Intra-acting with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory; or, how the technosphere may come to matter

Jol Thomson , Sasha Engelmann

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Abstract

This paper contends that a robust concept of the technosphere – indeed one that is truly adequate to the Anthropocene – must be approached using a plurality of methods that do not categorize agencies or rely on hierarchical scalar analysis. In this commentary, we draw from feminist science studies scholar Karen Barad’s philosophy of agential realism, and in particular her concept of ‘intra-action’, to identify the technosphere as emergent from entangled practices, sites and infrastructures, and to trace the technosphere from the ‘meso’ scale to subatomic and cosmological realms of force and energy. We demonstrate the value of a critical, intra-active approach to technical assemblages by thinking the technosphere concept with and within a vast experimental apparatus: the IceCube Neutrino Observatory.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)81-91
Number of pages11
JournalThe Anthropocene Review
Volume4
Issue number2
Early online date9 Jan 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2017

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