Sonja Solomun | McGill University (original) (raw)
Papers by Sonja Solomun
ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology ... more ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology 1.1. Contextualizing Cultural Memory 1 1.2 Thesis Overview 14 CHAPTER TWO X=Y: Toward A Sociology of Metaphor 2.
Selected papers of internet research, Sep 15, 2021
Cybersecure Policy Exchange, 2022
Canada’s investment in developing AI systems has not been matched by a comparable effort to regul... more Canada’s investment in developing AI systems has not been matched by a comparable effort to regulate the technology. While we are encouraged by these initial efforts to regulate AI systems in Canada, we share several key concerns, with corresponding recommendations to improve the proposed framework, particularly under the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) of the newly tabled Bill C-27: Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022.
ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology ... more ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology 1.1. Contextualizing Cultural Memory 1 1.2 Thesis Overview 14 CHAPTER TWO X=Y: Toward A Sociology of Metaphor 2.
... a sociotechnical practice or performance (Bowker 2005). ... serve as defining distinctions be... more ... a sociotechnical practice or performance (Bowker 2005). ... serve as defining distinctions between analogue‟ and digital‟ photography in relation to ... In the mouths of politicians, metaphor subtly nudges public opinion; in the minds of businesspeople, it spurs creativity and ...
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021
This paper explores and contextualizes recent activism in 2019-2020 around Amazon’s San Bernardin... more This paper explores and contextualizes recent activism in 2019-2020 around Amazon’s San Bernardino airport warehouse expansion. While California has become a nexus for US debates on the rights of gig labour and tech workers, this coalition focused particularly on intersections of worker rights and environmental justice. The highly polluting air cargo centre, they argued, would worsen air quality and constitute environmental racism in the predominantly Hispanic, working-class San Bernardino. This coalition used creative tactics and data practices informed by place-specific histories of economic and environmental activism, to re-imagine algorithmically mediated work and link it to ongoing struggles. Analyzing primary materials and media coverage of this diverse coalition, we find a strategy unified around economic justice, environmental justice, and community benefits. This case study contributes a framework for worker-centric, site-specific analyses of internet technologies and susta...
This thesis charts the shifts in metaphors of memory associated with the digitization of personal... more This thesis charts the shifts in metaphors of memory associated with the digitization of personal photography -from "archiving" to "sharing" -developing a strong account of the role of metaphor in shaping cultural conceptions and material technologies of memory making in relation to photography. Early discourse surrounding the emergence of photography heralded the camera as a medium capable of capturing the imprinted trace (light) of the real. By extension, photography has routinely been figured as an essential means through which "the social" can be captured, framed, communicated, and distributed, with personal photographs historically positioned as visual "archives" of the self. Underlying this are specific metaphorical conceptions of the relationships between human memory, reality and representation. This thesis considers how metaphors of the "memory-archive" have naturalized historically specific ideas about human memory which have in turn come to serve as models for the design and ongoing use of photographic technologies. This thesis argues for a sociology of metaphor, which can account for the ideological potential of metaphor in constructing a specific paradigm of memory, while advancing the material consequences of metaphor as a constitutive agent that enables and constrains the possibilities for memory making. The thesis focuses upon the metaphoric shifts from analogue preservation or "archiving" to online distribution or "sharing" within digital landscapes. The central chapters of the thesis consider the ways in which particular metaphors of memory -as archive, as distributed, as shared -are materialized as technologies, in this case photographic media. By exploring three key technologies -the Kodak EasyShare Camera, Cloud Computing, and the Instagram Application -the thesis iii examines the ways in which new metaphors of memory and of the social are becoming materially embedded. The thesis further reveals residual anthropocentric ideas of memory and technology, which continue through metaphors of photo-sharing which further disguises the role of the "technological unconscious" in shaping potential memories.
ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology ... more ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology 1.1. Contextualizing Cultural Memory 1 1.2 Thesis Overview 14 CHAPTER TWO X=Y: Toward A Sociology of Metaphor 2.
Selected papers of internet research, Sep 15, 2021
Cybersecure Policy Exchange, 2022
Canada’s investment in developing AI systems has not been matched by a comparable effort to regul... more Canada’s investment in developing AI systems has not been matched by a comparable effort to regulate the technology. While we are encouraged by these initial efforts to regulate AI systems in Canada, we share several key concerns, with corresponding recommendations to improve the proposed framework, particularly under the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) of the newly tabled Bill C-27: Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022.
ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology ... more ii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Memory, Culture, Technology 1.1. Contextualizing Cultural Memory 1 1.2 Thesis Overview 14 CHAPTER TWO X=Y: Toward A Sociology of Metaphor 2.
... a sociotechnical practice or performance (Bowker 2005). ... serve as defining distinctions be... more ... a sociotechnical practice or performance (Bowker 2005). ... serve as defining distinctions between analogue‟ and digital‟ photography in relation to ... In the mouths of politicians, metaphor subtly nudges public opinion; in the minds of businesspeople, it spurs creativity and ...
AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021
This paper explores and contextualizes recent activism in 2019-2020 around Amazon’s San Bernardin... more This paper explores and contextualizes recent activism in 2019-2020 around Amazon’s San Bernardino airport warehouse expansion. While California has become a nexus for US debates on the rights of gig labour and tech workers, this coalition focused particularly on intersections of worker rights and environmental justice. The highly polluting air cargo centre, they argued, would worsen air quality and constitute environmental racism in the predominantly Hispanic, working-class San Bernardino. This coalition used creative tactics and data practices informed by place-specific histories of economic and environmental activism, to re-imagine algorithmically mediated work and link it to ongoing struggles. Analyzing primary materials and media coverage of this diverse coalition, we find a strategy unified around economic justice, environmental justice, and community benefits. This case study contributes a framework for worker-centric, site-specific analyses of internet technologies and susta...
This thesis charts the shifts in metaphors of memory associated with the digitization of personal... more This thesis charts the shifts in metaphors of memory associated with the digitization of personal photography -from "archiving" to "sharing" -developing a strong account of the role of metaphor in shaping cultural conceptions and material technologies of memory making in relation to photography. Early discourse surrounding the emergence of photography heralded the camera as a medium capable of capturing the imprinted trace (light) of the real. By extension, photography has routinely been figured as an essential means through which "the social" can be captured, framed, communicated, and distributed, with personal photographs historically positioned as visual "archives" of the self. Underlying this are specific metaphorical conceptions of the relationships between human memory, reality and representation. This thesis considers how metaphors of the "memory-archive" have naturalized historically specific ideas about human memory which have in turn come to serve as models for the design and ongoing use of photographic technologies. This thesis argues for a sociology of metaphor, which can account for the ideological potential of metaphor in constructing a specific paradigm of memory, while advancing the material consequences of metaphor as a constitutive agent that enables and constrains the possibilities for memory making. The thesis focuses upon the metaphoric shifts from analogue preservation or "archiving" to online distribution or "sharing" within digital landscapes. The central chapters of the thesis consider the ways in which particular metaphors of memory -as archive, as distributed, as shared -are materialized as technologies, in this case photographic media. By exploring three key technologies -the Kodak EasyShare Camera, Cloud Computing, and the Instagram Application -the thesis iii examines the ways in which new metaphors of memory and of the social are becoming materially embedded. The thesis further reveals residual anthropocentric ideas of memory and technology, which continue through metaphors of photo-sharing which further disguises the role of the "technological unconscious" in shaping potential memories.