Issue 22

the Week of June 8, 2015
Gold plate with water filaments gleaming on top.

In this issue, read new articles critiquing the emerging fintech bubble, the state of liberational technology, and the semiotics of surveillance in the built environment. We explore how anonymity functions in online communities, misogynoiristic expectancy on social media, and the online/offline dichotomy. Plus, deconstructing the mythologies of the tech boom-bust cycle. Photo CC-BY milena mihaylova, cropped & filtered.

Perfect bubble floating through the air, reflecting a lush green land on its surface.

Folk Tales of the Dot-Com Bust

We are conditioned to reason about economic vulnerability in terms of individual merit, instead of as systemic failure.

by Dimas Guardado
A woman holding up a camera phone in front of her face. Displayed on the phone is an inception-style repeat of the image, folding into itself infinitely.

New Vulnerabilities: Women of Color, Privacy, And The False Dualism Of Online and Offline

As women of colour, online spaces and social networks have enabled us to produce and control our own stories, build networks and communities and find our scattered tribes.

by Nehal El-Hadi
Business license with the seal of the City of Chicago affixed to it. In the upper left is a graphic of a megaphone with the text 'Alarm', sound waves emanating from it.

We See The Signs: Graphic Design, Typography and Surveillance Aesthetics

Mass-produced surveillance signage is not only about cameras.

by Jessica Barrett Sattell
Three people standing on a skeletal wooden tractor, pointing upward. The scenery is lush and green, with a vast blue sky.

Tripping Over Our Bootstraps: Open Source Ecology and the Promise of Liberational Technology

Configuring tools as a mode of straightforward escape from oppression, be it poverty or unfulfilling work, risks ignoring existing material practices and organizations that hold us to systems of inequity.

by Anne Pasek
A continuation of the previous photo: the same model and angle, but now the flower petals completely cover her shoulders and face, leaving only her short hair exposed against a blue background.

Misogynoiristic Expectancy: Social Media Popularity and the Black Femme

The punishment for stepping out of line can be anywhere from regular harassment to doxxing, and as Black femmes are hypervisible but ultimately powerless, they are regularly crushed in such attacks.

by Riley H
A "Hello, My Name Is" nametag with no name filled in.

Anonymity and Toxic Internet Culture

Confronting the darkness that lies with anonymity as a defining factor of online spaces.

by Cameron G.
Building pillars of the New York Stock Exchange, rich with gold accents.

Sex, Money, and the Trillion Dollar Shadow

Sex workers have long driven major revolutions in technology. They have also been at the forefront of innovating new business models for content, communications, and services themselves.

by Bardot Smith

This issue is made possible in part by some of our generous readers: Corey Csuhta, Damian Stewart, Matt Luedke, Damien Lebreuilly and Andrew Wright. 

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