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Fri Nov 22 10:42:51 EST 2013
unsettle distributions of power and wealth, socio-political subjectivities,
and the capacity for collective individuation than 'digitalization' itself
taken in any formal or absolute sense (whatever that might mean). One of
the major challenges, therefore, involves a capacity to accurately
understand how the latter has been mobilized in ways that result in stark
asymmetries and inequalities based on either profit-seeking or a kind of
na=EFve positivism applied to commandeer the collective articulation of
social issues. My concern, in other words, is about economy in the broadest
sense of the distribution of things and how technical processes of making
discrete have contributed to certain contemporary problems for politics.
There is a difficult question, in particular, of how digital
infrastructures have lent themselves to something that closely resembles
the dynamics of market-forces. Of course, post-Fordist flexibility is
absolutely important as the immediate settings for this mode of development
(at once in terms of subjectivity, organization and infrastructure), but I
feel that it's also worth noting longer lines of descent involving economy,
standardization and modularity, so we can also speak of information
technologies as the industrialization of knowledge in an even larger
context. Whether this even resembles a critique of political economy at
this point is perhaps debatable, but I see resources for tracing these
lineages in a diverse range of authors, including James Beniger, Phil Agre,
Alan Liu, Philip Mirowski, Wendy Chun, Brian Holmes, David Golumbia and
Bernard Stiegler (to name a few).
What this means for the future of books is, in any case, something I think
we've yet to fully grasp, especially when it comes to the role of Google
and Amazon with their vast pooled reserves of books as data, along with
metrics based on reader/user practices. How they are currently valorizing
such repositories and what this might mean in the short and long term is
something perhaps we can only speculate on for now. But without dwelling in
a gloomy mindset, I should emphasize that my own experiences with digital
publishing over the past few years has mainly been characterized by a
tremendous outpouring of experimentation, including many new exciting
possibilities and projects. Here the work of people contributing to the
list this month like Silvio, Angela and Lukas, or Adam Hyde in directly
developing free and open software tools, are points of inspiration for
different types of engagement other than disruptive business models as
usual (there are of course many other people worth mentioning). Again,
there's a sense in which we still don't even know the potential for these
kinds of digital publishing tools, we haven't adequately articulated the
best practices, and currently are settling for merely good-enough or
adequate. I'm especially thinking of this somewhat shocking claim from
Florian that they are ten graphic designers in the entire Netherlands who
know to design an EPUB file (how do you even get a rough estimate like
that?)!
As an aside, I was actually at Willem de Kooning the other week sitting in
on the class for design students working with EPUB, and I have to say that
I found it quite inspiring. I'm keen to see what they come up with in terms
of aesthetics, style, structure and experimentation. At University of
Amsterdam I'm also currently teaching this course on the Digital Book based
on EPUB production in dialogue with the team working on the Digital
Publishing Toolkit - http://digitalpublishingtoolkit.org/ - but more from
the context of literary studies, new media theory and editorial practice.
You can find the syllabus here if you want to check it out:
http://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/content/d/i/m.j.diete=
r/m.j.dieter.html#tab_1Students
will produce three books in small groups (among other
assignments); as posted to the empyre list earlier in the week, one will be
an edited version of posts from this month's discussion, there's also a new
version of the ADILKNO Media Archive planned -
http://thing.desk.nl/bilwet/adilkno/TheMediaArchive/content.html - and
selected writings from Lev Manovich - http://manovich.net/articles.php.
These will be distributed via various web platforms free to download and
share, so please keep an eye out for those if you're interested!
Regarding the discussion this month, I'm going to formally close the topic
on Sunday, just to keep the weekend open for any last questions or
comments, so feel free to add a post over the next couple of days.
Cheers,
- M.
