Epilogue: Writing of Connectivity at a Time of Isolation (original) (raw)
Communication and space, or the materiality of association
Diverse approaches over the last few decades have emphasized space as an active part of social processes. However I wish to explore this relation in a different way to most of these analyses – in particular by foregrounding the role of space in association, or relations between actors performed through communication. My proposition is that if communication processes are really central to social life and the reproduction of societies, and if there is indeed a profound relation between social processes and spatial forms, then we can identify a potential role for space in the communication that constitute the connections between our everyday acts. Here I look to show that although space is becoming a central theme, a systematic theory of how our practices are related through webs of communication and their spaces still appears to be missing. My aim is to explore the inherent relation of communication to space as an effect of meaning – to be sure, a Husserlian property of meaning as “reference”, a way to trace connections between our acts able to clarify the role of space as both referential context for communication and a referential system capable of supporting and fostering associations.
Reviewing mobility and interaction
The present book would be impossible a couple of decades back because sociology and philosophy paid less attention to the effects of visual technology in daily life. Today, emotions and experiences may be captivated from home without moving. To date, the existent specialised literature in mobility and ethno-methodology has agreed that space and sign are determined by the process of social interaction. Linguistics revealed how the body itself seems to be embedded in the roots of language. At time of speaking the other is represented on me and viceversa (being in this world with). Equally important, interaction and mobility are concepts very well enrooted in the expression of body and language. The evolution of talk not only produces the content of communication, but evidences the details of how talk is formed.
INTERACTIONS: SHAPING THE SPACES WE INHABIT
A.W. Sprin's definition of landscape as a process of the "mutual shaping of people and places" implies that the inhabitants of any space are implicated in, but also susceptible to, the shaping of their surroundings. This paper examines such interactions by theorising landscape as embodied, individuated experience of place in relation to representations of landscape. The Vaal Metropolitan area is reflected on in terms of the researcher's experience of place, where experience of place refers to the consideration of direct (multi------sensory) perception, memories and prior knowledge as well as imaginings of place. This understanding of experience of place is based on a combination of theories of place from the writings of Edward Casey, J.B. Jackson and David Seamon, would therefore include representations of the landscape displayed publicly, such as real------estate advertisement boards and artworks. Works from the 'THIS PLACE: Engaging with where we are, the local' (2012) exhibition, are interpreted in this context as examples of local interaction and representation of the landscape. Through a discussion of landscape representations created by local artists, about the local area, I aim to interrogate landscape as a medium through which we shape a notion of self as part of a collective or as apart from the collective culture which in turn impacts on the shaping of the spaces we inhabit. Through considering representations of the landscape in relation to individuated experience of the researcher's locality, an image of local cultures of selective valuing, use and abuse of the landscape emerges, providing a reading of landscape representations as interactive processes rather than static views. Keywords: Experience of landscape, place, representation of landscape, the local This Place: Engaging with where we are and where we stay: the local (2012), an exhibition by the staff of the Department of Visual Arts and Design, Vaal University of Technology. This Place was accompanied by a colloquium on the topic to which I will refer periodically in the discussions of the works.
Network and Everyday Life: Beyond 'Local Space'?
After describing what it is known as quotidianity – or everyday life- , the text focuses on the way it is influenced by the Network, paying special attention to the space-time experience. How does the Network flow determine a new temporality? How does Cyberspace interact with the place? To finish with, we comment on the opinion according to which Cyberspace goes beyond the boundaries of what is local.
Absent to Those Present: The Conflict Between Connectivity and Communion
In this chapter, I analyze the technologically mediated connection, which I call “connectivity,” and contrast it with others ways of communing with family members, neighbors, coworkers, and friends, which I refer to simply as “communion.” I argue that connectivity competes with communion, because such connections make it possible to be always present to those that are absent, which correspondingly makes us absent to those who are present. I provide a phenomenological description of immediate and mediate interpersonal presence (in person, by telephone, by video call, by letter, by email, by text, and by social media) to show how and why recent technology differs from older forms such as telephone and letter-writing. I then call attention to the importance of bodily presence for affording communion. Finally, I point to the importance of absence and thoughtfulness for giving us something real to talk about when we are together. Interpersonal presence draws its life from our bodies and our thoughts.
