Skip to main content
meson press

The Trauma Machine: Demos, Immersive Technologies and the Politics of Simulation

Chapter of: Alleys of Your Mind: Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas(pp. 53–67)

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
      Cannot generate record: No publications supplied
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
      Cannot generate record: Missing PDF URL
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: No priced EPUB or PDF URL
  • ONIX 2.1
    • EBSCO Host
      Cannot generate record: No PDF or EPUB URL
    • ProQuest Ebrary
      Cannot generate record: No PDF or EPUB URL
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
    Cannot generate record: Missing Landing Page
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: No work or chapter DOIs to deposit
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
TitleThe Trauma Machine
SubtitleDemos, Immersive Technologies and the Politics of Simulation
ContributorOrit Halpern(author)
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
CopyrightOrit Halpern
Publishermeson press
Published on2015-07-14
Long abstractThis essay critically examines digital simulation scenes or “demos” as a tool that is telling something about the truth of the world with the aim of making it unstable. Following Farocki’s take on war trauma therapies treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with responsive and immersive technologies, it makes the effect of a demo on human subjectivity apparent. From there, the essay traces the design of these technologies back to the first video simulation experiments of the Architecture Machine Group at MIT in the 1970s: the Aspen Movie Map, in which race and gender play a critical part in conditioning spectatorship. Looking at the role of demos in urban planning, the implications of this tool become fully visible.
Page rangepp. 53–67
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Orit Halpern

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8009-3160
http://www.orithalpern.net/

Orit Halpern (PhD) is a historian of science whose work bridges histories of computing and the human sciences with design and art practice. Her most recent book Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 (Duke Press 2014) is a genealogy of interactivity and our contemporary obsessions with “big” data and data visualization. She is currently working on the history and political economy of ubiquitous computing, logistical systems, and responsive environments. She has also published and created works for a variety of venues including The Journal of Visual Culture, Public Culture, Configurations, C-theory, and ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. You can learn more at: www. orithalpern.net.