Subjectivity, Technology, Struggle: The Plastic People of the Caribbean

The problem of technology should always remain a predominantly political, and not technical issue. In light of this basic proposition, this talk will examine not contemporary issues of the technical implementation of digital technology in the Caribbean, but will focus instead on technology as what the conference organizers term ‘historicized social phenomena’ in the 250-year struggle for empowerment in the Caribbean. In this process, technology has repeatedly played a transfigurative role in key moments of the highly overdetermined political struggles of the Caribbean.