Digitizing IKS: Epistemic complexity, datadiversity & cognitive justice

In contemporary African societies where multiple systems of knowledge coexist, and the use of informatics is becoming increasingly widespread, conventional perspectives drawn from cultural anthropology, environmentalism, development studies and intellectual property rights are insufficient guides to thinking about the digitization of indigenous knowledge. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, three moments in South African knowledge dynamics are used to probe some of the ontological, epistemological, and performative implications of science/IKS interaction in the design and construction of archives and databases of local plants. Twenty-first century databases of indigenous African medico-botanical knowledge need to assure that it is recontextualized historically and socially; that its multiplicity, visuality, and orality are retained; and that “articulation work” is done to make sure that design choices and use are cognitively just.     

Digitizing IKS: Epistemic complexity,datadiversity & cognitive justice*

In contemporary African societies where multiple systems of knowledge coexist, and the use of informatics is becoming increasingly widespread, conventional perspectives drawn from cultural anthropology, environmentalism, development studies and intellectual property rights are insufficient guides to thinking about the digitization of indigenous knowledge. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, three moments in South African knowledge dynamics are used to probe some of the ontological, epistemological, and performative implications of science/IKS interaction in the design and construction of archives and databases of local plants. Twenty-first century databases of indigenous African medico-botanical knowledge need to assure that it is recontextualized historically and socially; that its multiplicity, visuality, and orality are retained; and that “articulation work” is done to make sure that design choices and use are cognitively just.     

The Right to Hide? Anti-Surveillance Camouflage and the Aestheticization of Resistance

There has been a recent surge in artistic designs to conceal oneself from ambient surveillance in public places. These center on the masking of identity to undermine technological efforts to fix someone as a unique entity apart from the crowd. Ranging from fractal face paint and hairstyles, to realistic resin masks, to reflective underwear, anti-surveillance camouflage ostensibly allows people to hide in plain sight. These designs, however, enact an aestheticization of resistance premised on individual avoidance rather than meaningful challenge to the violent and discriminatory logics of surveillance societies.