bots-as-digital-infrapunctures/content/Section 1 - Digital Infrapunctures/1-introduction.md

Title: Introduction - Digital Infrapuncture
Slug: 01-s1-introduction-digital-infrapuncture
Date: 2020-11-01 12:00
Summary: *Digital infrapuncture* is a speculative term that can help reframe the perception of the stress points that an infrastructure could have.

*Digital infrapuncture* is a speculative term that can help reframe the perception of the stress points that an infrastructure could have. In a talk she presented in 2016 called *Identifying the point of it all: Towards a Model of "Digital Infrapuncture"*[^DigitalInfrapuncture], Verhoeven develops this concept in relation to the field of digital humanities.

Informed by the work of scholar Nowviskie (Nowviskie 2015)[^Nowviskie], Verhoeven asks for a rethinking of digital infrastructures in terms of capacity and care, by *"developing an appreciation for where it hurts, where the sense of pain is in the worlds that we inhabit and study"* and creating small scale interventions which can enkindle transformation on a larger scale.

In her presentation, she describes digital infrastructures according to their:

* capacity to create the **conditions of possibility for connection**
* their capacity for **repair** (Jackson, 2014)[^Jackson]
* and their capacity to **bring things (back) together**

![A screenshot of the last slide from Verhoeven's presentation.](/images/slide.png)

If we understand an infrastructure as a relational device - or in other words - as a technology that brings things (back) together, we can start to critically enquire where infrastructures fail to do so.

What are examples of infrastructures that do *not* bring things together anymore? 

How does an infrastructure connect? And how are these connections constructed and formatted? 

Who is an infrastructure bringing together? And who *not*? What are the conditions and possibilities for connection they provide? Where do they *not* connect and concequently exclude people? 

And, most importantly, *who* can actually intervene in the design of infrastructures? And *how*?

We invited Deb Verhoeven to respond to the following questions:

* What are digital infrapunctures? 
* How do we identify stress points in digital infrastructures? 
* Who can create infrapunctures? 
* Could you expand on the analogy of acupuncture in relation to infrastructures? 
* Could you give some examples of infrapunctural interventions? 

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# Footnotes & Further readings

[^DigitalInfrapuncture]: Verhoeven, Deb. "Opening Keynote: Identifying the point of it all: Towards a Model of 'Digital Infrapuncture'" *Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School* (2016) [https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/opening-keynote-identifying-point-it-all-towards-model-digital-infrapuncture](https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/opening-keynote-identifying-point-it-all-towards-model-digital-infrapuncture)

[^Nowviskie]: Nowviskie, Bethany. "On Capacity and Care" *Bethany Nowviskie* (2015) Accessed 18 September, 2020. [http://nowviskie.org/2015/on-capacity-and-care/](http://nowviskie.org/2015/on-capacity-and-care/)

[^Jackson]: Jackson, Steven J. "Rethinking Repair" *Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society* (2014): 221-239. [https://sjackson.infosci.cornell.edu/Jackson_RethinkingRepair(MITPress2014).pdf](https://sjackson.infosci.cornell.edu/Jackson_RethinkingRepair(MITPress2014).pdf)