Walking down the hilly streets of Santiago de Cuba, the second biggest city after Havana, one gets the sense that to fully grasp the city’s vibe and social life one has to look upwards. A sound and visual anthropologist working in Cuba since 2000, Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier prompts her readers not only to turn the pages of her recently published book, but also to gaze toward the sky. In Aerial Imagination in Cuba Boudreault-Fournier relates intricate stories about material and immaterial forces that move through the sky. The author examines how Cubans imagine the sky as a medium that allows circulation of information and objects. Five “illustrated ethno-fiction stories” narrate this process of imagination, each on a specific topic: WiFi, Cactus, Pigeon, Lottery, and Conga. The Cuban visual artist Jos e Manuel Fern andez Lavado worked together with her to “engage visually” with such varied stories through illustrated vignettes that creatively picture otherwise unnoticed connections. This choice, the author argues, allows her to become a “creative agent in addition to being a participant observer” (7). Thanks to this imaginative practice the book makes visible the invisible. In drawing connections, materially and metaphorically, between seemingly different phenomena, it generates a refreshing sense of surprise in the reader from beginning to end. Who would have thought that a cactus placed on a rooftop could function as a technique of circulation? Or that radio waves and lottery numbers could be used as ideological weapons and play a role in international politics? The stories follow the lives of five characters, partly inspired by real people and partly fictional. The first story, Wi-Fi, focuses on Isaac, a self-taught hacker. It puts Wi-Fi antennas in relation to infrastructure, cityscape, and most fundamentally creativity. Being constantly connected and dependent on mobile devices is not a reality that is shared everywhere. In Cuba internet connections are limited, in terms of time and infrastructure, and costly. The story highlights the ability of Cubans to cope with scarcity and low accessibility by inventing alternative ways to create connections. The example of the Street Network shows how something often perceived as invisible, such as internet connections, can actually be visible: a complicated web of ethernet cables and antennas alters the

中文翻译：

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古巴的空中想象

走在古巴圣地亚哥（仅次于哈瓦那的第二大城市）的丘陵街道上，你会感觉到，要完全掌握这座城市的氛围和社会生活，就必须向上看。自 2000 年以来，作为一名声音和视觉人类学家在古巴工作，Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier 促使她的读者不仅要翻开她最近出版的书的书页，还要凝视天空。在古巴的空中想象中，Boudreault-Fournier 讲述了关于在天空中移动的物质和非物质力量的错综复杂的故事。作者考察了古巴人如何将天空想象成一种允许信息和物体流通的媒介。五个“插图民族小说故事”讲述了这一想象过程，每个故事都围绕一个特定主题：WiFi、仙人掌、鸽子、彩票和康加。古巴视觉艺术家 Jos e Manuel Fern andez Lavado 与她合作，通过插图小插曲“在视觉上”参与到如此多样的故事中，这些小插曲创造性地描绘了原本不被注意的联系。作者认为，这种选择使她能够成为“除了作为参与者观察者之外的创造性代理人”（7）。由于这种富有想象力的实践，这本书使无形变得可见。在看似不同的现象之间，从物质上和隐喻上绘制联系，从头到尾都让读者产生一种耳目一新的惊喜感。谁会想到放置在屋顶上的仙人掌可以作为一种流通技术？或者说无线电波和彩票号码可以用作意识形态武器并在国际政治中发挥作用？故事讲述了五个角色的生活，部分灵感来自真人，部分虚构。第一个故事，Wi-Fi，聚焦于自学成才的黑客 Isaac。它将 Wi-Fi 天线与基础设施、城市景观和最基本的创造力联系起来。不断连接和依赖移动设备并不是随处共享的现实。在古巴，互联网连接在时间和基础设施方面都是有限的，而且成本很高。这个故事突出了古巴人通过发明替代方法来建立联系来应对稀缺和低可达性的能力。街道网络的例子展示了通常被认为不可见的东西，例如互联网连接，实际上是如何可见的：以太网电缆和天线的复杂网络改变了 自学成才的黑客。它将 Wi-Fi 天线与基础设施、城市景观和最基本的创造力联系起来。不断连接和依赖移动设备并不是随处共享的现实。在古巴，互联网连接在时间和基础设施方面都是有限的，而且成本很高。这个故事突出了古巴人通过发明替代方法来建立联系来应对稀缺和低可达性的能力。街道网络的例子展示了通常被认为不可见的东西，例如互联网连接，实际上是如何可见的：以太网电缆和天线的复杂网络改变了 自学成才的黑客。它将 Wi-Fi 天线与基础设施、城市景观和最基本的创造力联系起来。不断连接和依赖移动设备并不是随处共享的现实。在古巴，互联网连接在时间和基础设施方面都是有限的，而且成本很高。这个故事突出了古巴人通过发明替代方法来建立联系来应对稀缺和低可达性的能力。街道网络的例子展示了通常被认为不可见的东西，例如互联网连接，实际上是如何可见的：以太网电缆和天线的复杂网络改变了 不断连接和依赖移动设备并不是随处共享的现实。在古巴，互联网连接在时间和基础设施方面都是有限的，而且成本很高。这个故事突出了古巴人通过发明替代方法来建立联系来应对稀缺和低可达性的能力。街道网络的例子展示了通常被认为不可见的东西，例如互联网连接，实际上是如何可见的：以太网电缆和天线的复杂网络改变了 不断连接和依赖移动设备并不是随处共享的现实。在古巴，互联网连接在时间和基础设施方面都是有限的，而且成本很高。这个故事突出了古巴人通过发明替代方法来建立联系来应对稀缺和低可达性的能力。街道网络的例子展示了通常被认为不可见的东西，例如互联网连接，实际上是如何可见的：以太网电缆和天线的复杂网络改变了