ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 crisis has helped facilitate and amplify a set of articulations between technology, public health, and culture. Among these connections is the idea that wearable technologies – with their attendant claims to know more and know better about the relationship between human bodies and daily life – are able to predict the onset of COVID-19 symptoms and, in doing so, to help mitigate its spread. This article considers this imaginary through a case study of the Oura ‘smart ring’ and Oura’s partnership with medical researchers and the National Basketball Association. Through a close, critical reading of popular press reports, I examine how Oura is imagined as a productive articulation between technology and public health capable of compensating for the failure of the United States government to implement adequate COVID-19 testing. This analysis demonstrates one way cultural studies scholars might interrogate and map the politics of this unfolding conjuncture – that is, to understand how a series of public failings is offloaded to private companies in an effort to develop quick solutions that only further entrench existing crises.

摘要

COVID-19危机有助于促进和扩大技术，公共卫生和文化之间的一系列联系。在这些联系中，有一种想法是，可穿戴技术（伴随着他们声称对人体和日常生活之间的关系有更多的了解和更好的了解）能够预测COVID-19症状的发作，并在此过程中帮助缓解它的传播。本文通过对Oura“智能指环”的案例研究以及Oura与医学研究人员和美国国家篮球协会的合作伙伴关系的案例研究，来考虑这一假想。通过仔细阅读流行的新闻报道，我研究了Oura如何被视为技术与公共卫生之间的富有成效的结合，能够弥补美国政府未能实施足够的COVID-19测试的缺陷。