Jessa Lingel
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036214
- eISBN:
- 9780262340151
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036214.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
Whether by accidental keystroke or deliberate tinkering, technology is often used in ways that are unintended and unimagined by its designers and inventors. In this book, Jessa Lingel offers an ...
More
Whether by accidental keystroke or deliberate tinkering, technology is often used in ways that are unintended and unimagined by its designers and inventors. In this book, Jessa Lingel offers an account of digital technology use that looks beyond Silicon Valley and college dropouts-turned-entrepreneurs. Instead, Lingel tells stories from the margins of countercultural communities that have made the Internet meet their needs, subverting established norms of how digital technologies should be used.
Lingel presents three case studies that contrast the imagined uses of the web to its lived and often messy practicalities. She examines a social media platform (developed long before Facebook) for body modification enthusiasts, with early web experiments in blogging, community, wikis, online dating, and podcasts; a network of communication technologies (both analog and digital) developed by a local community of punk rockers to manage information about underground shows; and the use of Facebook and Instagram for both promotional and community purposes by Brooklyn drag queens. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Lingel explores issues of alterity and community, inclusivity and exclusivity, secrecy and surveillance, and anonymity and self-promotion.
By examining online life in terms of countercultural communities, Lingel argues that looking at outsider experiences helps us to imagine new uses and possibilities for the tools and platforms we use in everyday life.Less
Whether by accidental keystroke or deliberate tinkering, technology is often used in ways that are unintended and unimagined by its designers and inventors. In this book, Jessa Lingel offers an account of digital technology use that looks beyond Silicon Valley and college dropouts-turned-entrepreneurs. Instead, Lingel tells stories from the margins of countercultural communities that have made the Internet meet their needs, subverting established norms of how digital technologies should be used.
Lingel presents three case studies that contrast the imagined uses of the web to its lived and often messy practicalities. She examines a social media platform (developed long before Facebook) for body modification enthusiasts, with early web experiments in blogging, community, wikis, online dating, and podcasts; a network of communication technologies (both analog and digital) developed by a local community of punk rockers to manage information about underground shows; and the use of Facebook and Instagram for both promotional and community purposes by Brooklyn drag queens. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Lingel explores issues of alterity and community, inclusivity and exclusivity, secrecy and surveillance, and anonymity and self-promotion.
By examining online life in terms of countercultural communities, Lingel argues that looking at outsider experiences helps us to imagine new uses and possibilities for the tools and platforms we use in everyday life.
Jess Bier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036153
- eISBN:
- 9780262339957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036153.001.0001
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is ...
More
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is socially constructed, it investigates the ways that knowledge is geographically produced. Technoscientific practices are situated in landscapes that are at once both social and material, and this influences the content of digital technology in sometimes unpredictable ways. Therefore it is necessary to reflexively engage with materiality and space in order to enable more diverse forms of knowledge. Maps are an iconic symbol of modernity, and they have been central to debates over the future of Palestine and Israel. This has only intensified as Geographic Information Science (GIS) mapmaking has led to increasingly minute forms of surveillance and control. Intended to display objective facts, maps inspire extensive discussions. However, the framing of these discussions cannot be divorced from the participants’ asymmetrical mobilities within the very terrains that they seek to portray. Therefore it is essential to investigate how Palestinian, Israeli, and international cartographers are unevenly affected by the segregated landscapes which their technologies have helped to create. Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine addresses these important issues by bringing together the disciplines of critical geography, postcolonial theory, and science and technology studies (STS). It presents an analysis of the maps and mapmaking practices that result when diverse cartographers chart the same landscapes that so condition their movement. It investigates the myriad ways that the segregated landscapes of the Israeli occupation shape knowledge about the occupation.Less
Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine is an analysis of the ways that segregated landscapes have shaped digital cartography in Jerusalem and the West Bank since 1967. Extending work on how technology is socially constructed, it investigates the ways that knowledge is geographically produced. Technoscientific practices are situated in landscapes that are at once both social and material, and this influences the content of digital technology in sometimes unpredictable ways. Therefore it is necessary to reflexively engage with materiality and space in order to enable more diverse forms of knowledge. Maps are an iconic symbol of modernity, and they have been central to debates over the future of Palestine and Israel. This has only intensified as Geographic Information Science (GIS) mapmaking has led to increasingly minute forms of surveillance and control. Intended to display objective facts, maps inspire extensive discussions. However, the framing of these discussions cannot be divorced from the participants’ asymmetrical mobilities within the very terrains that they seek to portray. Therefore it is essential to investigate how Palestinian, Israeli, and international cartographers are unevenly affected by the segregated landscapes which their technologies have helped to create. Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine addresses these important issues by bringing together the disciplines of critical geography, postcolonial theory, and science and technology studies (STS). It presents an analysis of the maps and mapmaking practices that result when diverse cartographers chart the same landscapes that so condition their movement. It investigates the myriad ways that the segregated landscapes of the Israeli occupation shape knowledge about the occupation.
