grav to tendency creators’ their reveal they of tradition the centuries-old toward itate new from expect we What musical styles. be burdened to have does not instruments in per worth their prove with the need to An instrument music. “old” of formances the original American waterphone lies in waterphone American the original popular tune it; and the most to the ability nine are on the theremin pieces played taking Without works. tonal teenth-century inventions, these great from away anything revolutionize much they how I wonder ist with standard instruments, which were were which instruments, with standard ist virtually music was when tonal developed the cristal of The design was. all there progres is based on a chromatic Baschet his some of recorded Reichel sion; Hans approach tonal albums taking a polyphonic of the secret the daxophone; playing to invented acoustic instruments, one must one must instruments, acoustic invented a fixed sought creators their that conclude creations their make tuned to intonation also They material. tonal play suitable to coex able to be to inventions their wanted has influenced and inspired new thinking thinking new inspired and has influenced music itself. about http://beingmaterial.mit.edu/ Gymnopédie Z audible/evan-ziporyn (Erik Satie, arr. Ziporyn) Evan Ziporyn

Ambient Orchestra with Brendan Landis, electric guitar, Evan Ziporyn, conductor Kresge Auditorium, Cambridge, MA, March 3, 2017 Released on Sonido Polifonico #SP010, 2018

190 Evan Ziporyn - - - Z. Z. - - 191 Gymnopédie played by Ambient Ambient by played Gymnopédie Z The two figures illustrate by com by illustrate figures The two Gymnopédie #1 Figure 5.9.1 (left): Visualization of first four measures measures four first of Visualization (left): 5.9.1 Figure Erik of solo piano recording Aldo Ciccolini’s of Satie’s four the same of Visualization (right): 5.9.2 Figure in measures arranger/conductor Ziporyn, Evan Orchestra, ect (or perhaps the point) point) perhaps the ect (or f e parison the of screenshots are Both process. the of spectrograms melodic frequency peak a freeware Visualiser, via Sonic produced devel application public license) (GNU Cannon and Queen Mary, Chris oped by spectro show Both London. of University of measures four the first images of gram iconic Aldo Ciccolini’s is the piece: the first is the second recording; the second is recogniz can see, you As the silk-screened, as if able but blurrier, attacks clear aurally of verticalities visual more blurrier, something by replaced foreshadowings of overlay an aural wobbly, and afterglows. (never mind the details). We then invited then invited We the details). mind (never us in perfor with improvise to Brendan take, live a single, this recording, mance: is the result. with no postprocessing, - - in necessarily necessarily if the ambitus of the ambitus of if musicians (eighty in total, in total, (eighty musicians live Gymnopédie the same autonomy and agency (read: (read: and agency autonomy the same impelled one assumes that expression) individual perform the fifty-seven each of What virtual gathering. in Brendan’s ers as with is that, this somewhat complicates “reads” only this time-stretching, Brendan’s as Satie’s As with limited. is fairly the non-synchrony space-based, time- or good excursion, any to close fairly stay need to the participants This earshot. um, within, is, that each other, group- vs. agency contradiction—personal in order be resolved has to what think—is also it’s Which means work. the piece to for I doing. made the whole thing worth what reasonably I hope, a simple and, devised this achieve mechanism to humanistic gathering of of gathering acous playing Orchestra), Ambient the full neither time, in real tically, with anyone synchrony rhythmic out of or with play them to I asked stage. else on the - , as , real real Every Recording Recording Every Every Recording Every . honors Brendan’s vision Brendan’s honors I made this arrangement after after I made this arrangement by reversing all of its polarities: a all of reversing by the name implies, is an assemblage, an is an assemblage, the name implies, though the sources gathering: imaginary be rendered it could only acoustic, were (“the fact” the fact after electronically, performances). being the original live Gymnopédie Z often been electroacoustic, adapting to the to adapting been electroacoustic, often who can sound drummers (live artifacts who can singers live drum machines, like auto-tuned). been they’ve sound like Landis’s hearing Brendan Gymnopédie 1 of of nature, each other. Talking drums, drums, Talking other. each nature, of like sound to attempting instrumentalists writing composers versa; vice and singers, ges operatic dramatic, with symphonies and In the twentieth and narratives. tures has the exchange centuries, twenty-first Music is fueled by transmimetic failure: failure: transmimetic fueled by is Music sounds birdsong, of imitations bad our

