seed: A Cache Society – Secrets of Transacting Things
catalyst: Rachel O’Dwyer
date/time: Friday, 21st April 2017 at 6pm
location: Seminar Room, CONNECT, 34 Westland Row, Dublin.
For the 4th session of Engineering Fictions this year, CONNECT researcher Rachel O’Dwyer will catalyze some ideas and questions around possibility and implications of “transacting things” in an internet age. It’s a pretty important topic, here’s what Rachel says about it:
“Today, we use the Internet to communicate with one another, with friends, colleagues, family, strangers. In the near future, everyday objects (things) could use the internet to send and receive all kinds of messages. One business model in the Internet of Things (IoT) focuses on how connected devices can be used for payments, often referred to as ‘transactions’.
“The internet of things that transact means for some that your fridge could buy your milk or your car might buy petrol without you being aware of it. For others, it’s about new ways of paying where cold hard cash might become obsolete in favour of watches and wearables. The Internet of things that transact also suggests new forms of what anthropologists Bill Maurer and Lana Swartz have called ‘money-like things’, where airtime tokens, fitbit units, social media data and computer cycles all become ways to pay for goods and services.
“This new space of networked objects trading and transacting has implications for cultures of value and exchange. The contours of this space are still fuzzy and shaped by speculation and imaginaries…”
This EF writing session aims to embrace the vagueness of this space by setting up a platform for imagining transactions between everyday things through conversation and improvised writing.
We’ll loosely draw upon the “Novel of Circulation”, the Still Life and Dialogue as rough guides for critically imagining the secrets of transacting things…
To take part please email engineeringfictions@connectcentre.ie – places are limited to 12.
Please feel free to share this session with anyone you think would be interested.
No prior experience required, just bring along something to write with (pen/paper) and an open mind. Some herbal teas/water will be provided.
Sessions usually last 90mins or so.
CONNECT is the world leading Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications. CONNECT is funded under the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres Programme and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund. We engage with over 35 companies including large multinationals, SMEs and start-ups. CONNECT brings together world-class expertise from ten Irish academic institutes to create a one-stop-shop for telecommunications research, development and innovation.
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