Mohamed Zayani (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190859329
- eISBN:
- 9780190942977
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190859329.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Middle Eastern Politics
Over the past decade or so, the digital landscape in the Middle East has changed dramatically. Technological adoption, advanced IT infrastructures, communication changes and enhanced connectivity ...
More
Over the past decade or so, the digital landscape in the Middle East has changed dramatically. Technological adoption, advanced IT infrastructures, communication changes and enhanced connectivity have slowly but surely impacted the region. While much has been written about the role digital media played since the 2011 Arab uprisings, less attention has been paid to the larger digital transformations the MENA region has been experiencing and the implications of these technology-enabled transformations. This chapter focuses on the broader nature of these information and communication changes. It offers critical reflection on how the evolving communication environment and fast changing digital technologies are affecting the region and transforming practices, paying particular attention to the cultural, economic, and political implications of these ongoing changes. The chapter pays particular attention to both the opportunities and challenges the adoption of digital technologies holds for a Middle East that is aspiring to transition toward a knowledge-based economy. It shed light on significant developments and evolving dynamics that characterize the digital Middle East, but also reveals disjunctions and maps out discordances that are inherent to this emerging digital culture.Less
Over the past decade or so, the digital landscape in the Middle East has changed dramatically. Technological adoption, advanced IT infrastructures, communication changes and enhanced connectivity have slowly but surely impacted the region. While much has been written about the role digital media played since the 2011 Arab uprisings, less attention has been paid to the larger digital transformations the MENA region has been experiencing and the implications of these technology-enabled transformations. This chapter focuses on the broader nature of these information and communication changes. It offers critical reflection on how the evolving communication environment and fast changing digital technologies are affecting the region and transforming practices, paying particular attention to the cultural, economic, and political implications of these ongoing changes. The chapter pays particular attention to both the opportunities and challenges the adoption of digital technologies holds for a Middle East that is aspiring to transition toward a knowledge-based economy. It shed light on significant developments and evolving dynamics that characterize the digital Middle East, but also reveals disjunctions and maps out discordances that are inherent to this emerging digital culture.
Nikos Papastergiadis, Amelia Barikin, Xin Gu, Scott McQuire, and Audrey Yue
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789888208920
- eISBN:
- 9789888313839
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208920.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter details the case studies that were conducted as part of a five-year research project, which conducted the world’s first real-time cross-cultural exchange via the networking of large ...
More
This chapter details the case studies that were conducted as part of a five-year research project, which conducted the world’s first real-time cross-cultural exchange via the networking of large public screens located in Melbourne and Seoul. The project linked large screens located in Seoul and Melbourne for three media events: SMS_Origins and <Value>, HELLO, and Dance Battle. The chapter details methodological innovations of the research, which involved the reformulation of the way in which the scholar was embedded in the research and transformed according to the interactive research process. It also elucidates critical insights into the process of cultural exchange, the impact of media technologies on public space, and the transformation of the public sphere in the global era. The empirical research generates fresh insights into public interactions with large screens, providing a prototype for future cross-cultural events and offering new theoretical perspectives on the use of public space.Less
This chapter details the case studies that were conducted as part of a five-year research project, which conducted the world’s first real-time cross-cultural exchange via the networking of large public screens located in Melbourne and Seoul. The project linked large screens located in Seoul and Melbourne for three media events: SMS_Origins and <Value>, HELLO, and Dance Battle. The chapter details methodological innovations of the research, which involved the reformulation of the way in which the scholar was embedded in the research and transformed according to the interactive research process. It also elucidates critical insights into the process of cultural exchange, the impact of media technologies on public space, and the transformation of the public sphere in the global era. The empirical research generates fresh insights into public interactions with large screens, providing a prototype for future cross-cultural events and offering new theoretical perspectives on the use of public space.
