Back to the shed: gendered visions of technology and domesticity

One of the tropes of the age of ubiquitous computing is the migration of computation into new spaces. Domestic environments have been a particular focus of attention for many. However, these spaces are neither empty nor neutral. They are already populated by people and practices which shape both their physical form and cultural meaning. We want to consider here some questions of technology and domesticity. In order to give some critical perspective, we want to approach domestic space from the edge, and in particular, from the shed. 1 Enter the shed In his late 1960s, Jim lives with his wife, Sara, on their property in rural New South Wales, in eastern Australia.1 They have about 25,000 hectares on which they run cattle and sheep, with the main house on a slight rise over-looking much of their land. About 100 m away from the house is a beaten and weathered corrugated iron shed—the old shearer’s quarters. It is a fourroom building in the middle of an empty field. There is a working ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: PUC
• Authors: Genevieve Bell, Paul Dourish
• Keywords: Jim’s Home Office, Old Shearer Quarters, PUC 2007, Ubiquitous Computing