Abstract
Keywords:
Logistics, Multimodal Ethnography, Virtual Reality, Sousveillance, Infrastructure, Supply Chain Capitalism, E-Commerce, Environment
Fulfillment: a field guide to the logistical city is a web-based immersive virtual reality (VR) project, currently in production, that invites the user to explore the sedimented landscapes of logistics traversing urban centers of consumption and their related distributive networks of warehousing, transportation, dataveillance, waste and wilderness management. Inspired by Amazon’s logistical empire and specifically, by e-commerce-driven promotions of “seamless” flows in our on-demand economy, this project offers an interactive tour of the dark side of supply chain capitalism – that is, the hidden buffer zones, glitchy seams and uncanny folds of logistical spacetime that enable the “magic” of consumer “fulfillment” to seem always just one online click away. Our aim is to establish a platform from which to observe the behind-the-scenes realities of supply chain infrastructures and their impact on labor, consumption, wellbeing and the environment. The project opens up new avenues of interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropology, design, science, and engineering for our team, while paving the way for new interdisciplinary educational opportunities. Fulfillment contributes to exploring how VR can be used as a medium for anthropological field research and in turn, make anthropological findings more accessible to a broader audience.
Julie Y. Chu and Daria Tsoupikova’s collaborative research practice, which began in 2018, encompasses multimodal research, digital design and pedagogical initiatives. Harini Kumar and Kenzell Huggins joined the Fulfillment project shortly after it was initiated and have worked closely with Julie Chu on gathering research materials via multimodal ethnography across various intermodal hubs across the American Midwest, Asia and Europe. All four authors have worked collaboratively on the storyboard and design concepts for the project while Daria Tsoupikova is the creative director on the project and has led the design team throughout the VR research, development and production process.
- Julie Y. Chu is Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, USA, with research interests in global logistics and multimodal methods.
- Daria Tsoupikova is a Professor in the School of Design and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago, USA
- Harini Kumar is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, USA
- Kenzell Huggins is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, USA