Beatrice Choi | Northwestern University (original) (raw)
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Papers by Beatrice Choi
Film review draft for the Annals of the History of Computing for the Institute of Electrical and ... more Film review draft for the Annals of the History of Computing for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Information & Culture
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.
The Octopus
media coverage of the event is predominantly visual. For contemporary traumatic events, how porou... more media coverage of the event is predominantly visual. For contemporary traumatic events, how porous are the sensory modalities in experiencing shock? How do sensory representations of traumatic events leave in/visible marks on documentation? I address these questions by exploring sound as an alternate modality. I investigate the sensory discrepancy between audio and visual content dispersed for American traumatic events, taking 9/11 as the focal event. By comparing the most highly represented media vehicles in the event-television and radio-I delve into a critical visual-acoustic analysis, focusing on FDNY radio transmissions and NY1 Aircheck news footage. Finally, I examine the discursive legacy sound imparts in moments of American trauma from shell shock accounts in the early 20 th century and post-9/11 narratives of post-traumatic symptoms. In delineating this legacy, I hope to reveal the ways these discourses evolve past preconceived sensory boundaries in traumatic experiences.
Conference Presentations by Beatrice Choi
I investigate how situated practices of technological and the artistic classes in Brazil converg... more I investigate how situated practices of technological and the artistic classes in Brazil converge to build a cultural identity around innovation. I contextualize these artistic and technological vanguards against historical, political, and economic conditions that allow them to build an “anthropophagic” network of Brazilian innovation. I examine discursive legacies from preceding cultural economies: the Neoconcretismo and Tropicalia movements in the 1960s-1970s coinciding with the mass introduction of computers, and the Internet-based technocratic elite of the 1990s-2000s under Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. A renown Tropicalia musician, Gil vowed to “‘transform the ministry into ‘the home of all those who think about and invent Brazil,’” setting favorable conditions for the cultural awareness of technology-based measures for progress. The ensuing accounts of technology transfer, vanguard art movements, and state measures produce contemporary visions of Brazilian networked society as state policy, local innovation, and cultural institutions that are decidedly not use-neutral.
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. Through a case study on Brazil's "indigenous" or "hybrid" computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980's. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various "local" valences of technology transfer. Ultimately, I contest the reductive idea of a "trickle-down" model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical "actors", or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production.
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.
In “Good Faith”: The Clash between Scientists and Skeptics and the Performance of ‘Science’ in Cl... more In “Good Faith”: The Clash between Scientists and Skeptics and the Performance of ‘Science’ in Climate Change Discourse
Drafts by Beatrice Choi
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions
of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the
reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge
production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a mediahistorical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local
development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.
Film review draft for the Annals of the History of Computing for the Institute of Electrical and ... more Film review draft for the Annals of the History of Computing for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Information & Culture
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.
The Octopus
media coverage of the event is predominantly visual. For contemporary traumatic events, how porou... more media coverage of the event is predominantly visual. For contemporary traumatic events, how porous are the sensory modalities in experiencing shock? How do sensory representations of traumatic events leave in/visible marks on documentation? I address these questions by exploring sound as an alternate modality. I investigate the sensory discrepancy between audio and visual content dispersed for American traumatic events, taking 9/11 as the focal event. By comparing the most highly represented media vehicles in the event-television and radio-I delve into a critical visual-acoustic analysis, focusing on FDNY radio transmissions and NY1 Aircheck news footage. Finally, I examine the discursive legacy sound imparts in moments of American trauma from shell shock accounts in the early 20 th century and post-9/11 narratives of post-traumatic symptoms. In delineating this legacy, I hope to reveal the ways these discourses evolve past preconceived sensory boundaries in traumatic experiences.
I investigate how situated practices of technological and the artistic classes in Brazil converg... more I investigate how situated practices of technological and the artistic classes in Brazil converge to build a cultural identity around innovation. I contextualize these artistic and technological vanguards against historical, political, and economic conditions that allow them to build an “anthropophagic” network of Brazilian innovation. I examine discursive legacies from preceding cultural economies: the Neoconcretismo and Tropicalia movements in the 1960s-1970s coinciding with the mass introduction of computers, and the Internet-based technocratic elite of the 1990s-2000s under Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. A renown Tropicalia musician, Gil vowed to “‘transform the ministry into ‘the home of all those who think about and invent Brazil,’” setting favorable conditions for the cultural awareness of technology-based measures for progress. The ensuing accounts of technology transfer, vanguard art movements, and state measures produce contemporary visions of Brazilian networked society as state policy, local innovation, and cultural institutions that are decidedly not use-neutral.
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. Through a case study on Brazil's "indigenous" or "hybrid" computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980's. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various "local" valences of technology transfer. Ultimately, I contest the reductive idea of a "trickle-down" model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical "actors", or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production.
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a media-historical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.
In “Good Faith”: The Clash between Scientists and Skeptics and the Performance of ‘Science’ in Cl... more In “Good Faith”: The Clash between Scientists and Skeptics and the Performance of ‘Science’ in Climate Change Discourse
In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source so... more In considering technology transfer in the Global South, Brazil's recent upsurge in open-source software development raises the historical question of how disparate ideological conceptions
of nationalism, market censorship, and innovation have played a role in the dissemination and adoption of what we now consider universally acceptable technology: computers. I contest the
reductive idea of a “trickle-down” model of technological adaptation by introducing various technical “actors”, or seres técnicos, who emerge in Brazil to address needs rising from specific technological moments to explore larger rhetorical ideations of labor, free speech, and knowledge
production. Through a case study on Brazil’s “indigenous” or “hybrid” computers, I build a mediahistorical analysis that starts with Brazilian military protectionist policy encouraging the local
development of computers during the 1970s-1980’s. I then lead up to the current cultural, political, and technological climate of global-minded free/livre open-access software (FLOSS) to argue about the various “local” valences of technology transfer.