Outroduction

Marie-Pier Boucher

Being Material may by now feel like a tornado. A vortex that I suggest that the best way to grasp the book’s coherence is by swept you of your feet and brought your thoughts to swirl in all attuning ourselves to the conceptual motifs of imitation that ripple directions. The metaphor actually works utterly well because a between and among the contributions. Let me explain what I tornado extracts a maximum of potentials from its field of activity mean. Before Negroponte, and much before the inception of the in order to sustain its dynamism. Similarly, the voices in this internet, sociologist Gabriel Tarde (1843–1904) defined innovation volume are organized to enable the extraction of a maximum of as a social event, linking it to action at a distance; to a virtual con- potentials from each contribution in order to facilitate cross-clas- nectedness among unwired brains. Anticipating the contemporary sifications1 among heterogeneous finds of practice; in order to architectures of digital modes of existence, he wrote that sociality, elevate material modes of being to their greatest pitch of inten- in its perfect and absolute hypothetical form, “would consist of sity. Echoing philosopher Raymond Ruyer for whom “biological such an intense concentration of urban life that as soon as one organization is the real problem of biology and not its point of idea arose in one mind it would be instantaneously transmitted departure,”2 the editors of this volume foresaw its organization as to all minds throughout the city.”6 This force of propagation, he an unresolved and creative constraint rather than as an assumed insisted, is only possible by virtue of imitation, which he saw as the reality (or a decision based on arbitrary choices). Seeking a cause of sociality. In other words, an innovation—or the production format that would allow a reshufing of the pieces in order to of diference (and sociality)—is conditioned by dynamics of imita- truly reveal the power of unexpected connections, the organization; an innovation is an imitation, and an imitation is a “generation tion of the book emerges out of a desire to keep the controversy at a distance.” Following up on Tarde, my goal in this outroduction of the relations between bits and atoms—between digital and is to render visible the conceptual innovations that emerge out of material modes of being—open.3 Being Material is thus a cre- the radiating propagation of the ideas this book generates. While ative adventure that rehearses our habits of thought and action the “Audible” section urges us to leave the materiality of the book through the construction of problems that actively resist author- and to migrate to its digital sister format in order to fully appreciate itarian solutions.4 Each contribution should be seen as a political how musicians challenge the ways in which materiality is ofered in intervention; as an invitation to reflection and, at the same time, experience, the term “outroduction” is by no means used to invoke as a lure to action (because politics here refers to the problema- the necessity of an exit strategy. It is, rather, employed to capture tization of the relationship between perception and action). In so the sociopolitical power of the encounters created by the editors. doing, the editors of this volume bet on the possibility of creating Such a political inquiry resonates with Chantal Moufe’s diferences instead of forcing shared truths (shared truths that concept of agonistic space, introduced in this volume by Azra would only succeed at recognizing the reafrmation of materi- Akšamija to frame her project Yarn-dez-vous in terms of a politics ality). The question is then: how can we assess the diferences of coexistence. Transposed to the current discussion, the concept between and among this specific assemblage of contributions? of agonistic space enables us to move beyond an understand- In this volume, every material movement is immediately a ing of the pragmatic efects of the material modes of existence social form. Assessing the diferences generated is thus assess- presented here as resulting from a banal “negotiation among ing the vibrating sociality from which the book’s coherence interests.”7 Because we cannot race ahead in isolation (or in walled emerges. However, and here I am channeling chemist and philoso- geopolitics), Moufe urges us to refuse the “multiplicity of perspec- pher Isabelle Stengers, this coherence “should have nothing in tives” from which liberal consensus emerges in order to focus common with the coherence that authorizes a unitary point of view instead on creating the conditions for political struggles (luttes), from which the role assigned to each participant can be deduced.”5 that is, to create milieus of encounters where diferences can be confronted. To achieve this goal, I will invite the attendees of the distribution of his invisible images.) In his essay, mechanical engi- “Being Material” symposium to be companions in my attempt to neer George Barbastathis complicates the controversy even more. grasp the politics of material coexistence that emerge out of this If we cannot fully trust our vision, he indirectly invites us to ask, book. Their provocative questions challenged the panelists to put why shall we trust our viewing machines and imaging systems? In their own discourses and practices at risk, contributing in a rich a context where imaging systems use a variety of techniques to way to setting a stage where material struggles can take place. conjure or conceal images to trick us, how can we refuse cynicism and deterrence? Shall we, as Alexandre persuasively asks, “shock Regimes of Memory systems of discrimination to the point of malfunction?” Whether we choose to bring infrastructures to the point While organization may be the problem of biology, inventing of malfunction, if we want to refuse cynicism and deterrence, unforeseen regimes of memory is perhaps the problem of we have to be clear about what kind of knowledge infrastruc- contemporary material modes of being. Implicit in Tom Özden- tures are capable of producing. At the symposium, historian Schilling’s original contributions is the fact that material sciences Michelle Murphy warned us against infrastructures of gaslighting. do not necessarily owe their success to “breakthrough innovations,” Gaslighting is “a form of abuse in which a victim is manipulated but rather to a series of pragmatic diferences that impact the into doubting their own memory, perception, and sanity,” which, overall ecology of the discipline. When he explains the evolution Murphy insisted, recalls histories of colonialism and racism. of the Department of Mining at MIT, he invites us to remember the Avoiding cynicism and deterrence might thus be avoiding what social conditionings peculiar to disciplinary genealogies as well Natasha Schüll calls “economies of inattention,” to focus instead as to defy postdisciplinary inquiries that succeed often too well at on the invention of regimes of attention in which we give ourselves negating histories. Like Moufe, he perceives disciplinary struggles the conditions to notice the pragmatic efects and implications of (either based on the classification of objects or of objectives) as our cohabitation with technology. In the words of another audience enabling political vectors. member, we ought to ask, “At what point do we as humans and Deborah Douglas and Sandy Alexandre also take memory societies become the material that is programmed?” as a problem rather than a point of departure. In a beautiful way— In bringing the body back to the center of the creation and perhaps also in a disturbing one—they tell each other at a of social and political space to challenge its capacity to defy distance that memory links the histories of racism to the bootstrap systems of violence, mistrust, and exploitation, the “Wearable” of the digital computer; that narrations of blackness are related to section particularly took these warnings and questions seriously. the digital computer’s core memory. Together, they teach us that Paradoxically, several contributions to that section suggest that it is through the co-invention of materials and narratives that we the possibility of actively resisting gaslighting and disturbing can begin to imagine and to build regimes of memory capable of the algorithm or, in Alexandre’s words, “making your body out of enabling the coexistence of “speed and storage” in “real time,” on service,” may be actuated by moving away from the body to the the one hand, and of the retrospective time proper to techniques attachments and belongings produced by the materialities of its of narration, on the other. And there is more to feed the strug- wearables. Hussein Chalayan, Hyphen-Labs, and Amah Edoh all gle: while the exquisite image of the computer memory cord in work with the power of fabrics and textiles to actualize the shifts in Douglas’s paper—a grid structure made of ferrite cores and wires— value necessary for memories to efect pragmatic social change. gracefully afrms the materiality of memory, Alexandre urges us Wearables, by this account, are ethical modulators, an attendee to remember how the material memories of Black bodies led to at the symposium pointed out referring to Schüll’s work. Since distressful systems of exploitation. Indeed, Alexandre reminds they are “often so intimately close to the body,” another audience us of the violence associated with processes of “bodification” by member asked all panelists, “how do you see the balance of con- recalling how the materialities of Black bodies sustained slavery by nectedness with others’ desires and the need for privacy fitting in?” reducing bodies to “serviceable corporeals” through objectifying While this question may not be relevant to Akšamija’s conception them as “work machines.” of wearables, which she defines as “ephemeral and performative Alexandre’s sharp analysis finds an echo in Lisa Parks’s space” where contradictory forces cohabit, it is worth interrogating essay in which she shows that the infrastructures of transportation the conceptual velocity of the intimate relations that make possi- such as cars and highways use standards of size, proximity, and ble—and also constrain—technomaterial cohabitation. movement to embody wildlife and transform it into infrastructures for “secondary automobile markets.” Alexandre’s analysis vibrates Regimes of Intimacy and the even more intensely with Hyphen-Labs who, in their own artistic Need for Cautions Scaling practice, witnessed how algorithms reduce the bodies of Black women to physical traits and morphological features that mis- “The future way of life consists in the recovery of leadingly use biometrics to disappointingly succeed at reifying the the intimacy of life.”8 histories of racism and sexism. Seeking to challenge the “databasing of identities,” Hyphen-Labs ofer creative tools to counter—and In his essay, Benjamin Bratton uses the example of a liver trans- perhaps mock—the discriminatory power enacted by “the eye of plant to problematize the fields of proximity and exchangeability the algorithm.” At the symposium, an attendee asked if “we could proper to “matter that becomes us.” Moving from organ trans- train such systems to see the full spectrum of gender and race plants to the “food cycles that re-make us over and over again without building systems that lend themselves toward profiling/ each day,” he signals the necessity of inventing political regimes of categorization?” In his conversation with Parks, artist Trevor Paglen intimacy with our factories. His essay resonates with Lucy McRae’s refuses to resolve the controversy. He opens it even wider by conversation with Christina Agapakis. McRae also works on creat- explaining that systems trained to see diferences are discrimi- ing intimate encounters, not with food like her colleague Agapakis, natory in nature because they are at the same time trained to not but with wearables and audience members in the art gallery. Her see other diferences. This is another way of saying that to render Future Day Spa invites visitors to lie down in the gallery and to visible is to create invisibility. (Now, I would love to ask Paglen enter into a haptic experience made possible by a “second skin” about the doubling of invisibilities produced in the making and that is snuggled around the body. In so doing, her work exposes participants’ bodies to the gaze of gallery-goers, forcing an inti- 1. Alfred North Whitehead, The Axioms of macy that creates “an immediate sense of vulnerability.” However, Projective Geometry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1906). “vulnerability” in this context, as Stengers beautifully invites us to remember, “cannot be confused with fatality.”9 Vulnerability can 2. Raymond Ruyer, “La cybernétique et la finalité,” rather be defined as a political form of encounter that embraces Études Philosophiques 16, no. 2 (1961): 166. the risks of generating greater forms of intimacy. 3. Isabelle Stengers, The Invention of Modern We can hear the echo of the positive power of vulnerability Science (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota in Christina Agapakis and Tal Danino’s contributions. For Agapakis Press, 2000). as for Bratton, “we are what we eat,” and we need to provoke new 4. Isabelle Stengers, “Introductory Notes on an politics of encounters and cohabitation with the microbial world Ecology of Practices,” Cultural Studies Review 11, no. that surrounds and makes us. Actualizing her inquiry in the pro- 1 (2005): 183–196. duction of cheese cultured from the microbes of human bodies, 5. Isabelle Stengers, Cosmopolitics I, trans. Robert she provokes new forms of intimate interactions with our own Bonobo (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota microbial ecosystems. This is also the goal of Tal Danino who, in Press, 2010), 34. his Microuniverse series, works with microbes as “active collabo- 6. Gabriel Tarde, The Laws of Imitation, trans. Elsie rators” to “reveal the emergent efects of the hidden microscopic Clews Parsons (New York: Henry Holt, 1903), 70. universe on the macro scale,” which, he explains, suggest that 7. Chantal Moufe, “Artistic Activism and Agonistic “scales from the human body to the body politic are fundamentally Spaces,” Art and Research, A Journal of Ideas, reshaped by biotechnology.” While bacteria and microbes are Contexts and Methods 1, no. 2 (2007), http://www. everywhere, their ubiquitous presence, Nicholas Shapiro pointedly artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/moufe.html. reminds us, does not mean that they are apolitical, introducing 8. Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: by the same token the necessity for caution when we move from The Growth of a New Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard micro to macro scales. In addition, Danino and Shapiro show that University Press, 2008), xxxiv. bacteria, like toxins, are paradoxical in nature; they are essential 9. Stengers, Cosmopolitics I, 11. and destructive; respectively “agents of disease and beneficial microbes” and “agents of decay and preservation.” Shapiro may 10. Stengers, Cosmopolitics I. have disturbed you when he showed that while formaldehyde is used to preserve dead bodies, it may also be the original cause of that same body’s death. Can the politics of intimacy foregrounded in this volume enable shifts in scales that take into account the dual efects of toxins and bacteria? Put otherwise, how can we assess the diferences of the qualities of matter when we move from the microscopic to the macroscopic? For both Murphy and Shapiro, working from the molecular to the macroscopic may cause social hazards. For instance, and here I draw on Shapiro’s provocative essay, how could the ubiquity of toxins in our domestic architectures figure the pragmatics of their molecular activity? Pushing the controversy one step further, he asks us to question whether procedures of scaling can take into account the heterogeneity of bodies and at the same time generate common levels. Here Shapiro interrogates how scaling afects the “qualities of matter,” which, as Bratton explains in his essay, “depend upon categorization and symbolization.” At stake here is what Murphy invited us seriously to question at the very end of the symposium: “How can we scale things up?” Memory, intimacy, and scale have been used as conceptual landmarks to engage with the social innovations generated in this book. Negroponte and Tarde both insisted on how the new modalities of being digital (or of action at distance) would afect the space-time of our daily social life. It is the editors’ hope that the modes of being material presented here sustain their spiraling power and generate more possibilities of positive imitation and social innovation. We also hope that the political struggles and possibilities of active coexistence presented here resonate with the “elsewhere of other practices.”10

