Wi l l i am C.

Kurl i nkus

The Uni versi ty
of Okl ahoma
EPIDEICTIC
TECHNOLOGIES AND
DEMOCRATIC DESIGNS
Argument
Indi vidual s i magine the
future through what they
esteem about the past.
Because di f ferent
communi ties esteem
di f ferent pasts, a l ens of
nostal gia i s pi votal for
revealing techno-
epi stemologi cal di f ference.
Examples
The mechanical tomato
harvester
Google Fiber
Participatory medicine
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR DESIGNS TO BE
DEMOCRATIC AND RHETORICAL?
Parti cipatory Desi gn: A method of composing in which experts decentralize
their authorities to welcome the local expertise/tradition/literacy of users. Users
(from medical patients to tennis shoe purchasers) set design problems, goals, and
solutions and are given room to customize texts.
Non-Democratic
Concentrated
Farming: Fewer
Farmers, Bigger
Farms, Fewer
Laborers
1964: 4,000 Farms
1973: 597 Farms
Farmers Sued UC,
Davis, for putting
them out of
business

1. THE MECHANICAL TOMATO HARVESTER
Not everyone was negatively affected by the harvester. For
instance, the number of female tomato pickers (because of
their relative availability and supposed ability to withstand the
motion sickness that affected male pickers) increased from
roughly 0 to 80% of the workforce (Friedland and Barton).
What gets l abeled as a val ue and what i s assumed as l ogi cal?
Technol ogical God Memories: Narratives that highlight the pasts a
community holds dear and the futures they hope are near .
Scientists: progressbut what is progress?
Farmers: traditionbut what is tradition?
Who gets to deci de what counts as the technologi cal good?
How far does the range of affected users go? How does a designer limit
the decision-making we to a useful/practical consubstantiality?
Why Nostalgia? pol i tics, restoration, emoti on, story
Restorati ve Nostal gia: Restorative nostalgia does not think of itself
as nostalgia, but rather as truth and tradition.... (Svetlana Boym). The
nostalgia of fundamentalist thinkers, who reject the mutable nature of the
past.
Refl ective Nostalgia: Meta-cognitively aware remembering that is
experiments with the politics of restorationthat we always remember for
a reason, through a selective terministic screen.
1. THE MECHANICAL TOMATO HARVESTER
Attempts
democracy
Opens
par ti ci pati on
at the
nei ghborhood
l evel
I gnores l ocal
technol ogi cal
val ues
Mai ntai ns the
di gi tal di vi de
2.
GOOGLE
FIBER
A Google map showing which Kansas City neighborhoods have
pre-registered for Google Fiber (greenleft) and which have not
(yellow and orangeright). Troost Ave. runs directly between the
two sides.
For democrati c desi gn to happen, desi gners need to engage the
pre- exi sti ng techno- l ogi cal structures of l ocal communi ti es:
Who has access to the Internet already and why?
Who spreads the word about new technologies?
Who are the most influential technology literacy sponsors?
What are this communitys god terms and what are the enthymematic
networks those terms are grounded in?
What are peoples technological goals and how can they be targeted?
Aski ng communi ty members to tel l stori es about nostal gi c
technol ogi cal experi encestechnol ogi cal memori es that defi ne
the communi tyi s a good way to answer these questi ons.
Memorial Interactivity: If i nteracti vi ty i s the way i n whi ch
desi gners bui l d openi ngs for users to i nteract wi th (add
to/customi ze) products, then memori al i nteracti vi ty i s the way i n
whi ch desi gners draw upon and bui l d spaces for users to
i nterj ect thei r memori es to make obj ects more personal and
meani ngful .
2. GOOGLE FIBER
Memorial
Interactivity:
The collaboration of
doctor and patient
discussing each rhetors
health nostalgiasleads
to better therapies.
Ethos Contact Zone:
A rhetorical situation in
which two or more
communities with
different understandings
of trust, credibility, and
character interact within
unequal power systems.

Examples
1. Web MD
2. Anti- Vaccination
3. Alternative medicine


3. PARTICIPATORY MEDICINE
Pros
Patients are
empowered
Patients come to the
doctor sooner
Doctors listen to and
work with the beliefs of
a patient
Cons
Patients more often
refuse to listen to the
doctor
Simultaneous right
traditions mean that a
wider array of experts
(celebrities, family
members, etc.) are
trusted above doctors
3. PARTICIPATORY MEDICINE
Why do you believe that?Why do you
remember that?
Nostalgia can help democratize technological
design
Highlights the conflicting value systems between rhetorical-
designer and user-audience;
Illustrates that all sides are equally vested in tradition;
Because all sides are vested in some technological tradition, no
user-audience should be viewed as technologically illiterate but
rather as always coming from a tradition of alternative
expertise.
Nostalgia helps highlight the stickiness of
participatory design
Rhetors must learn to adapt to, adopt, and refuse audiences.
Participatory design does not mean the customer is always
right.

CONCLUSIONS