Travelling Tales of Technological Transformation from Abroad

What's even better than beer? Technology. It’s like magic, only with wires. But technology’s got a dark side, too. Our gadgets are like spies, always collecting data on what we do online and using it to shape our behaviours without us realising it. However, people all over the globe are fighting back. In Zimbabwe, for example, people are flipping the script on a mobile money platform called Ecocash. They’ve now got the government throwing a hissy fit and trying to regain control over the money supply. So buckle up, folks, for I’ll be your guide to how the tangled web of technology is reshaping society and what we can do about it.

Contemporary Western popular culture is filled with stories and characters based on Graeco-Roman mythology and/or Victorian literature. But what happens when Asian videogames and webcomics decide to put their own spin on Medusa or Dracula? Why would they even want to? In this talk, we’ll look at some recent examples of cross-cultural adaptation from Asia and think about what they can tell us about the societies in which they were made. Hint: they were all beneficiaries of Western tech and victims of Western imperialism at some point. Come for the sexy Asian vampires; stay for the history lesson!