- - - 197 as a “cello rock star,” and by and by star,” rock “cello as a Contributors Rolling Stone Rolling as “a force of nature,” has been a featured per has been a featured nature,” of force “a as Boston Globe Boston locally and internationally as one of the greatest Balinese gamelan the greatest as one of and internationally locally literature represents matters concerning environmental racism racism concerning environmental matters represents literature body of work includes 12 solo albums and numerous multimedia includes 12 solo albums and numerous work of body ized by an adventurous, bold incorporation of technology and an technology of bold incorporation an adventurous, by ized ing member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars. www.mayabeiser.com All-Stars. a Can the Bang on of ing member biology to industrial engineering. She explores the aesthetics of of the aesthetics She explores engineering. industrial to biology the including reviving work collaborative through biotechnology and deterioration bias and by cultural by ected f is a social life how American violence shapes the way lynching of the history how into empowerment. into former on the world’s most prestigious stages, including Carnegie stages, prestigious most on the world’s former from the human body. from things. material for smell of extinct plants and making cheese using bacteria sampled and making cheese using bacteria plants extinct smell of Sandy Alexandre is Associate Professor at MIT. She researches She researches MIT. at Professor Associate is Alexandre Sandy migration, and forced displacement. Her art transforms alienation alienation art transforms Her displacement. and forced migration, Hussein Chalayan is a fashion designer. For more than twenty than twenty more For designer. is a fashion Chalayan Hussein the traditional values in music. in values the traditional a calcite cloak, invisibility an optical creating for is known He MIT. by praised Beiser, Maya the for Renowned Albert Hall. and Royal House, Opera Sydney Hall, Benjamin H. Bratton’s work spans philosophy, art, design and Normalprogramme at Strelka Institute of Media,Architecture and Design in HeMoscow. is also a Professor of Digital Design Theat European Graduate School andVisiting Faculty at the Southern years he has used clothing as a platform to display materials that that materials display to as a platform used clothing he has years Born to a family of artists in Bali in 1973, Dewa Alit was immersed in immersed Alit was Dewa in Bali in 1973, artists of a family Born to both is acknowledged childhood and early Balinese gamelan from Black American literature and culture. Her first book demonstrates demonstrates book first Her culture. and American literature Black and musician. composer Alit) is a Balinese Ketut Alit (I Dewa Dewa ability to address conceptual issues—such as disembodiment, issues—such as disembodiment, conceptual address to ability change state and transform themselves. His work is character His work themselves. and transform change state composers for his most radical but well-calculated approach to to approach but well-calculated radical his most for composers possible hiding objects in plain sight. make may that system crystal vast her solo cello performance, for path an innovative creating and a found University Yale of is a graduate Maya collaborations. computer science. He is ProfessorVisual of Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is Program DirectorThe of New at Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company that is bringing that design company organism an Bioworks, Ginkgo at explores practice multidisciplinary Her MIT. at Technology and writing She is currently ideology. American pastoral and the the history between the relationship which explores book another destruction of cultural infrastructures within the context of conflict, conflict, of within the context infrastructures cultural of destruction aspirations people’s black of and the emergence slavery chattel of California InstituteArchitecture. of George Barbastathis is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at at Engineering Mechanical of is Professor Barbastathis George Christina Agapakis is a biologist, artist, writer, and creative director director and creative writer, artist, is a biologist, Agapakis Christina amija is Associate Professor in the Program in Art, Culture Culture Art, in Program in the Professor Associate šamija is Ak Azra ,

- - - (MIT (MIT American , Art Journal Open Journal Art . BOMB Representations , and , , Editors Cabinet , (Princeton University Press, 2016). His essays His essays 2016). Press, University (Princeton Critical Inquiry The Wire The , Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial in Microbial Voyages Anthropological Alien Ocean: (University of California Press, 2009) and, most recently, recently, most and, 2009) Press, California of (University Experience: Culture, Cognition, and the Common Sense Cognition, Experience: Culture, Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of of Anthropology in the Essays Life: of Sounding the Limits by Yo-Yo Ma, Silk Road, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Project, Orchestra Modern the Boston Road, Silk Ma, Yo-Yo by have appeared in appeared have institutions, and artists engaged with modernism and mass culture. culture. mass and modernism with engaged artists and institutions, for for founder of the multidisciplinary design practice SJET LLC. SJET design practice the multidisciplinary of founder Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music and Faculty Director of of Director and Faculty Music of Professor Sahin Distinguished Skylar Tibbits is the founder and co-director of the Self-Assembly the Self-Assembly of and co-director Tibbits is the founder Skylar Stefan Helmreich is Professor of Anthropology at MIT. He is the He MIT. at Anthropology of is Professor Helmreich Stefan ment in 2012. She is an art historian and first joined the faculty at at joined the faculty and first She is an art historian in 2012. ment ronments. Her research residencies include: NASA’s Johnson Space Space Johnson NASA’s include: residencies research Her ronments. MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology. A noted composer, composer, noted A Technology. Science & Art, for Center MIT’s Press, 2016). She is currently preparing the book-length study study the book-length preparing She is currently 2016). Press, Kenan in 1990; he is currently faculty Ziporyn joined the MIT Evan Rebecca Uchill is Full-Time Lecturer in the Department of Art of in the Department Lecturer is Full-Time Uchill Rebecca of the University at Studies Media & Art History Education, of and Editor-in-Chief Dartmouth Massachusetts projects artist of and curator coeditor she was Fellow, Postdoctoral Department of Architecture. He has a professional degree in degree has a professional He Architecture. of Department in design computation and a master’s Philadelphia University, tieth-century art with an emphasis on media in transition, arts art with an emphasis on media in transition, tieth-century in the Design Research of Professor Associate and MIT Lab at Leila W. Kinney is Executive Director of Arts Initiatives at MIT in the MIT at Arts Initiatives of Director is Executive Kinney W. Leila the Department section of and Criticism Theory, in the History, MIT Fellow at MIT’s Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST). She She (CAST). Technology & Science Art, for Center MIT’s at Fellow Marie-Pier Boucher is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the the at Studies Media of Professor Assistant is Boucher Marie-Pier with Silk Road Ensemble, Steve Reich Ensemble, Bang on a Can Ensemble, Reich Steve Ensemble, Road with Silk works on the design habitatsof sustainingfor life in extreme envi University of Toronto and a former Mellon Postdoctoral Research Research Postdoctoral Mellon former a and Toronto of University and he has received awards and honors from USA Artists, the Artists, USA from and honors awards and he has received a publication of the College Art Association. As a former CAST CAST As a former Association. Art the College of a publication architecture and a minor in experimental computation from from computation in experimental and a minor architecture has worked He MIT. science from in computer and master’s fces including Zaha Hadid design o renowned of number a at author of of author and SymbioticA: Center for Excellence in Biological Arts. Arts. in Biological Excellence for Center and SymbioticA: conductor, and clarinetist, he is Artistic Director of the Ambient Ambient the of Director Artistic he is and clarinetist, conductor, of Architecture, where she specialized in nineteenth- and twen in nineteenth- she specialized where Architecture, of of of Biology and Beyond Orchestra and Gamelan Galak TIka and has worked extensively extensively and has worked TIka and Gamelan Galak Orchestra ce of the Provost and has been Executive Director of the MIT the MIT of Director and has been Executive the Provost Ofce of since its establish (CAST) Technology Science & Art, for Center Seas Centre; Centre; f Ban Science; of History the for Institute Planck Max Center; 2015) and Musical America Ensemble of the Year (2005) Year the of America Ensemble 2015) and Musical Biographies American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Grammy Awards (1999, (1999, Awards the Grammy Arts and Letters, of Academy American All-Stars, and Paul Simon. His music has been commissioned Simon. and Paul All-Stars, Percussion, So and Rider, Brooklyn Orchestra, Composers American Architects, Asymptote Architecture, and Point b Design, and is the b Design, and Point Architecture, Asymptote Architects, Anthropologist “Alexander Dorner and the Politics of Experience.” of and the Politics Dorner “Alexander metamorphosis, mobility, and forced migration—through fashion. fashion, creative writing, and film through new media and emerg- Chalayan’s experimental practice has turned the runway show into ing technologies. a sophisticated, multimedia form of performance art. Winona LaDuke is a rural development economist working on Tal Danino is a synthetic biologist and engineers some of the issues of economic, food, and energy sovereignty. She lives and smallest forms of life, in the form of “programmable” bacteria. He is works on the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, an Assistant Professor at Columbia University where he directs the and leads several organizations including Honor the Earth, interdisciplinary Synthetic Biological Systems Laboratory, trans- Anishinaabe Agriculture Institute, Akiing, and Winona’s Hemp. She forming living microorganisms like bacteria and cancer cells from is recognized as a leader in the areas of climate justice, renew- the laboratory into bioart works using various forms of media. able energy, environmental justice, and the work of protecting Indigenous plants and heritage foods from patenting and genetic Deborah G. Douglas is Director of Collections and Curator of engineering. She has authored six books including Recovering Science and Technology at the MIT Museum. A specialist in the the Sacred, All Our Relations, Last Standing Woman, and most history of technology and science, she has curated more than recently The Winona LaDuke Chronicles. three dozen exhibitions and is the author or contributor to nearly 40 books, articles, and reviews. Her most recent book is Countless Brendan Landis is Hey Exit, a songwriter and noise musician living Connecting Threads: MIT’s History Revealed through Its Most in Queens, New York. In addition to his own work under Hey Exit Evocative Objects. and Anura, he also plays in Tethers (TX), Big Hiatus (NY), and Esther Chlorine (CA). For recordings and performances, visit heyexit.com. Arnold Dreyblatt is an American media artist and composer. He has been based in Berlin, Germany since 1984. In 2007, Dreyblatt Grace Leslie is a flutist and electronic music improviser. She was elected to lifetime membership in the visual arts section at develops brain-music interfaces and other physiological sensor the German Academy of Art. He is currently Professor of Media systems that reveal aspects of her internal cognitive and afective Art at the Muthesius Academy of Art and Design in Kiel, Germany. state, those left unexpressed by sound or gesture, to an audience. Dreyblatt studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, She is an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Georgia and Alvin Lucier and media art with Woody and Steina Vasulka. Tech, where she directs the Brain Music Lab. Previously, she was a fellow at the Neukom Institute for Interdisciplinary Computation M. Amah Edoh is Assistant Professor of African Studies at MIT. at Dartmouth College, where she performed research in the Her research takes as its focus the circulation of material and Neurology Group at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. She visual objects across West Africa and Europe to interrogate the received her BA and MA in music from Stanford University and her production of Africa as a category of thought. She has conducted PhD in Music and Cognitive Science at the University of California, ethnographic fieldwork in Togo and the Netherlands. San Diego, where she studied the expressive movements and brain dynamics supporting music engagement at the Swartz Michelle Tolini Finamore is the Penny Vinik Curator of Fashion Center for Computational Neuroscience. Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where she curated the exhibitions Gender Bending Fashion, #techstyle, and Think Sarah LittleRedfeather is founder and designer of LittleRedfeather Pink. She is the author of Hollywood before Glamour: Fashion in Design, works in marketing, media, and creative for Honor The American Silent Film. Earth, and is a Water Protector. She describes herself as a modern-day warrior graphic designer. Her family heritage is of Ben Fry is principal of Fathom, a design and software consultancy the White Earth, MN Nation and Lac Court Oreilles Band of Lake located in Boston. He received his doctoral degree from the Superior Chippewa (Anishinaabe, Ojibwa, Ojibwe, and Chippewa), Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Laboratory. Fry among other points of origen. LittleRedfeather (Miskwaaens is co-founder of the Processing project (processing.org). Migiziwiwan) is her given Ojibwe name, from her mother of the Minn. Chippewa Band of White Earth. Victor Gama is a musician, composer, and instrument designer. He has an MA in Music Technology, Digital Organology from Bill Maurer is Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Professor The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design of at the University of California, Irvine. Maurer is a cultural anthro- London Metropolitan University, and a BSc in Electronics and pologist of law, property, and finance, examining how new kinds of Telecommunications from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia, monetary practices (around Bitcoin and mobile banking) commod- Lisbon. Gama has created the INSTRMNTS series of more than itize unexpected aspects of social, biological, and ecological life. twenty original musical instruments, has written works for the Kronos Quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra/MusicNow, the Lucy McRae is a science fiction artist, filmmaker, inventor, and Gulbenkian Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra/ body architect. Her work speculates on the future of human Kennedy Center, and has performed in such centers as Carnegie existence by exploring the limits of the body, beauty, biotechnol- Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kennedy Center, House of ogy, and the self. Selected major artworks have been exhibited at World Cultures Berlinm, and many more. the Science Museum London, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Venice Biennale. She is a visiting professor at the Southern Hyphen-Labs (Ashley Baccus-Clark, Ece Tankal, Nitzan Bartov, California Institute of Architecture and is recognized as a Young Carmen Aguilar y Wedge) designs and builds robust transme- Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. dia experiences by combining new and old ideas, crafts, and digital and physical media, ranging in scale from small products Tom Özden-Schilling is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at and prototypes to large architectural pavilions and installations. Johns Hopkins University. His research addresses the ongoing reor- Through their creative practice and artistic commissions, they ganization of technocratic conservation and First Nations capacity blend architecture, speculative and interactive design, digital arts, building in Western Canada, and he is currently writing a book titled

