Digital Reflection

   In brainstorming ideas on how I would connect our course concepts together in a visual way, I found myself wanting to continue exploring the idea of colonialism in a digital world. In DTC 375, we also recently created a digital poster with similar parameters. Because my approach to that assignment was more text-based, I wanted to go for something more graphic and simple this time around while still communicating a comparison between purported anachronistic situations and the 21st Century.

   The first course concept I am drawing from is that of digital colonialism. When we hear the word "colonialism" or "imperialism", our minds tend to only make associations to the 17th or 19th Century. However, it is important to note that colonial and, consequently, imperialist attitudes emerge in the ways that the world interacts with digital technologies today. Prime examples of these attitudes manifesting today are the One Laptop Per Child initiative and Facebook's Free Basics partnership with India. While these examples don't look like the conventional ideas of colonialism we might hold, we can see the similarities in that these groups (often from the Western world) attempt to acquire some form of control or spread their influence for exploitative or self-centered purposes.

   In my poster, this idea is primarily shown through the spread of circuits from the Western side of the globe overseas. I was heavily inspired by the political cartoon The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters, which was drawn in 1882 by an unknown American artist. The words "Colonize", "Imperialize", and "Assimilate" on the poster also point towards the mindset or game plan by which I believe some of these large tech companies adhere to.

   In conjunction with digital colonialism, digital universalism is also represented in this poster. The ideas of digital universalism and colonialism come hand in hand in many ways, and digital universalism surfaces because we believe (or pretend to believe) that we are acting in the interesting of those that we are "colonizing". In the digital sense, we might tout our efforts of spreading Western ideals of technology as noble or necessary through buzz words and emotive language, but they are often in the interest of Western companies or institutions.

   I tried to convey this idea of digital universalism in the hands surrounding the globe. While it looks like two parties are doing business or coming to an agreement from the front, it is really one entity shaking its own hand. This is meant to show the self-serving and cyclical motivations of those who promote ideas of digital universalism; if we justify our actions with the reasoning that what is good for us is good for everybody, we will perpetuate the cycle of colonization, imperialization, and assimilation (assimilation being the most relevant to digital universalism).

   The last course concept I thought about here was the geopolitics of the physical internet. Through the combination of the circuits coming from the Western world and the suited hands, I wanted to show that this spreading of connectivity was a calculated business move rather than random chance. With the way that the globe is positioned, one could even read it as a map or blueprint by which these institutions are planning on strategically spreading digital technology. The majority of the connectivity is in the U.S., but we have planned out areas to connect that might be useful in spreading our influence or gathering resources.