Existential Technology

Wearable Computing Is Not the Real Issue

Bibliographic Data

ID3356646
AuthorsMann (0000-0003-0363-3690, University of Toronto, corresponding author), Steve Mann (0000-0002-6347-1614, University of Toronto)
Year2003
Volume36
Issue1
Pages19-25
Publication date2003-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLeonardo (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-094X • E-ISSN: 1530-9282
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/002409403321152239
OpenAlexW2049225670
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited1

The author presents "Existential Technology" as a new category of in(ter)ventions and as a new theoretical framework for understanding privacy and identity. His thesis is twofold: (1) The unprotected individual has lost ground to invasive surveillance technologies and complex global organizations that undermine the humanistic property of the individual; (2) A way for the individual to be free and collegially assertive in such a world is to be "bound to freedom" by an articulably external force. To that end, the author explores empowerment via self-demotion. He has founded a federally incorporated company and appointed himself to a low enough position to be bound to freedom within that company. His performances and in(ter)ventions over the last 30 years have led him to an understanding of such concepts as individual self-corporatization and submissivity reciprocity for the creation of a balance of bureaucracy

Aesthetics · Bureaucracy · Empowerment · Existentialism · Humanism · Identity (music) · Law and economics · Political science · Public relations · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology) · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Law · Philosophy

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