Assemblage and Articulation of technology

     Slack and Wise’s article titled Articulation and Assemblage tries to teach us that there is a different, deeper way of looking at technology. The authors challenge us, the readers to be more critical and look deeper than the physical or easily visible components of technology focusing on the other components put together in order to have this technology work the way it does. The authors refer to Articulation as a way of connecting different facets of a situation, and an Assemblage is the way those articulations come to live or present themselves in reality. The authors challenge us to take a more critical approach when looking or examining technology, looking at the infrastructure and basically trying to determine what makes that technology work. An interesting idea arose as you read deeper into the article, it is the idea that when looking at an environment with new, unfamiliar eyes it is a lot easier to think of and spot the the articulation and assemblage of a certain technology. Using an example from class lecture, the Tokyo street watch and the surveillance industry. The live feed of the streets of Tokyo allowed us to see the immediate composition and use technology, but going deeper and taking a more critical interpretation we were able to identify the many different articulations that are put together to form the assemblage of the city. From the wiring used to power these technologies to the LED light bulbs used on electronic billboards the articulation and assemblage of these technologies are equally as important to the presentation of the technology and the functions they perform or the services they provide.