Paula Nunez de Villavicencio is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and a McLuhan Graduate Fellow. Her research focuses on the historical and political dimensions of media technology used for the governance and surveillance of select populations. Her fellowship research project is titled Optical Media from the Middle Ages to AI: Integrating Humans, Information, and Sight. Paula is one of our 2023-24 Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellows.
What are your main research interests?
My research interests are embedded in the interdisciplinary fields of Media studies, Critical data studies, (Visual) Communication studies, and Digital Humanities. Specifically, my interests focus on the historical and political dimensions of media technology used for the governance and surveillance of select populations. I am interested in our intimate relationships with wearable technology and their role in shaping human conduct in different information systems, as well as their ethical implications. In broader terms, I am interested in information behaviours and practices, wearable technology, systems of AR, and ethics.
What project are you working on at the JHI and why did you choose it?
The main project I’ve been working on at the JHI is my dissertation titled Optical Media from the Middle Ages to AI: Integrating Humans, Information, and Sight. In it I explore how visual information systems across historical and sociocultural contexts produce modes of subjectivation through optical wearable technologies that determine what we see (presence), what we do not see (absence), when we see, and how we see. This project focuses on the overlooked interface of biological-technological visual practices that determine and structure how knowledge can be produced by facilitating the specific arrangements of visual data collection. By centering questions of the eye and the technical-biological interface in critical data studies, my research establishes a new theoretical foundation to approach questions of power, information processes, and subjectivity. I apply the historical methods of media genealogy and archeology, discourse analysis, and archival studies in my work to offer new perspectives on the role of visual information in modes of governance. The four case studies in this project examine reading glasses, stereoscopes, the optical rangefinder, and smart glasses, from the High Middle Ages to contemporary uses cases. Ultimately, each case study examines the factors that contributed to the widespread use and distribution of these wearables, and in turn, how they were used to establish systems of power and governance. I’m thrilled to say that I completed and submitted my dissertation earlier this Winter and will be defending this month.
How has your JHI Fellowship experience been so far?
The JHI Fellowship experience has been superb! The community of interdisciplinary scholars has been incredibly welcoming and it is a joy to sit with them weekly and to share in their research. I am also thrilled to have established strong friendships that I’m sure will continue throughout our lives.
Can you share something you read/watched/listened to recently that you enjoyed/were inspired by?
I’ve recently been enjoying Hanif Abdurraqib’s essays and poetry! I’m trying to make it through all of his published works before I start reading his latest book There’s Always This Year, which I’m sure will continue to inspire me.
What is a fun fact about you?
A fun fact about me is that I will take any opportunity to work creatively, lately I’ve been enjoying working with a variety of metals and clay to make new things.