KATRINA JUNGNICKEL - Postgraduate Student

Kat's work looks at the role and importance of visual representations and practices in the making of a new digital technology - Wireless Fidelity (WiFi). Her thesis begins by examining the sociological value of inscriptions in science and technology studies (STS) in science, engineering, law and architecture.Central to this literature is the production of ordered, rigorously bound and immutable public ‘facts’ that reduce, or entirely erase ambiguity and alternative interpretation. Mess, materials, methods of making and makers themselves are rendered invisible, carefully hidden behind-the-scenes. Drawing on an ethnography (participant observation and interviews) of the largest not-for-profit volunteer community WiFi network in Australia, she examines how members design, make, tinker, break, fix and share a wireless network that spans across the city of Adelaide. To do this she foregrounds the visual representations members make in everyday situated practice and examine what types of work they do. She shows how members regularly encounter trees, thieves, animals, neighbours, legal restrictions, technical complications, a myriad of materials and the weather in the daily practice of making WiFi. However, rather than filtering out and tidying up mundane mess, members build it into their visual practices. They make WiFi because of uncertainty and ambiguity, not in spite of it.

Her work brings to light the achievement of making WiFi by Australian 'backyard technologists' and, in doing so, draws attention to the assemblies of ordinary, hand-made and 'home brew' representations and practices that operate as important tools in the construction of knowledge and new digital technologies.

See her research blog for more about the project.

PAPERS/ PRESENTATIONS

Jungnickel, K. (2008) Disorderly Design; The role of mess in the making of WiFi, Paper presented at 4S [Society for the Social Studies of Science] Annual Conference, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Jungnickel, K & G, Bell. (2008) 'Home is where the hub is? Domestic culture & wireless Infrastructures in Australian homes', In Foth, M. (ed.) Urban Informatics : Community Integration & Implementation (forthcomng).

Jungnickel, K. (2007) Cover photos for Goggin G, & Gregg, M. (eds.) Wireless Cultures & Technologies, Media International Australia (MIA), University of Queensland, Australia.

(2006) ‘Using the Internet’ (with Nina Wakeford and Kate Orton-Johnson) in Gilbert, N. (ed) From Postgraduate to Social Scientist : A Guide to Key Skills, London : Sage

Jungnickel, K. (2006) Home is Where the Hub is: Domestic cultures and wireless infrastructures in urban Australia, Paper presented at The Australian Sociological Association conference [TASA], University of Western Australia, Perth.

Jungnickel, K. (2006) Hacking the Home: Technological tantrums and wireless workarounds in domestic culture, paper presented at Wireless Cultures & Technologies Workshop, University of Sydney, Australia

Jungnickel, K. (2005) Ways of Seeing and Researching the Blog, paper presented at Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) 6.0, Chicago, USA.

Jungnickel, K. (2005) Visible Bodies, Invisible Technology: The Making and Shaping of Wifi in the City, paper presented at the Visual Sociology Conference, Dublin, IR.

WEB PROJECTS

Making Wifi - Research blog documenting PhD fieldwork in Australia.

Located Mobility - Website for an INCITE/Intel funded project about wireless infrastructures in domestic contexts in Sydney.

73 Urban Journeys - Ongoing research project investigating the use of mobile technologies and senses of place in a mobile social space (ie. the bus) as well as the methological challenges of using a blog and website to gather, analyse and present data. Kat designed a website and blog for this project and there is a small case study about it in this book. 73 urban Journeys builds upon a much larger INCITE study about the consumption of digital content in specific locations in London.

OTHER PROJECTS

Edges - RA (2006) to Genevieve Bell for three week intensive fieldwork trip to Adelaide and Sydney exploring the edges of domestic spaces. At the end of the trip we produced a 42 page book featuring interview transcripts, images and contextual analysis and a series of postcards about the project.

Inside Asia - RA (2003) and Summer intern (2004) to Genevieve Bell in People and Practices Research lab (PAPR). The project explored how culture shaped technology use across seven Asian counties.

Urban Tapestries (2003) - Member of core team at , Proboscis, an arts/research organisation, designing and developing a wireless location based application system. Involved various research methods, evaluation devices, workshops and events.

Mapping Perception (2002) - Co-edited a book with Proboscis to accompany a four year interdisciplinary Sci-Art research project between a filmmaker, neurophysiologist and producer looking at the limits of human perception and issues of ability versus disability.

Sonic Geographies (2002) - Experimental project with Proboscis experimenting with urban mapping devices designed to excavate multi-sensory excursions in the city, primarily using animation, film and soundscapes.

Cell (2001) - Ethnography of an interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitated by Peter Ride, Digital Arts Development Agency (da2), between a UK digital artist and NY stem cell pathologist engaged in representing a major shift in understanding the cell as a component in the body.

email: sop01kj [at] gold.ac.uk