Unreal Objects: Digital Materialities, Technoscientific Projects and Political Realities

Author:   Kate O'Riordan
Publisher:   Pluto Press
ISBN:  

9780745336749


Pages:   192
Publication Date:   20 July 2017
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Unreal Objects: Digital Materialities, Technoscientific Projects and Political Realities


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Overview

Science and technology are playing increasingly important roles in our lives. New projects in development today will fundamentally shape the world around us, and manipulate our lived experience. But how and why are such important scientific and technological projects chosen, and what are the consequences of this process? In this book, Kate O'Riordan answers these crucial question. She discovers that many objects, such as genomes and genomic projects, smart grids, de-extinction projects and biosensors cannot be granted scientific legitimacy and developed without extraordinary amounts of media, public relations, celebrity endorsements and private investment. As a result of these filters, only certain projects take centre stage when it comes to funding and political attention. O'Riordan calls these 'unreal objects' - scientific projects and technologies where utopian visions for the future are combined with investment and materialisation in the here and now. This attention to these unreal objects hides many current social issues, especially injustices and inequalities. At the same time they conjure utopian visions for how life might be improved.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kate O'Riordan
Publisher:   Pluto Press
Imprint:   Pluto Press
Weight:   0.245kg
ISBN:  

9780745336749


ISBN 10:   0745336744
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   20 July 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Figures Acknowledgements Series Preface 1. Introduction: Problems With Objects 2. The Shadow of Genomics 3. Biosensory Experiences, Data and the Interfaced Self 4. Smart Grids: Energy Futures, Carbon Capture and Geoengineering 5. Real Fantasies: De-Extinction and In Vitro Meat 6. Unreal Objects and Political Realities Bibliography Index

Reviews

'Sets out to disorientate us, showing us how the reality of things is contingent and contestable, never losing sight of what is at stake' -- Sarah Kember, Professor of New Technologies of Communication, Goldsmiths University, Director of Goldsmiths Press


'Disorientates us, showing us how the reality of things is contingent and contestable, never losing sight of what is at stake' -- Sarah Kember, Professor of New Technologies of Communication, Goldsmiths University, Director of Goldsmiths Press


Author Information

Kate O'Riordan is Reader in Digital Media at the University of Sussex. Her research interests relate to cultural studies of emerging technologies, from the web in the 1990s to genome editing in 2014. She has authored and edited a number of books including Unreal Objects (Pluto, 2017) and The Genome Incorporated: Constructing Biodigital Identity (Routledge, 2016).

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