458 research outputs found
Sounding Situated Knowledges - Echo in Archaeoacoustics
This article proposes that feminist epistemologies via Donna Haraway's âSituated Knowledgesâ can be productively brought to bear upon theories of sonic knowledge production, as âsounding situated knowledges.â Sounding situated knowledges re-reads debates around the ânature of soundâ with a Harawayan notion of the ânatureculture of sound.â This aims to disrupt a traditional subject-object relation which I argue has perpetuated a pervasive âsonic naturalismâ in sound studies. The emerging field of archaeoacoustics (acoustic archaeology), which examines the role of sound in human behaviour in archaeology, is theorized as an opening with potentially profound consequences for sonic knowledge production which are not currently being realized. The echo is conceived as a material-semiotic articulation, which akin to Haraway's infamous cyborg, serves as a feminist figuration which enables this renegotiation. Archaeoacoustics research, read following Haraway both reflectively and diffractively, is understood as a critical juncture for sound studies which exposes the necessity of both embodiedness and situatedness for sonic knowledge production. Given the potential opened up by archaeoacoustics through the figure of echo, a critical renegotiation of the subject-object relation in sound studies is suggested as central in further developing theories of sonic knowledge production
Beyond the Hoax: A Response to Emily A. Schultz
I am grateful to the editors of Reviews in Anthropology for giving me the opportunity
to respond to Emily Schultzâs review (2010) of my book Beyond the Hoax: Science,
Philosophy and Culture (2008). I shall begin by briefly correcting several of Schultzâs
misrepresentations of my ideas. I shall then endeavor to address the intellectually
interesting issues that she raises
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Lets Talk about Race: Identity, Chatbots, and AI
Why is it so hard for chatbots to talk about race? This work explores how the biased contents of databases, the syntactic focus of natural language processing, and the opaque nature of deep learning algorithms cause chatbots difficulty in handling race-talk. In each of these areas, the tensions between race and chatbots create new opportunities for people and machines. By making the abstract and disparate qualities of this problem space tangible, we can develop chatbots that are more capable of handling race-talk in its many forms. Our goal is to provide the HCI community with ways to begin addressing the question, how can chatbots handle race-talk in new and improved ways
Translating environments
Far from being inert materials activated by human ingenuity, natural resources come to be made and unmade through ongoing processes of translation, through which they acquire new potentialities and meanings. In this introduction, we review the key concept of translation for anthropology and explore some of its multiple analytical possibilities in the context of human-environment relations. Based on insights offered by the articles in this collection, we propose a twofold definition of environments as both translating subjects and objects of translation. In grounding our analytical definition, we focus on the enactment of material transformations (as the result of both relations of mutual determination with humans and processes of objectification of the environment), the implications of incommensurability and erasure in processes of (attempted) translation, and the indeterminacy that accompanies (re)configurations of materials, relations and values
Screening for breast cancer : medicalization, visualization and the embodied experience
Womenâs perspectives on breast screening (mammography and breast awareness) were explored in interviews with midlife women sampled for diversity of background and health experience. Attending mammography screening was considered a social obligation despite womenâs fears and experiences of discomfort. Women gave considerable legitimacy to mammography visualizations of the breast, and the expert interpretation of these. In comparison, women lacked confidence in breast awareness practices, directly comparing their sensory capabilities with those of the mammogram, although mammography screening did not substitute breast awareness in a straightforward way. The authors argue that reliance on visualizing technology may create a fragmented sense of the body, separating the at risk breast from embodied experience
Katie Mitchell: feminist director as pedagogue
An Actor Prepares relates the reciprocal dialogue between teacherâdirector and actor to offer a pedagogical enquiry that moves beyond methodology to focus on the learning exchange. In the first decades of the twentieth century teacherâdirectors, predominantly male, were responsible for developing theatrical pedagogies. In the twenty-first century, it is rare to focus on the director as pedagogue or attend to the complex learning exchange between director and actor. Furthermore, curriculums continue to be dominated by predominantly male lineages. Yet a focus on pedagogical approaches allows us to look behind methodologies, what an actor does, to consider how an actor learns. What might a gendered consideration of rehearsal practices reveal about the particular features of acting pedagogy? How do feminist interventions reconsider aspects of Stanislavskiâs approach? I turn to the developed pedagogy of Katie Mitchell to examine her work as a form of Ă©criture fĂ©minine which creates a post-Stanislavski schooling for actors. Applying a methodology for observing pedagogic practice in the rehearsal room that has been developed over four years of research I consider her approach, drawing upon two extended interviews, observations across four rehearsal processes and interviews with the actors involved. I reflect on her process through a gendered lens as an evolved form of method of physical action, which I re-orientate as a method of feminist action. The particular features of this pedagogy map Mitchellâs contribution to developing twenty-first century actor training from a feminist position
Microaggressions as New Political Material for Feminist Scholars and Activists: Perspectives from Continental Philosophy, the New Materialisms, and Popular Culture
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