Project Groups /09-10 /Participatory Culture
Participatory Culture Project Group Proposal – Spring 2009 – Winter 2010
Faculty – 
Sharon Daniel, F&DM and James Davis, SOE
Title of project – Social Price Tracker
Key words – locative media, participatory culture, location dependent information, mobile technologies, labor, migration, privatization, globalization, technology for social inclusion
Abstract
The Participatory Culture group will engage in the development of a locative media project – an interface for cell phones and hand-held devices that will allow consumers at big box stores, like WalMart to trace and compare the “social cost” of commercial products. The phrase “social cost” here refers to;
- the human capital exploited (under-paid and uninsured wage labor, undocumented labor, prison labor, outsourcing, etc.),
- the natural resources expended (carbon footprint, chemical waste, etc.)
- and the overall ecological and economic impact of the production and distribution of consumer goods.
Theoretical Premise
Where, traditionally, we have understood the political subject through the figure of the citizen of a sovereign nation-state in our world at this moment the figure of the citizen is eclipsed by that of the consumer—the most powerful minority in a world population dominated by those who live and labor under conditions of poverty, slavery, imprisonment and political disenfrancisement. DANM Students in this project group will participate in an ethnographic investigation of autonomous immigration, citizenship, internal displacement, political disenfranchisement, and, the legal and social status of persons who must cross physical borders into, and social borders within nation states to participate in the production of consumer products for their own economic survival.
Timeline
Spring 09 – DANM project group will be led by Sharon Daniel. James Davis will teach a graduate-level Computer Science course that will undertake initial development of the technological framework. The two courses will meet together on occasion to discuss and demonstrate work in progress.
Fall 09 – DANM project group will be led by James Davis and cross listed in Computer Science DANM students and Computer Science Graduate students will collaborate on implementation of the technological framework, interface design and integration of data collected in the fall quarter under Professor Davis’ instruction.
Winter 10 – DANM project group will be led by Sharon Daniel and cross listed in Computer Science. Students will complete interface design and integration of data, test the prototype, design web-presence and exhibition format and collaborate on an essay/report aboutf the research.