(Do No) Evil Empire: Google, Colonial Cartographies, and Indigenous Resistance

• In Event: Refusing Settler Colonial Pedagogies of Place

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of computer technology, digital and real environs, and temporality as I consider forms of colonialism and the problematic framing of discourse within the field of cyber studies. To do this, I focus on the development of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in relationship the U.S. military-industrial complex and the surveillance state. My work takes a significantly more literal approach to the phrase “Google Empire.” That is, what might it mean to treat Google as a force which actively seeks expansion? Is it possible to identify how the company is currently engaged in acts of conquest and imperialist practices? What might these 21st century violences look like and how might they mirror the historical violences of the imperialist endeavors of the United States? How has globalization and digitization allowed for the emergence of violences in cyberspace? In this work, I consider the iterations of the colonial cartographic gaze and the formations of distinctly colonial narratives of movements through space. I am particularly interested in how we can articulate notions of space in cyber studies that are especially attentive to materiality and how these articulations can work towards the realization of both social justice and spatial justice. I argue the temporalities implicit in “neo” and “cyber” often serve as points of erasure by being used in a way that de-materializes the “colonial” aspect even though their use rests on the conjuring of historical violences. I then address how a consideration of settler colonialism can meaningfully shift us back towards a discourse of materiality. Ultimately, I want to ensure that when colonialism is invoked in cyber studies, it is connected to a discussion of specific, material processes in order to disrupt the prominent tendency to discuss the digital and the technological as ephemeral, immaterial experiences by calling attention to the materiality of computer technology beyond the hardware of the computer itself. The second half of the presentation considers the rejection or strategic utilization of GIS by Native communities globally. Here, I identify moments of dissidence which might help inform the creation of constituent ontologies. These emergent organizing structures may provide the grounds for new interface design practices or data visualization that does not further entrench colonial geographies. The close of the paper considers how a radical shift in ontologies, informed by Native methodologies, might enable new approaches to digital mapping.

Author

• Sarah Montoya, University of California, Los Angeles