Overview

What does it mean to ‘participate’ online? Does it mean being an active and engaged Netizen, or does watching the occasional cat video count? Leung ponders the diverse technology landscape in which we now live and asks whether it is possible to amble or cycle down the ‘information superhighway’. Let’s wander around the notion of ‘digital divides’ and how they frame those for who need or want to take alternative journeys. We will explore issues of availability, access and affordability; and visit issues of device discrimination, where consumers are now subject to prejudicial treatment based on their technology of choice.  Is this part of the post-human condition, where the subaltern is a technologised subject and marginalisation is a matter of platforms and operating systems, rather than class, ethnicity, gender or sexuality? 

Linda Leung is Associate Professor in Arts, Cultural and Digital Creative Industries at the University of Technology, Sydney. Previously, as director of postgraduate programs in interactive multimedia, Linda supervised numerous Masters of Interactive Multimedia (MIMM) students whose work has been recognised by the the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association's annual awards. She is currently working on her third book Technologies of Refuge: Rethinking Digital Divides, which is a culmination of her research on the design of available, accessible and affordable technology products and services for marginalised communities such as refugees. 

This event is a part of the Not Evenly Distributed series for the 20th Biennale of Sydney, conceived as an opportunity for a timely international discussion about the uneven spread of technologies and resources in the world, access to citizenship and political rights today, and the uses and effects of digital technologies in different geographical, political and social contexts.