Beyond the Edges of the Screen: Longing for the Physical ‘Spaces Between’
Anthropology in Action, 2021
This article, co-written by a visual anthropologist (Alyssa Grossman), and a visual artist (Selena Kimball), takes the form of a collaborative and self-reflexive conversation. In it we explore how particular types of screen-mediated interactions during the COVID-19 lockdown are reconfiguring our own experiences of environmental and spatial intimacy, both within our academic research and studio practice and in broader processes of emotional, intellectual, and creative exchange. Looking through the cross-disciplinary lenses of our own longstanding friendship and collaborative working relationship, we discuss how these changed bodily perceptions of shared environments and the human interactions within them are giving rise to personal longings for the ‘spaces between’ ourselves and our surroundings, extending beyond the edges of the screen.
Dispersed Subjects - Wandering & Wondering in a Mobile World (2003)
2003
I wrote this paper in 2002-3 for my Masters degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in London. The paper discusses shifts in concepts and experiences of absence & presence as a result of the internet and mobile phones, as well as the impact of this upon relationships - with oneself, other people and the environment. I have presented (/performed) various versions of this at several conferences, mainly through Lancaster's Centre for Mobility Research, mostly between 2003-7. But with debates and discussions about these topics subjects leaping up now all over the place, I felt compelled to upload this paper now. Twelve years on I'm still thinking, writing and doing performances about the same things, albeit often with rather different outputs.
Spaces of Connection: Making and Memory
Spaces of connection explored the interconnectedness between Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships to land, place and each other. In this exhibition the artists created a space for reflection on the interconnecting and diverging ideas about country and the possibilities for our future engagement with the land. Artists: Imiyari Yilpi Adamson, Elizabeth Hetzel, Jan Hogan, Jessica Sanguesa
2014
Mobile communication has putatively affected our time-space relationship and the coordination of social action by weaving co-present interactions and mediated distant exchanges into a single, seamless web. In this article, we use Goodwin's notion of contextual configuration to review, elaborate and specify these processes. Goodwin defines contextual configuration as a local, interwoven set of language and material structures that frame social production of action and meaning. We explore how the mobile context is configured in mobile phone conversations. Based on the analysis of recordings of mobile conversation in Finland and Sweden, we analyze the ways in which ordinary social actions such as invitations and offers are carried out while people are mobile. We suggest that the mobile connection introduces a special kind of relationship to semiotic resources, creating its own conditions for emerging social actions. The reformation of social actions in mobility involves the possibility of intimate connection to the ongoing activities of the distant party. The particularities of mobile social actions are discerned here through sequential analysis that opens up contextually reconfigured actions as they are revealed in the details of mobile communication. In this way, we shed light on the reformation of social actions in mobile space-time.
Subjects, networks, assemblages: A materialist approach to the production of social space
Communication Matters: Materialist Approaches to Media, Mobility and Networks, 2011
What is the territory of a human being? Where are the borders of the society or culture to which a given person belongs? If a society is a collective composed of subjects who share social, political, and economic relations, what are the boundaries around those relations? What is the radius of a citizen's public sphere, and where do its edges bump up against other spheres of discourse and governance? At the outset of the twenty-first century, in the context of transnational migration and travel, neoimperial military and economic interdependencies, and planetwide technical networks of entertainment and surveillance, the notion of a discrete, coherent social space-''a society,'' ''a culture''-has become deeply problematic. The precise logics and ultimate consequences of globalization may remain unclear. However, it is quite apparent that the ontological assumptions, theoretical frameworks, and methodological tools inherited from modern social theories that were predicated on the notion of a society are inadequate for conceptualizing the current state of affairs. Modern social theory took shape as national economies, governments , communication infrastructures, and cultures became more cohesive and reified; consequently, the mark of the nation is deeply inscribed on nineteenth and twentieth-century thought. If the nation has been an imagined community not only for the masses (Anderson, 1991) but also for theorists-a container of thought not only for popular belief but also for theory-how do we now reconceptualize and investigate the new, more rhizomatic, contours of social space? In the context of mobility and translocal connectivity, our aim must be to discover the contours of social space without presuming to know them in advance-to follow the flows that reveal the connections and relationships that are salient for a given subject. In this chapter, we develop a conceptual