J. Paul Narkunas
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823280308
- eISBN:
- 9780823281534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823280308.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter argues that speculative fictions are a mechanism for struggling with speculative capital. Speculative fictions envision unrealized future scenarios, and share a similar strategy to ...
More
This chapter argues that speculative fictions are a mechanism for struggling with speculative capital. Speculative fictions envision unrealized future scenarios, and share a similar strategy to speculative capital, the very forces whose fictions have become our realities. Through a reading of Gary Shteyngart’s contemporary dystopian novel, Super Sad True Love Story, and Deleuze and Guattari on writing and language, the chapter diagnoses how literature could still serve a critical function in light of the digital reorganization of life. Shteyngart models a data-centered world, whereby humans are products of their data for monetization, and interaction between beings has become mediated by a transactional reality. In the process, Shteyngart’s critique not only unravels the distinction between appearance and reality by demonstrating how language is a form of matter, but also his writing allows for concepts to become existence. This is one of speculative fictions major contributions for thinking ahumanly.Less
This chapter argues that speculative fictions are a mechanism for struggling with speculative capital. Speculative fictions envision unrealized future scenarios, and share a similar strategy to speculative capital, the very forces whose fictions have become our realities. Through a reading of Gary Shteyngart’s contemporary dystopian novel, Super Sad True Love Story, and Deleuze and Guattari on writing and language, the chapter diagnoses how literature could still serve a critical function in light of the digital reorganization of life. Shteyngart models a data-centered world, whereby humans are products of their data for monetization, and interaction between beings has become mediated by a transactional reality. In the process, Shteyngart’s critique not only unravels the distinction between appearance and reality by demonstrating how language is a form of matter, but also his writing allows for concepts to become existence. This is one of speculative fictions major contributions for thinking ahumanly.
Stephen Curtis
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719089770
- eISBN:
- 9781781708651
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719089770.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores the overdetermined word ‘save’ – tracing its shifts from notions of salvation and paradise through to its contemporary meaning of ‘store’. This shift is not without anxiety, and ...
More
This chapter explores the overdetermined word ‘save’ – tracing its shifts from notions of salvation and paradise through to its contemporary meaning of ‘store’. This shift is not without anxiety, and this chapter argues that there is a movement from paradise to limbo which encapsulates our relationship to technology. The ability of programming such as UNICODE to convert alphabetic languages to their purest forms of presence and absence through binary makes the familiar unfamiliar; the heimlich unheimlich. The Gothic effects of this ‘shift from the tactile to the digital’ (Baudrillard, in Landow 1997) is evidenced by the hauntings and monsters depicted in two episodes of series four of the BBC TV series Doctor Who, ‘Silence in the Library’ and ‘Forest of the Dead’ (2008). The clash of the traditional and the technological embodied by the library and its terrifying inhabitants perfectly illustrates the horror of being ‘saved’.Less
This chapter explores the overdetermined word ‘save’ – tracing its shifts from notions of salvation and paradise through to its contemporary meaning of ‘store’. This shift is not without anxiety, and this chapter argues that there is a movement from paradise to limbo which encapsulates our relationship to technology. The ability of programming such as UNICODE to convert alphabetic languages to their purest forms of presence and absence through binary makes the familiar unfamiliar; the heimlich unheimlich. The Gothic effects of this ‘shift from the tactile to the digital’ (Baudrillard, in Landow 1997) is evidenced by the hauntings and monsters depicted in two episodes of series four of the BBC TV series Doctor Who, ‘Silence in the Library’ and ‘Forest of the Dead’ (2008). The clash of the traditional and the technological embodied by the library and its terrifying inhabitants perfectly illustrates the horror of being ‘saved’.
Stephanie Hankey and Marek Tuszynski
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526107213
- eISBN:
- 9781526120984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526107213.003.0013
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter looks at how artists and activists are utilising still and moving images combined with simple digital technologies to investigate political conflicts. Often working with low-tech ...
