What is your monograph about, in broad terms?

The book brings together a number of points developed through SHAPE and in collaboration with digital grassroots culture. Technological development is usually driven by companies that aim to grow - to reach many people, create major disruptions and open new markets. We often refer to the companies behind it as ‘Big Tech’. At the same time, Big Tech, for example when it comes to artificial intelligence, has often been criticised for both flattening cultural expressions and overconsumption of resources.

‘Minor Tech’ refers to the smaller technologies - how digital art and underground culture (from a minority perspective) address the environmental, cultural and societal impacts of Big Tech. The book explores how, for example, pluralism, diversity and sustainability can be woven into technology practices.

What impact do you expect your monograph to have on society or your research field?

The project uncovers how the digital grassroots culture imagines an alternative way of living a good life with technology. In doing so, it offers insights we can use to criticize Big Tech and dominant technological developments (such as new artificial intelligence platforms). But it also reveals how we can use these insights to create different ways of designing technology - and by extension, the different competences it requires, for example in relation to education.

What are your expectations for the outcome of your work on the monograph?

The project and the book is a non-fiction book published by a leading international publisher. It is aimed at researchers and educators in fields such as digital arts & culture, Science Technology Studies (STS) and media studies.

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