198

, - 199 e Instrumenty e Instrumenty ł Ma (2012), an ethnographic exploration of the of exploration an ethnographic (2012), Home Experiments with Musical Instruments with Musical Experiments Home (do-it-yourself) dedicated to education in the field of in the field of education to dedicated (do-it-yourself) has conducted research in the field of unusual sound sources. sources. unusual sound of in the field research has conducted introspection and self-governance they engender. engender. they and self-governance introspection fellow at Public Lab, and a collaborator on the Aerocene project. Aerocene the on and a collaborator Public Lab, at fellow self-building experimental musical instruments. He composed He instruments. musical experimental self-building platform for the visual arts. visual the for platform aw aw ł Wroc Culture of Capitol the European of the opening music for of design and the experience technology between relationship modes of and the new technologies digital self-tracking rise of e Instrumenty e Instrumenty ł Ma the ensemble of and leader is the founder He Los Angeles. Reas is cofounder of Processing, a programming a programming Processing, of is cofounder Reas Angeles. Los he Since 2006, composer. is a musician and ńczuk ł Roma Pawe (Small Instruments) and has written music for movies and the movies for music and has written Instruments) (Small Associate and anthropologist Schüll is a cultural D. Natasha and Culture, Media, of the department in Professor and Society Biology of Professor Assistant is an Nicholas Shapiro a longtime Initiative, and Governance Data the Environmental aters. In 2010, he wrote the first study of the history of toy piano; in toy of the history of study first the he wrote In 2010, aters. the album with together released a textbook addiction. Her current book project, “Keeping Track,” concerns the Track,” “Keeping project, book current Her addiction. of is a cofounder He Angeles. Los California, of University the at Casey Reas is an artist and professor at the University of California, California, of University the at professor and is an artist Reas Casey 2013, he published 2013, of She is the author University. York New at Communication 2016 and prepared performances with over 200 musicians. with over performances 2016 and prepared Addiction by Design by Addiction “Samoróbka” - project for dOCUMENTA(13) dOCUMENTA(13) for project soil-erg based currency system. She is Professor of Art at the School of the the School of Art at of She is Professor system. based currency uments invisible infrastructures, ranging from secret corporate corporate secret from ranging infrastructures, invisible uments Stanford University, works at the intersection of physical biology biology physical of the intersection at works University, Stanford movement. Prakash, an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Bioengineering at of Professor Assistant an Prakash, movement. research explores the cultural politics of satellites, drones, and drones, satellites, politics of cultural the explores research media infrastructures. making machines that on work her for known best researcher machines. make nonhuman, machine vision. machine nonhuman, Manu Prakash, Jim Cybulski, Rebecca Konte, Team Foldscope, Foldscope, Team Konte, Rebecca Jim Cybulski, Prakash, Manu Nadya Peek is an Assistant Professor at the University of of the University at Professor Assistant is an Peek Nadya Lisa Parks is Professor of Comparative Media Studies at MIT. Her Her MIT. at Studies Media Comparative of is Professor Lisa Parks Washington where she directs Machine Agency. She is a Agency. Machine she directs where Washington and computing. and the global Foldscope community developed the Foldscope, the Foldscope, developed community and the global Foldscope the frugal science of pioneers and are microscope, a dollar animates our planet. Her Her planet. our animates and government sites to networks known through technologies of of technologies through known networks to sites and government considered the material of soil as a commodity, proposing a soil- proposing soil as a commodity, of the material considered explore anthropogenic changes in the indivisible living entity that that the indivisible living entity changes in anthropogenic explore Claire Pentecost is an artist and writer using various media to media to various using writer and is an artist Pentecost Claire Art Institute of Chicago. of Art Institute Trevor Paglen is an artist and geographer who explores and doc explores who and geographer artist is an Paglen Trevor “Salvage Cartographies: Mapping Futures in a Northern Forest.” in a Northern Futures Mapping Cartographies: “Salvage Index

