Description
Examines computer hackers, phone phreaks, urban explorers, calculator and computer collectors, “CrackBerry” users, whistle-blowers, Yippies, zinsters, roulette cheats, and chess geeks. The dangers and joys of struggles for autonomy are underlined in studies of RIM’s BlackBerry and Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks website.
When Technocultures Collide provides rich and diverse studies of collision courses between technologically inspired subcultures and the corporate and governmental entities they seek to undermine. Gary Genosko analyzes these practices for their remarkable diversity and their innovation and leaps of imagination. He assesses the results of a number of operations, including the Canadian stories of Mafiaboy, Jeff Chapman of Infiltration, and BlackBerry users.
The author provides critical accounts of highly specialized attributes, such as the prospects of deterritorialized computer mice and big toe computing, the role of electrical grid hacks in urban technopolitics, and whether info-addiction and depression contribute to tactical resistance. Beyond resistance, however, the goal of this work is to find examples of technocultural autonomy in the minor and marginal cultural productions of small cultures, ethico-poetic diversions, and sustainable withdrawals with genuine therapeutic potential to surpass accumulation, debt, and competition. The dangers and joys of these struggles for autonomy are underlined in studies of RIM’s BlackBerry and Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks website.
Reviews
Table of Contents for
When Technocultures Collide: Innovation from Below and the Struggle for Autonomy by Gary GenoskoAcknowledgements
Introduction
1: Beyond Hands Free: Big-Toe Computing
2: Cultures of Calculation: William Gibson Collects
3: Rebel with an IV Pole: Portrait of Ninjalicious as an Urban Explorer
4: Home-Grown Hacker
5: Hacking the Grid: Does Electricity Want to Be Free?
6: Whistle Test: Blindness and Phone Phreaking
7: In Praise of Weak Play: Against the Chess Computers
8: CrackBerry: Addiction and Corporate Discipline
9: WikiLeaks and the Vicissitudes of Transparency
Conclusion
References
Index