12020-05-05T20:59:53-07:00Collin Hardwickee755078ed93ca4c9a609e3d8b04a1c93d4547a4431Anne Balsamo's diagram of technology, with integrated context.plain2020-05-05T20:59:53-07:00Reprinted in "Feminist in a Software Lab," Tara McPhersonAnne Balsamo2019042912120620190429121206Collin Hardwickee755078ed93ca4c9a609e3d8b04a1c93d4547a4
Scalar, as a platform, is unique in its explicit theoretical goals. In Feminist in a Software Lab, McPherson recounts a Scalar origin story, including the feminist intervention that drove the creation of the platform. Part of this foundation is the uptake of a debate in platform and code studies on the role of context. McPherson demonstrates that even scholarly analyses of platforms can yield a partitioned ideology; mappings of platforms studies by Ian Bogost, Nick Monfort, David Berry, and others, have, intentionally or not, relegated context to the margins of the field (38-39).
McPherson aligns the goals of the Scalar project with Anne Balsamo's feminist intervention in the mapping of technology and culture. McPherson's praise of Balsamo's work demonstrates the goals for integrating context into technology:
"The object matters, but not in a decontextualized or abstracted manner. Here context, history, and culture are not imagined as a vague wrapper surrounding a technological fetish object but as vital elements in technological design and production." (Feminist in a Software Lab 40).
In other words, Scalar was formed with a radical level of contextuality in mind, with a theoretical foundation that centralizes culture and history far beyond other digital publishing platforms.
