Perceiving Blood Sugar: Kaleidoscopic Re-framing of CGM-Driven Diabetic Datafication

Abstract

The means to enact the oversight of blood sugar levels have evolved throughout the history of type 1 diabetes. Using (auto)ethnographic methods of interviews, participant observation, and arts-based research creation, this thesis interrogates what new phenomena-in-practice accompanies the rise of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology. The author argues that CGMs render glucose metabolism perceptible through the addition of new sensory modalities: visuality, audibility, and wearable materiality. In imparting these new perceptibilities, CGMs become more akin to medical visualization tools; dissolving the body-environment divide, CGMs project the metabolism into the environment through a variety of mediums. In turn, this more comprehensive association with the sensorium renders CGMs as more than a measuring technology. Presenting contributions across science and technology studies, disability studies, medical and visual anthropologies, this thesis explores the lived re-imaginations of the technological mediation of diabetic embodiments.