Throughout the history of technology, there have been issues with such concerns as freedom from oppression; surveillance; playful explorations of gender and sexuality; attacks on women and people of color through social networking software; and so on. Increasingly, we have to add worries about dangers such as terrorism (whether domestic or abroad), cybersecurity, and so forth. This issue of Technoculture explores those issues through critical articles and creative works.
First, I would like to note that we have a special section on gender and sexuality edited by Amber Johnson of Prairie View A&M University and Jake Simmons of Angelo State University. The four articles in this section include a wide range of topics: Bradley Bond’s essay analyzes the depiction of sexual minorities in gay and lesbian oriented media while Murali Balaji’s essay explores the ways in which Indian masculinity is represented online. Riché Richardson looks at the ways in which the Internet facilitated Antoine Dodson’s celebrity status and the ways in which online spaces allowed for his commodification. And finally, Bruce E. Drushel looks at the various ways the arrest of gay men in a men’s room sting operation evolved over time. We hope you enjoy the section; we’re certainly proud to publish it.
We also have a wide range of critical articles that range from a critical webtext drawing on the theories of Eric and Marshall McLuhan (Deb Balzhiser, Texas State University, Caroline E. Jones, Austin Community College and Julie Good, San Antonio College with web design by Tate English, National Instruments); a reading of Twitter using Laclau and Althusser by Thomas Breideband; and Steven Hammer’s essay on the uses of glitch in the composition classroom (an exception to our policy against pedagogical pieces) that is presented in both a glitched and unglitched version in which the glitched version is the authoritative text.
Kate Drazner Hoyt’s “Ethics of Network Subjectivity” offers a reading of #NotABugSplat, an art piece serving as a commentary on the United States’ drone war, featuring an image of a young girl large enough to be read from planes flying over the site, where Courtney Patrick-Weber’s essay explores exactly how identity and the human is formed in cyberspace. Matthew Pavesich’s “Field Notes on Activist Objects” is an example of what the author calls “ecological fieldwork,” in which he reads a variety of objects from signs to images on cars to tattoos against an analysis of the ways in which various oppressions including poverty and racism affect these objects. The critical section concludes with an essay by Stephanie Vie, Deb Balzhise, and Devon Fitzgerald Ralston which looks at why comment threads on social media often become such hostile spaces.
Technoculture is also proud to present an interview with two major and important feminist scholars who work in and with digital spaces. In it, April Conway interviews Kristine Blair and Radhika Gajjala on Cyberfeminism and Technofeminism.
Finally, we offer seven creative works in a variety of media, including sound, video, and various forms of poetry with authors working all over the world, and four reviews of important works exploring digital culture.
Please consider submitting creative and critical works to Technoculture. We are currently in development of our Volume 5 (2015) which is closed to new submissions, but we are now seeking both critical and creative work for a special issue called It’s Magic! in which our authors and artists will explore technology as magic; this special issue includes a section on “Theatrical Magic,” edited by our board members John Patrick Bray and Stephen Fernandez in which the editors are looking for both critical articles and creative works that explore or document the ways in which technology makes the theatrical experience more profound and enriching.
Also, a note to our readers: as tweeting becomes more and more of an important form of communication in scholarly circles with each passing day (and conference!), and beginning with this issue, we are adding hashtags to TC’s articles and creative works. My hope is that doing so will help you spread the news about the works published on TC’s screens to others who may enjoy them. This is new for us, and so I would appreciate any comments and questions you have on this subject.
Thanks for reading Technoculture! Meanwhile, enjoy!
Respectfully yours,
Editor, Technoculture
[revised: 16 July, 2023 with Submittable information]
