Guest Lecture by Daisy Curtis
In this lecture Daisy will be discussing the infrastructures which underpin digital technology. This will be building on some of the ideas already discussed in the module which have problematised the apparent invisibility and immateriality of the digital.
The underlying question running throughout this lecture is ‘are digital infrastructures invisible?’. To unpack this we will be exploring three types of digital infrastructures:
- Cables (Submarine + Land)
- Data Servers/Centres
- Radio Spectrum
By exploring these three types of infrastructures we will also be considering how digital infrastructures have historical, environmental, geopolitical, and social dimensions.
Lecture Slides
Key Readings
Furlong, K., 2021. Geographies of infrastructure II: Concrete, cloud and layered (in) visibilities. Progress in Human Geography, 45(1), pp.190-198 https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520923098
Curtis, D., 2023. The radio spectrum: an imperceptible infrastructure?, in Osbourne, T., and Jones, P., eds., A Research Agenda for Digital Geographies, Edward Elgar, UK: 53‒65 https://doi-org.uoelibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.4337/9781802200607.00013
(https://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Daisy_Curtis)