Livestreaming, An Aesthetics and Ethics of Technical Encounter

Author

Putnam; EL

Year

2024

Publisher

University of Minnesota Press

Language

English

Pages

ISBN

978-1-45297-161-2

Link

Last Update

21-Feb-2026

Keywords

Technology ; Science & Technology Studies ; Communication Studies

Description

I said goodbye to my father over a WhatsApp video call in October 2019. He was connected to a ventilator and they were about to pronounce him deceased in an east coast U.S. hospital, as I sat in my home in Ireland over 3,000 miles away. It all happened so suddenly; I was unable to get a flight in time to be there in person for this moment. We had chatted regularly over WhatsApp before that day. Weekly, we would communicate through glitched video and broken sound, sharing the ins and outs of our daily lives. These once magical tools...