3D printing, 11, 30, 52, 61n10, Barad on, 144, 147, 152n8 Raman spectroscopy and, 83, 183 cellphone towers and, 169 Abolition, 134 144–146, 152n20 Audible material Acoustic instruments, 188–189 deer and, 150 algorithms and, 180 Acrux, 180–183 drones and, 141, 143, 146– Alit and, 174–175 "Active Matter" project, 7–8 147, 152n29, 198 Beiser and, 176 Actuated attention, 73–74 eagles and, 145, 147 computers and, 173, 180, Adorno, Theodor W., 62 infrastructural compulsion 183n4, 186, 188 Advanced Functional Fabrics of and, 150 digital musical America, 95 Large Animal Detection instruments and, Advexture, 146 System and, 150–151 180–183 Agapakis, Christina, 80–94, Migratory Bird Treaty Act Gymnopédie series and, 194–195, 197 and, 145 184, 185f, 190–191 Agency, 191 ospreys and, 144–151, Ziporyn and, 171–175 actuated, 73–74 152nn15,23,30 Automated Clearing House (ACH), autonomy and, 191 Parks on, 131, 144–153 112, 114–119 death and, 160n10 philosophical definitions Avant-garde, 43, 189 food and, 35, 73–74, 75n20 for, 144 Baccus-Clark, Ashley, 76–79, interdigitation and, 43 power grid and, 144–145, 197 livable material and, 128 148–151, 153n45 Bach, J. S., 173, 176 machine, 30–33 trafc and, 149–151 Bacteria, 110 toxicity and, 157 wildlife crossings and, as batteries, 43–44 wearable material and, 11 149–150 chemicals and, 154 Agonistic space, 193 "Anthropocene Project," 99 engineered, 87, 99 Aguilar y Wedge, Carmen, 76–79, Antony & The Johnsons, 60 fertilizers and, 109 197 Apollo computer, 19 food and, 39, 108, 197 Aidala, James, 157 Apple, 71, 73, 78 Microuniverse and, 102–107 Airmail Dress (Chalayan), 53f Arcades Project (Benjamin), 50 paradoxical nature of, 195 Air on the G String (Bach), Archambault, David, II, 122, Proteus mirabilis and, 107 173, 176 125 signals and, 34 Airplane Dress (Chalayan), 52 Arendt, Hannah, 62 ubiquitousness of, 102 AirShark, 146 Arnold Engineering Company, 16 Badouin, Patsy, 8 Akšamija, Azra, 62–65, 193–194, Ars Electronica, 89f, 91f Baile, Zhang, 163f 197 Artificial intelligence (AI), Baldwin, James, 135, 138 Albright, Madeleine, 143 8 Bamboos, 78 Alexandre, Sandy, 130–131, Biometric Mirror and, 92f, Banf National Park, 149 134–139, 194, 197 93–94 Barad, Karen, 144, 147, 152n8 Algorithms, 11, 194 data collection and, 70 Barbastathis, George, 130–132, audible material and, 180 deep learning and, 39–40 162–167, 194, 197 invisible material and, invisible material and, Barney, Darin, 100 130–131, 141, 162–165 130, 141, 162 Bartov, Nitzan, 76–79, 197 programmable material and, livable material and, 98 Battle of the Little Big Horn, 14–15, 38, 40 McCarthy and, 39 121 wearable material and, 71, mathematics and, 38 "Baumhaus an der Mauer" (Tree 73, 76–79, 93–94 PhENN and, 165, 166f House at the Wall), 99f Alipay, 114 physics and, 38 Bea1991, 85f–86f Alit, Dewa, 173–175, 197 synthetic cells and, 34, Being Digital (Negroponte), 7, Allegheny Ludlum Steel 39–40, 42n36 11, 70, 98, 118 Corporation, 16 wearable material and, 70, Being Ecological (Morton), 99 Amazon, 70, 75n28 84, 93–94 "Being Material" symposium, 6, Ambient Orchestra, 173, 190– Artificial life, 98 8–10, 99–100, 119, 132, 191, 196 ASCII encoding, 115 194 American Airlines, 19 Atoms Beiser, Maya, 173, 176–177, AND AND AND collective, 37 bits and, 11, 193 197 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 8 bombs and, 118 Belcher, Angela, 43, 169 Animal-infrastructure issues interdigitation and, 43 Beloved (Morrison), 134 analysis of intra-actions, material world and, 11 Benjamin, Walter, 50, 145 144–151, 152n8 programmable material and, Benson, Carol, 116 apes and, 147f, 148–149 15, 43 Berlant, Lauren, 139n8

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201 84, 94 60, 69, 71, 75n4, 80, 43 14–19, 30, 34–35, 39, 180, 183n4, 186, 188 130, 132, 141, 143, 146, 148–150, 162–163, 165 107, 114–118 130–132, 133n5, 140– 141, 144, 146 102, 107, 109 11–12 15, 34 160nn12,17,31 machine agency and, 30–33 memory and, 16–19 mining and, 11 wearable material and, machine learning and, microbes and, 87 microbes wearable material and, 52, Company, 116 programmable material and, programmable material and, phase objects and, 165 phase objects early days of, 14 code and, 20–25 audible material and, 173, signals and, 34, 109 signals and, 34, toxic, 130, 132, 154–159, toxic, 130, 132, residue and, 130 residue 161n45 197 invisible material and, invisible material and, livable material and, 98, livable material and, 99, Computers, 12, 194, 196–197 Colbert, Stephen, 72, 73f Cold War, 19 Communication, 197–198 Chin, Mel, 98, 101n13 Chin, Mel, 98, 107 Choi, DooEun, Chu, Nahj, 85f–86f 191 Ciccolini, Aldo, Citron, Max, 186 135, 142 Civil rights, 62 Clark, Lygia, Clay, Don, 157 Clean Air Act, 156, 160n31 Clean Water Act, 122 Clearing House Payments Cliford, Scott, 100f Climate change, 40, 159, Cloaking, 130–132, 162–167, CNC machining, 181 Code, 20–25 Coelho, Marcelo, 12 and, 50, and, 56 60 60 52, 53f, 56, 57f 50–52, 60 58f–59f, 60 57f, 60 52–56 and, 56 Readings collection and, Room Tone collection and, movement and, 56–60 One Hundred Eleven and, Benyus on, 127 bacteria and, 154 background of, 50 Pasatiempo collecton and, Place/Non-place collection Place to Passage Printing, 116 death and, 50, 52 Fashion Week and, 50, 52 ephemerality and, 50–56 Airborne collection and, Airmail Dress and, 53f Airplane Dress and, 52 –195, 197 34–42, 194 31f–33f Inertia collection and, 100f 180 158 152n20 food and, 34–40, 36, 155 The Tangent Flows Bratton, Benjamin H., 15, Benjamin H., Bratton, 60 soundscape, Bricolage 