Holly Kruse
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034418
- eISBN:
- 9780262332392
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034418.001.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
Horse racing has played a significant role in the development and use of new media technologies and media spaces. With the beginning of modern horse racing in the nineteenth century, racetracks ...
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Horse racing has played a significant role in the development and use of new media technologies and media spaces. With the beginning of modern horse racing in the nineteenth century, racetracks became leisure destinations, with physical spaces that structured and were structured by social and cultural practices. By the late 1800s, in the days before theme parks, tracks served as vacation sites. The invention of an early computer, the totalizator, at the turn of the twentieth century allowed horse racing to help usher in the information age. The totalizator made pari-mutuel wagering, in which race odds are determined by the bets of participants in a gambling market, manageable. It also enabled near-instantaneous data processing of bets and posting of odds, and it facilitated networks that linked live racing with remote sites: from telegraph-connected “pool rooms” to late twentieth-century off-track betting facilities (OTBs). OTBs pioneered the use of non-ambient public screens, and the arrangement of social space around public screens.
Interactive television and the Internet have moved participation in online pari-mutuel markets from public to private space, highlighting and challenging the traditional divide between public and domestic sphere. In addition, fans of racehorses use social media to share the products of their uncompensated and femininely-gendered labor, from fan videos to real-time information needed to rescue former racehorses. Indeed, throughout its modern history, the practices of horse racing have underscored the roles played by gender, race, and class in technology use.Less
Horse racing has played a significant role in the development and use of new media technologies and media spaces. With the beginning of modern horse racing in the nineteenth century, racetracks became leisure destinations, with physical spaces that structured and were structured by social and cultural practices. By the late 1800s, in the days before theme parks, tracks served as vacation sites. The invention of an early computer, the totalizator, at the turn of the twentieth century allowed horse racing to help usher in the information age. The totalizator made pari-mutuel wagering, in which race odds are determined by the bets of participants in a gambling market, manageable. It also enabled near-instantaneous data processing of bets and posting of odds, and it facilitated networks that linked live racing with remote sites: from telegraph-connected “pool rooms” to late twentieth-century off-track betting facilities (OTBs). OTBs pioneered the use of non-ambient public screens, and the arrangement of social space around public screens.
Interactive television and the Internet have moved participation in online pari-mutuel markets from public to private space, highlighting and challenging the traditional divide between public and domestic sphere. In addition, fans of racehorses use social media to share the products of their uncompensated and femininely-gendered labor, from fan videos to real-time information needed to rescue former racehorses. Indeed, throughout its modern history, the practices of horse racing have underscored the roles played by gender, race, and class in technology use.
Holly Kruse
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034418
- eISBN:
- 9780262332392
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034418.003.0002
- Subject:
- Information Science, Information Science
This chapter focuses on the questions raised by access to networked markets in which one can participate with thousands or millions; specifically, of what constitutes presence and co-presence in ...
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This chapter focuses on the questions raised by access to networked markets in which one can participate with thousands or millions; specifically, of what constitutes presence and co-presence in private and in public, especially when one is participating in pari-mutuel gambling or financial markets. Horse racing facilitated the growth of networked markets with the introduction of an early computer, the totalizator, which determined odds based on bets in pari-mutuel markets. The sport, once an almost exclusively an embodied sporting and betting experience, is today a business dependent upon immediate and far-reaching information flows, and on crossing the public/private divide. Racing's experiences in disseminating and handling information provide a useful framework for thinking about other formerly public, temporally driven, information intensive, computer-mediated forms of presence including online information markets, financial markets, auctions, and voting.Less
This chapter focuses on the questions raised by access to networked markets in which one can participate with thousands or millions; specifically, of what constitutes presence and co-presence in private and in public, especially when one is participating in pari-mutuel gambling or financial markets. Horse racing facilitated the growth of networked markets with the introduction of an early computer, the totalizator, which determined odds based on bets in pari-mutuel markets. The sport, once an almost exclusively an embodied sporting and betting experience, is today a business dependent upon immediate and far-reaching information flows, and on crossing the public/private divide. Racing's experiences in disseminating and handling information provide a useful framework for thinking about other formerly public, temporally driven, information intensive, computer-mediated forms of presence including online information markets, financial markets, auctions, and voting.
Julio Capó Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781469635200
- eISBN:
- 9781469635217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469635200.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Despite the visibility of a commoditized heterosexuality in the fairyland traced in the previous chapter, transnational and local forces further allowed queer folk to carve out spaces for themselves ...
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Despite the visibility of a commoditized heterosexuality in the fairyland traced in the previous chapter, transnational and local forces further allowed queer folk to carve out spaces for themselves in Miami. By the 1920s, U.S. imperialism ensured that racialized sex tourism in Cuba and the Bahamas—particularly the former—became central to Miami’s own economic success. This chapter reveals two key phenomena in the development of queer cultures and networks: Miami’s entrenched relationship to the Caribbean during Prohibition, and the uneasy urban battles that ensued upon Prohibition’s repeal. Additional transnational tensions—including the rise of the aviation industry, Miami’s real estate bust and devastating hurricane, and the 1933 Cuban Revolution—nudged Miami toward becoming a “wide-open” city. This status allowed queers to carve out distinct spaces in the city, particularly during peak tourist season. Indeed, queers made the tourist economy work, staffing the service industry and functioning as physical representations of the fantasy and transgression urban boosters marketed, keenly designed as alternatives or supplements to what the Caribbean offered.Less
Despite the visibility of a commoditized heterosexuality in the fairyland traced in the previous chapter, transnational and local forces further allowed queer folk to carve out spaces for themselves in Miami. By the 1920s, U.S. imperialism ensured that racialized sex tourism in Cuba and the Bahamas—particularly the former—became central to Miami’s own economic success. This chapter reveals two key phenomena in the development of queer cultures and networks: Miami’s entrenched relationship to the Caribbean during Prohibition, and the uneasy urban battles that ensued upon Prohibition’s repeal. Additional transnational tensions—including the rise of the aviation industry, Miami’s real estate bust and devastating hurricane, and the 1933 Cuban Revolution—nudged Miami toward becoming a “wide-open” city. This status allowed queers to carve out distinct spaces in the city, particularly during peak tourist season. Indeed, queers made the tourist economy work, staffing the service industry and functioning as physical representations of the fantasy and transgression urban boosters marketed, keenly designed as alternatives or supplements to what the Caribbean offered.
