Podcast: Download (41.0MB)
Broadcast: 6.30-7.30pm, Tuesday 1st June.
Encoding and decoding appear in contemporary context as a fundamental feature of technology, in our use of language and in our social interactions, from html to language coding and literary symbolism. How, and through what means, do people encode and decode?
The speakers were Lane DeNicola and Daniel Rourke. The show was hosted by Seph Rodney.
Speaker biographies:
Lane DeNicola is a Lecturer in Digital Anthropology at University College London. Prior to his doctoral training in Science & Technology Studies at RPI, he worked as a programmer and simulation designer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the Center for Space Research at MIT. His doctoral fieldwork considered nationalism, spatial representation, and the development of visual expertise at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, India’s premier institution for the training of satellite image interpreters. More generally, his research interests include culture and design; the social and political dimensions of open source software and “open design”; space industrialization in the Developing World; scientific visualization; immersive systems and gaming. His publications include “Swadeshi Satellites: India’s Earth Observation Program as ‘New Media’” in Down to Earth: Satellite Technologies, Industries and Cultures (Rutgers University Press, 2011) and Reading the iPod as Anthropological Artifact (Routledge, 2011). Outside of publication, his current projects include Anthrodyne, a free, open source operating system for social scientists and qualitative researchers based on the Kubuntu distribution of Linux. www.lanedenicola.name
Daniel Rourke is a writer and researcher based in London. He is currently undertaking an art-practice PhD at Goldsmiths University. His practice attempts to expand the space of the theoretical essay, taking cues from avant-garde cinema, speculative fiction, post-structuralism and bio-politics along the way. His website, machinemachine.net, gathers what he reads, writes, says and does as part of an ongoing experiment with networks and memory. During 2009/2010 Daniel has performed about ants at the Whitechapel Gallery, maintained an experimental podcast and radio show, as well as writing a regular column at 3quarksdaily.com. Details of each of these projects, and more, can be found on his website.