----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Thanks Simon for the reminder about the early seeds of the internet. As I mentioned in yesterday’s discussion post, for Geert Lovink world politics and the military industrial complex is at the crux of new media theory. I do not believe he discounts the early evolutions of the internet as I read it, but merely uses that point in time during the late 20th century when perceived dreams for a networked decentralized free-access internet is a cyber-naïve counter point to the contemporary re-emergence of cold war political consciousness. “Everything you have ever clicked on can and will be used against you. In 2014 we have come full circle and returned to a world before 1984.” Lovink distances his own views on new media theory from those of Galloway, Thacker and Wark whose argument in their introduction in Excommunication appears to be grounded in cross-disciplinary intersections:
"....we want to argue that media theory is not a new link in the grand chain of critical theory, literary criticism, cultural studies or visual culture. Rather, it exits the chain entirely, turning ninety degrees away from these disciplines. Moving orthogonally, media theory intersects with art theory, screen theory, science studies, the history of technology, and many other fields. When addressing media form, a number of different questions start to swell in importance, questions about the technics, politics, and economics of certain material layers of form." If I might suggest that we take a look at Jordan Crandall. Crandall’s cross-disciplinary, politically centered art interventions whose intersections between material making and cultural and identity politics concretizes for me new ways to think about new media theory and communication. Take a look at his past work on surveillance and war technologies (Homefront, Trigger and Heatseeking) http://jordancrandall.com and his most recent themes of masculinity and technology (Unmanned), intimacy and collaboration (Version) http://version.org/ and experimentation and material investigation (AS&M fabrication lab ) http://humctr.ucsd.edu/actives/ But to get back to Galloway, Thacker and Wark, they posit new futures in excommunication or the alien or in absolutely no communication at all. “…we pursue not so much a post-media condition but rather a non-media condition, not so much the extensions of man but the exodus of man from this world. Our task is not so much a reinvigorated humanism no matter how complicated or qualified it might need to be, but rather glimpse into the realm of the non-human. We seek not so much a blasphemy but a heresy, not so much a miscommunication but an excommunication.” Looking forward to what others of you think. Links and information about the texts mentioned can be found in this month’s introductory post. http://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2014-May/007121.html Renate -- Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, (contracted since 2004) Cornell University Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office: 306 Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: <rfe...@cornell.edu> URL: http://www.renateferro.net http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net Lab: http://www.tinkerfactory.net Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
