在数据时代策展数字地理外文翻译中英文最新.docx

在数据时代策展数字地理外文翻译中英文最新.docx

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在数据时代策展数字地理外文翻译中英文最新

在数据主义时代策展数字地理外文翻译中英文

（节选重点翻译）

英文

Curatingdigitalgeographiesinaneraofdatacolonialism

AlistairFraser

Abstract

Thespacesof/for（humanandnon-human）lifeareinescapablyinfusedandboundupwiththedigital.Theconceptof‘datacolonialism’hasemergedagainstthisgeneralbackdrop,connectingfruitfullywithresearchon‘digitalgeographies’andabroader‘criticaldatastudies’literature.‘Curation’isfrequentlyinvokedinthesecontributions,althoughtheexperiencestakingshapewhendigitalsubjectscuratedigitalgeographiesinaneraofdatacolonialismhavenotbeengivensufficientattention.Inresponse,thispaperusesanautoethnographyofeverydaydigitalpracticestoprobethepossibilitiesandconstraintsinplaywhendigitalsubjectscuratedigitalgeographies.Theanalysisreviewshow‘iterativeinterplays’and‘constellationsofcontingencies’aregivenvitalitywhendigitalgeographiesof‘flow’and‘territory’arepursued.Thepaperconcludeswithobservationsandprovocationsforfutureresearchonwhatwemightrefertoas‘datacuration.’

Keywords：

Datacolonialism，Digitalgeographies，Criticaldatastudies，Curation，Contingencies，Autoethnography

Introduction

Thespacesof/for（humanandnon-human）lifeareinescapablyinfusedandboundupwiththedigital:

withdata,linesofcode,andthemyriaddataflowsandtransactionsthatworkbehind-the-scenestopromptandconceivablymonetizebehaviourinstarkways.Datapervadeeverything,withsubjectivitiesandlifechancesexposedtoandpossiblyalteredbynewformsof‘algorithmicgovernance’（ZookandBlankenship,2018）.Novelarchitecturesofautomated（andalgorithmic）decision-makingnowsitalongsidecomplexhuman-softwareinterfaces,therebygivingrisetoa‘planetarycognitiveecology’（Hayles,2017）characterisedbyhumansocieties‘enmeshedincognitiveassemblages’（p.126;myemphasis）,proliferatingdigitalassistants–Alexa,Cortana,Siri,orthenewcallcentre‘bots’withinRobotistan（Peck,2017）–anddiversedisruptiveprojectsrolledoutbyfirmsandgovernments.

Againstthisgeneralbackdrop,theconceptof‘datacolonialism’bringsintosharpreliefthegainsmadebytechnologyfirmswhocolonize,aggregate,andcapitalizeupondata（Thatcheretal.,2016）.Thedataatissue–collectedbyfirmsinexpanding‘reservesofdata’（Cheney-Lippold,2017）andconnectedtogethertoforma‘globalassemblageofdataflow’（Pickren,2016;also Graham,2014）–areproducedbypopulationswhentheyclickorswipeindigitaldevicesandservices;whentheyprovideinformationaboutactions,tastes,ideas;andultimatelybecausethehumanbodyisnow‘akintoasignallingbeacon,continuouslyleakingdetailsthatattesttoitscircumstances,itsmood,itsmotives,itsdoingsanditswhereabouts’（Smith,2016,p.118）.Populationsmightberelativelypassiveandpossiblyevenaddictedtotheinteractionsplayingoutwithinthesedevices（e.g. Kulwin,2018）.Theyarevulnerabletonewformsofpoliticalmanipulation（e.g.see Howardetal.,2018, BradshawandHoward,2018）.Buttheyarecertainlysubjectedtoinvasiveformsofsurveillancewhentheyaretrackedandanalysedbytechnologyfirmsandgovernmentsalike（Zuboff,2015, Zuboff,2019）.Thus,whatmakesthisprocessofdatacapture‘colonial’isnotsomuchthatitinvolvesalienpowersorforcessubjugatingandcontrollingindigenouspopulations,ashasbeeneffectivelychartedbyscholarswithreferencetothelast500 yearsofEuropeancolonialactivities（e.g.see Galeano,1973, Said,1978, Mamdani,1996）;rather,thesenseof‘colonial’inplayherereferstothewaydigitalsubjectsare‘dispossessedandalienatedfromtheverydatatheygenerate’（998）andbecauseaccumulationstrategiesinthisprocessseekto‘quantify,alienate,andextractconceptionsofself’（1000） from thosedata（onthesimilarterm‘digitalenclosure,’seealso Andrejevic,2009）.Thisis,therefore,amoregeneralsenseofthe‘colonial,’oneinwhichtheraceorethnicityofsubjugator/subjugateddoesnotnecessarily directly matter.

