Living with Technology: The Friction, Disconnection and Joy of Digital Life

最近完成了我在加州的一个数字排毒社区的博士研究，这个奖学金将使我有机会最大限度地发挥这一原创和令人兴奋的研究的影响，并达到尽可能广泛的学术和普通观众。对于我的博士研究，我进行了一个数字排毒社区的民族志，在那里我发现数字排毒确实生活在日常生活中的技术，而是改变他们对数字设备的态度和愿望。在变革性的新时代务虚会上，他们感受到了一种“部落”社区归属感，并受到这种归属感的启发，优先考虑他们的幸福和“有意识的”生活方式。这是一项开创性的研究，挑战了现有的数字技术“好”和“坏”愿景之间的僵局。通过发表两篇新发表的论文，我将传播与这些正在进行的关于数字伤害和不使用的学术对话有关的关键发现。此外，我很高兴能以书籍的形式出版我的民族志，并为普通读者撰写，讲述我在这个社区的故事，同时提供一个新的视角，让我们思考数字技术在当今社会中的作用。这项奖学金将使这项研究充分发挥其潜力，影响学术和非学术辩论。在奖学金期间，我将把数字创意和研究人员聚集在一个数字欢乐网络中，该网络将庆祝那些庆祝快乐，感动和连接数字体验的创意和研究人员。这个数字欢乐网络实际上将包括一系列的采访或“炉边谈话”在身临其境的在线环境中托管。通过借鉴我自己的采访技巧，通过我的民族志，并在我的时间在牛津互联网研究所开发的组织技能，我将了解这些令人兴奋的数字创意和研究人员是如何概念化我们当前的时刻，以及什么重要的新趋势正在出现。此外，这个网络将围绕这个主题产生一个社区，为新的想法，联系和机会创造空间。在我的新出版物中运行这个网络将使我在这个令人兴奋的领域中成为一个关键的声音。我既是一个数字人类学家，也是一个数字生活主题的艺术家;因此，我为这个重要主题提供了一个独特的跨学科方法。作为一名艺术家，我制作了雕塑和丝网印刷品，探索技术在我们生活中的作用;正是这些实验产生了我的博士研究。有了这个奖学金，我将回到艺术作为我的思想过程中不可分割的一部分。我将首先使用陶瓷雕塑来探索数字设备对生活的物理体验。通过重新创造和重新想象废弃的技术，这些实验将发挥怀旧和纹理。这些作品在网上和展览中展出，将使我与学术网络之外的观众进行丰富的思想交流，激发新的想法，机会和研究途径。我很幸运在博士学习期间受益于牛津大学的优秀培训课程，在此期间，我将利用社会科学部的“知识交流和影响”培训。这将帮助我确保我在论文、书籍和艺术品中最大限度地发挥我的原创研究成果的影响，并为我的职业生涯提供宝贵的技能。我将在TORCH的研究人员发展和培训计划中接受进一步的培训，特别是他们的“公众参与研究”途径，在那里我很高兴通过播客，讲故事和为新闻媒体写作来建立公共传播技能。

Having recently completed my doctoral research into a community of digital detoxers in California, this fellowship will give me the opportunity to maximise the impact of this original and exciting research and reach the widest possible academic and general audience.For my doctoral research I undertook an ethnography of a digital detoxing community, where I found that digital detoxers do indeed live with technology in day-to-day life, but shift their attitudes and aspirations towards digital devices. At the transformative New Age retreat, they feel a sense of "tribal" community belonging, and are inspired by this to prioritise their happiness and "intentional" way of life back home.This is a groundbreaking piece of research which challenges much of the existing stalemate between "good" and "bad" visions of digital technology. By publishing two new published papers, I will disseminate key findings that speak to these ongoing academic conversations about digital harm and non-use. In addition, I am excited to publish my ethnography in book form and written for a general audience, telling the story of my time with this community while providing a new perspective on how we can think about the role of digital technology in society today. This fellowship will allow this research to reach its full potential, impacting both academic and non-academic debates.During the fellowship I will be bringing together digital creatives and researchers in a Digital Joy Network which will celebrate creatives and researchers who celebrate joyful, touching, and connecting digital experiences. This Digital Joy Network will practically consist of a series of interviews or "fireside chats" hosted within immersive online environments. By drawing on my own interviewing skills developed through my ethnography, and on my organising skills developed during my time at the Oxford Internet Institute, I will learn how these exciting digital creatives and researchers are conceptualising our current moment in time, and what important new trends are arising. In addition, this network will generate a community around this topic, fostering a space for new ideas, connections, and opportunities. Running this network alongside my new publications will serve to firmly establish myself as a key voice in this exciting area.I am both a digital anthropologist and artist working within the topic of digital life; as such I offer a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to this important topic. As an artist, I made sculptures and screen prints which explored the role of technology in our lives; and it was these experiments which generated my doctoral research. With this fellowship, I will return to art as an integral part of my thought process. I will first use ceramic sculpture to explore the physical experience of life with digital devices. By recreating and reimagining discarded pieces of technology, these experiments will play with nostalgia and texture. Exhibiting these pieces both online and in an exhibition will allow for a rich exchange of ideas with audiences outside of my academic network, sparking new ideas, opportunities, and avenues of research.I have been fortunate to benefit from excellent training courses across the University of Oxford during my doctoral studies, and during this fellowship I will make use of the Social Sciences Division's "Knowledge Exchange and Impact" training. This will help me ensure that I maximize the impact of my original research findings across my papers, book, and artworks, and will give me valuable skills to take forwards into my career. I will undertake further training in TORCH's Researcher Development and Training Programme, particularly their "Public Engagement with Research" pathway, where I am excited to build skills in public dissemination via podcasting, storytelling, and writing for journalistic outlets.