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The Design Research Lab is a network of people, organisations, and non-human agents engaged at the intersection of technologies, materials, and social practices. Our aim is to design socially and ecologically sustainable tools, spaces, and knowledge that support people’s participation in a digital society – based on common principles of inclusiveness and respect for the planet. This puts the basic democratic right to take part in the digital sphere into practice. We start our research from individual lifeworlds and the needs of minoritized groups, beyond consumer majorities.
We are an interdisciplinary team of designers, researchers, tech-enthusiasts and critical thinkers from Berlin University of the Arts, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, as well as Einsteincenter Digital Future (ECDF).
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Fellow Talk at the Weizenbaum Institut: Martina Di Tullio – “Digital Technologies in Andean Lives. The Political Implications of ICTs Incorporation in the Jujuy Puna (NW Argentina)”
We are excited to invite you to a fellow talk featuring Martina Di Tullio, our current research fellow from Argentina. Join us on November 19th at 3:00 PM for a presentation on a thrilling topic that promises to inspire and provoke discussion.
Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from a talented researcher and learn more about her work. We look forward to seeing you there!
Location: Weizenbaum Institute, Hardenbergstr. 32, 10623 Berlin
Date & Time: November 19, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Room: A0-02
Please find more information below:
The Jujuy Puna is part of what is known as the Lithium Triangle, a high-altitude desert area where lithium —one of the most important minerals used in the production of digital technologies— is extracted and processed, causing the pollution of scarce water resources. Furthermore, rural and Indigenous populations that historically inhabit this place are excluded from the products of this exploitation: they struggle to afford digital devices, lack reliable phone or data services, and only gained permanent internet access five years through a state initiative aimed at addressing the digital divide. What, then, are the impacts of digital technology incorporation into their daily lives under these conditions?
In this presentation, I will provide an overview of my ongoing doctoral research project that is documenting this process, its discursive meanings and its implications for two communities of the Jujuy Puna: Cusi Cusi and Lagunillas del Farallón. Both are small, rural Quechua villages. Using an ethnographic approach, I examine the pre-existing local forms of communication; the policies and demands surrounding the installation and expansion of internet infrastructure; and the diverse practices to which ICTs have been integrated. This analysis will bring to the fore how the characteristics of these technologies shape the reproduction and transformation of local ways of life. The purpose of this research is to highlight the political meanings and consequences of this process for the everyday lives in Puna villages, arguing that the spread of algorithmic digital media represents a new dimension of a centuries-old structure of coloniality for Indigenous peoples in Latin America.
Keywords: digital technology, Jujuy Puna, digital coloniality, ethnography