Researchon‘digitalgeographies’（e.g.see Ashetal.,2018a, FordandGraham,2016, Rose,2017, Zook,2017, ZebrackiandLuger,2018）respondstothese（andother）developmentsbypointingoutthatthe‘digitalreshapesmanygeographies,mediatestheproductionofgeographicknowledge,reconfiguresresearchrelationships,anditselfhasmanygeographies[hence]an engagement withthedigitaldevelopsourcollectiveunderstandingsofcitiesanddevelopment,aswellashealth,politics,economy,society,culture,andtheenvironment,amongothers’（Ashetal.,2019,p.5;myemphasis）.Digitalgeographiesresearch,whichiscloselyassociatedwiththe‘quicklyevolving’（Burnsetal.,2018,p.126）fieldof‘criticaldatastudies’（CDS）（e.g.see DaltonandThatcher,2014, Daltonetal.,2016, IliadisandRusso,2016, Burnsetal.,2018, Thatcher,2017, Ettlinger,2018）,invitesgeographerstodevelopnewinsightsaboutthespatialityofdigitallife.1

Onesuchinvitationistheideathatdigitallifeinvolvesvariouspracticesof‘curation.’Widelyinvokedindiversecontributions,theconceptariseswhen‘curatedsocialmediaoutputisresoldandmonetizedasmarketingavenues’bytechnologyfirms（Zook,2017,p.5）;whentechnologicaldevelopmentssuchasInformaCamexpress‘anemergingcultureofdatacollectioninwhichactorsonthegroundexercisetheiragencybyconstructingandcuratingdata…’（vanderVelden,2015,p.8;seealso Ettlinger,2018）;whendigitalactorsare‘curatingstories’viauseofselfiesthat‘challengedominantnarrativesaboutgender-basedviolence’（Farhadi,2018,p.141;regardingcurationpracticesonPinterest,seealso Almjeld,2015）;andwhen‘thecurationofanonlinebrandedpersona’becomesgermanetothestrategiesoffreelanceworkers（Gandini,2016,p.124）.Emphasizingcurationconnectswithwiderdiscussionsof‘digitalcuration’asarelativelynewpracticeindiversearenas,suchasmuseums,archives,orinnumerousworkplaceswheredigitalartefactsorcontentdemandcareandattention（Beagrie,2008, Higgins,2011）.Relatedtothesediscussions,moreover,thereisasenseinwhich‘theexplosionofonlinecontentandtheadventofsocialnetworkingsitesdesignedtofacilitatesharing,have,inessence,turnedallofusintocontentcurators’（WeisgerberandButler,2016,p.1342;also Bhargava,2009）.Finally,curationishighlightedasakeyelementinthegrowthofflagshipdigitalfirms,suchasNetflix.Its‘data-drivenprogramming’（Wu,2015）hasbeencentraltoattractingandretainingpaidsubscribers（Fernández-Manzanoetal.,2016）,asexemplifiedbyitscommerciallysuccessfuloriginalseries HouseofCards,whichcameaboutafteralgorithmswereusedtoidentifyanopportunityforapoliticalthrillerofthattype（HallinanandStriphas2016）.2

Intheinterestofpursuing‘an engagement withthedigital’（Ashetal.,2019,p.5;myemphasis）,especiallytheconceptofdatacolonialism,myfocusinthispaperisondevelopinghowweunderstandcuration.Specifically,Iinquireintothenotionthatdigitalsubjectscuratedigitalgeographies,whichIdefineastheactiveandre-configurablearrangementsofdigitaldevicesandservicesenrolledin,andtherebyconstitutiveof,thespacesofeverydaylife.Iask:

Whathappensandwhatemergeswhensubjectscuratedigitalgeographies?

Whatcomestolightandwhatpossibilitiesandconstraintsmatterwhentheyproducedataandnavigateornegotiatedatacolonialism?

Whatexperiencestakeshape,andwhateffectsspilloutward,whenactorsuse,tweak,andre-arrangedevicesandservices?

Ibeginbyarguingthatcuratingdigitalgeographiesisaneverydaypracticeandconstituentcomponentofdigitallife,whichdeservesparticularattentionbecauseitchallengeshowgeographersshouldconceptualizespace.Ithengroundthisargumentbyintroducing,examining,anddiscussingmaterialsdrawnfromanautoethnographyofcuratingdigitalgeographies,focusinginparticularonthenuancesofcuratingwhatIrefertoas digitalgeographiesofflowandterritory.Finally,Ipresentsomeconclusionsandreflectionsonthebroadersignificanceofcurationforhowweconceptualisedigitalgeographiesinaneraofdatacolonialism.

Curatingdigitalgeographies

‘Curation’isoftenviewedinrelationtopracticesinartgalleriesormuseumswherecuratorsconductanalysisandconsiderhowartefactsmightbepresented,positioned,andtranslatedindiversewaysandwithawiderangeofobjectives（Villi,2012;citing JoyandSherry,2003）.Inthissortofdefinition,amuseumcurator‘scourstheartscene,selectsthefinestworks,arrangesthepiecesaroundaunifiedtheme,providesaframetounderstandtheartists’messages,andthenengagesthepublicinaconversationaroundthecollection’（WeisgerberandButler,2016）.Thecuratorintervenesintheworld.Thecuratorproducesspace.Inasimilarguise,itmakessensetoconceptualizedigitalsubjectsasthecuratorsoftheirdigitalgeographiesbecausesomuchofeverydaylifeinvolvespresenting,positioning,andtranslatingdigitalcontentintheformofdata,onesandzeroes,andnewlinesofcode.Whetherenactedviadiverseformsof‘digitalskill’（RichardsonandBissell,2017）orviafirm-basedanalysesofcustomerbehaviouronwebsites（e.g.see Ashetal.,2018b）,digitalsubjectscuratedigitalgeographieswhenthey‘generate[the]datapointsorganized,sorted,andanalysedbyalgorithms’（Thatcher,2016,p.2）.Liketheartcurator,therefore,thedigitalsubjectproducesspace,althoughintandemwithdigitaltechnologiesandinrelationtodatacolonialism.Theyare,forexample,curatingwhattheysee,makingdecisionsabouthowtheywillnavigatetheweb,orop