Rachel O’Dwyer and Erin B. Taylor: On Art & Money, Surveillance Capitalism and the Ideal Research Centre

Rachel O’Dwyer is a lecturer in Digital Cultures in the School of Visual Culture in the National College of Art & Design, (NCAD) Dublin. Among other things she coordinates modules on Economies of Culture and Digital Cultures and teach electives on topics such as Art and Money, Tactical Media and the Politics of Algorithms and Networks. She is formerly a Media and Communications Research Fellow in CONNECT, Trinity College Dublin, a Government of Ireland Scholar and a Fulbright scholar at UC Irvine, California’s Future of Money Research Institute.

Erin B. Taylor is a consultant, researcher and writer with 17 years of experience designing and implementing projects, directing teams, managing budgets, and producing outputs for diverse audiences. She holds a PhD in Socio Cultural Anthropology from Sydney University and was a postdoctoral researcher on financial mobility at the University of Lisbon.  Erin is the co-founder of Canela Consulting, an ethnography-driven research and consulting group focused on finance and technology. Her topical specializations include questions on financial stress & financial inclusion, impact on new regulations & products on consumers, economic value & attitudes that shape society and more.

In today’s episode Erin and Corina talk to Rachel, a speaker at the Anthropology + Technology 2020 conference taking place on October 9th online. As the host of the fintech stream, Erin takes us through the setup and gives us some hints on what to expect. Rachel, as one of the speakers on her panel gives us a preview of her talk and takes us through her innovative work on surveillance capitalism, mobile networks and payments. What is surveillance capitalism? What are some of the effects of surveillance capitalism on consumers? Rachel and Erin reflect on the similarities between the field of art and the field of money research. What do art and money have in common? At the end both reflect on what would an ideal research center look like and share their expectations of the conference and those in attendance.

 

Episode Links:

Anthropology + Technology Conference 2020, 9th , 12th October, 

https://www.anthtechconf.co.uk/

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power

Moving Through Sound: The Role of Mobile Sonic Technologies in a User’s Experience of Urban Place London: Lambert Academic Publishing, (Monograph published from M.Phil thesis), 2010.​

Whitespaces: A Political Economy of Radio Currently Under Review with MIT Press, Leonardo Series

Rachel O’Dwyer: http://www.rachelodwyer.com

Erin Taylor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinbtaylor/