Presented as part of the Digital Culture Research Network's Forum seminar series
A Dark Strangelove, or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the 'dark' side of digital
With Dr Elinor Carmi (University of Liverpool)
As digital scholars we are often encouraged to do ‘cross-disciplinary research’ but what does that actually mean? In this forum, I will take you through my methodological journey to the dark side of the digital and argue that, in fact, it is not dark at all. During the session I will amplify what are the strengths and weaknesses of mixing disciplines to examine digital phenomena. Specifically, I show how I mixed different disciplines such as science and technology studies, software studies, feminist technoscience, internet governance, and in particular sound studies, to examine spam and other deviant digital behaviours. This seminar will show you that sometimes it is good to burn your idols (metaphorically), to be able to explore digital objects, practices and cultures which are neglected, forgotten or ‘boring’.
Bio: @Elinor_Carmi is a digital rights advocate, feminist, researcher and journalist who has been working, writing and teaching on deviant media, internet standards, feminist-technoscience, sound studies, internet history and internet governance. Currently, she is a postdoc research associate in digital culture and society at Liverpool University (UK) where she works on several ESRC and AHRC projects around digital ways of being, digital inclusion and digital literacies. In addition to writing her book about spam, she is also working on special issues for IJOC about sound publics and TC&S about (re)designing media time. She also organises events around data politics, the most recent one was in April 2018 - The Data Mass. Before academia, Elinor worked in the EDM industry, was a radio broadcaster and a music television editor. In 2013, she published a book about the Israeli Psytrance culture titled: TranceMission: The Psytrance Culture in Israel 1989-1999 (Resline Publishing).