Articles

Stuff You Can Click: Sensing Infrastructure with Software Emulation

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Abstract

How can we sense infrastructure? This article begins by considering the role of the body in some recent influential approaches to media infrastructure. The critical work of Lisa Parks, as well as the cartographic project of Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, prominently feature the eye, whereas the media archaeologies of Wolfgang Ernst and Erkki Huhtamo proceed from the hand's interaction with individual media devices. By contrast, durational "recipes" from Colorado's Media Archaeology Lab and "walking tours" led by Amsterdam's Critical Infrastructure Lab emphasize embodiment in time and (urban) space.  
In the context of this taxonomy, the second part of the article describes in-browser software emulation. Detailing the history of emulation and the technical processes that brought it into the browser, I argue that sites like infinitemac.org stage a tactile reckoning with not only software history, but also the underlying techniques of network infrastructure. 

Keywords: emulation, virtualization, infrastructure, embodiment, media theory

How to Cite:

Furste, Z. A., (2025) “Stuff You Can Click: Sensing Infrastructure with Software Emulation”, communication +1 11(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/cpo.1939