134 Brooks, Daphne, Brown, Bill, 135 77, 78 Browne, Simone, ford, Juliana, Brown Eyes-Cli BuckStop, 150 and Bureau of Engraving 146 BuzzAbove, The, Chanel, 52 Chemicals Central Saint Martins, 50 Cester, Thomas, 88f Chacha, 147f, 148–149 Chalayan, Hussein, 194, 197 CAD/CAM software, 14, 30, 39, CAD/CAM software, Cage, John, 173 California Air Resources Board, Cannon, Chris, 191 Cardboard Machine Kit, 30, Cardin, Pierre, 52 Carpenter, John, 34 Carse, Ashley, 146 Castile, Philando, 76 Cellphones, 29, 78, 144–146, (Kimmerer), (film), 95 (McRae), 92f, 87 83 80, 84, 98, 107, 197 38, 42n35 and, 11 and, 197 43 102 101n14, 107, 109 15, 34, 38–40, 42n30, 164, 167n25 (Ravel), 184 wearable material and, 80, wearable material and, 80, Campaign programmable material and, programmable material and, design advances in, 7 Foundation, 114 93–94 organization and, 193–194 synthetic, 11, 15, 38–40, 197 131, 137 134–138, 139nn1,10, 194, 159, 160n13 reproduction modification 186–187 193–196 111n2 152n2 industrial engineering industrial engineering and, invisible material livable material and, 98, livable material and, 98, Bitcoin, 11, 114, 198 Bitonti, Francis, 60 Black Lives Matter, 37, 121, Black narratives, 76–79, 131, Bisphenol A (BPA), 155–156, Bisphenol S (BPS), 156 Biotechnology, 195, 197–198 Biomimicry, 127–128 Braiding Sweetgrass Black Panther Bolero Biometric Mirror: Perfection Biology, 7 Bibens, Angela, 121 Bibens, Angela, Gates Bill and Melinda Bio-art, 98–99 Biobricks, 39 75n21, Biofeedback, 73, Berry, Daina Ramey, 134 Berry, Pam, 47f Berry, 70 Best Buy, Bose, Amar, 172–173 Boucher, Marie-Pier, 8, 11–13, Boeing, 127 Braidotti, Rosi, 144, 151, 47f, 49nn3,4,6, 50, Dorney, Steve, 89f 43, 180 60, 61n10, 76, 93 Douglas, Deborah G., 15–19, Facial recognition, 76, 78, Whirlwind Project and, 194, 197 130, 141, 143 16–19 Douris, Paul, 115–116 Fanon, Franz, 135 Concealing, 162–164 Down to Earth (Parks), 140 Farocki, Harun, 143 Conover, Roger, 8 Dresselhaus, Mildred, 169–170 Fashion Week, 50, 52 "Consciousness Beyond Drexler, Eric, 39 FEA (finite element analysis) Chemtrails" conference, 37 Dreyblatt, Arnold, 173, 178– software, 181 Corner, Chloe, 88f 179, 197 Federal Communication Cortese, Michelle, 78 Drones, 141, 143, 146–147, Commission (FCC), 146 Council for the Arts, 8 152n29, 198 Federal Emergency Management Cox, Christoph, 99 Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick), 36 Agency (FEMA), 132f, CPR fabric, 95 Du Bois, W. E. B., 131, 134– 157–158 Crane Currency, 116 135, 138 Federal Water Pollution Crary, Jonathan, 130 Dufy, Aaron, 88f Control Act, 156 Crazy Horse, 121 DuPont, 95 FEMA trailers, 132f, 157–158 CRISPR studies, 83–84, 87, Eagles, 145, 147 Fertilizer, 37, 108–109 93–94 Earth Day, 8 Figueiredo, Pedro, 179f Crouse, William, 88f Earthjustice, 122 File Header Record, 115 Culinary materialism, 34–40 E. chromi (Ginsberg and King), Filho, Souza, 169 Cute Circuit, 60 87 Finamore, Michelle Tolini, Cyber war, 114 Ecology of the Skin 50–61, 197 Cyborgs, 11, 47f (Rosenboom), 187 Fink, Yoel, 95 Cybulski, Jim, 26–29, 198 Ecosystems, 38, 87, 100, 102, Fisher, Sita, 80f Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), 108, 147, 195 Fletcherism, 73–74 120–125 Edison Film Company, 148 Foldscope, 26–29, 198 Damanian, R., 178f Edoh, M. Amah, 66–69, 194, 197 Fontana, D. C., 131 Danino, Tal, 99, 102–107, 195, Einstein, Albert, 166 Food, 172, 194, 198 197 Electrical Engineering additives and, 154 DartDrones, 146 magazine, 16 agency and, 35, 73–74, DAW skills, 184 Electrocardiograms (ECGs), 75n20 Day, Doris, 117 186–187 bacteria and, 39, 107–108, Day of Absence (Ward), 134, Electrodermal activity (EDA), 197 139n1 186–187 body and, 87, 108–109 DDT, 132, 155 Electroencaphalograms (EEGs), chemicals and, 155 Death Is the Food of Life 186–187 Fletcherism and, 73–74 (Pentecost), 111f Ellison, Ralph, 131, 136, GMOs and, 37, 121 Debiasi, Lukas, 12 139n23 Green Revolution and, 37 DeBruyn, Jennifer, 111n1 Elmer, Gustaf, 16 HAPIfork and, 70–74 "'Deeds Done in My Body, The': Embalming, 108, 160n10 high fat, 114 Black Feminist Theory, Embracing Animal (High), 98 microbes and, 34, 36, Performance, and the Truth Enbridge, 120, 125 42n36, 84, 87, 195 about Adah Isaacs Menken" Energy Transfer Partners, 120, Microuniverse and, 102, (Brooks), 134 125 107 Deep Dream, 163 Enriquez, Juan, 89f, 91f plants and, 108 Deep learning, 39–40, 79 Environmental Protection recipes and, 35–36 Defensible Dress (Yoon and Agency (EPA), 101n13, terraforming and, 37 Höweler), 48f 155–157, 160n32 Whole Foods Market and, Deltamax, 16 Enzymes, 39, 108, 154 36, 41n15 Democratic National Committee, Ephemerality, 50–56, 154–159 worldeating and, 34–40, 114 Essentialism, 36, 40, 62 41nn8,11 Demos, T. J., 37, 101n24 Ethics, 35, 39, 78, 98, 109, Forbes magazine, 70 Descartes, René, 50, 60 132, 149–150, 194 Formaldehyde, 132, 154–159, "Dialogue between Fashion and Every Recording of Gymnopédie 160nn13,14,31,32, 195 Death" (Leopard), 50 1 (Landis), 184, 185f, 191 Forrester, Jay, 16, 19f Digital music instruments, Exit Art, 98 Foster, Hal, 62 180–183 Experience: Culture, Cognition Fox, Andy, 145–146 Dion, Mark, 98 and the Common Sense Fracking, 122 Dior, Christian, 52 project, 7, 196 Fractals, 102, 187 Distributed denial of service Extended Binary Coded Decimal Fransen, Maaiki, 85f–86f (DDoS), 114 Interchange Code (EBCDIC), Freud, Sigmund, 34 DNA, 36, 39, 83, 89, 98, 154 115 Frugal science, 26–29 dOCUMENTA, 37 Fry, Ben, 14, 20–25, 197 Door Knocker, 78 Fabrication, 7, 14–15, 30, 39, Fueling Culture exhibition,

