The Machine Rhetoric of Bar Codes: The U.P.C., Standardization, and Appropriation

Author:

• Ian E. Hill (Univ of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Abstract:

In order to explore how technological objects induce users' unintended technological activity, this paper rhetorically analyzes an "unconventional" rhetorical artifact: U.P.C. technology. I bracket U.P.C.s to analyze the bar code's rhetorical affordances that influence human behavior. In turn, I argue that U.P.C. design suggests rigidity and repetitiveness in its code combined with a simplicity of design that U.P.C.s transmit to their ubiquity in modern consumer culture.