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What Happens in Vegas Gets Hacked in Vegas: The Material Politics of DEF CON's Place.

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Τίτλος: What Happens in Vegas Gets Hacked in Vegas: The Material Politics of DEF CON's Place.
Συγγραφείς: Wang, Lizao1 (AUTHOR) lwang24@nd.edu
Πηγή: Social Studies of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.). Aug2026, Vol. 56 Issue 4, p549-572. 24p.
Θεματικοί όροι: *Computer hacking, Subcultures, Built environment, Cyberculture, Cities & towns, Materialism
Γεωγραφικοί όροι: Las Vegas (Nev.)
Περίληψη: This article examines how hacker culture, often conceptualized as immaterial and virtual, is in fact materially and spatially constituted through its entanglement with physical places. Focusing on Las Vegas and DEF CON, this article shows the emergence of hackerspectacle, a place-bound mode of interfacing that enables the dual-direction seepage of form and power: subcultural acts leave material residues in policies and design, while the city's spectacle economy filters back to script hackers' style, memory, and self-understanding. The article traces how a three-decade coupling between DEF CON and Las Vegas co-produces both the conference and the city. By intervening in hotel systems, accessing controls, and displaying infrastructures, hackers appropriate Las Vegas's visual language and spatial affordances to craft their placed identity. Conceptually, this case advances STS discussions on the materiality of digital cultures. Empirically, it shows a city-level co-construction. The article also diagnoses a drift from subversion to absorption as DEF CON mirrors Las Vegas's streamlining, commercialization, and surveillance. The article is based on original archival research, ethnographic work, and media analysis. It draws on DEF CON programs, hacker zines, public and anonymized interviews, news coverage, and visual materials, and it situates hacker practices within Las Vegas's legal, architectural, and economic history. It also offers a generalizable template for studying how technocultures take place, literally, and will interest readers of infrastructure studies, digital materialities, urban technopolitics, and the socio-spatial dynamics of subcultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Social Studies of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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  Data: This article examines how hacker culture, often conceptualized as immaterial and virtual, is in fact materially and spatially constituted through its entanglement with physical places. Focusing on Las Vegas and DEF CON, this article shows the emergence of hackerspectacle, a place-bound mode of interfacing that enables the dual-direction seepage of form and power: subcultural acts leave material residues in policies and design, while the city's spectacle economy filters back to script hackers' style, memory, and self-understanding. The article traces how a three-decade coupling between DEF CON and Las Vegas co-produces both the conference and the city. By intervening in hotel systems, accessing controls, and displaying infrastructures, hackers appropriate Las Vegas's visual language and spatial affordances to craft their placed identity. Conceptually, this case advances STS discussions on the materiality of digital cultures. Empirically, it shows a city-level co-construction. The article also diagnoses a drift from subversion to absorption as DEF CON mirrors Las Vegas's streamlining, commercialization, and surveillance. The article is based on original archival research, ethnographic work, and media analysis. It draws on DEF CON programs, hacker zines, public and anonymized interviews, news coverage, and visual materials, and it situates hacker practices within Las Vegas's legal, architectural, and economic history. It also offers a generalizable template for studying how technocultures take place, literally, and will interest readers of infrastructure studies, digital materialities, urban technopolitics, and the socio-spatial dynamics of subcultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Social Studies of Science (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Text: English
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      – SubjectFull: Materialism
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              M: 08
              Text: Aug2026
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              Y: 2026
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