Login
       
  • A luminous abstraction: 5G narratives and futuring otherwise

Hernan, Luis and Ramirez-Figueroa, Carolina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8567-2727, 2022, Journal Article, A luminous abstraction: 5G narratives and futuring otherwise Mediapolis, 7 (3). pp. 1-15. ISSN 2767-8148

Abstract or Description:

As dreams go, 5G is a recurring one, and it promises the same as every generation of mobile networks in the past. More reliable connections, faster speeds, lower latency, fewer dropouts. 5G is a real technology, but its ability to weave itself into the fabric of everyday life depends on its status as an abstraction. Here, we are interested in analysing the narratives of 5G: the stories told to make sense of the technology. We identify the narratives of promotion, proudly represented by the Ericsson collab, and contrast them with narratives of resistance, ranging from objections to new antennas to health anxieties to conspiracy theories. We see our analysis as a creative problematising of 5G, and the basis to speculate on protocols which are designed around different models of ownership and integration to non-human ecologies. Our argument is that 5G, as any form of infrastructure, is not neutral but imbued with a specific vision of the world and it is these visions, rather than technology itself, that can suggest the way forward to think of infrastructure otherwise

Official URL: https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2022/09/luminous...
Subjects: Architecture > K100 Architecture > K130 Architectural Technology
School or Centre: School of Architecture
School of Design
Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2023 13:50
Last Modified: 17 Nov 2023 13:50
URI: https://researchonline.rca.ac.uk/id/eprint/5580
Edit Item (login required) Edit Item (login required)