Infrastructures Underlying Mobile Payment Systems

Work-in-progress post examining mobile payment systems through Vertesi’s notion of seams.

Background

I’ve been wanting to talk for awhile about a really interesting phenomenon to me and…

The Infrastructure That Lies Beneath

The idea of looking at seams within a system is vitally important in the way we understand our world and the way that it shapes our actions and how our actions shape it. When I was first considering the idea of seamlessness, it came across as a very desirable thing…

What do uncollected garbage bags in subway stations tell us about MTA?

What might be gained by looking at seams, and how does it expose the infrastructure that lies beneath?

We live in an intersection of multiple infrastructures and interact with such…

A Seamless Experience with the Digital Art

In “Science, Technology, & Human Values,” Vertesi reflects on Ubiquitous Computing and how the infrastructural alignment it affords us helps us create seamless copresence. In her example with her fieldwork with a spacecraft team, she observes that there…

The Value of Seams

Based on the readings, I believe that a “seamful” environment is more enriched and offers more to its members than a seamless one. Seams arise organically from the grassroots level as members of the society piece together infrastructures that serve their needs and alleviate systematic problems…

Seams of IoT

More times then not, I feel the eventual goal of systems is to achieve seamlessness, and through developmental iteration seams become less obvious over time. But sometimes seams are necessary in that having a truly seamless infrastructure may negate business goals. Seams create distinction and even with…