Felicific Calculus: Technology As A Social Marker of Race, Class, & Economics In Rochester, Ny

• Photographer
  Eric Kunsman
• Agency / Studio
  Rochester Institute of Technol
• Prizes
  Bronze in Portfolio/Fine Art

The payphones in the Greater Rochester area are part of a felicific calculus in regards to the decision made to leave the payphones and the locations in which they are located. Frontier Communications is losing money from these payphones and decided to maintain them for the greater good of one of the poorest cities by the number of people under the poverty level in the United States. To many individuals, these payphones serve as a social marker or social indicator, and to others, they serve as a marker of crime. Often these perceptions can lead to dangerous or ignorant decisions.

Eric T. Kunsman (b. 1975) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Currently, he is a photographer and book artist based out of Rochester, New York. Eric works at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) as a Lecturer for the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and is an adjunct professor for the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences. He currently owns Booksmart Studio, which is a fine art digital printing studio. His photographs and books are exhibited internationally and are in several collections.