--=20
Michael Dieter
"Social Media Expert", Gentequemola, Internet
Old West Amsterdam
"I'm on computers profusely" - Lil B
http://twitter.com/#!/mdieter
--089e0158c48642fc7904f37c54c8
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<div dir=3D"ltr"><br><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><div class=3D"gmail_quote">=
<blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-=
left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;p=
adding-left:1ex">
<br>
<br>
By the way, Michael, I don?t really get your point here, like I don?t under=
stand the ?economic lineage? but with it you seem to go somewhere very inte=
resting. Maybe you can explain this a bit?<br><br></blockquote><div><br>
</div><div>Hi all,</div><div><br></div><div>I just wanted to circle back to=
the political economy framework I gestured to earlier this month, when Mer=
cedes was asking about why I was emphasizing these lineages. It’s a d=
ifficult question; I’m going to attempt a brief and belated response =
(it's almost as if I've been avoiding this!).</div>
<div><br></div><div>So critical considerations of contemporary media can, o=
f course, inspire a wide variety of possible approaches, such as mapping ou=
t historical genealogies, discursive formations, medium-specificities, lega=
l frameworks and specific emergent cultural practices, aesthetic experiment=
al or unanticipated uses. Within all these possibilities, a focus on someth=
ing like a critique of the political economy of information is of particula=
r interest to me since the dominant narrative over the past decade and a ha=
lf for digital, networked and mobile technologies has arguably involved a m=
assive accumulation and consolidation of infrastructure, data, expertise an=
d capital beyond any organizations predominantly invested in, say, public r=
esources or the common good. Indeed, we could say this is yet another chapt=
er in a longer story involving the expropriation of general intellect, as t=
he multitude theorists might put it.</div>
<div><br></div><div>From my perspective, this historical process has done m=
ore to profoundly unsettle distributions of power and wealth, socio-politic=
al subjectivities, and the capacity for collective individuation than &lsqu=
o;digitalization’ itself taken in any formal or absolute sense (whate=
ver that might mean). One of the major challenges, therefore, involves a ca=
pacity to accurately understand how the latter has been mobilized in ways t=
hat result in stark asymmetries and inequalities based on either profit-see=
king or a kind of na=EFve positivism applied to commandeer the collective a=
rticulation of social issues. My concern, in other words, is about economy =
in the broadest sense of the distribution of things and how technical proce=
sses of making discrete have contributed to certain contemporary problems f=
or politics. There is a difficult question, in particular, of how digital i=
nfrastructures have lent themselves to something that closely resembles the=
dynamics of market-forces. Of course, post-Fordist flexibility is absolute=
ly important as the immediate settings for this mode of development (at onc=
e in terms of subjectivity, organization and infrastructure), but I feel th=
at it's also worth noting longer lines of descent involving economy, st=
andardization and modularity, so we can also speak of information technolog=
ies as the industrialization of knowledge in an even larger context. Whethe=
r this even resembles a critique of political economy at this point is perh=
aps debatable, but I see resources for tracing these lineages in a diverse =
range of authors, including James Beniger, Phil Agre, Alan Liu, Philip Miro=
wski, Wendy Chun, Brian Holmes, David Golumbia and Bernard Stiegler (to nam=
e a few).</div>
<div><br></div><div>What this means for the future of books is, in any case=
, something I think we've yet to fully grasp, especially when it comes =
to the role of Google and Amazon with their vast pooled reserves of books a=
s data, along with metrics based on reader/user practices. How they are cur=
rently valorizing such repositories and what this might mean in the short a=
nd long term is something perhaps we can only speculate on for now. But wit=
hout dwelling in a gloomy mindset, I should emphasize that my own experienc=
es with digital publishing over the past few years has mainly been characte=
rized by a tremendous outpouring of experimentation, including many new exc=
iting possibilities and projects. Here the work of people contributing to t=
he list this month like Silvio, Angela and Lukas, or Adam Hyde in directly =
developing free and open software tools, are points of inspiration for diff=
erent types of engagement other than disruptive business models as usual (t=
here are of course many other people worth mentioning). Again, there's =
a sense in which we still don't even know the potential for these kinds=
of digital publishing tools, we haven't adequately articulated the bes=
t practices, and currently are settling for merely good-enough or adequate.=
I'm especially thinking of this somewhat shocking claim from Florian t=
hat they are ten graphic designers in the entire Netherlands who know to de=
sign an EPUB file (how do you even get a rough estimate like that?)! <=
/div>
<div><br></div><div>As an aside, I was actually at Willem de Kooning t=
he other week sitting in on the class for design students working with EPUB=
, and I have to say that I found it quite inspiring. I'm keen to see wh=
at they come up with in terms of aesthetics, style, structure and experimen=
tation. At University of Amsterdam I'm also currently teaching this cou=
rse on the Digital Book based on EPUB production in dialogue with the team =
working on the Digital Publishing Toolkit - <a href=3D"http://digitalpublis=
hingtoolkit.org/">http://digitalpublishingtoolkit.org/</a> - but more from =
the context of literary studies, new media theory and editorial practice. Y=
ou can find the syllabus here if you want to check it out: <a href=3D"http:=
//www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/content/d/i/m.j.dieter/m.j=
.dieter.html#tab_1">http://www.uva.nl/over-de-uva/organisatie/medewerkers/c=
ontent/d/i/m.j.dieter/m.j.dieter.html#tab_1</a> Students will produce three=
books in small groups (among other assignments); as posted to the empyre l=
ist earlier in the week, one will be an edited version of posts from this m=
onth's discussion, there's also a new version of the ADILKNO Media =
Archive planned - <a href=3D"http://thing.desk.nl/bilwet/adilkno/TheMe=
diaArchive/content.html">http://thing.desk.nl/bilwet/adilkno/TheMediaArchiv=
e/content.html</a> - and selected writings from Lev Manovich - <a href=
=3D"http://manovich.net/articles.php">http://manovich.net/articles.php</a>.=
These will be distributed via various web platforms free to download and s=
hare, so please keep an eye out for those if you're interested!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Regarding the discussion this month, I'm going to f=
ormally close the topic on Sunday, just to keep the weekend open for any la=
st questions or comments, so feel free to add a post over the next couple o=
f days.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>- M.<br clear=3D"all">=
<div><br></div>-- <br><div dir=3D"ltr">Michael Dieter<br>"Social Media=
Expert", Gentequemola, Internet<br>Old West Amsterdam<br>"I'=
m on computers profusely" - Lil B<br>
<a href=3D"http://twitter.com/#!/mdieter" target=3D"_blank">http://twitter.=
com/#!/mdieter</a></div>
</div>
</div></div></div>
--089e0158c48642fc7904f37c54c8--
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