Technology | MUSEUM FATIGUE

“Scan & Go” at Watson’s: Checking Out on the Sales Floor

January 24, 2019 by Museum Fatigue

Yesterday for the first time I experienced a retail store employee as a “checkout point.” I visited a nearby Watson’s store to buy a pack of Bandaids and when I went to the cashier’s counter to pay for my purchase, I noticed a sign that said, “Scan & Go” in English and Chinese. I was a bit mystified because for most of the past two years I always pay with things by “scanning and going”—pulling out my phone, opening Alipay, […]

Categories: Digital Payments, Retail, Surveillance, Technology • Tags: Alipay, WeChat

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“Liu Xiaobo” and the Power and Weakness of the Digital

July 14, 2017 by Museum Fatigue

char nametoberemoved[11] = {‘L’, ‘i’, ‘u’, ‘ ‘, ‘X’, ‘i’,’a’, ‘o’, ‘b’, ‘o’, ‘\0’}; When he died yesterday, Liu Xiaobo got quite a lot of press in the West. A Nobel Peace Prize winner and notable participant in the Tiananmen protests that culminated in the events of June 4th, 1989, he was an iconic dissident figure. In fact, I have a hunch that when we look back from some future point, Liu Xiaobo’s passing will have also marked the eclipsing […]

Categories: China, Memory, Technology • Tags: censorship, Digital Culture, Liu Xiaobo, WeChat

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Have Mobile Phones In the Classroom Reached Their Calculator Moment?

February 9, 2015 by Museum Fatigue

Last week, while reviewing our class syllabus on the first day, I made a decision to do a little experiment. Rather than make the announcement that mobile phones should be turned off during class, I did the opposite. I told my visual anthropology class that unrestricted use of mobile phones in class would be allowed this semester. Allowing all students to use their devices freely at all times seems very counterintuitive. In fact, even now I am concerned that in […]

Categories: Education, Higher Education, Teaching, Technology • Tags: calculator, classroom experience, iPhone, mobile phone, technology, TI-35

Mystery Object #19: Breasts and Personal Technology

May 31, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Subject to continual upgrade cycles and constant and dependable obsolesce, our personal technology resist the attachment and love that we develop for them. While we take them everywhere and learn to depend on them for communication, entertainment and even to find a bite to eat—the technology pushes back and resists our advances—never retaining the object-histories that might give them human meaning over time. With no history our personal technology never develop the patinas of value that speak to their interaction […]

Categories: Bodies, Gender, Mystery Objects, Technology • Tags: accessories, affection, breasts, crack chic, iPhone, mouse pad, personal technology, puni puni, steampunk

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Memories: 128 Megabytes, $125 Dollars, Circa 2002

February 16, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

There is something melancholy about old technology. A few days ago, while cleaning my office, I came across a small, black, USB-powered, flash drive. It wasn’t just any drive, but the first drive—the first flash drive that I ever purchased. It brought back memories of my first teaching experiences, and its memory size amazed me. Back in the fall of 2002, I used a bit of one of my first real paychecks to buy the drive at CompUSA. It was […]

Categories: Everyday Things, Technology • Tags: Flash Drive, melancholy, Smart Drive, USB Drive, www.universalsmartdrive.com

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“A Cuisine of Gestures and Words”

January 16, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

“…communication is a cuisine of gestures and words, of ideas and information, with its recipes and its subtleties, its auxiliary instruments and its neighboring effects, its distortions and its failures. It is false to believe henceforth that electronic and computerized objects will do away with the activity of users. From the hi-fi stereo to the VCR, the diffusion of these devices multiplies ruses and provokes the inventiveness of users…and, thus become producers of their own little “cultural industry…In turn, this […]

Categories: Quotes, Technology • Tags: communication, Michel de Certeau, technology, The Practice of Everyday Life

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