Mediating the body: Technology, politics and epistemologies of self
Suneel Jethani · Communication, politics & culture · 2015
This paper critically examines the use of digital technologies to track physiological processes (heart rate, physical activity, sleep), daily routines and behaviours (hydration, food and alcohol consumption) as a means of generating personal agency and self-betterment. Looking at problems associated with the 'newness' of self tracking technologies and the knowledge that they garner (e.g. the quantified self), this paper engages specifically with questions of locating the politics of self-tracking. I consider issues such as defining a distinct object of research out of the devices, documentation, and practices present in the diverse and conflicting assemblages of self- tracking; the rapid prototyping, diffusion, appropriation and senescence of self-tracking technology; and the automation of external power and control in contemporary self-tracking. I propose that an analytical category that I term 'latency' offers a heuristic that addresses methodological and theoretical gaps associated with the study of self-tracking in a way that foregrounds the body relative to its own mediation. Further, I discuss the above concerns through the figure I term the 'code/body' - a body appearing via sensors that redefine the body through acts of quantification and technical mediation.