ABSTRACT

This project explores in/visibility, publicity, and politics in the infrastructural imaginary of Spruce Pine, a mining town in the US state of North Carolina. Through participant observation and other direct experiences, and as an interdisciplinary exercise in studying from below, I examine how the town's supplying of high-quality quartz (HQQ) to high-tech industries is entangled with their promoted identity as a gem-mining location. From the perspective of ideological- and material-discursive practices, I examine processes of open secreting, disarticulation from a ‘high tech’ identity and its connotations, and a nostalgic emphasis on the town's gem-mining identity. The political ramifications of these entanglements are presented in the example of the town's pro-Trump Fourth of July parade. I conclude by reflecting on how the complex entanglements of seemingly contradictory ideological practices work in part due to their alignment with regional culture and history.

摘要

该项目探索了美国北卡罗来纳州采矿小镇云杉松的基础设施想象中的可见性、宣传和政治。通过参与观察和其他直接体验，作为一种从下而上研究的跨学科练习，我研究了该镇向高科技产业提供高品质石英 (HQQ) 是如何与其作为宝石开采地的宣传身份纠缠在一起的。从意识形态和物质话语实践的角度，我考察了公开分泌、脱离“高科技”身份及其内涵的过程，以及对城镇宝石开采身份的怀旧强调。这些纠缠的政治后果在该镇的亲特朗普七月四日游行的例子中有所体现。