Events

This panel explores material relations and methodological approaches core to critical understandings of (dark) fiber, data centers, and cell towers. Through a focus on methodological approaches—from spatial mapping and environmental analysis to ethnographic insights and industry analysis—panelists detail the layered, often contested relationships that bind these infrastructures to the environments and people they serve. This conversation encourages thinking about digital connectivity as contingent on tangible, place-based circuits, urging us to see these systems as both powerful actors in social life and dynamic assemblages that can be changed.

This colloquium is organized in sync with a meeting of the Digital Infrastructure and Society group hosted by the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab.

Germaine Halegoua, University of Michigan

Nicole Starosielski, UC Berkeley

Julia Velkova, Linköping University

Jennifer Holt, UC Santa Barbara

Lisa Parks, UC Santa Barbara