Technologies To The People
by iris dressler,
«Technologies To The People» In 1996, Daniel GarcÃa Andújar founded the concern «Technologies To The People,» which brought the «street access machine» on the market the same year: a combination system made up of reading device, special credit card, and public online access, which allows the homeless and other fringe groups to enter the world of plastic money and E-commerce. The trademark-protected «Street Access Machine,» whose design announced the i-Mac Generation in 1996, is perfectly marketed with a corporate identity and comprehensive advertising campaign—flyers, posters, and merchandising materials. Nothing is missing except the corresponding product. Andújar is not concerned with virtual capital for all, but more so with naming the structures of exclusion so gladly denied during the course of the omnipresent cyber-euphoria.[…]
What at first appears to be a measure for ensuring online access to all those not connected to the Internet, ultimately reveals itself to be the crass exposing of an apparatus of power less interested in communicating access to technologies as an option, but rather as a pressure—since the almost inescapable message is really saying: You may not be alone or remain unconnected! From the perspective of its call for social integrity, and strengthening the presence of minorities in the Internet, the «Street Access Machine» pinpoints the wealth of cynicism at large.