More
This chapter looks at how artists and activists are utilising still and moving images combined with simple digital technologies to investigate political conflicts. Often working with low-tech solutions they explore, document and present complex issues through images that challenge our existing views and provoke new ways of thinking. They present views from above, afar and beyond, developing visual investigations that present slices into unknown worlds and undocumented practices. The images do not solve problems, but open new questions, expanding new possibilities for image activism and political engagement.Less
This chapter looks at how artists and activists are utilising still and moving images combined with simple digital technologies to investigate political conflicts. Often working with low-tech solutions they explore, document and present complex issues through images that challenge our existing views and provoke new ways of thinking. They present views from above, afar and beyond, developing visual investigations that present slices into unknown worlds and undocumented practices. The images do not solve problems, but open new questions, expanding new possibilities for image activism and political engagement.
Dick Houtman and Birgit Meyer (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823239450
- eISBN:
- 9780823239498
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823239450.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning ...
More
This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning above form, and “inward” contemplation above “outward” action. After all, wasn't the opposition between spirituality and materiality the defining characteristic of religion, understood as geared to a transcendental beyond that was immaterial by definition? Grounded in the rise of religion as a modern category, with Protestantism as its main exponent, this conceptualization devalues religious things as lacking serious empirical, let alone theoretical, interest. Taking materiality seriously, this volume understands religion as necessarily es some kind of incarnation, through which the beyond to which it refers becomes accessible. Conjoining rather than separating spirit and matter, incarnation (whether understood as “the world becoming flesh” or in a broader sense) places at center stage the question of how the realm of the transcendental, spiritual, or invisible is rendered tangible in the world. How do things matter in religious discourse and practice? How are we to account for the value or devaluation, the appraisal or contestation, of things within particular religious perspectives? How are we to rematerialize our scholarly approaches to religion? These are the key questions addressed by this multidisciplinary volume. Focusing on different kinds of things that matter for religion, including images, incarnations, sacred artifacts, bodily fluids, public space, and digital technology, it offers a wide-ranging set of multidisciplinary studies that combine detailed analysis and critical reflection.Less
This volume addresses the relation between religion and things. That relation has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, privileging spirit above matter, belief above ritual and objects, meaning above form, and “inward” contemplation above “outward” action. After all, wasn't the opposition between spirituality and materiality the defining characteristic of religion, understood as geared to a transcendental beyond that was immaterial by definition? Grounded in the rise of religion as a modern category, with Protestantism as its main exponent, this conceptualization devalues religious things as lacking serious empirical, let alone theoretical, interest. Taking materiality seriously, this volume understands religion as necessarily es some kind of incarnation, through which the beyond to which it refers becomes accessible. Conjoining rather than separating spirit and matter, incarnation (whether understood as “the world becoming flesh” or in a broader sense) places at center stage the question of how the realm of the transcendental, spiritual, or invisible is rendered tangible in the world. How do things matter in religious discourse and practice? How are we to account for the value or devaluation, the appraisal or contestation, of things within particular religious perspectives? How are we to rematerialize our scholarly approaches to religion? These are the key questions addressed by this multidisciplinary volume. Focusing on different kinds of things that matter for religion, including images, incarnations, sacred artifacts, bodily fluids, public space, and digital technology, it offers a wide-ranging set of multidisciplinary studies that combine detailed analysis and critical reflection.
Taylor Owen
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199363865
- eISBN:
- 9780199363896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199363865.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Political Economy
Disruptive Power traces the development of the modern state and drawing on disruption theory, explores how the introduction of digital technology presents a crisis to state power. The state began as ...
More
Disruptive Power traces the development of the modern state and drawing on disruption theory, explores how the introduction of digital technology presents a crisis to state power. The state began as a mechanism for centralizing and exercising power and over time became hierarchical, bureaucratic, and, in democratic states, accountable to the rule of law. In a networked world, however, groups like Anonymous wield power by being decentralized, collaborative, and resilient. These two models of power are fundamentally at odds and the resulting disruptive power threatens the institutions that have preserved the balance of power since the end of World War II.Less
Disruptive Power traces the development of the modern state and drawing on disruption theory, explores how the introduction of digital technology presents a crisis to state power. The state began as a mechanism for centralizing and exercising power and over time became hierarchical, bureaucratic, and, in democratic states, accountable to the rule of law. In a networked world, however, groups like Anonymous wield power by being decentralized, collaborative, and resilient. These two models of power are fundamentally at odds and the resulting disruptive power threatens the institutions that have preserved the balance of power since the end of World War II.
