Are we really separate from the things we make?

If we need tools, language and institutions to be who we are — where do we end and our technologies begin?

All That We Touch explores the relationship between technology and society, and how the things we make shape and reshape us in turn.

Host Matt Ryan speaks with Tamson Pietsch about the podcast’s central questions and its sources of inspiration, from Octavia Butler’s fiction to Bruno Latour’s philosophy.

In a changing climate, the powerful Western notion that humans are separate from nature, enjoying dominion over it, is coming undone. Meanwhile, our digital reality provokes doubts about whether we really control our own tools and technologies. It’s these contemporary experiences that All That We Touch seeks to explore.

Our title is taken from Octavia Butler’s novel, The Parable of the Sower. The dystopian story opens with the lines “all that we touch, we change, and all that we change changes us.” It’s a credo that seems to neatly sum up philosopher Bruno Latour’s central idea: that humans, tools, language and technologies are bound together in networks where nothing stands apart, pure and untouched.

You’ll hear a sneak preview of the first two stories we’ll bring you over the coming months, on a podcast that will feature documentaries, talks and recordings of live events – all on that theme of technology and society.

Voices

Dr Matthew Ryan is a Chancellor’s Research Fellow at UTS’ Faculty of Design and Society.

Associate Professor Tamson Pietsch is director of UTS’ Australian Centre for Public History at UTS and managing director of Impact Studios.

Actress Lynne Thigpen reads the excerpt from The Parable of the Sower by Octacia E. Buter.

Professor Heather Ford, Dr Francesca Sidoti and author Richard Cooke present our inaugural series on Wikipedia – coming very soon.

Michelle Maloney and Abe Noe-Hayes feature in a forthcoming episode, Liquid Gold.

Credits

This introductory episode was produced by Lachlan A’Court.

Excerpt from Parable of the Sower is by Octavia E. Butler, narrated by Lynne Thigpen, provided courtesy of Recorded Books, © 2000. The full recording is available wherever audiobooks are sold.

All That We Touch is made on Gadigal land, in Sydney, by UTS Impact Studios. Executive producer is Sarah Gilbert.

Further listening

To learn more about Bruno Latour, you can listen to Ep 169 of Philosophize This! or Ep 230 of The Partially Examined Life.

The Parable of the Sower, read by Lynne Thigpen, is available at Audible. You can hear an excellent discussion of the novel on Backlisted, Ep 223.