This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Madelyn Zander can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/08/the-cloud-is-too-loud-spotlighting-the-voices-of-community-activists-from-the-data-center-capital-of-the-world/. About the post: In this post, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork that began in 2021 with community activists in Northern Virginia, a place known as the “data center capital of the world,” to bring the cloud’s emerging sound pollution problem into focus.

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Mariel Garcia-Montes can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/08/challenging-normalized-surveillance-birds-on-the-wire-surveillance-in-mexico/. About the post: The ways that surveillance technology is acquired and deployed, often in the name of security, contributes to the establishment of a culture where surveillance is normalized. However, this move is not devoid of tensions, as the high social costs of surveillance efforts become visible and sectors of civil society begin to challenge the emerging sociotechnical status quo. I also point to the ways that these developments have made an impact beyond Mexican borders, in the global surveillance technology market, and among global advocacy movements organizing around privacy rights. (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Yuna Hwang can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/08/questioning-the-market-how-did-the-south-korean-camming-beot-bang-market-grow/. About the post: Drawing on new economic sociology to consider markets as social networks, along with a historical-institutional perspective emphasizing the sociopolitical contexts that enable market construction and operation (Chun and Lee, 2023), this work approaches Boet-bang markets as socio-cultural constructs rather than a priori phenomenon. So, in what political and institutional context was the Beot-bang market created in Korea? (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Chu May Paing can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/07/trolling-breaking-rules-poking-fun-or-just-outright-harassment/. About the post: What is the social function of trolling and in what context can trolling be an empowering act for those of us who are already systematically marginalized? What are the ways in which we could reduce online harm and harassment like this incident? (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Adriana Moreno can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/07/digital-anthropology-of-the-senses-connecting-technology-and-culture-through-the-sensory-world/. About the post: This post explores the relevance of studying the senses, particularly hearing and touch, from a digital anthropological perspective, taking advantage of the vast offer of audiovisual and transmedia content that already exists on the Internet: socio-digital platforms and streaming services. (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by PEDRO DE MEDEIROS can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/07/cards-and-codes-spirituality-and-magic-in-the-biotechnological-era/. About the post: My proposal is to create a magical tool, a tarot deck, that provokes thought about how mystical and religious elements permeate the advancement of science and technology, especially in the field of biotechnology, and are in constant confluence with all aspects surrounding it: academia, startups, investors, and the like. (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)

This podcast episode talks to three anthropologists, Rachel Douglas-Jones, Rine Vieth, and Kara White, scholars working in three different parts of the world who use multimodal methods in their teaching and research. It is not a history of multimodal methods, or even a really detailed review of them, instead, it is a consideration of some of the issues they raise or resolve for ethnography. Transcript available at https://blog.castac.org/2024/07/the-many-modes-of-ethnography/

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Jessica L. Olivares can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/07/to-witness-cell-phone-cameras-immigrant-communities-and-police-accountability/. About the post: What follows is a reflection on my fieldwork in Houston, Texas, during 2018 and 2019, focusing on how anti-surveillance advocates at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas used cell phones and their cameras as resistance tools. I focus on promoting cell phone camera usage in ACLU's "Know Your Rights" workshops and through the ACLU Blue and ACLU La Migra mobile applications. Throughout the piece, I reckon with what Deborah Thomas calls “the often difficult-to-parse relationships between surveillance and witnessing” (2000: 717). Witnessing the precarity of past ethnographic junctures can highlight injustices, bring them to attention, and formulate strategies for their alleviation. Thus, bearing witness to the past moments may help gain agency over unpredictable futures.

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by Sean Muller can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/06/anthropology-of-a-dream-the-stakes-of-studying-addiction-in-america/. About the post: Addiction emerges as a problem alongside the fantasy of a “good life” characterized by “upward mobility, job security, political and social equality, and lively, durable intimacy” (Berlant 2011: 3). What habits and histories shape the endurance of this dream and why do we imagine anything different as a failure?

This bonus content is a reading from Platypus, the CASTAC Blog. The full post by João Paulo Siqueira can be read at https://blog.castac.org/2024/06/between-the-bitterness-of-anonymity-and-ethics-is-racism-reflections-for-anthropological-research-on-science-in-the-backyard/. About the post: Therefore, my contribution to the discussion circle was to challenge the idea that we conduct research "at home" or "in our own backyard," as my interlocutors and I were constantly reminded in the field that this was not our place, much less our home. This highlights the constitutive nature of racial relations in these dynamics, given that my interlocutors and I are Black researchers, while all members of the institution were white. (This episode is available in additional languages on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.)