Techo-Vernacular Creativity and Innovation across the African Diaspora and Global South

Chapter author: Nettrice R. Gaskins

Page author: Kit

Summary
“Technologies are not mere tools that we use, but active forces in the world” (Gaskins 271).

In this chapter, Nettrice R. Gaskins explores Techno-Vernacular Creativity (TVC) as a way of examining how marginalized/under-resourced/disenfranchised/oppressed communities experiment and create with technology in order to work against oppression. She argues that TVC “bridges the real impacts of science and technology with creative methods that afford artists and practitioners the ability to create and move freely, addressing systems of power, ideology, and external networks” (271-2).

She describes TVC methods as “modular, able to be diagrammed, mixed and remixed, translated, collaged, and coded” (272). In TVC, “practitioners” use heritage artifacts and sample, remix, and reappropriate them (272). The goal here is to generate and create new works by using the “old” or heritage artifacts. These artifacts include objects of tangible culture (think monuments and books), intangible culture (think knowledge and language) and nature (253). Gaskins considers examples such as hair braiding and cyphers and how these heritage artifacts are being remixed and used today. Additionally she discusses culturally situated design tools (CSDTS) which allow for digital work on heritage artifacts. She states that they “are linked to four principles: ‘deep design themes,’ ‘anti-primitivist representations,’ ‘translation, not just modeling,’ and ‘dynamic rather than static views of culture’” (264). Overall, TVC methods allow creators to make new things by incorporating from the past and their own knowledge systems which pushes back against oppressors. She states that, “these technologies, for those who create with them, open up opportunities to design tools as agents, giving users the power to act” (267).

Connection to other readings
When considering what readings fit with this section, I considered Andre Brock’s “Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis.” I feel that Brock’s writing fits with this chapter because he is suggesting another method for analyzing digital/technological products, while TVC seems to mostly focus on production.

I also feel that AD Carson’s work: I Used to Love to Dream, fits well with this piece. I am mostly making this connection because his work is in the album format. I think there could be some crossover or discussion around TVC in his album based on his design choices.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention Beth Coleman’s article “Race as Technology.” This is especially prevalent because Gaskins references Coleman saying that "TVC practitioners employ what Beth Coleman refers to as technology’s embedded functions of self-extension to liberate people from inherited positions of abjection toward greater expressions of agency. This is done through extrapolating possible futures and choosing which representations they most want to emulate” (271). I think that this particular point that Gaskin’s is making is reflected in Coleman’s assertion that technology can be used to “liberate race from an inherited position of abjection toward a greater expression of agency” (177). For further discussion of Coleman’s work go to Racialized Surveillance in the Digital Service Economy.

Connection to other chapters
Here are some links to other chapters that may be related (this section is meant to be done collectively by all class members)