model of social space grounded in a materialist understanding of communication. We begin with the basic Marxist premise articulated by Henri Lefebvre (1974, 1991): that the pro- duction of space is the production of the social relations of production. Because the social relations of production (and reproduction) are often translocal and transnational, we draw on network theory to develop a con- ceptual framework for the analysis of social space as non-Euclidean (Appadurai, 1990) and rhizomatic (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987). In our view, the social space of a given subject is simultaneously expressed in and constituted by three kinds of interrelated networks: social networks, or net- works of social relations, including relations of production and consump- tion (Adams, 2005; Lefebvre, 1991; Marx, 1972 [1849], 1904) and relations of family and friends (Hannerz, 1996; Morley, 2000; Rouse, 1995; Wellman, 2001), geographical networks, or networks of mobility and emplacement (Carrasco et al., 2008; Clifford, 1989, 1992; Larsen et al., 2006; Marcus, 1995; Massey, 1993; Sinclair and Cunningham, 2000), and technical networks, or networks of mediated communication (Castells, 1996, 2009; Fuller, 2005; Hansen, 2006; Morley and Robins, 1995; Sinclair and Cunningham, 2000). We understand a given subject’s practices or activ- ities as an actualization of all three of these networks. Finally, we bring in the concept of agencement (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) or assemblage (DeLanda, 2006; Marcus and Saka, 2006; Wise, 2005) to describe the con- sistency and effectivity of the molar arrangements that govern certain por- tions of a subject’s networks and activities. In closing, we offer some brief reflections on the methodological implications of defining social space in this way.
The Interconnected Object: Are You at Home in a Network?
2014
Interconnected devices and objects pervade our everyday lives with an increasing trend. These digital objects, connected through wireless and cable networks, exchange information in various levels, producing diverse types of interactions between them and their users. The paper explores the aspect of interconnectivity as a key-attribute of the contemporary digital artefacts that populate our everyday environments. It explores the notion of home, place and network by focusing on the effects of digital interconnectivity in the way we perceive private and public space. In this context, “HOME network”, a collaborative project, is presented. The project is a portable, netless (without an Internet connection) Wi-Fi network, a free access unlocked digital platform, transmitting within the urban environment of various cities during a series of specific time periods and events. The artists carry the network through space and time, as an unrevealed, private, performative act within the realm of the public urban space, leaving only temporary transmitted digital traces/data within the vicinity of the transmission range, thus producing interactions and exploring the boundaries between the private and the public, the physical and the digital space and challenging the notion of surveillance in urban environments. New action patterns are introduced, which look into new ways of performing the physicality of the body within a digital nomadism. At the same time the artists address themes and invite the visitors of the network to engage, participate in and reflect on commonly shared experiences and contemporary questions regarding our sense of belonging in both the private and the public sphere.
Connectivity, Community and the Question of Liter Ary Universality
Republics of Letters, 2012
ping-chatting, and text messaging. These digitised modes of communication and siteinteraction include increasing millions around the globe. Facebook alone now has more than 900 million active users, more than 10.5 million of them 'in Australia'. 1 Humanity's professionals may connect to these globalised networks in various ways, if only for nonprofessional uses (checking out walls, chest-bumping, throwing a sheep). But social sites are also adapting specifically to the practices of academic work: conferences and symposia can be followed on official conference blogs or socially on Twitter; papers can be skyped in; sites like Academia.edu are netspaces that allow those who sign up to 'share and follow research' (academia.edu/). Even if, as literary studies educationalists, we are not involved in social sites as such, we are likely to have some professional investment in web-uses such as discussion groups, listservs, digitisation projects, born-digital e-journals, databases, archives and open source software that have been developed by writers, e-researchers, and readers interested in the 'literary' applications of IT and the net. Younger critics in the field, like Kate Fagan, have an ethnographic-user's interest in the ways in which online environments and new media, in particular, are shaping literary production and literary community. 2 Other critics and historians of culture follow the social networking of reading collectives, including professional critical ones, from the point of view of the ecology of reading experience and the history of print culture, either as advocates of resourceful reading, as critics of the informating of literature and the death of the book, or, as in my case, as intermediaries in search of a multidimensional matrix of reading, history and locale. Whatever our involvements in social sites and/or professional net-based resources, whatever our commitments to or ambivalence about the legacy of Gutenberg technologies,