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PowerPoint in Public

Digital Technologies and the New Morphology of Demonstration

Department of Sociology Columbia University, dcs36{at}columbia.edu, Center on Organizational Innovation

Verena Paravel

Sciences-Po (Institut d'Études Politique), Paris, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, paravel{at}mit.edu

When policy issues involve complex technical questions, demonstrations are more likely to marshal charts, graphs, models, and simulations than to mobilize popular movements in the streets. In this paper we analyze PowerPoint demonstrations, the most ubiquitous form of digital demonstrations. Our first set of demonstrations are the PowerPoint presentations made in December 2002 by the seven finalist architectural teams in the Innovative Design competition for rebuilding the World Trade Center. Our second case occurred some blocks away, several months later: Colin Powell's PowerPoint demonstration at the United Nations. We argue that Edward Tufte's denunciation of PowerPoint does not capture the cognitive style made possible by the affordances of this pervasive new technology. On the basis of our case materials, we demonstrate the distinctive morphology of PowerPoint. Its digital character provides affordances (1) that allow heterogeneous materials to be seamlessly re-presented in a single format that (2) can morph easily from live demonstration to circulating digital documents that (3) can be utilized in counter-demonstrations. A careful examination of this widely used technology is critical for understanding public discourse in a democratic society.

Key Words: architects • cognitive style • demonstrations • digital technologies • Colin Powell • PowerPoint

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 25, No. 5, 30-55 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276408095215


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