Jess Bier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036153
- eISBN:
- 9780262339957
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036153.003.0005
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Cartography
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna ...
More
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna Haraway’s work on situated knowledge, it shows how the most well meaning maps can be drastically different depending on who makes them. After 1967 Israeli settlers have increasingly moved to the West Bank, establishing diffuse but numerous settlements that dominate the landscape, engendering forms of segregation that are both rigid and complex. As a result, Palestinians see different parts of the landscape, and under tougher restrictions, than do Israelis, and vice versa. For example, cartographers in Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are able to collect map data only within Palestinian areas, and must view the Israeli settlements from without. This produces a dichotomy between, and enforces a drastically unequal separation of, Palestinians and Israelis. It also buttresses imbalances of power in international technoscience, influencing even the most apparently objective, empirical knowledge. Chapter 5 explores the (by no means straightforward) implications of this segregation in detail, while also introducing the notion of refractivity, or material and spatial reflexivity. Throughout, it seeks to understand how cartographers in organizations who use the same tools to map the same landscapes can produce different results.Less
Chapter 5, “Validating Segregated Observers”, explores the intricate ways that the Israeli occupation shapes empirical observations. Through a critique of feminist standpoint theory and Donna Haraway’s work on situated knowledge, it shows how the most well meaning maps can be drastically different depending on who makes them. After 1967 Israeli settlers have increasingly moved to the West Bank, establishing diffuse but numerous settlements that dominate the landscape, engendering forms of segregation that are both rigid and complex. As a result, Palestinians see different parts of the landscape, and under tougher restrictions, than do Israelis, and vice versa. For example, cartographers in Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are able to collect map data only within Palestinian areas, and must view the Israeli settlements from without. This produces a dichotomy between, and enforces a drastically unequal separation of, Palestinians and Israelis. It also buttresses imbalances of power in international technoscience, influencing even the most apparently objective, empirical knowledge. Chapter 5 explores the (by no means straightforward) implications of this segregation in detail, while also introducing the notion of refractivity, or material and spatial reflexivity. Throughout, it seeks to understand how cartographers in organizations who use the same tools to map the same landscapes can produce different results.
N. Katherine Hayles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099335
- eISBN:
- 9781781708613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099335.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
N. Katherine Hayles’ essay is concerned with the transposition of the paradigmatic onto the syntagmatic in Only Revolutions. Pointing to the proliferation of different kinds of data in the text, ...
More
N. Katherine Hayles’ essay is concerned with the transposition of the paradigmatic onto the syntagmatic in Only Revolutions. Pointing to the proliferation of different kinds of data in the text, Hayles claims that it manifests a ‘deterritorialized spatial dynamic’, involving ‘a profound shift from narrative as a temporal trajectory to an element of a topographic plane upon which a wide variety of interactions and permutations are staged.’ Hayles highlights how the text’s distinctive topography is only made possible by the use of sophisticated computer software; thus although technology is literally absent from the narrative of Only Revolutions, it permeates the text in her view: ‘nowhere present within the narrative diegesis, digital technologies are everywhere apparent when we consider the writing-down system as a whole.’Less
N. Katherine Hayles’ essay is concerned with the transposition of the paradigmatic onto the syntagmatic in Only Revolutions. Pointing to the proliferation of different kinds of data in the text, Hayles claims that it manifests a ‘deterritorialized spatial dynamic’, involving ‘a profound shift from narrative as a temporal trajectory to an element of a topographic plane upon which a wide variety of interactions and permutations are staged.’ Hayles highlights how the text’s distinctive topography is only made possible by the use of sophisticated computer software; thus although technology is literally absent from the narrative of Only Revolutions, it permeates the text in her view: ‘nowhere present within the narrative diegesis, digital technologies are everywhere apparent when we consider the writing-down system as a whole.’