202

203 exhibition, (Ellison), 131, (Ellison), 131, –183 180 (Gama), (Danino), 107 pollutants (PEPs) and, 141, 162–165 141, 143, 146, 148– 150, 162–163, 165 132, 154–159 162 134–138, 139nn1,10 162–167, 197 132, 133n5, 140–141, 144, 146 (AI) and, 130, 141, Helmreich and, 169 biology and, 164, 167n25 black narratives and, Council, 122 Council, persistent ephemeral 89f–91f, 93 89f–91f, 99 computers and, 130, 132, cloaking and, 130–132, communication and, 130– algorithms and, 130–131, algorithms and, artificial intelligence 111n2 169–170 136 robots and, 130 (Pamuk), 56 Kang, E Roon, 8, 12, 75n4 Kazmierczak, Elzbieta, 180 Kelly, Kevin, 70–71, 73–74 Khoury, Philip, S., 8 Kim, Kimi, 107 Kimmerer, Robin Wall, 108, Kac, Eduardo, 98 Kafka, Franz, 110 Kaiser, David, 128n1 Kaluuya, Daniel, 131 Istanbul: Memories of a City Into the Holocene Invaders Invisible Man Instrmnts International Design Center, 7 Design International Treaty Indian International 99, Interstitial material, 95–96 Interweaving, 88f Inventors Lab, Intel 1102 chip, 19 1102 Intel 43–44 Interdigitation, 127–128 Interleaving, Invisible material Isaac, William, 114 ioulex, 177f iPhone, 114 iSky, 146 JanSport bags, 95 Jarzombek, Mark, 100 Jawbone UP wristband, 71 Jeferies, Ryan, 92f–93f Jeremijenko, Natalie, 98 Jones, Alex, 35–36 Jones, Caroline, 7 Jung, Carl, 50, 60 (McRae), (Steyerl), (Kelly), 70 (film series), 50, 50, series), (film website, 35–36 97–101, 127 50–60, 194, 197 129–133, 169 Nanotechnology (ISN), Network, 122, 124 materials of, 60 movement and, 56–60 CV of, 196 Chalayan fashion and, 95–96 9–10 ephemerality and, 50–56 52, 131, 163 48f 131f 178, 194 166, 167n13 101n14, 144 185f, 190–191 185f, 125f, 198 invisible material and, livable material and, Hartman, Saidiya, 77 Hartman, Saidiya, der Welt, 99 Haus der Kulturen 36 Haynes, Todd, 60 Hegarty, Antony, rey, 85f–86f Heilagers, Jef Helmreich, Stefan, 11–12 How Not to Be Seen Harry Potter Human Genome Project, 98 Hurricane Katrina, 157 HyperFace, 76–78 Hyphen-Labs, 76–79, 194, 197 Hallucinating, 110, 132, 162– 110, 132, Hallucinating, 70–74 HAPIfork, 37, 41n6, 99, Haraway, Donna, 98 Harrison, Helen, 98 Harrison, Newton, Haacke, Hans, 98 Hans, Haacke, 62 Jürgen, Habermas, 114, 159 Hackers, Storrs, 39 Hall, J. Hiscock, Rose, 92f–93f Hogben, Ruth, 60 Honor the Earth, 100f, 120f– Horse Nations, 123f–125f Höweler, Eric, 48f Herrick, Robert, 130f Hess, Bart, 81f–82f Hetherington, L. Barry, 6, High, Kathy, 98 Hildegard von Bingen, 176 Infowars Institute of Isolation Inevitable, The Innis, Harold, 145 Institute for Soldier Infinity Burial Suit (Lee), IBM, 16, 19 IDifNet, 166 Imaging, 141, 143, 162–167, Immateriality Indigenous Environmental (McRae), (McRae), (Salukat), 175 reproduction and, (Harrison and series (Satie), 184, 98 87, 93–94 98, 154 38–40 34 109 165 (film), 131 (Salukat), 175 website, 35–36 Human Genome Project and, Hess), 81f Harrison), 98 modified organisms and, mutations and, 102 DNA and, 36, 39, 83, 89, GFP bunny and, 98 CRISPR studies and, 83–84, CRISPR studies programmable material and, 82f LaDuke and, 198 89, 93, 194 87–89, editing and, 11, 89, 98 ects and, 154, chemical efects and, 154, synthetic cells and, 39 systems biology and, 39 100 148 197 formaldehyde and, 154 inheritance and, 98 lamella (GMOs), 37, 121 Gymnopédie Green Heart Goop Get Out Genetic Gamelan Evolusi Great Apes Information Network, Great Masticator, 73 Green capitalism, 127 Gore-Tex, 95 Gorsuch, Anne M., 157, 160n32 Gower, Daniel, 89f, 91f Grant, Cary, 117 Goetz, Thomas, 70 Gingko Bioworks, 80 Ginsberg, Daisy, 87 Glatt, David, 122 GNU public license, 191 Geoengineering, 37 Germination, Day 8 (McRae and Green Revolution, 37 Grow on You (McRae and Hess), Greenhouse gases, 159, 161n45 Gaslighting, 194 16 Gaugler, Edward, 166 General relativity, organisms Genetically modified Genetics Gaba, Meschac, 62 Gaba, Meschac, Peter, 143 Galison, John, 52 Galliano, –183, 173, 180 Gama, Victor, Future Day Spa, The "GFP bunny" (Kac), 98 King, James, 87 Lotito, Michel, 34–40 7–8, 11–12, 196 King, Martin Luther, 60 Love, Julian, 90f Chapel, 186 King, Mathew, 125 Lovelace, Ada, 14 Department of Mining, 43, King Kong films, 148 Lucier, Alvin, 172, 173f, 187 194 Kinney, Leila W., 7–8, 11–12, Lumo Lift pin, 71, 73 List Visual Arts Center, 45–49, 196 Lupton, Deborah, 71, 75n4 99 Knight, Nick, 60 MacArthur Foundation, 43 Media Lab, 7, 57f, 70, 74, Kohn, Eduardo, 127–128 Machine agency, 30–33, 198 197 Konnikova, Maria, 49n3 Machine Histories, 88f Nano Lab, 169, 170 Konte, Rebecca, 26–29, 198 Machine learning, 11–12, 40, Nanomechanics of Materials Kootenai, 149 114, 150 and Biomaterials Kristensen, Dorthe, 75n25 Magnetic ink character (course), 95 Kronos Quartet, 130, 197 recognition (MICR), Mnisose, 120–122, 125 Kubrick, Stanley, 36 115–116 Mody, Cyrus, 169 Kurtz, Ron, 8 Magnetom (Dreyblatt), 178 Moe, Kiel, 158 Lacan, Jacques, 34, 40, 41n2 MakeyMakey, 14 Mol, Annemarie, 73 Ladstaetter, Florian, 52 Make Your Maker (McRae), 85f– Money, 112–118 LaDuke, 120–126, 198 86f, 87 Monod, Jacques, 34 Lakota, 120–121, 125 Mama, Jack, 80f Moon, Soonhee, 102, 102f, 103f, Lamella, 34, 40, 181 "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe" 107f Landis, Brendan, 173, 184–185, (Spillers), 137 Moore, Eric, 145 190–191, 198 Mann, Steve, 47f Moose Guard, 150 Langton, Christopher, 98 Man Ray, 52 Morrison, Toni, 134 Large Animal Detection System, March for Science, 8 Morton, Timothy, 99 150–151 Marks, Lisa, 187f Moufe, Chantal, 62, 193–194 Lauren, Ralph, 60 Marlow, Jesse, 92f–93f M-Pesa, 114 Law, John, 73 Maurer, Bill, 100, 112–119, Murphy, Michelle, 132, 160n12, LayAR, 107 198 194–195 Lee, Jae Rhim, 48f McArthur, Douglas, 149 Music for Solo Performer Leonhard, Ulf, 163f McCarthy, John, 39 (Lucier), 187 Leopard, Giacomo, 50 McDermott, Eugene, 8 Nahko Bear, 124f Leslie, Grace, 173, 186–187, McGee, Ashley, 88f Nanotubes, 169 198 McLuhan, Marshall, 70 National ACH Association Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 128 McQueen, Alexander, 52 (NACHA), 112, 115 Libraries for Birds (Dion), 98 McRae, Lucy, 80–94, 194, 198 National Environmental Policy Liftware, 74 Memory, 16–19 Act (NEPA), 122 LIGO experiment, 166 Menken, Adah Isaacs, 134 Native Lives Matter, 121 Ligon, Glenn, 137f, 138 Metamaterials, 11 Natural Law Party, 37 Lin, Henry W., 38 Methane, 108–109, 159, 161n45 Natural Resources Defense Lindee, M. Susan, 98 Microbes Council, 157 LittleBits, 14 Danino and, 102–107 Negroponte, Nicholas Little Invaders (Danino), 107f food and, 34, 36, 42n36, Being Digital, 7, 11, 70, LittleRedFeather, Sarah, 100f, 84, 87, 195 98, 118 120–126, 198 livable material and, digital transfers and, 116 Liu, Cixin, 34 102–109 "edible bits" and, 70–71 Livable material ProbioPET and, 87 innovation and, 193 agency and, 128 skin, 84 Media Lab and, 74 artificial intelligence Microbial Rainbow (Danino), proven claims of, 11 (AI) and, 98 104f–106f Tarde and, 193, 195 artificial life and, 98 Microbiome Jewelry, 87 Nelkin, Dorothy, 98 biology and, 98, 101n14, Microscopy, 26–29 Nesting, Escaping, Crossing 107, 109 Microuniverse (Danino), 99, (video), 145, 148f, 150f biotechnology and, 98, 102 102–107, 195 NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism communication and, 99, Middle East and North Africa (NSAF), 76–79 102, 107, 109 (MENA) region, 62–65 Nike, 127 computers and, 98, 107, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 145 Nitinol, 52 114–118 Minerals, 11, 34, 38, 108, 110, Ntelos, 145–146 lamella and, 34, 40, 181 121 Obama, Barack, 158, 163 microbes and, 102–109 Mining, 11, 43, 141 Object-oriented platforms, 15 synthetics and, 98, 107, Mirzoef, Nicholas, 99 Occupational Safety and Health 109 Missouri River, 120–122, 125 Administration (OSHA), 157 teleonomy and, 34 MIT Octavia Electrodes, 79 vitality and, 98, 148 Center for Art, Science O eu e o tu (Clark), 62 London Design Festival, 89 & Technology (CAST), Ofce of Naval Research, 16

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205 , 107 (Gama), 181, (Chin), 98

