Different Engines: Media Technologies from Latin America

Different Engines investigates the emergence of technologies in Latin America to create images, sounds, video games, and physical interactions. The book contributes to the construction of a historiographical and theoretical framework for understanding the work of creators who have been geographically and historically marginalized through the study of five exemplary and yet relatively unknown artifacts built by engineers, scientists, artists, and innovators. It offers a broad and detailed view of the complex and sometimes unlikely conditions under which technological innovation is possible and of the problematic logics under which these innovations may come to be devalued as historically irrelevant. Through its focus on media technologies, the book presents the interactions between technological and artistic creativity, working towards a wider understanding of the shifts in both fields that have shaped current perceptions, practices, and design principles while bringing into view the personal, social, and geopolitical singularities embodied by particular devices. It will be an engaging and insightful read for scholars, researchers, and students across a wide range of disciplines, such as media studies, art and design, architecture, cultural history, and the digital humanities.

Andrés Burbano is an Associate Professor in the Arts and Humanities School at the Open University of Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain). He has developed most of his academic career in the School of Architecture and Design at Universidad de los Andes (Bogota, Colombia). Additionally, he is Visiting Lecturer at Danube University (Krems, Austria). Burbano holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts and Technology from the University of California at Santa Barbara (California, EEUU). He works as a researcher, curator, and interdisciplinary artist; his research projects focus on media history and media archaeology in Latin America and the Global South, 3D modeling of archaeological sites, and computational technologies’ historical and cultural impact. Besides, Burbano has been appointed as ACM SIGGRAPH 2024 chair.