Wednesday March 29th, 15:30-17:00
This event will take place in hybrid form.
If you would like to attend as non-MUSTS member, please register by sending an email to: j{dot}bruyninckx{at}maastrichtuniversity{dot}nl
Trouble in Moneyland: Trajectories of Mediation in Financial Technologies
(University of Siegen/Humboldt University Berlin)
Abstract
My talk is analyzing two parallel historical trajectories, and their uneasy convergence in contemporary digital cultures. It reconstructs a mode of financialization that infrastructurally combines instant messaging and digital payments. How, why and for whom should these two ways of interacting converge? What are the economical stakes of combining platform and app economies? I am going to inquire into these questions from a point of view that integrates history, STS, and media theory. Thus, the alternative title of this talk could be “every mediation counts.”
Sebastian Gießmann is Reader in Media Theory at the University of Siegen. In 2023, he serves as visiting professor for cultural techniques and history of knowledge at Berlin’s Humboldt University. His book Connectivity of Things: Network Cultures Since 1832 is forthcoming in MIT Press’s Infrastructures series. Gießmann’s work intertwines practice theory (which he helped to establish within media studies), cultural techniques, Science and Technology Studies, and grounded histories of (digital) media. He is principal investigator of a major research project on the history of network infrastructures within the DFG-funded collaborative research center Media of Cooperation.