What Did They Find Out?
Fragmented London
Several of the sites reflect on the way in which digital technologies have helped people situate themselves in an otherwise fragmented and potentially overwhelming metropolis. Here London appears as a city of cultural difference, technological multiplicity and social change. The ethnographies include a study by Shuang Liang of how Chinese students in London use digital technologies to orient themselves in the city and a parallel analysis by Holden Gibson of the way in which 'millennial' visitors to the city embed themselves in new social networks. Emily Clarendon follows a group of women travellers who use a particular website to meet and organise a night out on the town, whilst Elsa Snellman takes us into the world of lesbian dating in the app Her. Fabian Broeker's analysis of the website 'tea with strangers' investigates another kind of incidental coming together brought about digital networked technologies, whilst Huw Edwards' study of Pokemon Go! users shows us how digital apps both open up and close down the city. And finally, in a reflexive twist, Chelsea Catherman turns her ethnographic lens on the Digital Anthropology MSc cohort themselves to reveal the intimate, playful and at times bizarre practices of this year's digital anthropology students!
Digital Disarray
Sometimes the digital technologies people use appear to proliferate fragmentation, confusion or disconnection. Margaret Cheesman's study of freegans in London depicts a fragile and temporary community that is struggling to cohere across digital and non-digital platforms and uses the swooping interface of Prezi to index this disorientation. In a very different vein Patrick O'Reilly disaggregates, methodologically, the object The London Stone - a literal touch-stone at the heart of the city - and traces its many manifestations across different forms of media and different kinds of real and imagined relations. Dan Artus takes us to the Forest Tavern in Forest Gate but asks digitally, rather than geographically, "Where is the Forest Tavern?". In answering this question we find ourselves confronted with distributed and complex re-description of the pub which leaves us asking not just where, but what is this place, and what, ultimately is digital London?
Sensory London
Finally, several of the sites explore the possibilities of digital technologies to create a rich sensory experience of London both for people who live in London and for anthropological researchers. Anna Leask's study of cold-water swimmers in London uses video and images to conjure the affective experience of all-weather swimming. Juan Forero's study of London Latin American DJs invites us to join an 'ethnographic party' in which we learn about Latino DJing to the beat of cumbia and salsa rhythms; and Eleni Salamouri invites us to go on a walk with four different people as they navigate their way around the city. Miranda Marcus' study of London Field Recorders, tells tales of the city as a sonic space, tacking between the practice of field recorders and the parallel practice of ethnographers as writers of the city, whilst Claire Soule takes us on a digital sensory tour of the Natural History Museum. Digital anthropology in these studies extends the work of visual and sensory anthropology, deepening our understanding of the role of digital devices in forging and describing affective engagements with London as a multifaced, but nonetheless located place.
Fragmented London
Several of the sites reflect on the way in which digital technologies have helped people situate themselves in an otherwise fragmented and potentially overwhelming metropolis. Here London appears as a city of cultural difference, technological multiplicity and social change. The ethnographies include a study by Shuang Liang of how Chinese students in London use digital technologies to orient themselves in the city and a parallel analysis by Holden Gibson of the way in which 'millennial' visitors to the city embed themselves in new social networks. Emily Clarendon follows a group of women travellers who use a particular website to meet and organise a night out on the town, whilst Elsa Snellman takes us into the world of lesbian dating in the app Her. Fabian Broeker's analysis of the website 'tea with strangers' investigates another kind of incidental coming together brought about digital networked technologies, whilst Huw Edwards' study of Pokemon Go! users shows us how digital apps both open up and close down the city. And finally, in a reflexive twist, Chelsea Catherman turns her ethnographic lens on the Digital Anthropology MSc cohort themselves to reveal the intimate, playful and at times bizarre practices of this year's digital anthropology students!
Digital Disarray
Sometimes the digital technologies people use appear to proliferate fragmentation, confusion or disconnection. Margaret Cheesman's study of freegans in London depicts a fragile and temporary community that is struggling to cohere across digital and non-digital platforms and uses the swooping interface of Prezi to index this disorientation. In a very different vein Patrick O'Reilly disaggregates, methodologically, the object The London Stone - a literal touch-stone at the heart of the city - and traces its many manifestations across different forms of media and different kinds of real and imagined relations. Dan Artus takes us to the Forest Tavern in Forest Gate but asks digitally, rather than geographically, "Where is the Forest Tavern?". In answering this question we find ourselves confronted with distributed and complex re-description of the pub which leaves us asking not just where, but what is this place, and what, ultimately is digital London?
Sensory London
Finally, several of the sites explore the possibilities of digital technologies to create a rich sensory experience of London both for people who live in London and for anthropological researchers. Anna Leask's study of cold-water swimmers in London uses video and images to conjure the affective experience of all-weather swimming. Juan Forero's study of London Latin American DJs invites us to join an 'ethnographic party' in which we learn about Latino DJing to the beat of cumbia and salsa rhythms; and Eleni Salamouri invites us to go on a walk with four different people as they navigate their way around the city. Miranda Marcus' study of London Field Recorders, tells tales of the city as a sonic space, tacking between the practice of field recorders and the parallel practice of ethnographers as writers of the city, whilst Claire Soule takes us on a digital sensory tour of the Natural History Museum. Digital anthropology in these studies extends the work of visual and sensory anthropology, deepening our understanding of the role of digital devices in forging and describing affective engagements with London as a multifaced, but nonetheless located place.