The Fabric of Interface: Mobile Media, Design, and Gender
MIT Press, 2017

Mobile touchscreen media influence everyday interactions and behavior in fundamental ways, suggesting new modes of human exchange and engagement. In The Fabric of Interface I argue that these networked activities nevertheless draw heavily on gendered forms and structures traditionally associated with textile and needlecraft media. Indeed, strong ties between computing technologies, textile industries, and domestic labor have shaped conceptual and material approaches to digital and electronic media from their inception. Emphasizing the design and function of contemporary mobile devices, interfaces, and platforms, I demonstrate how these adopt specific aesthetics, strategies, and practices of textile construction and needle-based assembly in encouraging users to generate, manipulate, and piece together networked data. Perceptions of media usage as conflating immaterial collective labor and personal leisure—particularly in the case of social media—are reinforced by affinities to informal collective and individual domestic craft practices, such as sewing and quilting, that are often regarded as pastimes requiring little skill or thought. These circumstances raise important questions about the powerful role that gender—as well as race, ethnicity, and other markers of social difference and inequality—can play in our approach to, and expectations of, contemporary media and their underlying technological and economic configurations.

“[This book] enhances our understanding of our daily interactions with digital media and contributes to an alternate historical account of digital interactivity. … [A] remarkable contribution to digital media studies.” Mina Momeni, New Media & Society

“Monteiro succeeds in constructing a description of the political and social scope of our relationship with handheld computing devices. This unique history adds a new dimension to the history of computing and communication studies.” S.M. Frey, CHOICE

The Screen Media Reader: Culture, Theory, Practice (editor)
Bloomsbury, 2017

The Screen Media Reader is a foundational resource for studying the screen and its cultural impact. Through key contemporary and historical texts addressing the screen’s development and role in communications and the social sphere, it considers how the screen functions as an idea, an object, and an everyday experience. Reflecting a number of descriptive and analytical approaches, these essays illustrate the astonishing range and depth of the screen’s introduction and application in multiple media configurations and contexts. Together they demonstrate the long-standing influence of the screen as a cultural concept and communication tool that extends well beyond contemporary debates over screen saturation and addiction.

“The volume’s multidisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive range of insights into the screen’s social, historical, and cultural significance.” Joel Gn, Mobile Media & Communication

Screen Presence: Cinema Culture and the Art of Warhol, Rauschenberg, Hatoum, and Gordon
Edinburgh University Press, 2016

Working from a media and cultural studies perspective, in Screen Presence I explore the intersections of film, popular media, and art since the 1950s through the examples of four pivotal figures – Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Mona Hatoum and Douglas Gordon. While their film-related works may appear primarily as challenges to conventional cinema, these artists draw on overlooked forms of popular film culture that have been commonplace, and even dominant, in specific social contexts. Through analysis of a range of examples and source materials, I demonstrate the dependence of contemporary artists on cinema’s shifting applications and interpretations, offering a fresh understanding of the enduring impact of everyday media on how we make and view art.