40, 41n17 38–40, 36, 42n30 42n30 130 14–15, 20, 30, 40, (Arabic weaving), 62 Machine, 124f wearable material and, 52 programmable material and, 15, 34, –15, and, 14 synthetics 198 183 invisible material and, 15, 39, 14–15, and, Tibbits 70 (Kafka), 110 (film), 148 Rodenhouse, Jenny, 84 Rodriguez, Clark M., 113f Rolnick, David, 38 188–190, 173, Paweł, Romańczuk, Rosenboom, David, 187 Rouf, Agathe, 52 Rubner, Michael, 127–128 RubyCam, 78 Russolo, Luigi, 172–173, 189 Ruyer, Raymond, 193 Rymes, Busta, 146 Revealing, 60, 162, 164–165 Foundation, Johnson Wood Robert Robots, 7 Report to an Academy, A Revival Field Rise of the Planet of the Apes Rezende, Sérgio, 169 Rabanne, Paco, 52 Rabanne, Paco, 16 Rajchman, Jan, 115f Rappaport, Roy, 184 Ravel, Maurice, Raytheon, 95 157 Reagan, Ronald, 20–25, 198 Reas, Casey, 14, 89 Re/code conference, Reichel, Hans, 189 Qualcomm, 88f Qualcomm, 70, 74 Self (QS), Quantified R., 156 Quarles, John Quatro Momentos SABRE, 19 Sadu Sanctorius, 72, 74 Satellites, 100, 140–143, 198 Satie, Erik, 173, 184, 190–191 Scatter Their Own (band), 100f ScatterViz, 79 Schiaparelli, Elsa, 52 Schnugg, Claudia, 89f, 91f Safe Drinking Water Act, 156 SAGE, 19 Sage and Prayer Against the Salish, 149 Salukat, 174–175 Proteus mirabilis PyGestalt, 30 PyGestalt, "Safe" (film), 36 Control Act and, 156 Control Act and, pollutants (PEPs), pollutants (POPs), Agency (EPA) and, Agency (EPA) and, Act (TSCA) and, 38–40, 42n30, 43 34–35, 39, 43 and, 156 40, 42n30 40 42n35 160n13 160n31 101n13, 155–157, 160n32 108–109 132, 154–159, 160nn13,14,31,32, 195 132, 154–159 155–156 156–157 157–158 water, 109, 122 Safe Drinking Water Act Design), 80f BPS and, 156 BPS and, 156, 159, 155–156, 159, BPA and, biology and, 15, 34, biotechnology and, 38, PCBs and, 132, 155–156 PFASs and, 156 Clean Air Act and, 156, Act and, 156, Clean Air and, 122 Clean Water Act Environmental Protection Environmental persistent ephemeral persistent organic pesticides and, 109, 121, Federal Water Pollution Federal Water Lovelace and, 14 open source, 14 genetics and, 38–40 code and, 20–25 communication and, 15, 34 computers and, 14–19, 30, air, 114, 161n44 air, 114, algorithms and, 14–15, 38, atoms and, 15, 43 signals and, 34 robots and, 14–15, 20, 30, fertilizer and, 37, fertilizer and, formaldehyde and, impact of, 14 Toxic Substances Control –136 135 (Wilson), 40, 42n36 39–40, Sascha, Pohflepp, Pollution Polymers, 95, 127–128 Post, Rehmi, 47f Prado Basin, 149–150 Prakash, Manu, 15, 26–29, 198 Probes Bubble Dress (Philips ProbioPET, 87 Processing platform, 14, 20–25 Programmable material (Gama), (Chalayan), pollutants (PEPs), 132, –170, 95–96, 127–128, 169 exhibition, 98–99 56 50–52, 60 the Genetic Revolution 181 154–159 111, 198 115f, 116 140–153, 194, 198 152nn15,23,30 194, 198 140–143, 194, 198 114 (Atlanta Monetary Museum), (Gama), 183 (POPs), 155–156 Özden-Schilling, Tom, 43–44, Özden-Schilling, Open source, 14 Point, 112, Operation Choke 35, 194 Organ donor programs, Orta, Lucy, 62 84 Ortega, Kristina, Ospreys, 144–151, Oliver, Rich, 115 Rich, Oliver, Pauline, 187 Oliveros, Art, 39 Olsen, Kenneth, 19 Olsen, Eleven (Chalayan), One Hundred OFF-sprey, 146 OFF-sprey, 114 Ofo, Place to Passage Poems of the Black Object Pieces for Acrux and Toha Pangeia Instrumentos Paradise Now: Picturing Papian, William, 16 Pesticides, 109, 121, 156–157 PFASs, 156 PhENN, 165, 166f Philips Design, 80, 83 Pick Sloan project, 121 Permenorm 5,000–Z, 16 Persistent ephemeral Persistent organic pollutants Peek, Nadya, 14–15, 30–33, 198 Peirce, Charles, 128 Pendry, John B., 163f Pentecost, Claire, 100, 108– Pentland, Alex, 47f Peralta, Rui, 181f Payment systems, 112–118 PayPal, 114–115 PCBs, 132, 155–156 Parker, Alice, 92f–93f Parks, Lisa, 6, 100, 130–131, Partners Healthcare, 95 Paulussen, Christian, 85f–86f Paltrow, Gwyneth, 35–36 Pamuk, Orhan, 56 Paglen, Trevor, 6, 130–131, "Payment Services 2200" "Pipelines" (Barney), 100 School for Poetic Computation, Soundscapes, 60, 173 Taptic Engine, 71 76 Soundward Corporation, 173 Tarde, Gabriel, 193, 195 Schroedter, Michael, 173f Soviet Union, 19 Tayler, Norman, 19 Schüll, Natasha D., 70–75, 194, SPARKS, 89f, 91f Team Foldscope, 26–29, 198 198 Spectroscopy, 169 Techniques of the Observer Scientific American journal, Spero, Ellan, 95 (Crary), 130 43 Spillers, Hortense, 137 Tegmark, Max, 38 Scott, Joe, 52 Spin Ensemble (Dreyblatt), 178 Teleonomy, 34 Screenwear, 79 Spire, 71 Tesla, Nikola, 178f Seattle Up House, 173 Sprint, 146, 147 That Touch of Mink (film), "Seeing, Sounding, Sensing" Square, 115 117–118 symposium, 7 Standing Rock, 121–125 Thing theory, 135 Self-assembly, 7, 11–12, 39, Starner, Thad, 47f Thoreau, Henry David, 108 42n30, 196 Star Trek series, 131 Three Body Problem, The (Liu), Selfmade, 86f, 87 Static medicine, 72f 34 Self-Portrait Exaggerating Stengers, Isabelle, 193, 195 Tibbits, Skylar, 7–8, 11–15, My Black Features/Self- Stephen A. Schwarzman College 39, 42n30, 196 Portrait Exaggerating My of Computing, 8 Tilbury, Nancy, 80f White Features (Ligon), Sterling, Alton, 76 Toha, 182f, 183 137f, 138 Steyerl, Hito, 131, 133n5, 136 Tohoku Electric Power, 149 Self-tracking technology, Stipe, 115 Tolaas, Sissel, 86f, 87 70–74, 75nn13,25, 198 Stoetzer, Bettina, 99 Tope, Paul, 52 Semiotics, 34, 36, 40, 128, STRAM chips, 19 "Touch It" (Rymes), 146 180 Strathern, Marilyn, 116 Toxic Substances Control Act Sensor Salon (Ortega and Stuck, Alexandra, 85f–86f (TSCA), 157–158 Rodenhouse), 84 Stuf of Bits, The (Dourish), Traditional tailoring, 66–69 Serralves Museum, 179f 115–116 Trafc, 128, 140, 174 Serres, Michel, 117 Surveillance Transistors, 14, 43–44 Shapiro, Nicholas, 132, 154– biodiversity, 27f Transmediale Festival, 140, 161, 195, 198 biometrics and, 150 152n1 Shiva, Vandana, 37 environmental, 157 Transplantation, 35, 194 Shonibare, Yinka, 62 government, 114, 130–131 Trump, Donald, 76, 114 SHOWstudio, 60 Hyphen-Labs and, 76–79 Truth, Sojourner, 134 Siegel, Mikey, 48f satellites, 100, 140–143, Turntable History (Dreyblatt), Siemens Magnetom Symphony 198 178 Maestro Class, 178 Swallowable Parfum (McRae), Turtle Hill, 123f Sierra Club, 122, 124, 157 83f, 85f Twin, Aphex, 181 Sight Machine (Paglen), 130– Swarovski crystals, 60 Two Create, 88f 131, 140f Swartz, Lana, 116 Uchill, Rebecca, 7, 11–13 Signals, 34, 109 Symbiontics, 101n27 CV of, 196 Singuhr Gallery, 178 Synthetic Aesthetics, 87 invisible material and, Sitting Bull, 120–121, 125 Synthetics 129–133, 167–168 SkyShots, 146 artificial intelligence livable material and, Slavery, 35, 76, 99, 118, 131, (AI) and, 34, 39–40, 97–101 134, 136, 139n1, 194, 197 42n36 United Nations, 120, 122 Smart backpacks, 95 biology and, 11, 15, US Agency for Toxic Substances Smart clothes, 47f 38–40, 80, 84, 98, Disease Registry (ATSDR), Smart forks, 70–74 107, 197 157 SMART Labs, 162–163 livable material and, 98, US Air Force, 16, 19 Smith, Brian Cantwell, 117 107, 109 US Army Corps of Engineers, Smith, Jefrey M., 37 programmable material and, 122, 125 Smith, Julius O., 180 14–15, 34, 36, 38–40, US Department of Housing and Snapchat, 76 41n17 Urban Development (HUD), Social media, 60, 76, 141 wearable material and, 80, 157 Sodderland, Lotje, 89f, 91f 84, 87 US Department of Soil Chroma series (Pentecost), Systems biology, 39, 42n33, Transportation, 122 109f 197 US Naval Ordnance Laboratory, soil-erg series (Pentecost), Tactical Biopolitics 16 100, 108, 110, 198 (magazine), 99 US Patent Ofce, 16 Sonic Visualiser, 191 Tanah Sedang Bicara [Land Is US Technical Industrial Sonnad, Nikhil, 35 Talking] (Alit), 174–175 Intelligence Committee, 16 Sonora Desert, 149, 150 Tangent Flows, The (Chalayan), Utility Fog (Hall), 39 Souls of Black Folk, The (Du 50, 60 UV Beams, 78 Bois), 138 Tankal, Ece, 76–79, 197 Valéry, Paul, 108

206

207 magazine, magazine, , 190–191 (Akšamija), (Alit), 174, 175f magazine, 70 CV of, 196 Alit and, 174–175 audible works and, 171–175 62–65, 193–194 Gymnopédie Z programmable works and, 1864" display, 120 display, 1864" 167nn2,21 11–12 70 Wired Whole Earth Review Whitman, Polyanna, 88f Polyanna, Whitman, Wodiczko, Krzysztof, 62 Wodiczko, Krzysztof, Wolf, Gary, 70 11 World Wide Web, 125 Wounded Knee, 92f–93f Wouters, Niels, –71 Wristbands, 70 Whole Foods Market, 36, 41n15 Market, 36, Whole Foods Norbert, 11 Wiener, 114 Wikileaks, 146 Wildlife Shield, 135–136 Wilson, Ronaldo, X-rays, 19, 163, 165, X-rays, 19, 163,

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