Die flayed a mouse

ASSASSIN at WORK -  " . . . the mouse, in particular, as a “cultural artifact of ideological significance.” By making our physical interactions with these objects visible, he shows that our bonds to them are both “intimate and complicit.” Not only do we “tap, rub, and caress their glass faces to do and make things,” but we angle them and their lenses to look back at us, so we can livestream and take photographs and unlock them (as well as helping to train their facial recognition programs). That’s not all: “We ask them questions or make requests through their voice-activated virtual assistants. And when they beep, chime, vibrate, or illuminate, we reflexively pick them up and hold them close.” 

Throughout, Monteiro reminds us of the uncanny ubiquity of these objects in our daily lives. “Smartphones, smartwatches, and the like have accompanied us almost everywhere only for the last twenty years,” he writes, “yet it has become difficult to imagine how life was before.”