(C)archeology: Car Turns Outs & Automobility

Abstract

In this paper, we describe key findings from the Car Turn Outs project, Intel Corporation’s Interaction and Experience Research (IXR) Lab’s first exploratory ethnographic research about cars. We started with very simple questions: What is a car? What does it mean to own a car? To use one? To care for one? Spreading tarps next to cars, we asked drivers to unpack and explain the contents of their cars to us. We inventoried all of the items that people use, store, bring in and out, forget about, discard, rely on, transport, etc. in their cars. This exercise yielded insights on important activities, routines and social relationships that take place in/with/through/around/because of the car. These insights lead us to a further set of questions regarding automobility and inspired an expanded set of methods and theoretical perspectives from post-processual archaeology that we are deploying in the Local Experiences of Automobility (LEAM) Project.