iMedia: The Gendering of Objects, Environments and Smart Materials
Sarah Kember
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
Sisu
“What can queer feminist writing strategies such as parody and irony do to outsmart the sexism of smart objects, environments and materials and open out the new dialecticism of structure and scale, critique and creativity? Drawing on science and technology studies and feminist theory, this book examines the genderin of current and future media technologies such as smartphones, Google glass, robot nurses, tablets and face recognition, Kember argues that there is a tendency to affirm and celebrate the existence of smart and often sexist objects, environments and materials in themselves; to elide writing and other forms of mediation; and to engage in disembodied knowledge practices. Disembodied knowledge practices tend toward a scientism that currently includes physics envy and are often masculinist. Where there is some degree of convergence between masculinist and feminist thinking about objects, environments and materials, there is also divergence, conflict and the possible opening toward a politics of imedia. Presenting a lively manifesto for refiguring imedia, this book forms an often neglected gender critique of developments in smart technologies”–Publisher’s description.
Sisukord
Preface : A tale of smoke and mirrors or where is the i in iMedia? — introduction : objects, environments and materials — iMedia manifesto part I : remember Cinderella : glass as a fantasy figure of feminine and feminized labor — Ubiquitous women : everywhere, everyware and everywear — interlude 1 : excerpt from A day in the life of Janet Smart — iMedia manifesto part II : tell a her story : on writer as queer feminist praxis — interlude 2 : excerpt from A day in the life of Janet Smart — Conclusion : iMedia otherwise.[/su_expand]