Purple Code – With Martina Di Tullio

Abstract

Martina researches the use of digital technologies in rural indigenous communities in the Puna of Jujuy, Northwest Argentina. The Jujuy Puna is part of the so-called Lithium Triangle, a high-altitude desert area where lithium – one of the most important minerals for the production of digital technologies – is mined and processed, leading to the pollution of scarce water resources. In addition, the rural and indigenous population, who have always lived in this region, are excluded from the products of this exploitation. In this episode, Martina talks to us about the political meanings and consequences of these processes for everyday life in the Puna villages, about issues of digital sovereignty and the struggles of the communities. She argues that the spread of algorithmic digital media represents a new dimension of a centuries-old structure of coloniality for indigenous peoples in Latin America.