"Chinese Elm 1030595 . . . (or can I call you Dale??)": Communication and representation in mediated encounters with nonhuman others. (October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Altrudi, Soledad; Dunbar-Hester, Christina; Miltner, Kate M.
• Is Part Of: New media & society. Volume 24:Number 10(2022)
• Page Start: 2291
• Page End: 2310
• Publication Date: 2022-10
• Subjects: Environmental humanities -- interspecies communication -- media studies -- science and technology studies; Mass media -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Mass media and culture -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 302.2305
• DOI: 10.1177/1461444821995470
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-4448

Abstract

The last couple of years have seen an uptick of different technological forms presented as mediators of human/nonhuman interaction, and these developments have been accompanied by an increase in scholarly interest. Here, we engage with the human urge to enter into communicative exchanges that implicate "other" entities, but we also wonder what is at stake, analytically and ethically, in these mediated communicative acts. Following an approach informed by work in the environmental humanities as well as science and technology studies and media studies, we explore three sites of (ostensible) encounters between humans and nonhuman others—plants and animals—and argue that while certain technological mediations can facilitate human "noticing" by rendering nonhuman others sense-able, it does not follow that such interventions open up a space where participants can meaningfully respond to each other.