9u2sg.fluid.screens.expanded.cinema.digital.futures

FL U I D S C R E E N S , E X PA N DE D C I N E M A This page intentionally left blank Fluid Screens, Expanded Cinema Edited by JANINE MARCHESSAULT AND SUSAN LORD U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N TO P R E S S Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2007 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 978-0-8020-9297-7 (cloth) Printed on acid-free paper Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Fluid screens, expanded cinema / Janine Marchessault, Susan Lord, editors. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8020-9297-7 1. Motion pictures. 2. Digital media. 3. Interactive multimedia. 4. Technology and the arts. I. Marchessault, Janine II. Lord, Susan, 1959– PN1994.F58 2007 791.43c02985 C2007-901486-0 University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction 3 janine marchessault and susan lord PART I. EXPANDING CINEMA – IMMERSION 1 Multi-Screens and Future Cinema: The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 29 janine marchessault 2 Sounds Complicated: What Sixties Audio Experiments Can Teach Us about the New Media Environments 52 stephen crocker 3 The Networked Screen: Moving Images, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Size 74 haidee wasson 4 The ‘Iterative Circle’: Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 96 sheila petty 5 Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue abigail child 6 From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor ron burnett 111 126 vi Contents PART II. DIGITAL TIME – ARCHIVE 7 Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 145 caitlin fisher 8 The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History rinaldo walcott 160 9 History and Histrionics: Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics michael uwemedimo and joshua oppenheimer 177 10 From Sequence to Stream: Historiography and Media Art 192 susan lord 11 The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics glenn willmott 210 PART III. LIQUID SPACE – MOBILITY 12 Armed Vision and the Banalization of War: Full Spectrum Warrior 231 nick dyer-witheford and greig de peuter 13 The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour: Technology, Globalization, Nation 251 john m c cullough 14 Screening the Call: Cell Phones, Activism, and the Art of Connection 270 kirsty robertson 15 Immigrant Semiosis laura u. marks 284 16 Precepts for Digital Artwork sean cubitt 304 Afterword: What We Must Do 321 gene youngblood Bibliography 327 Contributors 341 Index 349 It goes without saying that this book could not have come to fruition without the expert editorial team at the University of Toronto Press. The initial idea for this anthology developed from a symposium hosted by Images Festival for Independent Film and Media in Toronto several years ago.Acknowledgments We wish to express our deepest gratitude to our contributors. who have been so patient throughout the process of putting this collection together. Pam Smith. We are tremendously appreciative of the two anonymous readers’ reports. Finally. for their insightful suggestions and for including this book in their series. Sunny Kerr and Aimée Mitchell provided vital research and editorial assistance along the way. The Department of Film at York University and the Department of Film and Media at Queen’s University gave much-needed technical and administrative support for the book. scholars. and we thank them for their painstaking work in helping to organize the different drafts of the manuscript. Jennifer VanderBurgh. We owe special thanks to Claire Christie for her inspired cover design and to Philip Hoffman for his permission to reproduce the cover image. His writings on expanded cinema provide the ground from which to think through the idea of ‘fluid screens. and artists has opened up many new paths for thinking about screens and new media. and Brian Hotson brought the project to its conclusion. we are indebted to Gene Youngblood for his generous conversations with us. Their brilliance as engaged activists. Arthur and Marilouise Kroker. which offered detailed and incisive comments on the manuscript. Ya-Yin Ko. We would also like to thank the editors of the Digital Futures Series.’ . and we are grateful to the organizers of the festival for their enthusiastic efforts. This page intentionally left blank . E X PA N DE D C I N E M A .FL U I D S C R E E N S . This page intentionally left blank . the ability to dynamically assume any form. not yet possessing a ‘stable’ form. but capable of assuming any form and which. a being of definite form. natural.Introduction jan i n e m a rch e ssau lt a nd s u sa n l o r d And you can’t help but arrive at the conclusion that a single. cartoons.’ for here we have a being represented in drawing... the spineless circus performer and the seemingly groundless scattering of extremities in Disney’s drawings. Eisenstein on Disney1 . and which behaves like the primal protoplasm. skipping along the rungs of the evolutionary ladder. suddenness of formations – that’s the ‘subtext’ brought to the viewer who lacks all this by these seemingly strange traits which permeate folktales. Sergei Eisenstein.. A lost changeability. God Himself commanded the character to be fluid. An unstable character becomes a film hero. freedom from ossification. fluidity. tails and legs: here. changeability of form is no longer a paradoxical expressiveness. the kind of character for whom a changeable appearance is . An ability that I’d call ‘plasmaticness. It’s natural to expect that such a strong tendency of the transformation of stable forms into forms of mobility could not be confined solely to means of form: this tendency exceeds the boundaries of form and extends to subject and theme. attaches itself to any and all forms of animal existence. a being which has attained a definite appearance. common prerequisite of attractiveness shows through in all these examples: a rejection of once-and-forever allotted form.. Here. as in the case of stretching necks. that is. Why is the sight of this so attractive? . a model of transfer rather than one of translation. comical liberation from the timelock mechanism of American life. not uniform. that is merely the speed of total causality. and reflect the heterogeneity of the cultures of the world.3 The metaphor of flow is far too functionalist and reductive for McLuhan. as physics has shown. For an instant. Painters have long known that objects are not contained in space. It is perhaps ironic that the theorist who made the global village a globally understood metaphor worried that flow would hearken back to a rationalist conception of linear space. but that they generate their own spaces. as they had seemed to be since the arrival of Renaissance perspective. Liquid- . which for him preserved the complexity of all human interaction. As for the speed of light. in which times and spaces are neither uniform nor continuous. the Oxford mathematician. to contrive Alice in Wonderland. It was the dawning awareness of this in the mathematical world a century ago that enabled Lewis Carroll.’2 Marshall McLuhan was always distrustful of the idea of ‘flows’ as a way of thinking about the spatial and temporal formations of electric media. imaginary. he wrote. It reinforces a linear model of communication. Zygmunt Bauman coined the term ‘liquid modernity’ to characterize the present moment in the history of modernity and capitalism. a conception which. A momentary. from a ‘fictitious freedom. Like Eisenstein. A five-minute “break” for the psyche. McLuhan turned to Carroll to find the spatial model for understanding the present space-time formation: There is no longer any tendency to speak of electricity as ‘contained’ in anything. These impressed McLuhan precisely because they are discontinuous.4 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord Fluid Screens Eisenstein’s admiration of Disney’s animation was based largely on the aesthetic appreciation of the malleability of the image – an experience he links to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: ‘Now I am opening out like the largest telescope that ever was!’ He was fascinated by the ‘scattering of extremities’ found in Disney’s drawings – a phenomenological ‘attractiveness’ that emerges. but during which the viewer himself remains chained to the winch of the machine. Thus McLuhan prefers the painterly connotations of spatial terms like ‘field’ or Carroll’s construction (mathematically correct) of warped spaces. is an inaccurate understanding of electricity as a container and one-way movement. ) – that is. television.Introduction 5 ity and fluidity. the increase in media ‘tie-ins’ and synergies across the sphere of entertainment. we can see that no one medium will dominate the mediascape. Such media concentration generally takes place across different media: the most powerful corporations own multiple media and have strong alliances with other industries. Buffy. we need to consider convergence in terms of the increased reality of media concentration and monopolies. Fluids travel easily. games. creating a fragmented reception that increasingly characterizes our waking hours. the Web. they ‘spill.’ an image of movement and ephemerality that can obscure real social and economic conditions. it would be amorphous. Clear Channel.200 radio stations across the United States and controls almost all large outdoor video screens and myriad concert venues across North America.’ ‘run out. Yet at the beginning of the twenty-first century. owns 1. This is evidenced through the ‘trans-media exploitation of branded properties’ (e. which include book publishing. a new player on the scene. . theme parks. Such concentration of power is the result of changes in national policy and law and will have profound effects on national cultures around the world – which is why cultural policy is absolutely vital to our thinking about expanded cinema. As Henry Jenkins has pointed out.. are the perfect metaphors for the new flexibility of a space unfixed and time unbound.’ ‘splash. Media giants like Time Warner own interests in film. Harry Potter. and music industries as well as real estate. The central characteristic of this new fluidity is time. books.’ and so on. Economic convergence highlights the fact that media ownership is converging through horizontal integration of the cultural industries. It is these powerful media groups that have taken control of expanding media and leisure markets. the concentration of ownership is also enhanced by alliances between media groups and convergences of interests. he has argued. Bauman avoids the problematic characterization of a world made of indiscriminate ‘flows. Importantly.g. The stories consumed in the industrialized democracies of the world are received through a multiplicity of hybrid and networked screens. sports. Pokémon etc. and so forth. ‘frictions’ that force or hinder movement. communications theorists predicted that the media were converging into one and that all information would be transmitted through a singular medium – a concern echoing the cultural theorists of the early part of the century. online media. since without ‘the moment’ to mark it out.4 In this way. ‘convergence’ must be understood as a process that has several different manifestations.5 Twenty years ago. music. Thus. etc. watch TV. listen to iPods. the cultures of personal archiving. read books. including film theory. there is a great urgency at this time to situate the ‘fluid’ media in the context of media histories. global convergence is a manifestation of both social and economic convergence. Thus. while the media are increasingly ubiquitous. music. the essays in this collection examine how digital technologies . economic. new articulations of identity and time. Cultural convergence grows out of social convergence and is very much connected to do-it-yourself (DIY) cultures.) and new kinds of co-production and collaboration in the media industries and in translocal hybrid cultures. Adorno were analysing in the 1930s: the tension between greater cultural diversity (witness the recent strengthening of global grassroots politics) and cultural homogenization (the concentration of multimedia ownership).W. social. and media specificity. For this reason. interact in chat rooms – often all at the same time. dance.6 All of these aspects of convergence represent the tensions of globalization inside transnational contexts. political economy. Children. and legal. and networked media. for example. creating a multiplicity of negotiations that are political. cultural practices and policy. This refers to the social and cultural practices of consumption that can be seen as active and open-ended. creative interactions. cultural studies. Such interactions are structured by the underlying antinomy fuelled by capitalist modernity that Walter Benjamin and T. communication studies. and new media theory. and new forms of political solidarity that are enabled by digital media.6 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord Jenkins also points to the social or organic aspect of convergence. performative. cultural. Drawing on a broad range of scholarship. This organic convergence exists within a productive and creative economy of media consumers who become in some sense bricoleurs of their communal mediascapes. digital storytelling. film. which is the result of new modes of production and distribution that are transnational – world cultures (art.7 Expanded Cinema This book considers the shift from traditional cinematic spectacles to works probing the frontiers of interactive. As unstable and transitory as these media may be. Finally. the mediated global world is also profoundly discontinuous and fragmented. it is vital to understand them through a historical lens not in terms of simple chronologies but as part of a larger ‘media archaeology’ of contiguous and sometimes singular practices and circumstances. ’ we agree. like music. and the global public. We find these distinctions useful particularly as they encourage the cross-media and intermedial analysis that we believe is imperative in the present context of hypermediation. This relation between mind and media is central . exists in the context of both video and the computer (different only in the source of the image and in the possibility of real time operation) and covers the generic areas of image processing. we call it cinema. atomic light or spherical projections’ but to consciousness. interactive. Cinema is the art of organizing a stream of audiovisual events in time. intermediality. video. There are at least four media through which we can practice cinema – film. In his essay ‘Cinema and the Code’ (2003). He begins the book with the explanation that expansion refers not to ‘computer films. Youngblood defines cinema in the following way: The subject of ‘digital imaging. just as we separate music from particular instruments. and writing or organizing digital code in a procedural or linguistic manner. an explosion of the frame outward towards immersive. Youngblood’s groundbreaking book Expanded Cinema offers us three particular avenues from which to approach the immersive. For us. It is an event-stream. Fluid Screens. interactive. holography and structured digital code – just as there are many instruments through which we can practice music. The intense utopianism of Youngblood’s era is embedded in every page of his book – from the idea of the collective ownership of the earth and the cosmic consciousness of its citizens to the idea that science teaches ethics to the final chapter’s assertion that the ‘open empire’ balancing nature and technology is all but upon us.8 Authors in this book have used the word ‘cinema’ to refer not simply to film as a technology but to a range of moving-image technologies that are encompassed by the phenomenology of cinema.’ that is. video phosphors. Youngblood comes to a consideration that distinguishes between different media of cinema and a unified view of the multiplicity of image culture. Expanded Cinema begins with the phenomenon Gene Youngblood described three decades ago as ‘expanded cinema. it is important to separate cinema from its medium. and interconnected field of digital screen culture: synesthesia. But in every case when we refer to the phenomenology of the moving image.Introduction 7 are transforming the semiotic fabric of contemporary visual cultures. and interconnected forms of culture. image synthesis.9 Through his intellectual collaborations with artists Peter Weibel and Steina and Woody Vasulka. ’ Written in 2003. genocidal weaponry. and so forth. only time and timing circumscribe our democratic right to peaceful assembly. switching/mixing console. holographic cinema. Expanded Cinema presents a multivalent view of the place of digital media in the transformation of the public sphere – its expansions and contraction. but they were not coordinated in time. plasma crystal displays. multiple projection environments. Historically they constituted a single event. Space has been dissolved. artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Carolee Schneeman. We must move from oceanic consciousness to cosmic consciousness. as well as planetariums. theories of antimatter. The primary purpose of the event I propose must be to make visible the invisible power that was behind the political demonstrations. ‘an environment whose elements are suffused in metamorphosis. and scientists interviewed at IBM and different laboratories around the world. Youngblood’s interest in science was much deeper than indicated in this list of the specific technologies that comprise the expanded cinema environment. ‘We could say that art isn’t truly contemporary until it relates to the world of cybernetics. etc. the DNA molecule.).8 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord to this first extensive study and theorization of new media in terms of a planetary global phenomenon.’10 With expansion we cease to think about the screen or the frame and we are instead in the place he describes as ‘intermedia. These concerns form the animating context for Gene Youngblood’s Afterword in this volume. pre-experiencing alternative futures. and time is now the definitive feature of unification. which were inseparable from the experiments he was looking at. Youngblood’s manifesto-like text is a response to the global demonstrations against the perpetual war in the Middle East: The political demonstrations of 2003 were united in solidarity but were separated in time. We need to match those spectacular images of . telecine projection. the laser. the breeder reactor. early computer technology and graphics systems. and various forms of broadcasting and narrowcasting. Fluid Screens. ‘What We Must Do. sonar. influenced his thinking about the expanded cinema. which included various components of video and television (cathode-ray tubes.’ that is. oscilloscopes. a turning point. They manifested the political will of a global community. Marshall McLuhan. The specific kinds of technologies. ‘We must expand our horizons beyond the point of infinity.’11 The major influences in Youngblood’s thinking include Buckminster Fuller. game theory. Chroma-Key video matting.’12 These ideas are very much at the heart of the present collection. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. transistorization. neither she nor Epstein were especially interested in cinema as sociocultural experience. not unlike what Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt have called the ‘Multitude. Dulac’s interest in the synesthetic possibilities took the form of primitive sonograms: the writing of sound onto film. Informed by French aestheticism. or medium. as street. Apposite to Benjamin and Kracauer. as architecture. Using the experiments of the expanded cinema artists of the 1960s and 1970s as a pivotal point in the archaeology of digital media culture. the connectivity of localities form a complexity that outstrips any single methodology. Their writings of this period (from the second decade of the twentieth century to the 1930s) also provide media theorists with a grammar for thinking about convergence as a principle of fascism. While her theorization of this potentiality of cinema opened the formalism to a phenomenological approach. Cinema as the Flow of Life Benjamin’s idea of the phantasmagoria and its reorganization of the sensorium.Introduction 9 assembly in space with equally powerful images of assembly in time – images of worldwide synchronization and coordination. and Kracauer’s idea of the mass ornament as an immersive experience of modernity’s technologies and spectacles.14 The writings of Benjamin and Kracauer help to articulate the potentialities of another form and context of the moving image which the institutional mode of representation displaces – the heterogeneity of temporal and spatial elements within which the moving image appeared coeval with a sociocultural potentiality of a previously unthinkable experience of democracy. The liquidity of capital. give us a historical view of the concerns in this book. this heterogeneity of contextually derived experience is abstracted into film form. With the emergence of the institutional mode of representation. The context of viewing . intellectual or political tradition.’13 is a Utopian transnational network of social justice movements. we would be remiss not to mention Walter Benjamin’s and Siegfried Kracauer’s early engagements with cinema as sensorium. and intellectuals. The imagination of an expanded global public sphere. the mobility of bodies. Youngblood’s 1970 text and his 2003 manifesto inspire a set of transdisciplinary and transhistorical responses. and as a concretion of the flow of everyday life. Germaine Dulac and Jean Epstein were making arguments for ciné-écriture as a type of synesthetic cinema. artists. 10 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord is cleansed of its multidimensionality so that the eye is trained to look in one direction only: the screen. For in this dream of overcoming industrial time. death is further extruded from temporality. ‘A whole field of surprising correspondences between animate and inanimate nature is opened up. combined with Anne Friedberg’s analysis of the ‘mobile gaze’ of spectatorship15 (from screen to street to shops). The ‘unconscious optics’ of modernity are able to perceive correspondences between myth and history since the continuity presented by each has been shattered into fragments. the capitalist phantasmagoria mark a limit of the enframing of the world as image. Benjamin and Kracauer search for those elements which in this context of the renewed aura break its spell: boredom. For both Benjamin and Kracauer – though they articulate it differently – this new scopic regime signals a return of the aura and a further derealization of sentience rather than its redemption. that multiplicity of forms expanding from movie screen to the hall and to the street. . which now folds into itself the illusion of multiple views. the potential appears because it is disappearing – a double vision of the lost and found. For these theorists. rebus. These decades held a potential for a reconfiguration of the order of things – instead of greater abstraction and objectification. offers a rich prehistory to our contemporary moment of immersion. a possible reconfiguration of the subject. the technological and the sentient. shock – these aspects of collective experience within.’16 In the constellation. and mobility. Benjamin’s and Kracauer’s analyses insist on the thoroughly permeated: the eye and the world are adjusted by technology such that any phenomenal plentitude is experienced only as mythic fragments. While this phenomenological strain appears consonant with Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of the perspectival eye being embedded in the flesh of the world. They see the possibility for new kinds of association and sociability. or hieroglyph of fragmented reality. the remembered and the forgotten are apposite. the historical and the mythic. Benjamin and Kracauer wrote at a time in which the spectatorial regime had recently been instituted: the heterogeneity of space and time and the ‘carnal density’ that had constituted the previous two decades of cinema experience were by the 1930s absorbed in the diegesis of the film. intermediality. rather than transcendent of. there was a promise of the ‘redemption of physical reality’ (Kracauer) in the ‘politicization of art’ (Benjamin). wherein even things encounter us in the structures of frail intersubjectivity. However. Both Benjamin and Kracauer see the cinema as a response to rather than an expression of the alienated experiences of the industrialized metropolis. distraction. in doing so.17 Cinema. The possibility for thinking the temporal tensions between the body and technology. Benjamin and Kracauer’s work offers a means by which to think the historical tension between the sensate. McLuhan’s writings of the forties and fifties especially.’ And this process can only take place. not by avoiding the new technologies. As we dwell in a time of ever more ubiquitous and enchanting technologies. it seizes the ‘human being with skin and hair’. to undo the alienation of the corporeal sensorium. is not exhausted. involves taking the uncharted path through the ‘mass ornament.Introduction 11 Kracauer. Expanded Cinema develops a reflection on media forms that is distinctly Canadian. by going directly through the ‘center of the mass ornament.18 and. As Susan Buck-Morss has argued. like Benjamin. as he argues. not by avoiding the new technologies. he insists. insentient subject – and the capitalist ratio that produces this illusion as reality.’19 This dual emphasis on the transformation of perception and critique of social conditions found in Benjamin and Kracauer provides anchors for what writers like McLuhan and Youngblood have to tell us about televised cultural forms.’ Kracauer’s early work.’ not away from it. ‘addresses its viewer as a “material-corporeal being”’. technology. it holds a potential to shatter the illusion of the autotelic. rhymes with Benjamin’s in many ways. and everyday life before fascism – especially in cinema and its reception – a possibility for experience to be productive of new social relations resistant to the petrification in ratio. but by passing through them. sexuate body and its dematerialization. in Kracauer’s view. saw in the overlap of art. the project of thinking this tension. Benjamin is ‘demanding of art a task far more difficult [than making culture a vehicle for propaganda] – that is. while it may be aging. with Benjamin’s final sentence of the Artwork essay (‘Communism responds by politicizing art’). Harold Innis. to restore the instinctual power of the human bodily senses for the sake of humanity’s selfpreservation. and . especially in his critique of the re-enchantment of fragmented reality. and to do this. its enframing by technological rationality. is of central concern in Kracauer’s essay ‘The Mass Ornament. but by critically interrogating the enchantment and the irrationality underlying their instrumental development. developing a critical phenomenology of the surface (as Thomas Levin calls his method in the introduction to The Mass Ornament). along with the writings of George Grant. his phenomenology of the surface. And this possibility. Canadian Media Studies Fluid Screens. not away from it. were especially well positioned to do this. he argued. intellectuals working in Canada have a unique perspective on the world.’20 a discourse that sees technology as constitutive of social and psychic space. but constructed by it. of time as living culture. The country’s particular geography in relation to the United States has enabled it to keep an eye on things and to function as ‘an early warning system’ providing a model for anticipating future events. which includes Aristotle. and to the temporal realm. As a former colony of France and England. Augustine. to an interest in neurophilosophy before it was formulated as a field. Famously. the United States. McLuhan’s work is particularly relevant to the present volume. McLuhan has focused attention on the background and the spaces that both shape and are shaped by everyday experiences. Poetry is the privileged art form. For McLuhan. have helped to establish a Canadian intellectual tradition in cultural and communication studies. This is a tradition that in his interpretation prioritizes the poetic process and artists. This interest in perception led McLuhan to interdisciplinary formulations. Theorists of space and architecture from Henri Lefebvre to Edward Soja share this insight. According to McLuhan everyone should use the methods of art to see through the mediated environment and to understand the epistemological biases created by our technologies. and Aquinas.12 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord Eric Havelock. This tradition is characterized by ‘a discourse on technology. for contemporary poetry has healed the breach between art and science. Artists are the ‘antennae’ of the culture not because they are privileged humans or visionaries but because artists take as their object human perception and cognition. It cannot be divorced from his immersion in the Catholic intellectual tradition. and of culture as living time. For McLuhan. to human speech. and because of our close proximity and distance from the last empire.22 Yet McLuhan’s media studies are geared not so much towards the future (even though he has been called a media ‘prophet’) as to the present moment. the inhabitants of the Western world of literacy should approach things with a keen sensory awareness and a desire (the Romantic dictum) ‘to see things as they really are’ through reflexive methodologies. Canadian intellectuals. One of McLuhan’s contributions to communication studies is a conceptualization of space as produced.21 Language is the primary medium. the artist provides the source of great insight. He drew attention to the architectural space of the school in the city and to the city as an educational space not simply filled with rhetoric. which he sees as a collective work of art because of its connection to oral culture. McLuhan maintained that The Gutenberg Galaxy was ‘a . ’26 McLuhan looked to anthropology for clues to comprehend electric . the radical historian of economics and communication discovered an essential method of using historical situations as a lab in which ‘to test the character of technology in the shaping of cultures. the ‘contemporary awareness of the electric age’ in Baudelaire’s poetry or Cézanne’s painting finds expression in the aesthetic forms of montage as seen in the newspaper or in the cinema. Innis used the method known in chemistry as the ‘interface’ and in so doing presented ‘a new world of economic and cultural change by studying the interplay between man’s artifacts and the environments created by old and new technologies. in the spirit of the new age of information. Without an understanding of the aesthetic context from which such a methodology was born.’25 According to McLuhan. In the preface to Innis’s Empire and Communications. sought for patterns in the very ground of history and existence. first of writing and then of printing. McLuhan writes: If Hegel projected an historical pattern of figures minus existential ground.24 It is the ‘living vortices’ in Innis’s research that no doubt influenced McLuhan’s own thinking on how to conduct research into media effects. but as living vortices of power creating hidden environments that act abrasively and destructively on older forms of culture. Innis was using methods of collage and juxtaposition to create a landscape out of time and historical facts.’ Like a scientist. For McLuhan. Innis presented a history of civilization by creating a dynamic model that would present simultaneous events unfolding in different parts of the world. old and new. Innis introduced a historical account that was richly nuanced and grounded in place.Introduction 13 footnote to the observations of Innis on the subject of the psychic and social consequences. A dynamic and open field of relationships replaces linear sequences of words. not as mere vortices at which to direct his point of view. He saw media.’23 He held Harold Innis’s scholarship in high esteem and did much to promote his work. Intertextual layering is the pedagogical strategy that underlies all of Innis’s later writings and certainly all of McLuhan’s writings from the fifties onward: ‘Innis is not talking a private or specialist language but handing us the keys to understanding technologies in their psychic and social operation in any time or place. Harold Innis. McLuhan recognized the importance and originality of Innis’s insights and their appropriateness to the present context. Collectively. derealized space of the media. Electric Galaxies The essays collected in this book draw upon a range of analytical and critical frameworks that.’ of a space with no fixed boundaries. Digital Time – Archive. Part II. Focusing on projects from the Labyrinth Pavilion at Expo 67. The book is structured by historically specific and overlapping areas of experience that have arisen through the media since the 1930s.’ This idea of ‘centre without margins. From here McLuhan would find a vocabulary to describe the experience of the Electric Galaxy in terms not of visual space but a new multidirectional ‘Acoustic Space.14 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord culture in terms of a new construction of space-time relations. Thus the book is divided into three parts. new editing tools and immersive caves. takes as its focus the act of making time and the new forms of temporality enabled by . Part I. One of the ways in which we are distinguishing between the different media that constitute ‘expanded cinema’ is through an emphasis on the supports that hold images together and define their shapes. and commodity production are being enabled through the digital media? The overall problematic for this collection is framed by an understanding of the digital not simply as a technology but also as an experience of space and time tied to capitalism. He drew upon a sound-based paradigm that was historically grounded and directly inspired by oral cultural traditions. the essays consider a series of questions that are both ontological and epistemological in nature: What constitutes the ‘new’ in new media? How are digital aesthetics different from film aesthetics? What new forms of spectatorship and storytelling. while not exhaustive. IMAX and QuickTime screens as well as Web narratives. enable the reader to reflect upon the most pressing questions that face us today. imploded. The new models and metaphors that theorists from Benjamin to McLuhan to Gilles Deleuze have used to address the changed status of the moving image and concomitant transformations in screen technology are addressed throughout the book. is concerned with spatial narratives and immersive technologies. 1960s sound experiments. is a means to describe a phenomenology of a new. political community. to describe an experience of living not with the media but in and through mediation. the essays in this first section are more formal in their approach to analysing the new (and old) phenomenology of expanding screens. Expanding Cinema – Immersion. Part III. looks at new kinds of movement and economic liquidity in the digital realm. cell phone projects to different kinds of social intervention and a manifesto for the digital artwork. labour practices. Stephen Crocker adds sound and a concomitant awareness of multiplicity to his reading of new digital environments. For Crocker it is the immersive and multidirectional qualities of sound that provide a key to understanding the global village. new forms of collective memory and history. which was designed by the National Film Board of Canada’s Unit B directors for Expo 67. Crocker turns to the sound experiments of the 1960s and in particular to the underexamined writings and radio works of Glenn Gould and sound artists like John Cage and Rolf Lieberman.Introduction 15 digital technologies: feminist and activist media projects. With a specific focus on the multi-screen presentation Labyrinthe. Following the research that went into The Labyrinth Project. from war games. the archive – as a way of storing and collecting time – is engaged as a tool for building communities and shared histories in a manner that is dynamic and open. This new form.’ This was for Stevens the definition of artistic practice and for the directors of Labyrinthe a state of being that may create universal understanding. but about the organizational structure of sensation. promised a multisensory experience that would unify the senses and the different cultures of the world. In exploring the multiplicity of media environments as an experience of the digital. For media artists and theorists of the 1960s. He combines the thoughts of Glenn Gould and McLuhan to contemplate the concept of the singular and the multiple that has come to define the paradox of the global village. Across different essays.’ Haidee Wasson argues that cinema scholars must expand their ana- . the essay addresses the new visibility of expanded screens in the cinema of the 1960s in terms of an experience of simultaneity. according to Marchessault. We find at Montreal’s Expo a precursor to some of the most utopian tenets of digital culture. The first essay in Fluid Screens explores the emergence of a new medium presented at Expo 67 called synesthetic cinema. along with a new politics of time. and in a manner that is equally concerned with phenomenology and the screen as an immersive environment. sound was interesting ‘for what it revealed not about a source. Liquid Space – Mobility. Marchessault turns to the writing of Wallace Stevens to understand the relationship between the screen and architecture as one that takes place at the intersection of ‘the flow of time and the fixity of space. The final section of the book. For his part. In her discussion of QuickTime. Petty examines the use of new technology in non-Western cultures in terms of traditions of local transformation of communications technology. Wasson argues that a new way of looking is initiated that involves temporal networks that exceed the streamed image. relies on an African sense of time and space in which absence becomes a means of engendering debate. In her essay ‘The “Iterative Circle”: Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika.’ Sheila Petty explores artistic networks when she examines a collaboration between African and Canadian Web artists in the creation of a series of Web-based narratives made possible through Dakar Web. and tie-ins. Massamba Mbaye... Moussa Tine. Through a detailed reading of the Senegalese Web-based narrative Amika (Ndary Lô. Petty challenges the idea that Western cultural standards will simply inevitably and monolithically overwhelm culturally located forms of production in collaborative situations. and Madické Seck. While IMAX stands in opposition to the experience of the small computer screen.’ Her analysis of the networked screen leads her to consider two instances in the expanded viewing context: QuickTime streams and IMAX. screens. 1999). and institutions. The now well-known example of the sub-Saharan cinema of the late 1950s and early 1960s that led to the creation of a specific cinema aesthetic based in concepts of orality and social space can also be seen similarly in the Web-based fiction Amika. Although the problem of access to the Web and to digital technologies continues to be a pressing issue – African teledensity remains below one line per one hundred people – she is encouraged by some of the new networks that are being created among artists’ communities in and outside Africa. Amika presents a spatial narrative that is cosmological and interwoven like a ‘piece of cloth. We can no longer think of mainstream films as simple screens but as a series of interconnected events – ‘nodes of complex networks’ where a ‘movie is never just a film. Both small and large screens present examples of the networked screen that underpins the often invisible materiality and multiplicity of contemporary visual culture.’ The narrative .16 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord lytical frame to take account of the cinema in terms of its connections to a diversity of merchandising sites.’ The cultural specificity of the Web-based narratives that Petty examines draw upon African oral traditions to create distinct hybrid forms that extend longstanding artistic traditions. This complex ‘Web fiction driven by a rhetorical structure . it is also a networked screen because IMAX is always about IMAX’s network of technologies. product placements. The proliferating screen both contracts and expands. Her work begs some questions of creative engagement with media – Why is the digital seductive for artists? What might be its impact on how we understand and make historical images? Child works with a stream-of-consciousness form of writing (not unlike her films) to contemplate simultaneity and the physical experience of editing. interface. it is important to create a history of immersive art forms: ‘It is only when the history of images – their evolution and aesthetic patterns – are firmly situated in the context of new media that we may be able to argue persuasively for some of the transformative shifts that digital technologies are engendering. The narrative encompasses an open-endedness and a plurality of trajectories to draw out a distinctly African pattern. Child cuts back to the work at hand. The celebrated filmmaker and writer Abigail Child extends the examination of creative practice through her journal that documents uses of digital technology in editing. He objects to terms like ‘user’ and he asserts that a great deal more research needs to take place in the realm of interactivity. the artist presents a rare view of media history and of the process of artmaking in the digital age. Ron Burnett’s contribution offers speculations and insights into the meanings of digital technology: do we need a new language and new metaphors to describe these new technologies? Although he proposes a new metaphor for studying digital media and theorizing digital aesthetics.’ Burnett questions the paradigms and vocabularies that are currently being called upon to describe new media. From these recollections. perception. Finally. he proposes a new term that combines the word image with photograph – imograph. While this collective project is a work of fiction. Child’s essay provides rich reflections and poetic ruminations on the history of editing and specifically on the shift from film to three-quarter-inch video to digital video.Introduction 17 combines both African oral traditions with the interlacing capability of the Web technology to reflect upon a unique worldsense of interacting forces. and weaving. The term foregrounds the plasticity of new . Like Child. it describes the lived realities of the poor in a way that is comprehensible to those living outside its worlds. the creation of an interactive website and the questions that arise around these new technologies: the meaning of interactivity. and the exhaustion of ten-hour days. early television and video editing. and physical sensation before we will understand how the digital has transformed the spectator. Across a thirty-year span. he cautions that what must be maintained is a materialist approach to media analysis. That is. She recalls the Steenbeck. weaving. She wonders whether this is a reflection of the larger ‘retro-culture’ or if it is about searching through the archive for a means both to put to rest the homogeneity of its culture and to rescue those elements of a past that has yet to be realized for a generation of young women who are finding ‘old’ political problems to be far from over. situating black history in the history of modernity and modernism. and its deployment of metaphors of home. who remind us that ‘the Web is yet another cultural site where users are bombarded with representations of women based more on an essentialist definition of “woman” than the lives of real women from varying cultural backgrounds. and for Wal- . solidarity. such as nostalgia for moments of political engagement. and within the terms of the aesthetic project of futurism. Rather than dismiss these formulations as old. Fisher cites Blair and Takayoshi. according to Caitlin Fisher. with its repositing of core images of the (white) female body. themes. met with essentialism. by offering examples of screenless contexts for the consumption of digital images and narratives. These concerns with the complexity of digital time comprise Part II of this volume. and other ‘female’ practices. Is there a way to perform an immanent critique or to see these hypertextual experiments as generative texts? What might this kind of monstrous reading practice reveal? Perhaps revisiting 1970s aesthetics. and community building.18 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord images and Burnett concludes his essay.’ He posits a critique of the assumption that black people have been more alienated than others from technology. or naive. For Akomfrah. in certain versions of cyber-feminism. for this nostalgia erases as much as it preserves. it is impossible to ignore the fact that many of these hypertexts are produced by white women. what productive tensions and pathways might we discover in them? Rinaldo Walcott’s reading of the film The Last Angel of History by the black British filmmaker John Akomfrah considers the way in which the digital has provided the means of archiving black music. its Webbased forms of consciousness-raising groups (with its homogeneous membership). As she notes. essentialist.’ Fisher’s article interrogates this reification of past practices. Historical memory is often full of traps. and Part I of Fluid Screens. and preoccupations in this new context might be productive for feminisms. The technological ability to preserve pasts and upload them toward a future has. making it available not just for global markets but for artists who then cut and mix the history in a reflection of diasporic homelessness – a ‘downloadable Africa. and its attendant binaries. Vision Machine.’ Walcott argues that memory is politicized in the act of ‘rememory’: ‘In the case of black diaspora musics in the cybernetic age. the cybernetic does not appear as an external spectacle but as a component of sound. Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer see memory in the digital age in terms of a dynamic knowledge network and collective process of excavation. getting people to respond to the performance): ‘Between a buried historical event. and histrionic reconstruction (adding layers of stylized performance and recounting). vocabularies. renewal and other unknown possibilities. affiliated with decolonization struggles. anchored to class analysis and struggle. a media-based research project and collective. and ontologies. has found artists of commitment operating with very different tools.’ It is this process that creates a sense of ‘shared time’ and a network of collaborators. The project is not simply one of uncovering something that was lost but of bringing to light the very power structures that make people forget. Their essay ‘History and Histrionics: Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics’ describes a collective project to recover the lost histories of the Indonesian genocide. and historical artifacts through ‘archeological performances. affects.’ Susan Lord explores the relationship between the historiographic imaginary of media artists working in the past quarter-century by looking at digital archives and databases in the context of globalization and the political affinities forged under these conditions. digitized race memory allows for a musical memory which can mediate between musics of the past and musics of the present-future in ways that continually return to important moments of cultural sharing.’ This involves a layering of temporalities. In her essay ‘From Sequence to Stream: Historiography and Media Art. and its restaging with historical actors.Introduction 19 cott. has created a methodology that is deeply imbricated in the social realities and historical traces of the mass murders. and interpretations (asking soldiers to re-enact killings. The project itself finds support in digital media networks and the Internet that help collectives of producers and activists to distribute and share their work. Their methodology involves using digital media to create an archive of recollections. to politics as subaltern emergence. The difference . She says ‘The shift from politics as a project connected to Left history. this method opens a process of simultaneous historical excavation (working down through the strata). and Akomfrah’s Data Thief is an embodiment of transnational communicative practice and what Greg Tate calls ‘digitized race memory.’ Like Walcott. actions. for example. Indonesian genocides.” a thirty-four-year civil war in Guatemala) is now forced to relinquish the future of truth (and. Iran-Contra’s effects. was not simply an aberration. War games are particularly popular and often push the boundaries between virtual and actual in disturbing ways. the digital suffers from ‘an institutionally bounded form of alienation. Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter open Part III of the book by examining the historical relationship between military simulation and digi- . justice) that the interrogated. hence.’ something that is beneath the surface. Willmott analyses the infamous case of Mr Bungle. he is also cautious about overstating the case in a manner that is romantic – McLuhan’s ‘global village’ was perhaps the first romance of the digital world and for him this romance has produced its tragedies. that structures all of our interactions. In other words. he tells us. Mr Bungle. this is not merely about timelines of capital or about the ruined index.’ Yet it is the way in which political collectives are acting to build archives and use databases that represents new models for thinking about how history is written. Games are a global industry that now exceeds Hollywood in terms of box office revenues. critically montaged archive had promised. While he acknowledges that digital technology has transformed the world. has become unusable for the production of counter-truths. A Rehearsal of Memory. For Willmott. Glenn Willmott’s essay concludes Part II of this book by problematizing the very idea of digital time as ‘deep media.20 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord between Emile de Antonio and Walid Raad is perhaps the most extreme comparison of that which can be found between Sara Diamond’s work of the 1980s and Vision Machine’s project in development since 2000: the ontological status of the archive. “guest workers. its truth-yielding potential.’ Chris Marker’s Level Five and Daniel David Moses’s Kyotopolis offer insights into the relations of time and value produced in the digital world – the tragedy of the utopian and the terrible. Like the interactive artwork by Graham Harwood. which creates a patchwork of inmates’ memories and tattoos at the Ashworth Mental Hospital in Liverpool. who raped and tortured users in LambdaMOO in 1993. the Lebanese wars. these tragedies reveal a great deal about the status of bodies in the context of the so-called dematerialization brought about by the digital revolution. he was a product of VR. it is also about new movements of time and uses of technology that take place with “liquid modernity”: the infinite multiplication of truth claims and their correlative commodification create a condition in which the interested artist (one concerned with. ‘embattled shadows.’ Like Willmott. In conjunction with Canada’s status in the global image market. ‘labour’s largely specialized. Cell phones are the tools of ‘a new. negotiated in an increasingly unregulated and competitive manner in the image and labour marketplace. Robertson understands the digital in . experiencing ‘a loss of the workforce. Although a great deal of talk around the digital emphasizes the rise of independent media. social..Introduction 21 tal play. the mobile or cell phone. by clichéd celebration of the virtue of their cause and the justice of their activities.’ This means that workers are often overpowered by ownership. his analysis of the Canadian patterns of production in relation to global markets provides important insights into the status of independent and national media and the labour that makes it possible. little attention has been paid to the increasing atomization of work. ‘FSW contributes to [the] banalization of war by promoting uncritical identification with imperial troops. they are concerned with the way that actual bodies are being iterated through these new games. and exalting its spectacle. dispersed and freelance status . This dissection reveals a global economy of power and domination at work in the tiny handheld device.. McCullough’s starting point is a crisis created by ‘the overdeveloped animation sector of the volatile global film market.’ Sadly. She looks to the actions of Jon Agar. who takes a hammer to his cell phone in order to foreground the hardware and trace each of its miniature components to different parts of the world. by diminishing the horrors of battle.’ Like all of the authors in Fluid Screens.’ still holds strong.’ and the phrase coined by Canadian film historian Peter Morris many years ago to describe the film industry. There are currently some forty games that are custom built for military purposes and popular consumption. constantly connected. by routinizing the extermination of the enemy. John McCullough also looks to understand the changed context of physical labour in his analysis of the Canadian film and television industry. Canada’s situation is that it is tied to ‘Tinseltown. What does this mean for the future of war and entertainment? According to the authors. Like McCullough. McCullough looks at the way the digital has shifted relations of media work in the industry. focusing on the game Full Spectrum Warrior – a game designed for the U. Kirsty Robertson’s essay introduces mobility into the discussion of digital culture by considering localized screenless technology par excellence.’ Within this context. Robertson is concerned with the materiality of digital environments. Army as a military training tool and for the public as popular entertainment.S. Like Marks. political mobilization. Using the work of Henri Bergson and Charles Sanders Peirce. video.’ Through ‘subterranean communication networks. While the current era has produced information environments that are not conducive to diversely embodied experiences. whose marginal positions within corporate and state power structures may change the flow of information-‘rich’ places: ‘It is the very “people who are missing. self-reflexive in a way that understands their own materiality. Marks sketches out the relationship between experience and perception in the information age. for whom independent perception and thought are not a luxury but a necessity. The committed artwork will need to be fully engaged in the flow in order to intervene in it.22 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord dialectical terms. The cell phone and text messaging have also redefined the tactical strategies for activism and protest. His essay is a manifesto for the engaged digital artwork. Writing from Lebanon. She is concerned with the new kinds of sociality introduced by cell phones in urban and developing spaces – ring tones and private conversations are reconfiguring the public realm and the transit systems. Marks considers perceptual paradigms for multisensory experiences. Cubitt explains that the nature of the digital must be situated in terms of the universes created by distinct languages. Marks raises the question of how to create embodied images and experiences in an age of hypermediation. His essay is concerned with the possibilities offered by the digital artwork. and positionality in terms of networks of . temporality (as connected to and responsible for the future). Artworks must be process-oriented. These paradigms came into being at the very moment when capitalist modernity began the process of creating the informatic world. ‘The Task of the Translator. and global movement across the world. The new capabilities of cell phone photography. Her hope lies with immigrant people. both as profiteering and revolutionizing.’ Viewing the differences between analogue and digital as one would different languages. Through this lens. activists must ‘take back the flow’ to reintroduce and reawaken new forms of thought and creativity. He begins with the landmark essay by Walter Benjamin.’ these citizens may create a new ground for thinking through the media. Sean Cubitt presents tactical strategies for intervening in global flows. the digital artwork will need to move beyond the negative aesthetics of the historical avant garde. Inspired by the anti-commodity aesthetics of 1970s conceptual art.” citizens of nowhere. or of cells adapted to soft fabrics point towards new extensions of the social circumstances created by mobile communication devices. Laura U. ’ As noted earlier. 348. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Youngblood’s essay is a call for the creation of ‘a global democratic public sphere.. 10–11. ‘is the most powerful of human actions’ because it enables humans to construct shared realities. Witness that image of solidarity on 15 February 2003. 2. the power that leads to action. 11. This was a manifestation of the power of talk. The artwork is engaged in work. . a gesamptkunstwerk that would consolidate a global public sphere. 22–3. they were not synchronized across time zones. 2003).’ While Youngblood’s proposal is admittedly utopian. 3 Marshall McLuhan. It engages the audience in its own creation in a way that redefines interaction towards a more fully articulated participation. Eisenstein on Disney (London: Methuen. This would be a series of daily outdoor performances in a continuous unbroken sequence over weeks and months that are ‘telecollaborative multimedia performances and multimedia teleconferences. But while such actions were coordinated across spaces. the book concludes with a utopian and imperative Afterword by Gene Youngblood. 2 Ibid. Finally the digital artwork must be beautiful (rather than sublime) – that is.Introduction 23 flows. historically grounded. CA: Gingko Press. Bringing together many of the points raised throughout this book and indeed directing us towards many artworks that display his ‘precepts. 2000). Youngblood calls upon artists and activists to organize an event. ed. Finally. The global must be understood as a determining force.’ Cubitt’s essay is a forceful and convincing description of politically committed digital aesthetics. Liquid Modernity (Cambridge: Polity. concerned with communication rather than representation. 21–2. 4 Zygmunt Bauman.’ by which he means all modes of human expression including audio-visual. 1988). W. ‘Talk.S. he directs our attention to a virtual power that is invisible and often overlooked: ‘the uncontrolled conversation among the peoples of the world’ made possible through the Internet. whose ideas and insights have shaped the conceptual framework for this book. imperialism. it leaves us with a sense of possibility and a question: why has this not been attempted? NOTES 1 Sergei Eisenstein. Terrence Gordon (Corte Madera. when more than ten million people took to the streets around the world to protest neoliberal globalization and U. 12 Ibid. The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays. 2003). 1970).. ‘“With Skin and Hair”: Kracauer’s Theory of Film. Adams Sitney (New York: New York University Press. Expanded Cinema (New York: Dutton. ‘Cinema and the Code. 2004). are the first ‘draft’ of Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality written two decades later. 7 Thomas Elsaesser. ‘Convergence? I Diverge.’ Critical Inquiry 19 (Spring 1993): 437–69. ed. P. At this writing. ed. ‘The New Film History as Media Archeology. for a discussion of the affective potential of cinema. in The Avant-Garde Reader: A Reader of Theory and Criticism. Levin’s Introduction to the collection of Kracauer’s early essays. 6 Henry Jenkins. These notebooks (as yet unpublished). pre-exile writings (some of which have recently been translated and published in The Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays). 2001). 1978). Transnational Urbanism: Locating Globalization (Malden. 1995). 136. 10 Youngblood. 1993). .. 16 Jurgen Habermas. and Michael Peter Smith. Hansen contends. NJ: Princeton University Press. Levin (Cambridge. 13 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. They provide a link between his pre-war. Friedberg’s muchanticipated book The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft is due to be published by MIT Press. MA: MIT Press. 17 See Thomas Y. MA: Harvard University Press. 36–42.’ in Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film.24 Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord 5 For critiques of globalization as cultural flow. 135. ‘The Essence of the Cinema: The Visual Idea’ (1925). Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel (Cambridge.’ Cinémas 14. 8 Gene Youngblood. ‘Consciousness Raising or Redemptive Criticism: The Contemporaneity of Walter Benjamin. which is concerned with more formalist matters. UK: Blackwell. Marseille 1940. 2005). ed. 347. 15 Anne Friedberg. 20. 2–3 (2004): 75–117. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (Princeton. 11 Ibid. nos. 156–61. which deal with film and mass culture from a critical and historical-philosophical perspective. 9 Gene Youngblood. 14 See Germaine Dulac. and the 1960 book. and trans. 18 Cited in Miriam Hansen’s analysis of Kracauer’s 1940 Marseille notebooks. Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern (Berkeley: University of California Press. see Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.’ New German Critique 17 (spring 1979): 46. Expanded Cinema. Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (New York: Penguin.’ Technology Review (June 2001): 93. 24 Ibid.. 20 Arthur Kroker. 25 Ibid. MA: Harvard University Press.Introduction 25 19 Susan Buck-Morss.’ in The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture (Cambridge. . 21 Marshall McLuhan. The Bias of Communication (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Technology and the Canadian Mind: Innis/McLuhan/Grant (Montreal: New World Perspectives. Understanding Media.’ October 62 (1992): 5. vii. ‘Canada: The Borderline Case. ix. ‘Catholic Humanism and Modern Letters. 1977). 1984). 23 Harold Innis. CT: St Joseph College. 222. 22 McLuhan. 78. vii–xi. Series 2 (West Hartford. 26 Marshall McLuhan.. 1991). vi. 1954).’ in Christian Humanism in Letters: The McAuley Lectures. ‘Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin’s Artwork Essay Reconsidered. This page intentionally left blank . The essays explore the implications of the shift from film to digital media: the precursor to this shift in the films and sound experiments of the 1960s and 1970s. .PART I Expanding Cinema – Immersion In this first section. phenomenological reading to the formal supports and experience of cinema’s expanding architectures. spatial narratives and screen technologies are inflected with an acoustic aesthetic that is inspired by the simultaneous and ephemeral experience of the digital. the new narratives and experiments that have arisen out of networked and Web-based works. All six of the essays in Part I bring a nuanced. the need to consider what is beyond the screen in the context of proliferating products. the experience of manipulating images and experiments with immersive environments. This page intentionally left blank . 4 This event can be read as an important precursor to the multiplication and interconnectedness of screens that characterize twenty-firstcentury digital architectures. several film festivals were connected to it. While Bazin predicted that the myth of .1 World expositions are places where new expectations and attitudes towards future technology are stimulated. it was one of the most successful world fairs ever held. and cultural network of conditions. and contiguities that support their development. the evolution of media forms does not arise suddenly out of nowhere but is connected to a social. This is no doubt what makes them such useful historical markers of cultural value. grammars. many of which were dazzling displays of the new flexibility of the screen and the new synesthesia of the visual cultures of the world mediated through technology. Consider Expo 67. including a large Montreal Film Festival and a student film festival. As both Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams have shown us. One aspect of this includes the history of an attitude towards the media. and technologies. economic. institutions. and more specifically towards what makes them new and meaningful. Over three thousand films were produced for the event.1 Multi-Screens and Future Cinema: The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 jan i n e m a rch e ssau lt Media histories are located across a variety of artistic and industrial practices. Second only to Paris’s Exposition Universelle of 1900. which was held in Montreal to celebrate Canada’s centenary. with attendance at just over fifty million. Approximately 65 per cent of all the pavilions and complexes presented moving pictures.’3 what distinguished Expo 67 from all other previous world expositions was its spectacular showcasing of audio-visual technologies.2 Although it may be true that all world expositions are training grounds for commodity consumption in ways that ‘raise spectatorship to a civic duty. In this essay. All across North America. which was of course a wonderful (and ironic) encapsulation of the electromagnetic waves that made TV transmission possible.7 In a peculiar fashion. The second was a notion that television would serve as a means of corporeal transportation. Both shared the humanistic guise of ‘Man and His World. This idea might well have been reinforced by Star Trek. The first is distinguished by an awareness of the materiality of the earth as a liquid planet – the image of the ‘space-age’ mirrored in the designed environment of soft edges and orbed surfaces.e. to illustrate an increasing desire on the part of artists to create entirely new architectures for sensory immersion that would expand the experience of film.5 the contemporary context presents just the opposite: frames within frames that foreground the materiality of the screen. which featured a ‘transponder’ that seemed made of cathode ray beams. unreliable as they may be.30 Janine Marchessault total cinema would lead to the disappearance of the screen (i. who were both established documentary film directors from the Unit B at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). combining a profound awareness of the world as organic interconnectivity and simultaneity as communicative possibility.6 I would like to draw attention to a particular attitude underlying the NFB’s Labyrinthe. I focus on one of the most complex of the multi-screen pavilions at Expo: Labyrinthe. Growing up in Montreal. inspired on the one hand by Expo and on the other by the promise of space travel. I can recall more than one school project geared towards imagining the future of the planet as a utopian city (one of McLuhan’s early formulations was the ‘planet as city’)8: a fluid and . My account does not seek to establish a ‘pre-history’ of digital cinema but rather to point to this experiment. and my memories of it are vague. primary schools added special features to curricula. one of thousands tied to the experimental media cultures of the sixties.’ the theme of Expo 67. often preserve lasting impressions of a time. Expo as Earth City I was a young child when I attended Expo 67. The exhibition was designed by Colin Low with Roman Kroitor. Yet childhood memories. the two projects were synonymous. Two themes dominate my recollection. holographic cinema). The Labyrinth Project proposed an audio-visual experience that they believed could well transform the future of cinema by creating a new medium. This was an attitude that was at once utopian and pragmatic. and both concerned the future planet and technology.. Expo was said to be itself a cinematic city. Diapolyecran. As Judith Shatnoff’s review in Film Quarterly described. a 70mm frame broken into innumerable screen shapes.’9 And new names were being invented to describe these screens: Circle Vision. One of the expressive metaphors for this fantasy of modernity was an excess of screens.’ whose chief architect was Edouard Fiset. While the Moscow World’s Fair featured Glimpses of the USA. expressing man’s dominance over the earth. and while the New York World’s Fair (1964) had dozens of multi-screen projections. the ‘master plan design intent. on three. ‘film came on two screens. Labyrinthe was precisely the kind of future cinema earth city project that a collective fantasy was conjuring in the popular culture of the sixties. operating at different heights while offering riders a variety of vistas. 112 moving screen cubes. six. nine in a circle. including Glimpses of the USA on fourteen screens at the IBM pavilion. bodies in movement. organized according to different speeds. a dome screen. a projection on seven screens by Charles Earnes in 1959 (which upstaged The Family of Man photographic exhibition curated by Edward Steichen).12 Thus it was not the monumentality of ‘a disposable imperial city. and Expo 67 was filled with them. This is the context in which I would like to analyse one of the most successful multi-screen.14 Expo’s one thousand acres with two manmade islands built on the St Lawrence River (Île Notre-Dame and Île . transportation and the orchestration of traffic were the key components of the entire plan. filled with structures made of webs and screens that refracted and reflected other images. Polyvision. the ephemeral of Expo that gave it its modern futuristic sheen. screens mirrored to infinity. with trains uniting vast areas of the complex site. Kino-Automat.11 As a future-tense city. mirroring the new. a water screen. five. dematerialized commodity culture of North America.’13 that we find at Expo 67 but the flexibility of the city in movement. Not surprising. The trains were themselves a complicated network of movements and connections. multi-chamber film experiments at Expo 67. and Kaleidoscope.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 31 boundless world that operated off the ground. Indeed.10 there was nothing that matched Expo in terms of sheer quantity of international and experimental films. It is the immaterial. and atmospheric variations. Organized by the NFB for Expo. recommended that designers and architects explore the new possibilities of webs and film-like materials. the non-linear. Expo was called the ‘Space-Frame Fair’ because so many pavilions covered large areas with lightweight materials creating structures that were demountable and ready for transportation. the impermanent. not least the firm that employed Moshe Safdie. A member of the Toronto Explorations Group in the early fifties. He does not separate different media but rather seeks to understand them in terms of whole networks of obsolescences. absorptions. and process-oriented fields rather than as simply virtual or static containers. Tyrwhitt was also connected to architects in Montreal. with one acting as the content of the other. a research group connected to an international interdisciplinary enterprise.16 The usefulness of the electric light as an example of a medium (one that Eco . Roy E. the installation served to highlight a new awareness of simultaneity and new concepts of space-time created through media technologies. Gordon Edwards.15 McLuhan’s research aimed to uncover media biases through the creation of anti-environments. with Harry Vandelman as the project supervisor. These trends towards openness to the present and connection to the world as a diversity of perspectives encompassed central themes of hybridity and multiplicity. might shed some light on this new context of architecture in the sixties. All media come in pairs. What grows out of the exchanges between urban and media theory with the Explorations team. We can see in Understanding Media (1964) precisely this influence on his views of the media as architectonic. His critical pedagogy maintained that the meeting of new and old technologies could generate new forms of awareness. is an anthropological approach to the built environment and an understanding that communications media as extensions of the human body produce environments that carry their own hidden biases. Lemoyne. Tyrwhitt was the editor of the journal Ekistics and translator and editor of many of Siegfried Gideon’s writings – an important influence on McLuhan’s media theories. environmental. and hybrid energies.32 Janine Marchessault Sainte-Hélène) offered something unique in the way of urban design: a utopian non-place that combined a unified system of signs with a highly diverse visual culture representing a new sense of globality. which the successful work of art could produce. and Anthony Shine. The three-chamber installation that made up Labyrinthe was designed by Colin Low and built by the architectural firm of John Bland. Inspired by McLuhan’s anthropological writings on the media as well as Northrop Frye’s theories of archetypes. who taught urban design and landscape architecture at the University of Toronto up until the mid-fifties. Expo was built to reflect certain trends in international art and architecture of the sixties. McLuhan’s intellectual collaborations with the British-born urban planner Jacqueline Tyrwhitt. the designer of Habitat – the ultimate encapsulation of Expo’s humanist intent. Whereas classical depictions of dehumanization staged the cinema screen as precisely that which alienates humans from the social fabric of everyday life – Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1922) is a great example of this idea – Expo’s image of the screen. Expanded Cinema (1970). wrote the wonderful introduction to Youngblood’s book. and many more.’17 All other media are hybrid. Buckminster Fuller. the screen as architecture. waves.’19 The new ecological art forms will lead . Mind-Expanding Screens The relation between screen and architecture.’ The interface between two different media has characterized the undertakings of the best artists: Dickens. Chaplin. a complex of frequencies. work and society. broadcasts. and instantaneous communication within the context of the universe. Fuller’s planetary vision of an ‘earth space’ challenged the view of the earth that portioned it into tiny static cubes of property. Students of media can observe the way they transform the structures of time and space. Space Vehicle Earth. Eliot. Instead.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 33 objected to) stems from its lack of content. as we shall see. an idea based on a two-dimensional picture of the world that did not include the space above the ground.18 This idea of the ‘interface’ between old and new technologies was central to the new synesthetic cinema that was pioneered at Expo and later theorized by Gene Youngblood in his landmark study. Eisenstein. the universe. whose geodesic dome was an important milestone for those multi-screen experimenters at Expo. that is. For Fuller. which often occurs during wars and migrations. Shaw. was endemic to the humanist design of Expo. It often takes a great artist to anticipate the hybrid created by the clash of cultures.’ Youngblood’s theorization of synesthetic art is most valuable for its educational potential: it will synchronize the senses and humankind’s knowledge in time to ensure ‘the continuance of the . they are the result of a meeting which produces ‘a moment of freedom and release from the ordinary trance and numbness imposed by them on our senses.. the Marx Brothers.. Joyce. R. Youngblood’s book is important because it uses the ‘scenario-universe principle’: ‘a scenario of non-simultaneous and only partially overlapping transformative events. very much inspired by Expo 67. who were able to produce new forms of entertainment and art. They will come to understand the ‘form of power that is in all media to reshape any lives they touch. Fuller counterposes Einstein’s larger view of a non-linear universe. was just the opposite. a part of the Telephone Pavilion. Canada 67. and although each interval did allow for two choices. the 1904 St.34 Janine Marchessault to the ‘Expanded Cinema University.500 viewers at a time. For Cincera. which incorporated live theatre at the Czechoslovakian pavilion. Audience members had a red and a green button in front of them and were invited to vote on the actions to be taken by characters in the film. Using a ninecamera apparatus to create a 3608 circle vision screen. Polar Life by Graham Ferguson displayed eleven screens with two or three visible at a time as viewers sat in four revolving theatres on one large turntable. was among the most spectacular and nationalistic with a film made by Walt Disney Studios. Expo 67 does it with film and. used six screens to devise a documentary about the trials and tribulations of being a teenager. this illusion of interactivity was to be a comedy. the Paris 1889 fair with steam engineering. The twenty-two-minute film began on the east coast with the Canadian Mounted Police.’20 Expo offered a variety of new forms of participatory multi-screen cinema (fig.’21 CPR Cominco Pavilion’s We Are Young by filmmakers Francis Thompson and Alexander Hammid. through images that assault the senses and expand the mind. all paths ended in the same place. The cover story of the 14 July issue of Life was called ‘A Film Revolution to Blitz Man’s Mind.’ a revolution that ‘showed us the future’: ‘London’s Crystal Palace in 1851 did this with iron and glass architecture.1). who also made To Be Alive for the 1964 World’s Fair. The voting itself was a ruse. Louis Fair with the auto. a comment on democracy. so too was the synesthetic cinema designed for process-oriented experiences.22 Writing under the influence of both McLuhan and Fuller as well as all of the multi-screen experiments at Expo and the emerging field of . A live performer from the film would emerge at different points to ask the audience to vote. as a ball in movement. The notion that film technology could create a new awareness and an expanded consciousness for the new age of simultaneity was repeated frequently at Expo. 1. Just as his geodesic dome was designed for mobility. to universal knowledge.’ that is. moving to Quebec’s Winter Carnival to a Toronto Maple Leafs’ hockey game to the wild west and Canada’s national parks. explodes the world into a revolution in communications. For Robert Fulford all of the multi-screen presentations were disappointing. Perhaps the most theatrical of the presentations was the Kino-Automat (movie vending) on three screens. the spectacle enveloped 1. but Canada 67 was among the most ‘blatant in its chauvinism. devised by cinematographer Raduz Cincera. a world that is other to commercial media. We could read . which he defines according to R.’ in which intuition and reason are joined once more. recorded music. All media are the new environment.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 35 experimental media art. and interconnected like a labyrinth. and the synesthetic cinema belongs to this other counter-culture world. Screens become architecture because of television’s selfreflexive ubiquity – there is no outside or inside to televisual images: ‘The videosphere is the noosphere transformed into a perceivable state.’24 Consciousness is not simply static.’ Synesthetic cinema is the only language suited to the post-industrial and post-literate age with its ‘multi-dimensional simulsensory network of information sources.25 Although this form existed at the turn of the century and Abel Gance’s three-screen manifesto Napoleon (1927) sought to revolutionize visual culture just as sound was coming to the cinema.’28 It is not that the screen disappears but that the screen as support is materialized as an object alongside or within another screen ad infinitum.’27 It has made film obsolete as a documentary technology (transformed it into art) and connected it into and helped to consolidate the ‘intermedia network’ of magazines. fragmented.’ An increasing number of inhabitants.23 Youngblood theorizes that it is the cinema’s role to approximate consciousness. books. Youngblood posits synesthetic cinema as a new revolutionary form. he writes.’ All thought grows out of this and ‘deals with feeling as thus transformed into imagination. This is the age of ‘cosmic consciousness. The answer to this question is simple. photography. While we might have seen screens within screens in the history of cinema. So often science fiction and spy serials used television monitors to connote the surveillance and high-tech control of space.26 Youngblood asks why it took so long for the multi-screen cinema to come of age. radio. live in another world. Moreover.G. Collingwood’s specification as ‘the kind of thought which stands closest to sensation or mere feeling. multiple screens or video walls became a common prop in the popular television culture (especially American) of the fifties and sixties. it is in the process of expanding through technology. The ‘medium is the message’ and thus the screen and the building that houses the screen and the city that houses the theatre are all part of the ever-expanding or imploding picture of the earth which the Russian satellite Sputnik had delivered in 1957. ‘This consciousness expansion is created on the one hand by mind manifest hallucinogens and on the other by a partnership with machines. ‘television is the software of the earth. they are nature as McLuhan would posit: discontinuous. . Fig. .’ reproduced from Fran Lewin. 1. Presentations at Expo 67. ‘Man and His Sound – Expo 67.’ Journal of the SMPTE (March 1968).1 ‘Table I. was the development of largescreen projection using 70 mm and 35 mm film. One fact that often goes unrecognized is the NFB’s substantial technological innovations in the areas of sound recording.’ as Gerald Graham has called it. The shift from theatrical to non-theatrical distribution of NFB films in the early fifties began an involvement with television that would influence how documentaries were being made. but the films had to be produced more rapidly. For The Labyrinth Project.2).30 The films were heavily influenced by the realist aesthetics of Cartier-Bresson in which everyday life reveals itself photographically and phenomenologically in a ‘decisive moment. Two of the most important technological innovations towards this ‘quest for mobility.38 Janine Marchessault this as the fundamental shift in the popular imaginary towards understanding simultaneity as a space to be controlled. Not only was there a growing need for more films. 1. and of film exhibition. McLuhan would state in War and Peace in the Global Village: ‘As visual space is superseded. which had no beginning. Both the camera and projection apparatus adapted the principles of television . which eventually grew into IMAX’s 70 mm film projection. This idea of cinema as environment was intrinsic to The Labyrinth Project.33 The other innovation. we discover that there is no continuity or connectedness let alone depth and perspective.’31 This shift to television affected the way films were produced. pioneered at Expo. and the influence of television on the Unit B directors is well known. exerting an increased demand on film production. The demand was for Canadian realities. when the Film Board began to make content for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). are the first synchronous sound recording technologies produced by the Board in 1955.’29 This is where space becomes acoustic (space-time). for multiple realities distributed to multiple destinations around Canada. The films for The Candid Eye were akin to ‘found stories’ (Kracauer). The films were projected using five synchronized projectors set out in a similar shape. and projection. middle. which enabled a greater flexibility for location shooting and helped to consolidate the NFB’s reputation in the area of cinema direct. film cameras. the Unit B in particular was involved in making short documentaries for television with The Candid Eye series. or end.32 These contributions were all geared around mobility of the camera in both animation and live action. the NFB developed a synchronous multi-screen shooting apparatus made out of five Arriflexes mounted in a cruciform shape (fig. The cameras could operate all together or in combinations. Essentially. The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 39 Fig. 1.2 Chamber 3, cruciform screens. In the Labyrinth, 1967, National Film Board of Canada (all rights reserved). studio switching technology, which enabled greater flexibility in covering simultaneous actions. Thus, we find two kinds of screen expansions developed by the NFB. In the first, we are dealing with the content of the frame – the camera and sound apparatus are set free to document the outside world because they are no longer tied to studio shooting (the division between outside and inside breaks down). In the second, which builds on the first, the spectator is set free in a new cinema architecture to create individualized views through screens that exceed any one person’s perception.34 Both of these innovations are geared towards greater participation and interactivity on the part of filmmakers and spectators. Arguably, this increased mobility and expansion, the opening up of new spaces of apprehension, is tied to the contradictory forces of capitalist media expansion: these produce a greater democracy of image production and consumption, and greater social and economic control 40 Janine Marchessault over images. I will explore this point further on, but for now, suffice it to say that both Low and Kroitor believed that the synesthetic cinema they were designing for Expo was a new medium that could well revolutionize visual culture. Labyrinthe ( ... ) The river is moving The blackbird must be flying It was evening all afternoon It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs. Wallace Stevens, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’35 Labyrinthe originated from Colin Low’s idea for an in situ film. As he describes: ‘The audience walks through a door into a darkened room and everything is subdued. Suddenly, the room lights go out and they are standing on a glass floor looking down 1,000 feet into the middle of Montreal.’36 The first image for the screen experiment was an aerial view of the city in which the audience was suspended in space. The experiment did not quite work, but the entire structure grew out of this idea of space travel which they had already pioneered in several award-winning animation films: City of Gold (1957) and Universe (1960). As is mythological by now, the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was deeply impressed by Universe and approached Low (who met with him several times) to work on the space design for his film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). But Low was busy with The Labyrinth Project, which took five years to make.37 Briefly, Labyrinthe dealt with Man’s conquest of himself. The approach was framed by the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, which was a half-man and half-bull creature that lived inside the Labyrinth of Crete. Theseus’s quest was to find his way through the labyrinth and slay the Minotaur. Low and Kroitor used the story in consultation with Northrop Frye as a frame in which to design a narrative about individual self-realization, whereby the beast to be killed is the one that lives in all of us. The aim was to produce a ‘ritual’ or ‘artistic’ experience to The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 41 create a ‘state of mind.’ Low and Kroitor’s production notes describe the methodology: We are making a pictorial labyrinth of ‘life,’ as it now is on this planet. In a labyrinth, the point is to choose the path that leads to the goal, i.e., to avoid the false turns, the cul-de-sacs. In life, there is no way of knowing beforehand what these false turns may be before one gets into them. There is no royal road to wisdom. Only experience can teach that, if it ever does. The labyrinth we are making is therefore not with the point; ‘do this’ or ‘do that.’ The only ‘guide’ there can be in life is a state of mind ... The point of the labyrinth is the discovery that such a state of mind exists. In order that this discovery can take place (to whatever degree), a journey is undertaken, in ‘ritual’ form. By ritual form is meant that the participant partakes of certain experiences, but is not actually personally involved in them. (Perhaps the correct technical word is not ‘ritual’ but ‘artistic’).38 Low had been particularly interested in the myth from Mary Renault’s book The King Must Die, which was a popularization of the story.39 The Labyrinth Project was working with a ‘common story’ or a ‘proto-story’ that is structured through different stages corresponding to different ‘states of being’ which the exhibition would induce. The myth itself is a narrative that appears in different religions and cultures, and the use of it in this project lends an experience of objectivity: ‘This is not a matter of personal opinion, it is part of current knowledge, mostly expressed either in academic writing or in veiled fashion in various religions, etc., neither area of which is really part of the present “world psyche.”’40 Northrop Frye was a crucial consultant for the project, and several of his essays appear alongside production notes. He also attended meetings at various stages of the project’s development. An excerpt from his newly published book Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology (1963) that appears among Tom Daly’s production notes might shed some light on the suggestion that ‘artistic’ experience be the ultimate goal of Labyrinthe. Looking to Wallace Stevens’s speculations on the imagination, Frye explains that art is ‘a unity of being and knowing, existence and consciousness, achieved out of the flow of time and the fixity of space.’41 Stevens’s poetry, with its emphasis on multiplicity and facticity, is particularly apt for understanding synethestic cinema. We can also comprehend the logic of how temporal flow and spatial fixity come together in the merging of architecture and cinema. 42 Janine Marchessault Fig. 1.3 Floorplan of the Labyrinth building. In the Labyrinth, 1967, National Film Board of Canada (all rights reserved). The architecture designed to house the multi-screen presentation was itself a labyrinth (fig. 1.3). The building was a five-storey, pouredconcrete edifice that contained two viewing theatres (Chamber 1 and Chamber 3) and a transitional zigzag space for disorientation or reflection between the two theatres called ‘The Maze.’ The entire space was able to handle about 720 people at a time, and there were ten shows a day. The path followed by the audience was the thread of a person’s life from childhood through to old age. The Expo guide described it: The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 43 They [spectators] will be distributed in groups through the three chambers, and at one stage will be surrounded by reflected images on all sides. At another point, they will gaze down from ramps on a huge screen 40 feet below and be subjected to sensations so strong that some will want to grab the handrail. Film for Labyrinthe has been specially shot by cameramen in many countries. There are no name stars to this movie – the main character is Man! In the second chamber, visitors move along walkways set between mirrored glass prisms. In the final chamber, the audience faces a multiscreen battery of unparalleled scope – using five screens, so that areas of the mind are exercised that almost certainly have not been exercised before.42 The guide reinforced the sense that this cinema experience would irrevocably transform viewers – it promised a visceral and unforgettable experience. Labyrinthe proved to be one of the most popular highlights of Expo 67 with audiences waiting in line for up to seven hours to get into the forty-five minute screening.43 Chamber 1: Childhood, Confident Youth (70 mm × 2) The theatre in the first chamber was designed in a horseshoe form with the screens organized in an L shape both vertically and horizontally (fig. 1.4). From eight balconies on four levels on either side, audience members could peer over to a screen that rose forty feet in height or down onto the floor at one long horizontal screen. Five sound systems and 288 smaller speakers throughout the theatre ensured that the sound reinforced a powerful illusion and increased the sensation of vertigo created by looking down on the images. In fact Chamber 1 was able to reproduce such powerful sensations of moving through space that NFB officials were worried that the film would induce anxiety, depression, or even suicide in spectators.44 No such thing happened, but this possibility of course increased the notoriety of the screen experiment. Chamber 2: The Maze ‘The Desert’ or ‘The Maze’ was to be, Frye suggested, like ‘the city on a hot summer day.’45 Wendy Michener described it as a kind of acid trip.46 Colin Low, who designed it, described it in the following way: The maze was three prisms in an octagonal room full of mirrors on all the 44 Janine Marchessault Fig. 1.4 Chamber 1, vertical and horizontal screens. In the Labyrinth, 1967, National Film Board of Canada. walls, floor and ceiling. The prisms were made of partial-silvered glass so when the lights were on the audience, it would be the audience reflected back to itself, and when the lights went off the audience and came on in the prisms, it made an infinity of stellar lights. A cosmos.47 It was a zigzagging passageway of mirrored glass that both reflected The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 45 and transmitted a multiplicity of different flashing lights that were triggered by an experimental soundtrack combining electronic and animal sounds. The installation was meant to enhance the sense of disorientation, to break down boundaries between identities, human and nonhuman, creating an endless, acoustic, decentred space. When the light caught a person in the mirror, the image was dissipated across an infinity of spaces. Once the audience had walked down the intimate corridor, they entered the final phase of their journey. Chamber 3: Death/Metamorphosis (35 mm × 5) The last chamber resembled a standard theatre with seats. An arrangement of five screens in cruciform shape, meant to reference the tree of life, created a visual climax. Both films produced for Chambers 1 and 3 were close to twenty minutes in length and contained images shot in half a dozen countries including Cambodia, Japan, Ethiopia, Greece, and Russia. The films included all ages and genders and focused on cultural rituals and everyday gestures in these different countries: a crocodile hunt in southern Ethiopia, baptism in Greece, childbirth in Montreal, a ballet lesson in Russia, a traffic officer, train commuters, Montreal streets during a snowstorm, landscapes. The soundtrack for both films included snippets of voice-over, recorded location sound, and a music score composed by NFB staff composer Eldon Rathburn. Tom Daly devised a special system of vertical editing for both films which juxtaposed lengthy, unedited sequences so as not to ‘oversaturate’ viewers with too much information.48 Scenes were sometimes continuous over the screens; in Chamber 1, for example, a boxer falls to the ground from one screen onto another, or a child feeds a goldfish which swims on a lower screen. Actions were also fragmented and repeated across the multiple screens. Colin Low breaks down the new compositional possibilities offered by the technology whose ‘ultimate image’ would no doubt be ‘electronic, with stereoscopic images, perhaps a development of holograms’: (1) flexibility in alteration of image composition; (2) simultaneous representation of events: (a) different events occurring at different times or in different locations, (b) different time segments of the same event, and (c) the same event seen from different positions and points of view; It is this ‘single quality’ which calls up memory (sometimes ‘longforgotten’) and imagination to make sense of the stimuli.’50 As McLuhan. and plot.53 The Labyrinthe theatre had all the spatial attributes of the mega-city as Reyner Banham described Expo.’52 The image in the multi-screen cinema is liberated not only from the screen but also from the constraints of traditional forms of drama. replete with ‘mechanical movement. the arrangement of the screens and mirrors. simultaneous. Multi-screen.46 Janine Marchessault (3) enrichment of image by juxtaposition of several elements of the same event or location.’54 Traffic flow was strictly controlled by a master programmer who oversaw the flow in a time sequence organized ‘like a sausage machine. Sound liberates the image from the constraints of the single screen as ‘images are merged in the same way it is possible to merge sounds. and (5) representation of two or more events converging and merging into a single event or a single event fragmented into several images. their multiplicity.’55 One may wonder how the Labyrinthe theatre functioned as a space of drift aimed at exercising areas of the brain generally not used56 if the movement was so orchestrated. Yet it was the space between the images of the theatre. into view as a world of simultaneous becoming. this represents the natural evolution of the cinema. (4) possibility of a kind of visual metaphor or simile.’51 Multi-screen cinema as a synesthetic medium was understood by the Labyrinthe producers as a new language capable of accessing the unconscious mind and releasing new kinds of associations deeply buried in the human psyche. story. A multi-channel soundtrack helped to create focal points in relation to the ‘total image. and . people in complex environments.49 The principle aesthetic quality of the multi-screen cinema was simultaneity. emphasis on fun or ludique experiences. It is the reflexivity of television that brings everything. That is. as boundless. that is. who was no doubt referring to Labyrinthe. multi-directional. including the act of viewing. ‘is to single-screen what the language of poetry is to the language of prose. and information saturation. multiple screens in creating a simultaneous syntax eliminates the literary medium from film. noted: ‘Multi-screen projection tends to end the story-line. according to Roman Kroitor. a multiplicity of levels.’ Indeed the multi-image was conceived as sound. as the symbolist poem ends narrative in verse. For Youngblood. Synesthetic cinema transcends the old languages just as television transforms the earth into software. Low spent much time designing the mezzanine area. In keeping with the humanist spirit of Labyrinthe. a fluid space for viewing as a transformative ‘artistic’ activity. This is the temporal dynamic that is included in Labyrinthe as a theatrical performance of expanded screens and intermediality – the merging of screen and architecture. It is here that the senses were invited to wander across possible paths. who was able to develop it into a new technology called IMAX. where simultaneous information inputs create not confusion which numbs the senses but a new ‘oceanic consciousness. which in NFB style. in the Canadian Liberal government’s style. he went to work on the anti-poverty program at the NFB called Challenge for Change. which included several dramatic displays of labyrinths throughout time. and video to foster inter-community . The Labyrinth Project can be read as the sensory training ground for the new global citizen.’58 This represents the world in all its plurality. Habitat.. A mythopoetic reality is generated through post stylization of unstylized reality. This is precisely where the synesthetic cinema and the act of flânerie come together in the future city as Youngblood explained it: We have learned that synesthetic cinema is an alloy achieved through multiple superimpositions that produce syncretism. was read as the mythological cultural mosaic of humankind that was the basis for Pierre Trudeau’s new plan for Canadian federalism. this communitybased project used 16 mm. A citizen’s action media experiment that began on the Fogo Islands in Newfoundland. Super 8. rather.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 47 the extensive range of documentary information that created an open space for audience participation. The material space of viewing and the very act of viewing are very much part of the films. The pavilion was designed so that audience members would exit with a view of the St Lawrence River. the final view also included Safdie’s utopian vision of community living. Syncretism is a total field of harmonic opposites in continual metamorphosis: this metamorphosis produces a sense of kinesthesia that evokes in the inarticulate consciousness of the viewer recognition of an overall pattern event that is in the film itself as well as the subject of the experience . Instead. which required an act of both memory and imagination.57 The design for Labyrinthe did not simply include multiple screens but.. He left the project just as it was being redevised as a commercial technology. Colin Low did not continue to work on the project with Roman Kroitor. ed. one can see in the expanded-screen experiments at Expo a foreshadowing of the intermedia networks. W. Ederyn Williams (London: Routledge. 32–3. The future of the audio-visual revolution. While the synesthetic multi-screen cinema did not grow into the new revolutionary medium many thought it would. ‘After Expo. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. lay in the small screens. This is the model of decentralized communication that defines today’s alternative media networks. Movies Won’t Be the Same.’ Film History: An International Journal 6. Visual Culture and the St. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Marshall McLuhan. A later version of the paper was presented as part of the McLuhan Lectures at the University of Toronto in July 2005. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (Toronto: University of Toronto Press.’ in What Is Cinema? vol. 1990). CA: Gingko Press. Louis World’s Fair 1904. 1 Marshall McLuhan. the do-it-yourself technologies of video and community-based television that.’ Canadian Industrial Photography.collectionscanada. November–December 1966. Terrence Gordon (Corte Madera. and between the islanders and government agencies. no. ‘The Myth of Total Cinema.ca/expo/. 17–22. enabled greater citizen participation and democratic expression.. Raymond Williams. I am grateful to Carolyn Guertin and Dominique Scheffel-Dunand for their critical responses. for him. ed. and the concomitant multiplication of screens in everyday life around the world. NOTES I would like to thank Scott McFarlane for his help with research and for his impeccable insights into the Labyrinthe materials. 1967). Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press. 1. the mobility of images. . 2 Expo ’67 was held in Montreal from 28 April to 27 October 1967.48 Janine Marchessault communication between the islanders. Library and Archives of Canada has an excellent website that brings together many of the original documents and photographs of the event: http://www. 2nd ed. 5 André Bazin. 2003). 4 Dean Walker. for a brief time (and arguably to this day). 38. The essay was presented at the Montreal at Street Level Conference held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in collaboration with the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University in April 2005. 1962). trans. 3 Tom Gunning. ‘The World as Object Lesson: Cinema Audiences. the cultures of the Internet. 4 (1994): 423. Sixty-one countries participated. ‘Expo 67: A Multiple Vision.ucla. Expo ’67 Films.naimark. Expo ’67 Films (Montreal: Tundra Books. Video and Virtual Environments. 7 Expo reports that almost one million school children attended the fair through school trips. 5. 8.ca/education/expo/index-e. see Janine Marchessault. 18 Ibid. 9 Judith Shatnoff. 55. 19 R. 1968).htm. Prague’ (1998). MA: MIT Press. that is so often overlooked in accounts of the language of new media. ‘Expanded Cinema. and interview with Michael Naimark.’ Architectural Record. 16 McLuhan. http://www. 20 Yale Joel. 1967). 35.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 49 6 See Peter Weibel. The project is geared to students from the third year of elementary school to the fifth year of secondary school. 10. no.’ in Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary after Film. ‘The World as Object Lesson. http://naid. ‘A Film Revolution to Blitz Man’s Mind. 14 ‘Expo 67. 1 (1967): 2. 110–25. 17 Ibid. Jeffrey Stanton’s impressionistic account in ‘Experimental Multi-Screen Cinema’ at Expo ’67. 1951). The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (New York: Vanguard. 8 Marshall McLuhan. One of the most interesting sections concerns ‘simulation’ and media experiments at Expo. ‘Machinic Magic: IBM at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair. as Weibel has argued. 136.net/writing/trips/praguetrip.sppsr.’ 423. 2005). 14 July 1967. Buckminster Fuller. 3. 21 Robert Fulford.’ Film Quarterly 21. Understanding Media. 1970). This Was Expo (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. Expanded Cinema. mostly from central Canada. 52. Ben Highmore.’ Life.. . edu/expo67/map-docs/cinema.’ New Formations 51 (2004): 128–48. cf. Expo is still influencing school curriculum. Marshall McLuhan: Cosmic Media (London: Sage.’ Architectural Record. 11 Jacob Siskind. chap. 23 Youngblood. ed. ‘Interval Trip Report: World’s First Interactive Filmmaker. 15 For more on the Explorations Group. 2003). 87.html. http://www. 169–73.html. The Archives of Canada is embarking on a new project which features instructional material on Expo ’67 available to Quebec teachers. Introduction to Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood (New York: Dutton. Such experiments are tied to an important history of the media. 22 Siskind. July 1966. 13 Gunning. 10 Cf. collectionscanada. 12 ‘Expo 67: An Experiment in the Development of Urban Space. Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel (Cambridge. 2. 170. 223. 39 Glassman and Wise. 2003). ed. 189–237. Part II. 34 Marc Glassman and Wyndham Wise. Expanded Cinema. ‘Through a Multi-Screen Darkly. March 1968. ‘Interview. 13..’ in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens (New York: Knopf. 1967). 46 Wendy Michener. Wolf Koenig. 31–47. ‘The Decisive Moment. Colin Low. Canadian Film Technology 1896–1986 (Newark: University of Delaware Press. Principles of Art (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 37 Marc Glassman and Wyndham Wise. ‘Interview with Colin Low. 3. 38 NFB Archives. NJ: Princeton University Press. Labyrinth Design Committee Meeting. ed. 23. Saturday. 384– 6. Expanded Cinema. 44 National Film Board of Canada Technical Operations Branch. Fernand Cadieux. Part II. 27 Youngblood. 1968). 40 Minute no. Nelly Kaplan. Gary Evans. 31 Henri Cartier-Bresson. 29 Marshall McLuhan. Present: Roman Kroitor. Part I. 1991). 76. Vicki Goldberg (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Seth Feldman. ‘Interview. 78.’ Take One 26 (winter 2000): 32. 1963).’ in Photography in Print. 1997).50 Janine Marchessault 24 R.’ Take One 23 (spring 1999): 29–30. Napoleon (London: BFI Publishing. 56–7. 41 Northrop Frye. 17 September 1966. 241. 3. Jim Leach and Jeannette Sloniowski (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 33 Gerald Graham. 43 Glassman and Wise. 32 Cf. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality (Princeton. 57–8. 30 Siegfried Kracauer. 1972). 42 Expo 67 Official Guide (Maclean-Hunter Publishing. 35 Wallace Stevens. Hugh O’Connor. Jo Kirkpatrick.’ Maclean’s. Joan Hensen. 26 Cf. Expanded Cinema. 94–5.G. In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949–1989 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press. . cf. 3. 25 Youngblood. 8. 45 Minute no. War and Peace in the Global Village (New York: Bantam. Part II. 1938). 77.’ 24. Fables of Identity: Studies in Poetic Mythology (New York and London: Harcourt Brace.’ in Candid Eyes: Essays in Canadian Documentary. Labyrinthe Technical Bulletin no. 1981). 1989). 1994). ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. 11 April 1964. Collingwood. quoted in Youngblood. ‘The Days before Christmas and the Days before That. 36 Ibid.’ 23. ‘Interview with Colin Low. 28 Ibid. Minute no. 53 Youngblood. 3 (March 1968): 185. 1969).’ 24. . Counter Blast (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. no.’ Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers 77. ‘Multi-Screens and Expo ’67. 54 Reyner Banham. 51 Marshall McLuhan. 57 Youngblood. 50 Quoted in ibid.The Labyrinth Project at Expo 67 51 47 Glassman and Wise. 24. Part II. 78–80. Expanded Cinema. 49 Ibid. 55 NFB Bulletin. 67.’ 185. Expanded Cinema. 56 Expo 67 Official Guide. 48 Colin Low. 177. 1976). ‘Interview. 58 Ibid. ‘Multi-Screens and Expo ’67. 111. 52 Low. Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past (New York: Harper and Row. from the most spectacular effects of remote control telemedicine to the basic daily functions of driving. one of the defining features of which is the ease with which information and sensations may be cut out of one location and pasted into another. Is global interconnectedness an advance in the human condition. this ‘disembedding and re-embedding. photography.1 For now the very idea of environment has changed. you must actively choose not to share your presence and not to transmit and receive. And as earlier media such as phone. and speech become digitized. Now. they too are all folded into the same ever-present multimedia environment. that media add something to our environments. the Internet. wireless networks. and being at home. We are beginning to live in new kinds of environments. print. and relation to others are not at all clear. shopping. Being online and part of the system is now the default mode of existence.’ as Anthony Giddens has called it. or will it only serve to . sensation. for example. has reached such a level of complexity that it is no longer enough to say. The consequences of these changes in our basic ideas of presence.2 Sounds Complicated: What Sixties Audio Experiments Can Teach Us about the New Media Environments s t e p h e n c ro ck e r The ‘Multiple’ Nature of Media Environments The digital revolution represents a change not just in machinery but also in human nature. and ubiquitous computing change the basic phenomenological structures of experience. Presence awareness – the new horizon for communication technologies – means that the system is continuously present and continuously on. as we did about newspaper and television. The cell phone. The participational nature of MSN Messenger is the basic form of interaction for a range of other kinds of exchanges. Today. symbolizes the invasion of technology into the most intimate realms of life. with the omnipresence of Internet and wireless telephony. critical reaction to the multimediated life in the Dogme 95 manifesto signed a few years back by Lars Von Trier and a group of Danish filmmakers. however. Dogme films would work only with available sound and light.2 Using an elaborate computerized switchboard. The presence of the phone.Sixties Audio Experiments 53 desensitize and alienate us from what is real? It is not difficult to find support for either of these positions. Removed from the busyness in which we usually experience it. cannot control our environments in this way. however. my laptop. and only in a very limited sense are they mine. This is how I find myself now as I write in a hotel room in Helsinki. which I downloaded on Kazaa from multiple sources all . where the buzz of interconnectivity and the clamour of our being together are rendered rhythmically intelligible. We find ourselves already thrown into a mass of sensations through which we must learn to navigate. is a room of your own. Dogme films were all made in remote locations where it is easier to police the borders of an environment and to filter the sensations that pass in and out of it. they activated the ringers on audience cell phones in complex rhythms and pulses. thought Virginia Woolf. The mobile’s intolerable ringing. it would be far more difficult and artificial to cleanse a place of external sound and light than it would be to work with existing resources. and the range of other media with which I am in constant contact here make it difficult to determine the boundaries of the room. The new Danish puritanism raised an interesting problem. artificial feel of multimediated art. when. But the sensations and information that make this room into a lived space are global in reach. overly manufactured environment. at the Ars Electronica Festival in Austria.3 Their manifesto gave voice to a widespread dissatisfaction with the special-effects-driven. Most of us. the Internet connection. like the ping of rain on plastic bags. and without its sense of urgency. Philip Glass’s soundtrack from The Hours. the television. For it emerged just as we had reached a kind of point of no return in the mid-1990s. more than any other noise. It is as though we can hear at a whole new frequency range. All you need in order to write. In opposition to the desensitized. or ice cracking up under salt. the composers Scott Gibbons and Gregory Shakar created a symphony for cell phones. the watery tinkling of five hundred mobiles has a strange and beautiful quality. We find an opposite. In September 2002. a room. but shifts and changes with the changes in the parts. but even provides a kind of nest for thinking. It is a nexus. heterogeneous sensations and disconnected fragments of information that lack any overriding unity. in the age of global communication. and Michel Serres give to that term. Friedrich Kittler has pointed out that the staggering rate of expansion and change of technology now makes it impossible to describe it in its totality. emphasizes the centrifugal effects of global media. It is not just that the new media environments contain multiple things. I am going to suggest that there is one constant feature about the new multimedia environments that we can describe. my impulse is to try to understand how things re-embed and go together now. New media defy any holistic definition. is the ease with which all these widely differing sounds and sensations adhere together in some strange new kind of unity that does not make it difficult to pay attention to what I am doing.54 Stephen Crocker over the world before I left St John’s. I mean multiple here in a strong sense. which is not fixed. and the sound of Get Smart dubbed into Finnish that booms from the next room. however. not just because of the continual addition of the latest piece of software or gadgetry. As will become clear. In the midst of all this. With this change comes a new kind of sense perception – a distracted or even schizophrenic consciousness. Multiplicity . metaphysical ideas of unity leaves us with scraps and fragments of sense that have spun out from the collapsing centres. Helsinki is not a single. the distant beat of reggae music from the club down the street. It is a phantasmagoria of globally dispersed. how can I say what belongs to the room and what makes it my own? One popular response to this situation is to suppose that. or a nodal point. or even a city. Nevertheless. which became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Clearly sensations do not hang together in any simple kind of unity. The collapse of older. but also because of the way each new part produces an ecological change in the whole environment. This idea. but that they are themselves multiplicities. in the sense that Henri Bergson. or fully formed. A multiplicity is an array of mutually interpenetrating parts that can coalesce into a kind of quasi-whole. definable entity. Gilles Deleuze. Instead of focusing on the disembedding of things and the empirical diversity of sensations. which is their multiple character. a matrix. What strikes me here in my room in Helsinki. the news broadcast from CNN a floor below. is not a unified location. blends in with the rolling metal squeak of the street car on Franzeninkatu. multicultural. Our built environments now share many of these qualities. hordes on the move. including that of the ordinary scholar. we should not think of it as a rarefied theoretical abstraction. a cloud of chirping crickets. Instead. multitasking. a booming whirlwind of mosquitoes . multidimensional. multisensory. media. ‘Multi’ describes an organizational logic that qualifies the sense in which nation. It is at the same time. crowds. for instance. Michel Serres gives us many beautiful examples of multiplicities: ‘A flight of screaming birds. But the whole that they form changes with the change among the parts. been thrown into. though. A multiplicity is an open whole. it describes our most common encounters with the world. What matters is that it is neither a unified thing nor simply a set of fragments. surpasses the dialectic of unity and fragmentation in which many of our most familiar philosophical and sociological ideas originate. and in which things have been intertwined to the point where they cannot be separated without being radically altered? For this reason Michel Serres says that we should understand multiplicity not as an ‘epistemological monster’ but rather as ‘the ordinary lot of situations.. They form a whole. All the keywords that describe our new technologically mediated. or task is understood. if you like.’4 It is not difficult to add to Serres’s list. multimodal. a school of herring tearing through the water like a silken sheet. does not mean many nations. an untold number of tiny distinct sounds that are present at the same moment. We need new concepts to describe these kinds of environments because the interpenetration of different kinds of sensation and information. In fact. What does multiple mean in these cases? The multiple in multiplicity is not just an adjective that describes a number of pre-existing things. which they make possible. multinational. regular knowledge. While multiplicity is a rigorous philosophical concept that aims to unsettle the old Platonic dialectic of the one and the many. Multinational. ordinary work.. what is abstract is the expectation that the world should be either fully unified or fully fragmented. An audience clapping is one thunderous affirmation with its own patterns and rhythms. In a multiplicity all the parts are dependent on one another and go together as a group. Don’t we most commonly find ourselves in the midst of uncompleted projects that we have taken up or. more likely. in short . global environment invoke the multiple: multimedia. It is an internally differentiated whole that is changing in time.Sixties Audio Experiments 55 becomes more important and relevant an idea the more that ‘multi’ and ‘multiple’ become a regular part of our daily lexicon. packs. Locally. Marshall McLuhan pioneered the audile analysis of global media. and Michel Serres. and the kind of organizational structure that results from the mixing together and layering of disparate sounds. I will try to describe the multiple character of the new media environments by focusing on a single quality: their audile. I consider a number of sound experiments from the 1960s as early encounters with the multiple character of media environments.’ which is listening to sound not for evidence about . time. it is not discrete. it’s not summed up. For. these three features point to a very different sense of the aesthetic and phenomenological changes we are now living through than do the tired images of fragmented perception and distracted consciousness that have dominated cultural theory and visual studies in recent years. In the past few years. It’s a bit viscous perhaps. globally. Taken together. the sea. quality. nor a herd. I am going to suggest instead that we stand to learn something important about our present situation by studying the way sound structures the environment and alters our consciousness. nor a pack.. the murmur of a crowd. So it’s neither a flock. nor a swarm. it’s not individuated.7 Following Serres’s suggestion that ‘hearing is a model of understanding. We recognize it everywhere yet reason still insists on ignoring it. through the work of Henri Bergson.. I try to develop McLuhan’s ideas in new ways by linking them to an intellectual tradition that he did not pursue.’5 Here is how Serres describes multiplicity: The multiple as such: here’s a set undefined by elements or boundaries.56 Stephen Crocker our common object . Following this lead. What I propose is that recorded and layered sound provided ways of experimenting with the new kind of unities that could be created with disembedded sensations. It is not an aggregate.’8 I pay attention to three particular qualities of the sound environment: the omnidirectional nature of sound. nor a school. more recently. Recorded sound in particular greatly facilitated what Michel Chion and Pierre Schaffer call ‘reduced listening. background noise. much has been written about the role that vision has played in structuring the modern world. A lake under the mist. or multiplicities. In the first part of the essay.6 In Serres’s work. the passive manner in which we receive it. Gilles Deleuze. sound and noise are the paradigmatic examples of multiplicity. ever since Leibniz and. the analysis of sound has offered a way of understanding the organizational structure of open unities. a white plain. nor a heap. or sound. recorded the same year he quit his live performances. Glenn Gould. images. It is more a matter of strategy. In his new experiments with sound aesthetics. To the astonishment of his followers. the conclusion reached here is that digital media. Glenn Gould’s Three-Dimensional Environment At the height of his career. Thus. along with the noise of two radios or a television.’10 McLuhan is not surprised by this idea. He tells McLuhan that he expects that in the future it will not seem strange to play the piano. Gould left the recital hall to explore new forms of electronic communication such as radio. McLuhan tried to show that global electronic communication produces a new ‘depth’ of experience in which each of our actions implicates us in the actions of distant others.9 I am not suggesting that hearing is a more fundamental sense than vision or smell or any of the others. it might turn out that. the global circulation of money. quit the stage. one of the world’s greatest concert pianists. as he has now begun to do. Gould tried to understand how our basic notions of sensation. messages.Sixties Audio Experiments 57 the world but for insight into the nature of complex sensations. Gould reports on the strange new ‘multidimensional’ quality his playing has taken on. In a conversation with McLuhan. The Goldberg Variations accompanied by the white noise of the TV set is not only the sign of a new kind of sound but a whole new way of living that Gould calls ‘three-dimensional experience. which could not be fully appreciated in the isolated atmosphere of the concert hall. Gould’s insights are even more revealing of our present than of his own time. and consciousness were being changed by new globalizing media. Gould left the stage because he was excited by the potential of the new multidimensional environment. In fact. much like Marx’s analysis of nascent capitalism. The sort of environment he studied is more prevalent now than when he first began to probe it. In Understanding Media and other books. ‘multidimensionality’ was already a central feature of his own theory of global media. I am hoping that audile analysis might provide a way of displacing the hegemony of vision and getting at wider changes in the nature of sensation. products. As such. television. presence. or multimedia. and ideas makes possible new kinds of insights into the nature of sensations and the complex unities in which we are now involved. He was no doubt influenced in this thinking by his long-time friend and mentor Marshall McLuhan. . After all. do not alienate or desensitize us. and recorded sound. by the 1960s it was clear that . William S. in which he tried to understand silence. but their capacity to congeal together. They then form a new whole that cannot be divided up into original pieces. Cage locked himself in a soundproof room and emerged several hours later to declare that there is no such thing as silence because even the body produces a multitude of sounds. And they were not the only ones coming to this realization. Quantity turns into quality. And perhaps the experiments in complex layered sound did not even require electricity. What he found interesting in all of this was not the sheer diversity of sounds. the Beatles. the continuous rumbling of traffic. for you did not need a sound laboratory to experience the kind of multidimensional quality that fascinated them. What he discovered was that perception reaches a new threshold when five or more sounds are mixed together. At this point. We shall see that this blurring of original outlines and folding into a new whole are central features of multiplicities. the original audile elements lose their former outlines and merge into a whole new acoustical unity.’11 Gould and McLuhan recognized that changes produced by electric sound were not just isolated aesthetic concerns but indications of farreaching transformations in the human condition. when a sufficient number of sounds are mixed together. Michael Snow. John Cage. ‘even if we continue to think on single planes. and others were all finding. Burroughs. resources for a new kind of sensory awareness and perception. All through his long career Cage remained fascinated by the inescapable background noises of modern living – the whirr of electricity. In another of his experiments. It was enough to switch on a tape recorder at any street corner. Rolf Lieberman.13 Could it be that electrical and recorded sound simply allowed us to recognize that we had always been living in an environment of multidimensional sound? In either case. Cage set out to determine the total number of audio sources among which a subject could distinguish before they all blended into a single new whole.58 Stephen Crocker We now live in three dimensions. the hum of electrical sound provided a new opportunity for aesthetic experimentation. Anyone who was anyone in the 1960s was experimenting with the environmental effects of multidimensional sound. In one of his experiments. in the daily clamour and background buzz of the world.12 For John Cage. workplace. as Hegel might say. The wider social and political significance of Gould’s and Cage’s experiments is not difficult to grasp. McLuhan says. or living room to create the kinds of effects Cage was measuring. the murmur of urban life. Noise was born. might the multidimensional environment not only contain art. spinning wheels. We enjoy creating mental orchestrations of the crashing down of metal shop blinds. Wagner had redesigned the theatre to try to filter out the noise of the modern world. the howl of mechanical saws. Russolo sees in mechanical and electrical sound not some pernicious side effect of industrialization. the cracking of whips. in his manifesto on The Art of Noises: ‘Ancient life was all silence. printing works.14 Now Gould and Cage welcomed it back in. In the nineteenth century. air and gas in metal pipes. slamming doors.Sixties Audio Experiments 59 the flood of visual and acoustic information brought on by global media. and we will get enjoyment from distinguishing the eddying of water. the coming and going of pistons. with the invention of the machine. the variety of din. Cage and Gould pursued a far more interesting question: what new kinds of art could emerge in this new environment or even. The sounds he takes in on his little stroll are all immediate and present. A century before. and the sheer density of social interactions this made possible. electric power stations and underground railways. Wagner’s approach to the noise of modern living was to ask how art could survive in this environment. the palpitation of valves. This sensory change had been underway for some time. might pass off as the detritus of industrial life: Let us cross a great modern capital with our ears more alert than our eyes. He has to walk by a machine to hear it. iron foundries. as McLuhan wondered. changed the nature of sense perception. Noise triumphs and reigns supreme over the sensibility of men. An acoustic flaneur could find beauty in the endless diversity of sounds that others. . but the horizon of a whole new kind of consciousness. the jolting of a tram on its rails. who had not yet adapted the appropriate sense organs.16 What is striking in Russolo’s account is the absence of recorded sound.’15 In typical futurist fashion. The sounds he hears are all stuck to the original vibrations that produced them and resonate only in the presence of those things. the environment he operates in is nowhere near as complex as my hotel room here in Helsinki. the grumbling of noises that breathe and pulse with indisputable animality. railways. As a result. but be art? These questions echoed concerns voiced earlier in the century by the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo. Today. from stations. the flapping of curtains and flags. the hubbub and shuffling of crowds. Instead of presenting the usual ‘horizontal’ mon- .19 This density of recorded sound made it possible to explore the layered nature of perception in new ways. a film sound editor for over thirty years.17 For the very same reason. as John Cage discovered. sounds had seemed to be the inevitable and ‘accidental’ (and therefore mostly ignored) accompaniment of the visual – stuck like a shadow to the object that caused them. Once sounds were mixed together they could not be easily divided back into their original parts. in the mixing of sound. makes much the same point. Katherine Hayles has suggested that sound recording provided one of the first experiences of disembodiment that prefigures the desire for more radical kinds of disembodiment expressed today in artificial intelligence research and virtual reality environments. it also allowed it to be mixed together with other. Cage. they appeared to be completely explained by reference to the objects that gave them birth: a metallic clang was always ‘cast’ by the hammer. John Cage incorporated live electronic and found recorded sound into his music. density and clarity are always traded off. more importantly for our purposes. giving it a miraculous and sometimes frightening substantiality. Recording magically lifted the shadow away from the objects and stood it on its own.’ and he finds as a sound editor that. sound lost its immediacy. tape recording is a truly global medium. just as the smell of baking always came from a loaf of fresh bread. making a happening out of whatever constellation of sound effects he happened to hit upon.60 Stephen Crocker How Sound Recording Changes Sense Perception With the invention of recording machines. And. Murch says that layered sound becomes ‘dense.18 Recording allowed sound to be disembedded from its original source. The film sound editor Walter Murch explains how the recording of sound revolutionized sense perception: For as far back in human history as you would care to go. wholly unrelated sounds. Gould made the layering and interpenetration of voices and background sounds the basis of his groundbreaking ‘contrapuntal’ radio documentaries. The multidimensional world of Gould. Murch. one for the other. like a shadow. and McLuhan is above all a world of recorded sound. but. The tape recorder made it possible to disembed sounds from their original sources and reembed them in another time and place. 21 Informatization has become a – if not the – basis of production. offices. and life worlds have been transformed into devices for coordinating and synthesizing multiple sources of information from widely dispersed environments. hero of labour. This kind of multidimensional layering soon became a standard motif of the psychedelic sound of Pink Floyd and others. if not banal. wait for airplanes. Brian Wilson and. he presents a vertically layered multitude of overlapping conversations. they might appear simplistic. Out of this noisy banter. Our homes. as Todd Gitlin says. We eat. Each voice is plucked from the void and then allowed to fall back into it. it gave rise to the whole new paranoid fascination with the subliminal message. and even undergo medical treatment to the noise of the radio and television. Gould allows a phrase. a high laugh there. read. We study our efficiency in multitasking to enhance our operation in multidimensional environments. He begins with an unstructured dense mass.22 And with this change the management of the multiple becomes the central concern of social organization. A century ago. What has occurred since the days of Cage and Gould is nothing less than a rewiring of our phenomenological infrastructure. a sentence. as most radio does. later. For the multidimensional experience that made up the outer edge of experimental aesthetics then is now among the most practical concerns of efficiency and ergonomics. From this. As Michel Serres puts it. which consisted of information lurking behind the main foreground plane of sound – a sonic equivalent of the conspiratorial theme that Fredric Jameson identified in films of the 1970s.Sixties Audio Experiments 61 tage that moves between distinct well-defined voices. Paul Valery’s vision of images directly transferred into the home was . an intervention to well up and then drift back into the great cacophony. the messenger god.20 Multidimensional Life When we look back on these 1960s experiments now. In the world of pop music. Gould conducts the recorded voices as if he were pulling sound out of an orchestra – a baritone voice here. They incorporated background environmental sounds that were allowed to drift in and out of the audible sphere. ‘A torrent of images and sounds’ has transformed our lives. to the age of Hermes. In works like The Idea of North Gould does not add together unified and readily intelligible bits. In the 1970s. he subtracts whatever does not interest him. we have moved from the age of Prometheus. the Beatles used a similar technique on their later albums. sound is omnidirectional. Unlike vision.’25 And.62 Stephen Crocker dazzlingly futuristic. Louis Menand describes the upper-middle-class experience of a traffic jam in New York City: ‘Six CD’s in the changer and a video playing in the back seat. about the way in which the fixed point of view in Renaissance perspective creates the condition for our will to a detached mastery of the world. once the symbol of our atomized isolation from each other. Now. we find ourselves already immersed in it. and the launching of the Sputnik five hundred years later. The phenomenology of sound. And. laptop plugged into the dashboard. We do not gaze out onto an environment of sound. social. Hannah Arendt drew a direct line from Alberti’s essay ‘On Painting. To make this point. like the sounds that John Cage mixed up. The sort of . We regard the globe. even the car. There is instead a ‘zone’ or ‘place of audition. whether we wish it to or not. enveloping character that led McLuhan to believe that it held the key to understanding the global age. There is no one point of mastery from which to listen to the world. technological – share the same form as the disembodied sound that fascinated Gould. like a Renaissance canvas. because it is omnidirectional.’ which taught us to see the world through a frame. tells a very different story. In fact. cell phone in continual operation. is a central network access point to complex global systems. It addresses us. as a single space from which we are removed and on which we circulate messages. Much has been written. They require that we be present in one situation and at the same time be attuned to a number of other background ones that originate at a distance from us. on the other hand. It was sound’s immersive. they blend together to produce new wholes in which the original divisions are no longer recognizable.’23 We readily identify these sorts of environments with the effects of globalization. and overwhelmed by it. All the various kinds of globalization – economic. for example. Focusing on the audile dimension of these changes allows us to consider elements of our contemporary environments that might be overlooked in the visual analysis of modern life. money. entire families creep along the conveyor belts that America’s highways have become.24 Heidegger suggested as much with the age of the world picture. We find ourselves already thrown into it. sound is passively received. There is no acoustic equivalent of the point of view. and commodities. the over-saturated informational context is not just an aspect of globalization but its very precondition. Sound is immersive. or the world as a picture. This allowed us to become individual egos with individual points of view. The linear properties of print had produced a linear ‘Cartesian’ consciousness that mechanically fragmented experience into a series of flat.26 Virginia Woolf’s Mr Ramsey imagines thought to be ‘like the alphabet ranged into twenty six letters all in order .. as in an electrical environment. or letters. he argues that perception is a subtractive operation. and books. What we find emerging instead is a deep Bergsonian theme. onedimensional planes.Sixties Audio Experiments 63 ‘three-dimensional experience’ that Gould evoked was. He reached Q. and the margin is everywhere. Very few people in the whole of England ever reached Q. Causes and effects are clearly separated. Labour. as we might call it. Descartes had insisted that perception begins with clear and distinct simple ideas. from which we build up to more complex forms. We are so deeply immersed in this kind of environment that it is no longer possible to break it up into discrete groups. just as subjects and objects are. say. his splendid mind had no sort of difficulty in running over those letters one by one. Information is parcelled out in words. until it had reached. In sound.’27 The world of electricity and cybernetic feedback loops. on the other hand. the letter Q. is divided into ever more specialized and codified tasks. there is no center as such. When we set out to know we are already adrift in a mass of sensations. pages. Complex Sensations Require Subtractive Perception Sixties acoustic theory. Bergson contests the common ‘associationist’ notion that perception consists of discrete sensations plus the attention we bring to them. accordingly. where things occurred simultaneously and without a central point. seems to be better described by the properties of sound and hearing. pointed to a model of perception very different from the familiar Cartesian one to which we had grown accustomed. firmly and accurately. In Matter and Memory. for McLuhan. both of Descartes’s principles of ‘disembodied’ thought and ‘simple ideas’ were placed in doubt. part of a great epochal shift in Western culture away from the visually oriented and linear space that emerged in the era of print (the Gutenberg galaxy) to a culture based on electric circuitry and feedback loops.. In the sound experiments of the sixties. or to find a detached point of view from which to do so. McLuhan liked to point out. Instead. That would be like trying to have a point of view while swimming. We always find ourselves already thrown into a multiplicity – a . for example – is the result of our dividing up a multiplicity of sensations. As sound recording made possible a more radical disembedding and re-embedding of sensation. and with an organizational structure that could be found not just in the audile dimension. We can better understand this distinction between sound as evidence and as sensation by following a distinction proposed by the French audio theorist Michel Chion. categories. unclear signal. Chion distinguishes between what he calls ‘causal’ and ‘reduced’ modes of listening. . or what is not useful for life. It is this aspect of sound that Murch refers to when he likens sound to the shadow of an object. in turn changes the wider ecology of sensations and makes it possible to link it up with others in another. we treat sound as evidence of a source of vibration. distinct things. but all throughout the social sphere. but as a sensation with its own qualities. overdetermined mass to a clear and distinct signal that is subtracted from it.29 When we listen causally. sound is valued not as evidence of the world. or actualities. He is not simply suggesting that we filter out noise to let the signal through. When sounds are relieved of their duty to represent events in the world. To perceive in this environment we do not add together bits of information. or shout down a dark well to determine its depth. Bergson’s idea is different: the signal that we recognize is not something that is there beforehand. We have already seen that recording removes sound from its immediate indexical function as a representation of some particular vibration. In John Cage’s experiments with live sound.64 Stephen Crocker virtual totality – of sensations that lack clear outlines and divisions. however. What presents itself to us as a clear signal is produced by our act of cutting up a dense. it greatly facilitated this Bergsonian sensibility. The selection of a signal. That was still the Wagnerian dream of finding (or creating) a pool of tranquillity beneath the chaos of urban life. Thus. they can be called on for different purposes. different configuration. We subtract from this mass of sensation what does not interest us.28 What we experience as a discrete sensation – a sound. or Rolf Lieberman’s concert for 164 typewriters. Perception moves from a virtual. We must be clear about what Bergson has in mind here. Just the opposite is true. we are listening to sound for information about its source. From out of the mass we divide sensations into groups. When we tap on a chest to determine how full it is. we are continuously moving from density to clarity and back to density once again. The sound of a wave is composed of a thousand tiny (micro) perceptions that are already at work in the background. This is what Chion.’ The wave . ‘Reduced’ is meant in the phenomenological sense that Husserl gave to the term.’ For Gould. McLuhan. but rather in analysing and extending sensations. When sounds no longer refer back to their sources. Sound provided a way of understanding not just what an individual sensation consists of. had become the basic unit of art. Sontag points out that it was this holistic interest in sensation that propelled the collapse of such familiar distinctions as art and non-art. long before him.30 They were not interested in policing the borders of aesthetics. sixties audio theory carried on what had been a kind of subterranean theme in philosophy and aesthetics. This seems to be especially true of the experiments in sound. and high and low culture. but for their own properties as sensations. rather than the idea. or explaining what art means. and Cage were all prime examples – Susan Sontag argues that they were united by the conviction that sensation. the study of sound was interesting for what it revealed not about a source but about the organizational structure of sensation. Leibniz saw in complex sounds a model for studying phenomena that could not be classified under what were then the received categories of unity.Sixties Audio Experiments 65 The mixing of sound that becomes possible with tape recording puts this kind of causal listening to the test. Phenomenological reduction suspends our immediate natural attitude to the world and directs us ‘to the things themselves. preparing and following whatever rises to consciousness as a ‘macro perception. In this way. but the way in which a group of them could form in aggregates or blocs. Bergson had regarded sound and melody as the royal road to understanding the multiple character of complex emotions and sensations. And. Multiplicities and Microperceptions: Leibniz and Virginia Woolf at the Seashore In a very perceptive essay on the mid-1960s generation of intellectuals and artists – of whom Gould. we are able to listen to them not for what they reveal about the world. Gilles Deleuze takes Leibniz’s account of the composite sound of a wave as a paradigmatic example of the ways in which conscious perception emerges from a folding (fold = pli) of a multiplicity (multi-ply) of indeterminate perceptions. and their contemporaries. following Pierre Schaffer. calls reduced listening. McLuhan. Cage. the sound of the sea: at least two waves must be minutely perceived as nascent and heterogeneous enough to become part of a relation that can allow the perception of a third. Green is not a sensation on its own. Two colours such as blue and yellow can be distinct on their own. third thing that is different in kind from them. and the one and the many. ‘How’s that? How’s that?’ of the children playing cricket. In order to emerge into consciousness. The sound of a wave therefore exceeds the categories of the general and the particular.66 Stephen Crocker is not a simple clear given that produces an effect in us. which had lasted now half an hour and had taken its place soothingly in the scale of sounds pressing on top of her. we might consider Mrs Ramsey as the aural Leibnizian: The gruff murmur. the micro perceptions enter into ‘differential relations’ and together produce some other. It is the result of a set of differential relations among smaller genetic elements. We cannot get to the individual bits of sound. distinct things. one that ‘excels’ over the others and comes to consciousness (implying that we are near the shoreline). It is the product of a set of relations among preconscious or ‘molecular’ perceptions that are not in themselves discernible. this sound. so that the monotonous . when we hear it. the sharp. different example of colour. it is already on its way to rearticulation. Here is how Deleuze describes a wave: For example. In fact. irregularly broken by a taking out of pipes and the putting in of pipes which had kept on assuring her. sudden bark now and then. that the men were happily talking. even though it is clear that what we hear is a ‘contraction’ of smaller units. but differential elements) and larger than any universal (because the whole can be reconfigured once again). such as the tap of balls upon bats. Deleuze gives another. had ceased. But they can also reach a point of indiscernibility where they participate together to produce the colour green. The composite elements are smaller than any particular (they are ‘pre-individual’ because they are not discrete.32 Since we already called on Virginia Woolf’s Mr Ramsey as an example of Cartesian consciousness. To further explain how the perceptual qualities of differential elements work. The same principle is at work when we hear a background murmur which throws up a multitude of signals that fade back and rise up as something altogether different.31 We only get to hear the wave as a composite sound. though she could not hear what was said (as she sat in the window). supposedly. or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.33 Leibniz and Woolf listen at the seashore not only for evidence that the world exists. Approaching sixties audio experiments as similar kinds of exercises in understanding the new organizational structures of sensations may help us think in new ways about the environmental and phenomenological dimensions of globalizing media.34 Lyotard describes the decline of Enlightenment ‘grand narratives’ as a flattening of knowledge: ‘The speculative hierarchy of learning gives way to an immanent and. In the absence of any full and whole experience. they can provide an important alternative to the images of disintegration and distracted perception that have become popular ways of describing our consciousness of the globalizing world. For Gould’s generation. arguably. murmured by nature. the world. the three most influential works of cultural theory in the past quarter-century: Jean Baudrillard’s Simulations. the torrent of sound and image does not produce a ‘distracted’ or fragmented consciousness. and its engulfment in the sea. as it were. and warned her whose day had slipped past in one quick doing after another that it was all ephemeral as a rainbow – this sound which had been obscured and concealed under the other sounds suddenly thundered hollow in her ears and made her look up with an impulse of terror. “flat” network of areas of inquiry. which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts and seemed consoling to repeat over and over again as she sat with the children the words of some old cradle song. made one think of the destruction of the island. flat signs. had no such kindly meaning. but also for insight into the nature of perception.’35 Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard identify the same flat quality as the new cultural dom- . Flatness is the central thesis of what were. comes to us in the form of isolated. but like a ghostly roll of drums remorselessly beat the measure of life.’ but at other times suddenly and unexpectedly. Against Flatness and Distracted Perception In the 1980s and 1990s it was popular to describe the cultural development of the postwar world as a progressive flattening of experience. but something approaching the composite form of Leibniz’s wave. ‘I am guarding you – I am your support.Sixties Audio Experiments 67 fall of the waves on the beach. For that reason. JeanFrançois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition. and Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism. especially when her mind raised itself slightly from the task actually in hand. Flatness and fragmentation could never provide a powerful enough antidote to the old metaphysical ideas of unity. The fragment still secretly preserves the figure of unity it supposedly upsets. it becomes more difficult to recognize any pattern in the randomness of events. It presents globalism as a zero sum game in which things must be either fully unified or altogether without organization.68 Stephen Crocker inant of late capitalism. He took as his model the striking image of a schizophrenic girl who suddenly finds herself cut off from the world. and existentialism. she stares dumbfounded at a group of school children singing. now that we are further into the whole process of globalization. then depth – McLuhan’s favourite term for describing the effects of global media – was now used to describe the qualities of a world that was no longer ours. or in depth. and others recognized. Heidegger. These all called up images of a central representing subject or a fixed system or totality of ideas now thought to be leftovers of some theological or ‘essentialist’ view of things that had become impossible. weak reaction to theological concepts of unity. Marxism. Since the fundamental feature of the postmodern world was supposed to be its flatness. flat signifiers. So many events vie for attention at any one time that not one of them can command it in its entirety.’ to use Deleuze’s terminology) and not enough on re-embedding. But there is a deeper theoretical problem. Part of the problem is that the theory of flatness placed too much emphasis on the moment of disembedding (or ‘deterritorialization. As daily life is speeded up and plugged into ever wider global circuits of information and exchange. What Nietzsche calls Shades of god – ghosts of the metaphysical idea of unity – live on in the figure of the fragment. Depth described the centred and totalizing tendencies of ‘depth’ models of inquiry such as Freudianism. Nietzsche and Bergson both attacked mechanical theories of organization (a tradition inherited by McLuhan). Radically alone. Fredric Jameson famously captures this position with his thesis that late capitalism produces a schizophrenic consciousness. there is every reason to believe that the image of a world of isolated flat sensations does not get at the complexity of our situation. however. or the hyperreal society. She cannot fit this image into any larger pattern: ‘It was as though the school and the children were set apart from the rest of the world. In retrospect.’36 Jameson suggests that the average citizen of consumer society who selects and circulates disembodied signs is similarly unable to hold together any unified experience and so is restricted to the ‘schizophrenic’ use of isolated. For this reason. As Nietzsche. . fragmentation is only an initial. Bergson. biological. This requires that we develop a more rigorous understanding of what multiple means. what distinguishes multiplicity as a theory of organization is that it does not privilege either the variables or the relations. in similar fashion.Sixties Audio Experiments 69 Mechanism breaks the world up into atomistic bits. and therefore contingent upon. If the relations of a system were static and unchanging. It means ‘many single things. technological. then we reduce ‘multiplicity’ to meaning numerous.38 Multiplicity differs from the dialectic of one and many because it describes the interaction of a set of variables and the relations that organize them into a form. awkward as it may sound.’ that is. is that the identity of things can remain open only to the extent that the relations that connect them remain open. elements and relations are external to one another and mutually . If we think of a multiplicity – of organisms. In other words. the things they relate. of many and one. If relations were not dependent on their relata. we still need some kind of whole in which the scraps and fragments of sense participate. the same would be true for the elements that they unite. Flatness and fragmentation cannot explain the multiple because they still feed off of the old dialectic of the one and the many. ‘Many’ still derives its meaning from the figure of unity. What is less often acknowledged. or otherwise. To say that elements are a function of relations is of course a commonplace of contemporary social and cultural theory. We have a multiplicity only when the relations are also subject to change and transformation. This is the downfall of all forms of determinism – economic. in a multiplicity relations are themselves relational. Relations change because they are dependent for their very existence. economic forces – as many things. They give us relational terms but situate these terms within static relations. each of which is understood to be a discrete entity. Even if the old ideas of unity have disappeared. however.’37 Serres. In a multiplicity. static moments. Technically. then they would have to find their determination or function in some extra-structural force such as God or nature.’ This is why Deleuze looks to the theory of multiplicity as a way of overcoming the ‘abstract opposition between the multiple and one’ and of thinking ‘the multiple as a pure state. But the movement of the world cannot be reconstituted from discrete. sounds. turns to the multiple as a way of ‘escaping the hell of dualism. I have tried to suggest that studying the multiple character of the multimedia environment might provide a way of understanding the new kinds of holism that are now possible. which is too broad and imprecise to describe the phenomena of multiplicity. as Bergson pointed out. multiplicity is a whole because it describes the coexistence. and through this change. the local). Each of these accounts has to take from the other what it lacks in itself. The fact is that the world is both heterogeneous and homogeneous at the same time. The whole of a multiplicity is contemporary with the parts it unites. Instead. As a result. All of this is possible because the elements and relations of a multiplicity are given together. . processual character of things multiple. The problem does not lie in the ambiguous character of global events but in the weakness of concepts that recognize only unity or diversity. When. In fact. or as a chaos of many signs and sensations that lack any unity. as Deleuze says. says ‘the central problem of today’s global interactions is the tension between cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization. we try to comprehend a ‘global event’ such as the formation of diasporic communities or the spread of environmental dangers. It is immanent in the structure – pure immanence. they can be assigned value and significance only because they participate in a whole. and thus neither one can act as a ground for the other. When Arjun Appadurai. The whole. It is instead our ongoing attempt to understand these developments through the tired philosophical problem of the one and many.’39 he is only half-right. The elements change their relative positions and enter into different relations. with this opposition in mind. the greatest difficulty we face in trying to understand the global age is not its dizzying speed of information transfer nor the new mobility of people and things. Multiplicity Today We do not really understand the contemporary world if we regard it either as one integrated system such as global media or capitalism. since neither of these can ever be given independently. Together they produce a whole that is not a property of the elements. It is dependent for its existence on the things it unites. the global) to fill out what is missing in the other (fragmentation. one of the most acute observers of the global condition. unity.70 Stephen Crocker determining. we often find ourselves borrowing from one image of globalization (for example. nor a property of the relations. therefore. the whole of which they form a part is transformed and changes qualitatively. or the being together of elements and relations. Anything less would be more abstract and would describe either completed wholes or separate elements and thus would not address the open. neither is given in advance of the articulation of its parts nor is simply a result of their addition. Multiple variables enter into relation and form a unity. 182–91. A Thousand Plateaus. trans. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.dk. see Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness. Serres’s most important text on multiplicity is Genesis. 1972). 7.webdeleuze. 2 You can listen to a sample of the symphony at http://www. and Rome: The Book of Foundations (Stanford.com/TXT/ENG/bergson. are transformed by the movement among the things they unite. Gilles Deleuze. then Glenn Gould sitting at his piano.com/ telesymphony. like Michel Serres’s flock of screaming birds. 4 Michel Serres. political.html. The Consequences of Modernity (Stanford. Pogson (London: George Allen and Unwin. 5 Ibid. 2. cultural – produces the kind of ‘multidimensional’ experience Glenn Gould discovered. NOTES 1 Anthony Giddens. chap. Deleuze’s most important texts on multiplicity include Bergsonism. pulling through the noise of the piano and TV. 1994). groups. but the idea is developed in many of his other books. trans. including The Troubadour of Knowledge (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1987).Sixties Audio Experiments 71 The multiple is the central structural feature of the multimediated global environment because globalization in all its various manifestations – economic. 6 Ibid. 8–9. 9 Michel Chion.’ http://www. Hugh Tomlinson (New York: Zone Books. crowds. Brian Massumi (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. disconnected words. trans. and wholes that. Difference and Repetition. 3 Available at http://www. is a better icon of the global age than the schizophrenic isolated by flat. trans.dogme95. AudioVision: Sound on Screen (New York: Columbia University Press. and the lecture ‘Theory of Multiplicities in Bergson.flong. 1994). If that is true. 10 Glenn Gould. CA: Stanford University Press. CA: Stanford University Press. 38–47.L. 1991). 7 For Bergson’s theory of multiplicity.. 1999). Genesis. Paul Patton (New York: Columbia University Press. Genesis (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. We live in sets. 1992). F. 482–8. 8 Serres. on continuous and discrete multiplicities. We find ourselves physically present in one situation and at the same time involved in several others. 245–52. 2. 5. 1990). 1988). ‘The Medium and the Message: An Encounter with Marshall . 1961). Spectacle. ‘Totality as Conspiracy. Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Media and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives (New York: Henry Holt. foreword to Chion. 246. AudioVision. 2 July 2001. MA: MIT Press. ‘The Talk of the Town. Marshall McLuhan. Luigi Russolo. Listening and Voice. 201. ed. 1976).html. Roberts (Toronto: Malcolm Lester Books.’ in The Essential McLuhan. The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. and Informatics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. see McLuhan’s interview with Playboy magazine. Todd Gitlin. ‘The Art of Living – Michel Serres. Literature. 2001).’ in The Art of Glenn Gould: Reflections of a Musical Genius.L.’ New Yorker. see also The Extensions of Man. and Modern Culture (Cambridge. ‘The Art of Noises. see Jonathan Crary. See Walter Murch. The Niuean Pop Cultural Archive. http://www.’ originally published as a booklet on 11 July 1913. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York: Signet Books. see Douglas Kahn. 25. 1995). ed. For a good account of Wagner’s efforts to tame noise and distraction.nu/ futurism/noises. 207ff. 233–69. 1992). For a lucid discussion of these points. How We Became PostHuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics. Don Ihde discusses this experiment in Listening and Voice: A Phenomenology of Sound (Athens: Ohio University Press. Katherine Hayles. Ibid. See Ihde. Suspensions of Perception: Attention. For a good overview of the history of sound aesthetics in the twentieth century. Noise. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone (Toronto: House of Anansi Press. John P. Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts (Cambridge. 1927). and The Medium Is the Message: An Inventory of Effects (New York: Bantam Books. 247ff. See Hannah Arendt.’ interview by Mary Zurzani. To The Lighthouse (London: Grafton Books. .unknown. 21. in Hope: New Philosophies for Change (Sydney: Pluto Press.’ New York Times. ‘Stretching Sound to Help the Mind See. 1999). ‘Marshall McLuhan – A Candid Conversation with the High Priest of Popcult and Metaphysician of Media. 1999). 1 October 2000.’ in The Geo-Political Aesthetic: Cinema and the World System (London: British Film Institute. 1964). 2002). See Fredric Jameson. 1999). 1967). Michel Serres. Walter Murch. Virginia Woolf.72 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Stephen Crocker McLuhan. 35. 1999). Louis Menand. MA: MIT Press. Water. Gerald Emmanuel Stearn (New York: Signet Books. trans. Fredric Jameson. Tom Conley (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 32. 30 Susan Sontag. 1996). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Paul Patton (New York: Routledge.. 31 Gilles Deleuze. ed. trans. 27. Simulations (New York: Semiotexte. 29–58. 39. 1991). 39 Arjun Appadurai. Scott Palmer (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1967). . Postmodernism. 249–58. AudioVision. Jean-François Lyotard. 37 Deleuze and Guattari.Sixties Audio Experiments 73 28 Henri Bergson. 26–34. 38 Serres. ed. but the Analysis of and Extension of Sensations. 1. Genesis. 1997).’ in Deleuze: A Critical Reader. 88. Postmodernism. chap. Margaret Paul and W. 1984). 32. To the Lighthouse. 35 Lyotard. 36 Jameson. A Thousand Plateaus. 1911). or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham. see Daniel W. 1987). 32 For an excellent analysis of these points. Postmodern Condition. Matter and Memory. 131. ‘The Basic Unit of Contemporary Art Is Not the Idea. Smith. 33 Woolf. 34 Jean Baudrillard. 1993). 20. The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 29 Chion. ‘Deleuze’s Theory of Sensation: Overcoming the Kantian Duality.’ in McLuhan: Hot and Cool. NC: Duke University Press. The dominant metaphors used to discuss the multiplication of screens and the images that fill them have been metaphors of variability. Animated by celluloid.2 Even within the industry.’ and ‘themed entertainment’ to identify the many modes by which moving images are produced and also distributed and seen. experience.3 The Networked Screen: Moving Images. and even the palm of one’s hand. appearing everywhere. wherein screens are reconceptualized as windows that shrink and expand on cue. or aesthetic – their past and present are unthinkable without screens.’ ‘morphing. But. Materiality. films are commonly thought of not as objects or discrete texts but as flows of images and sounds that can be reconfigured and merchandised across a range of commodity forms. gas stations. subways. office desks. stock exchanges. food courts. Variations abound.3 Richard Maltby has persuasively promoted the concept of cinema as software. some are stationary and others mobile. airplane seats. dematerialization. record stores. Scholars use terms like ‘content. or cross-platform compatibility.1 In film studies.4 Not only does it accurately reflect . transforming across varied media and sites of consumption. made of cloth or liquid crystals. electronic. ephemerality. screens provide a primary interface between the forms and inhabitants that constitute visual culture. and digital sources. Some screens emit light and some reflect it. Large or small. one thing is certain: contemporary culture is host to more screens in more places than ever before. banks. these interfaces broker the increasing presence of moving images in private and public life: museums and galleries. scholars have addressed the proliferation of images and screens largely by tending to the ways in which cinema is more malleable than previously understood. and the Aesthetics of Size ha idee was son However moving images are conceived – as institution. and the Aesthetics of Size 75 industry idioms. as well as sociology and political economy. listen to. it reminds us that the critical terms we employ to understand Hollywood’s mode of production must adjust to the multimedia entertainment conglomerates that dominate the field of movingimage production. a videogame. as the material. a lunchbox. movie theatres.Moving Images. those tasked with understanding these changes must reorient their conceptual tools. and visual studies. cinema scholars must do even more to integrate into their critical frameworks the multimediated environment that is clearly forcing a new definition of cinema. play. modern leisure. The film industry is thoroughly integrated around this basic fact. nor modernist ideas about art adequately account for the dynamic shifts ushered in by media culture in the last two decades. television. pause.’ and companion metaphors emphasizing mobility. collect. SKG. corporate. Against claims to the contrary. an action figure. Vivendi-Universal. metaphors foregrounding malleability.5 We can no longer retain film’s monopoly on our understanding of cinema in particular or moving-image culture more generally. as are the millions of people who watch.7 Unravelling the discrete film object into debates about its relations to urban life. This basic assertion applies to the analysis of both the past and the present of moving-image dynamics. and a DVD. such as Anne Friedberg’s ‘mobilized gaze. and ascendant consumerism has expanded and enriched the field. Materiality. a cable program. one that bears close relation both to emergent and global .’ have functioned productively to loosen a constraining dependency on medium specificity and to weaken attempts to preserve an ever-elusive idea about cinematic purity and essence.8 New ideas about history have further shaped an expanded idea about cinema. and Viacom know very well that a movie is never just a film. such as Maltby’s ‘software. and technological conditions of cinema’s production and exhibition transform. Both indicate the undeniable interpenetration of film with other technologies and media forms. download. In the context of film studies. rewind. Neither celluloid. Two obvious examples of these shifts are: (1) the prominence of digital production processes in the form of special effects and (2) television’s primacy as exhibition mode for movies. distribution. and exhibition.6 In other words. media. a baseball hat. sending film scholars towards cultural. and otherwise interact with cinema.9 Collectively such work has necessarily shifted our understanding of cinema away from a sacred and finite text towards an expanded system of overlapping relations. It is also a soundtrack CD. electronic. the vast majority of the screens we encounter do not disappear with the images that flutter across them. clearly integral to the architecture of powerful institutions – corporate. Sitting on desks. Their shape. Alongside the ‘everywhere and everywhen’ of current cinema. It is these screens. and institutional life of cinema. trees. suggesting its formative role in transforming celluloid. screens persistently and actively shape the images they yield and the experience of those who watch and listen to them. Screens are nodes in complex networks. These encounters can. and positioning reflect the logics of the systems and structures that produce and sustain them. Moreover. they have a comparative stability. moving images also touch down at identifiable moments and in particular places. My argument borrows from the recent work in film studies that foregrounds the material. Exploring the currents of contemporary visual culture requires us to consider the attendant specificities of these screens and of the networks that link them. size. and also enable our encounter with moving images. and plastic. urban. encased by metal. shop windows. discursive. They indicate a moment of performance when otherwise indistinguishable inscriptions – whether composed of chemical and light or code and cable – become an encounter between a viewer and an intelligible image. By setting aside questions of medium specificity.76 Haidee Wasson media conglomerates as well as to everyday life and other media forms. delimit. Yet. occur in the context of screens that are both permanent and impermanent. paintings. buildings. I address the networked screen by exploring two of the many . mounted on walls. These points become plainly visible at the interface marked by screens. Artists and corporations alike employ a range of screens that can last no longer than the moment of the performance: bodies. control buttons. They endure through time. Yet. Screens are not autonomous forces but intimate consorts of specific material and institutional networks. sidewalks.10 It also draws upon models that assert the crucial role of site-specificity when investigating a pervasive medium like television.11 In what follows. Any object flat or not can in practice be turned into a screen. this chapter explores the concept of the networked screen. and domestic – that shape. of course. elegantly put forth by Anna McCarthy in her recent book Ambient Television. metaphors foregrounding the flows and mobilities of contemporary visual culture can also obscure new formations of material and contextual specificity. glass. and digital images into differentiated social and material sites of cultural engagement. Materiality. and DVDs). constrained. movies – as moving images and as objects – have long been a part of temporally and spatially specific material networks. thematizing. directed. For example. and global transportation grids to newspaper swap pages and clandestine exchanges among private collectors. and meaning’ at the site of particular and qualitatively different kinds of screens. the environments in which they appear. as a counterbalance to a focus on meta-structures and new languages – the loop. temporality. and infinitely expandable – that it is still useful to think about the frequently specific.12 I would like to suggest. endless outtakes. small-gauge celluloid. with ‘describing. the malleable. non-35-mm film gauges. To be sure. to borrow a phrase from Vivian Sobchack. televisions. This includes shipping methods such as film canisters and mail. trains.13 With non-flammable. films could be sent in lighter . and how they have come to look. computers). consider pre-video. and interpreting the structures of lived spatiality. through which they have been thought about. linking centre to periphery. such transit routes have shaped not just the cultural life and ideological significance of particular films but also have left behind their own kinds of physical inscriptions. In other words. and deliberate modes by which emergent configurations of moving images circulate and become visible on particular kinds of screens. indicating the clear interrelations among cinema as object (film cans. This fact implicates films necessarily in highly rationalized and also makeshift networks. technologies of distribution and exhibition constitute key elements of the ideological circuits in which moving images have long travelled. trade borders. Distribution and exhibition networks shape the cultural life of any given film or group of films. and cinema as system of distribution and exhibition (movie theatres. and the screens that frame them: QuickTime and IMAX. or even airwaves. or modes of transport like boats. planes. and the Aesthetics of Size 77 circuits through which images presently travel. cinema as screened aesthetic (expansive vistas. sending cameras but also spreading their products – images – over vast expanses of geographic space and time. Moreover. close-ups. To illustrate. videocassettes.Moving Images. Each of these methods and modes is an integral part of cinema’s history. and production trivia). ranging from mail systems. the standardization of the 16-mm film gauge in 1923 and its exclusive use of acetate film stock was a deliberate attempt to increase the portability and marketability of films outside of movie theatres. then to now. Each in some way made individual films into the amorphous and powerful institution we call cinema. I am concerned here. and easier to ship was a key factor. their aesthetic specificity became apparent. In other words. the non-theatrical and domestic moving image was smaller. and in their parlours. Films made using the academy frame ratio (1. the number of spaces in which films could be seen also increased. and seen on much smaller screens of a notably different shape in living rooms. dematerializing and rematerializing them on small pieces of household furniture. making films smaller. on bookshelves. film clubs. reedited. discoloured. In short. collectors. and over time and repeated use. Print and shipping costs diminished. became scratched. wavy. small-space screens. Because 16 mm and later 8 mm films were also viewed on a range of consumer-oriented. their projection enacted notably different dynamics of light and size than cinema’s dominant mode of exhibition in movie theatres. The original dimensions of the classical Hollywood frame changed to suit the emergent widescreen formats of 1950s movie theatres (ranging from 1.78 Haidee Wasson canisters.15 To be sure. interspersed with commercials. the technology of television transformed moving images previously secured on celluloid into broadcast signals sent through the air. television transformed the conditions in which we watch moving pictures. middle-class homes. They were smaller and weighed less. Qualitatively different from their theatrical counterparts. The spread of home cinemas was spurred even further with the introduction of 8 mm films and equipment in 1932. theatrical movie screens grew larger. Films-as-objects literally changed shape as did the routes they travelled. reshaped as well as recoloured.55:1). albeit one of many. small screens articulated cinema to the politics and dynamics of domestic institutions as well as those of public entertainment.66:1 to 2. As these small films found new life in. appearing grainy. Thus from the 1920s onward. and blurry compared to their theatrical runs. the experience of cinema was expanded by the consumer imperatives of small films and screens.33:1) fit the television screen but were irretrievably altered by their travels. As television occupied an increas- . As television’s small screen spread throughout the 1950s. and middle-class homes began to buy and also store films in their libraries. and faded. Libraries. submitted to pan and scan and other cropping techniques. among other places. less expensive. irrevocably influencing film aesthetics along the way. in increasing the viability of non-theatrical film exhibition and the transformation of cinema into a collection of material objects suited to widespread consumption outside of movie theatres.14 Similarly. As these wider films were eventually translated back to the television screen they were altered even more dramatically. . Both have made it commonsense that buying movies. Some we buy so that we can watch them over and over again. and the Aesthetics of Size 79 ingly important role for industry and audience as an exhibition outlet for films. eating. using what are termed ‘safe zones. have introduced their own changes. VHS and especially DVD have contributed to a resurgence of sensibilities about cinematic artistry through institutionalizing and commodifying a range of concepts aimed at identifying creative agency and originality (e. DVDs can now be obtained at movie rental stores. and modifications of images themselves. . These technologies have also served to facilitate the rise of letterboxing. distribution.Moving Images. an attempt to reinstate original screen ratios – despite extreme shrinkage from the theatrical screen – even while being translated through technologies other than the properly cinematic. This fact is crucial for analysing changes to the form and function of cinema. and exhibition of moving images is intimately tied to the material specificities of the networks through which they travel.16 Such changes in technology demonstrate that moving images have long been part of abstract systems of transport (airwaves. Materiality. they have also reconsolidated a sense of cinematic propriety. Whether carried by trucks or fibre optic cables. while largely dependent on television screens for image display. This phenomenon links movies-as-objects and movies-as-screenedcontent concretely to a wide variety of other kinds of cultural practices: travel. supermarkets. can be part of a day’s shopping. magnetic tape. fast food chains.’ effectively employing less of the film frame’s width and concentrating action in the centre of the image. film culture is currently unimaginable without television. consumers have also developed their own cinema hierarchies which acknowledge television’s centrality in moving-image culture. digital discs) which have always supported the various contractions. Certain films become ‘renters’ while others draw us into the theatre. computer stores. errands.g. discount department stores. They may be purchased inexpensively and carried in shopping bags with other commodities. their particular technological form. classics. the director’s cut. expansions. From production to exhibition. and gas stations. rather than renting a seat in a movie theatre. and the specific screens on which they appear. restorations). In more recent years. shopping. As these trends have fundamentally dispersed cinema across a wide cultural field. More recent changes in technologies of image distribution such as VHS and DVD. producers and directors began to make films that were more friendly to television screens. the packaging (or compression). 80 Haidee Wasson QuickTime Integrating the material networks of cinema into our critical frameworks is a crucial critical step toward sharpening our scholarly methods in film and media studies. Not only does the networked screen help us to understand changes germane to the history of film; the concept also helps us to understand the rapid diversification of moving-image cultures and practices in the present. For instance, in 1991 Apple Computer introduced yet another possible mode by which moving images might be distributed to and exhibited on screens. QuickTime is one of several streaming technologies that allow individual computer screens to play moving-image files accessible on innumerable Web pages. Not initially designed for downloading files, QuickTime turns the computer screen into a private, on-demand playback system, providing a platform that links the click of a mouse to thousands of short movies that remain on their host sites. There are many genres of Web-streamed films, including experimental and artist-designed pieces, media-savvy parodies, narrative and non-narrative shorts, and commercial film trailers. These movies can be found on websites dedicated solely to making such films available17 or may be found on sub-sites of larger institutions.18 Yet, despite the range of qualitatively different organizations and films, there are several features these movies tend to share, largely because of their like modes of distribution and exhibition. These films appear grainy, jerky, flat. Colour is washed. Focus is shallow. Background detail is lost and blurred to abstraction; foreground details also frequently appear fuzzy. Fast movements are likewise indistinct. These movies are almost always rectangular (though occasionally square), mimicking cinema’s widescreen ratio. They rely heavily on sound and music, yet often forego the tight coordination required for synchronized sound, particularly in the form of dialogue. Moreover, one must also note that each of these characteristics – clarity, rhythm, and synchronization – also depends on the media reader you use, the processing speed of your computer, and the nature of your connection to the Web. Also important to emphasize is that these images appear differently, depending on the time of day they are viewed, other traffic on the Web, and your server and bandwidth. And, of course, they are really, really small, frequently no bigger than two to three inches wide, dwarfed even by the diminutive desktop, laptop, or hand-held screens on which they appear. With their own aesthetic specificities, streamed movies imply and, Moving Images, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Size 81 indeed, rely upon images that are connected as much to their original pro-filmic event as to the modes by which they are disseminated and seen. In short, little Web movies announce their aesthetic interpenetration and dependence upon their mode of transport. These movies are a clear shift away from a material set of images and sounds secured on celluloid as an object in a film can (an object with relative endurance) toward a sequence of images and sounds that are bound irretrievably to the systems and the logics of a particular kind of technological traffic. This traffic does not, as with celluloid or DVD, involve shipping images from one location to another, their original material status relatively intact. Indeed, this kind of traffic shares far more with broadcasting than with the distribution models conventionally attached to the cinema proper. Both are greatly affected by the environments in which they circulate. More than this, QuickTime provides a distinct kind of network, consisting of code, digital and analogue networks, servers, Web browsers, media players, and microprocessors that each play a role in how precisely the information that will eventually yield a moving image will look and what the price of admission will be (i.e., the cost of up-to-date computer equipment, broadband connections, and so on).19 One way to understand some of the changes digital technologies have brought to moving-image culture is to think about the ways in which streamed Web films index a distinct kind of networked cinema. Streamed Web films relay an identifiable emergent aesthetic that is dependent on overlapping and constantly interacting systems of motion and variability. Streaming cinema offers moving images that are themselves constantly changing because of the fitful networks of which they are a part and on which they wholly depend. QuickTime movies announce variation and unpredictability.20 They resolutely reject or perhaps make a mockery of realist conventions of cinematic perfection and of the idea of pristine, invariable film texts. They achieve this with a vaguely cinematic and miniature frame littered with user controls: pause, fast forward, and play buttons, time and control bars, browser icons, indicators of connection speed, and memory remainders. The small size and the jerky, grainy qualities of moving-image texts are not new to visual culture. Early photography and motion pictures underwent similar phases. Indeed, rejecting our recent frenzy for ‘the new,’ little Web movies resonate so much with early cinema and Edison’s peepshow Kinetoscope that they have been characterized as ‘quaint’ and ‘nostalgic.’21 Yet the specificities of Web movies do not 82 Haidee Wasson require that they be understood as a good, bad, failed, long-gone, or a substandard form of conventional realist cinema. One might think of them as a fully realized yet ephemeral form, borrowing much more from visual technologies other than the explicitly cinematic: handheld optical toys, live teleplays, radio concerts, as well as graphic design. It is also important to note that their smallness and their intimacy are obviously not the only articulations of the technology. QuickTime is simply a program that can be used in many ways. For instance, I frequently stream films into my classrooms for students to consider. There are qualitative changes to their appearance, in part because a qualitatively different technological and institutional network makes them visible. No longer minuscule and addressed to a single, controlling spectator, QuickTime becomes part of an educational institutional apparatus but also a more public, audience-based one. The technology itself (a larger screen and data projector), for instance, is only one part of a larger educational and authoritative dynamic. In this latter example it becomes co-articulated with syllabi, textbooks, tests, instructor pedagogy, and so on.22 Against the idea that QuickTime is quaint and nostalgic, I would like to suggest that the networked screen implied by streamed movies presents us with two important points of entry into contemporary media culture: (1) they are an emergent configuration of cinematic institutions which includes websites but also browsers and servers that offer distinct rearticulations of cinema, and (2) inasmuch as we can isolate these little films from the texts, controls, and marks of their corporate environment, they also invite a particular way of looking, one that has a complex and reciprocal relationship with ways of engaging with images not generally associated with cinema. To be sure, this way of looking is considerably different from that circumscribed by dominant Hollywood aesthetics or theatrical modes of exhibition. QuickTime links moving images – commercial and not – to visual forms previously confined to the experimental, artistic, and domestic realms: small screens, unstable images and sounds, and a hyper-sensitivity to temporal networks that are distinct from cinema’s conventional 24-frames per second.23 Further, it brands these images, with an already branded computer screen, browser interface, and operating system, with its own QuickTime logo and proprietary design. You always know you are watching QuickTime. Counter-intuitively, these characteristics are most commonly combined with utterly conventional cinematic styles, thus distorting familiar aesthetic techniques and images, while also displaying their own specificity. Moreover, Web films are contained by a very Moving Images, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Size 83 small box, requiring attention to the effects not only of scale distortion but also of frame size. I will return to explore this further. IMAX In sharp contrast to the small size of QuickTime is the bold monumentalism of IMAX. Like QuickTime, IMAX is a distinct network devoted to showing moving images, similarly bearing the marks of its own technological specificity and institutions. IMAX technology comes with its own camera, celluloid, release schedules, projection system, and screens. Rather than browsers, servers, operating systems, and computer manufacturers, IMAX has long been connected with museums, scientific organizations, tourism, and, more recently, grand entertainment complexes. Like QuickTime, IMAX is an imaging system that operates at one remove from Hollywood cinema. Both are relatively recent additions to visual culture, serving as highly visible elements of emergent screenscapes. Yet, notably different from little Web movies and their quaint intimacy and variation is the pronounced precision, clarity, and size of IMAX. Whereas QuickTime engages an individualized user, IMAX declares itself to a global audience. IMAX originated in a large multi-screen experiment at Montreal’s Expo 67, called Labyrinthe (see Janine Marchessault’s chapter in this volume). IMAX Systems Corporation was founded in 1970. Its first permanent screen, Cinesphere, was constructed at Ontario Place in Toronto in 1971. As of January 2005, roughly 240 IMAX screens could be found in thirty-five countries worldwide.24 IMAX began as a special-venue format and was attached initially to museums and other educational and tourist sites throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s and early 2000s IMAX established closer links with mainstream exhibition venues such as mall-based theatres and stand-alone megaplexes. Yet, its film library remains dominated by titles that bespeak its roots in documentary and edutainment films, the most successful of which are The Dream Is Alive (Graeme Ferguson, 1985), Everest (David Breashears, 1998), and SpaceStation 3D (Toni Myers, 2002). Two of these are about space exploration. The third, Everest, documents a climbing team seeking to ascend the tallest mountain in the world. IMAX brokers in the spectacle of gigantism. It is the biggest and most successful large-screen format in the world, its pre-eminence assured by its recent diversification into current-release Hollywood actionadventure films.25 84 Haidee Wasson IMAX’s corporate slogan is ‘Think Big.’ Despite the oversized camera, large film stock, and expansive subject matter, none of these would translate as fully without IMAX’s colossal screen. Most of these screens are eight storeys high (24.5 metres [80 feet]) and 30 metres (100 feet) wide.26 As such, they can accommodate an image almost ten times larger than a standard theatrical screen, 3,100 times bigger than a twenty-seven-inch television set, and 192,000 times bigger than a typical QuickTime movie. The screen itself weighs almost eight hundred pounds. IMAX is notably huge and utterly immobile, a monument to a longstanding Western preoccupation with technology, vision, and size.27 Predictably, its subjects enact these predilections. IMAX films frequently feature large subjects – mountains, sea, space – weaving thin narratives with the tropes of spectacular travel. Exotic locations are accented by slow, sweeping pans, orchestral scores, and suspended non-diegetic moments of waves crashing, the earth spinning, and mountains jutting up and away from the infinitesimal marks of civilization. At times, even its unthinkably large screen strains to house the enormity of its images. IMAX films are filled with bright colours, deep focus, vertical tilts, and travelling shots into spaces too big for the eye to fully assess in a single glance. Aerial glides and panoramic surveys punctuate its adventures. Steady point-of-view shots accentuate the confident invitation to fly, dive, ski, slide, fall, or simply observe and master space. The image is unremitting and sure. Movement through mountain crevices is slow and smooth. Images of flowers, trees, and clouds are rich and full. Background landscapes and foreground characters are rendered in sharp detail. There are frequent attempts to emulate motion inward and outward, from foreground to background, background to foreground. With IMAX you find yourself moving into and out of great heights and depths, travelling downward to the bottom of the sea or upward to the stars. Framing and editing tend to reassert the centrality of the camera/protagonist and thus re-enact one of classical cinema’s standard techniques: spatial and temporal omnipresence. With IMAX, the camera is everywhere you need it to be at exactly the right moment. But it is crucial to observe that the meticulous and confident control of IMAX imagery is in part a compensation for the destabilizing effects of that sublime invitation to be engulfed by its gigantic images. IMAX offers certainty through its aesthetic techniques and its standardized screening spaces, yet it also simultaneously threatens to take this away with the power of its determined enormity. The cinematic conventions employed in IMAX films foreground Moving Images, Materiality, and the Aesthetics of Size 85 techniques that seek to accommodate yet stabilize the gigantism at its core. This yields a spectacular or exaggerated realism, one that recapitulates Bazin’s myth of total cinema – of images that become rather than represent the real – yet also promises to explode that myth through its larger-than-life subjects, its supra-natural clarity, and its daunting invitation to a technological sublime.28 IMAX engulfs its spectators, stretching the limits of human vision through its expansive screen and immersive aesthetic. Edmund Burke’s classic formulation of the sublime becomes useful here, as it describes a mode of representation characterized by the grandeur and expanse of nature. In this expanse, according to Burke, there is great beauty but also a powerful, destructive force. The sublime offers simultaneously astonishment and admiration, wonder and pain. It is both illuminating and terrifying, underscored by the contradictory appeal of the infinite. Its seductive force invites surrender to its wonders as well as to its disordered horror.29 IMAX is an encounter with Burke’s sublime: the threat and promise of the image overtaking us compels us to look and also to be fearful, less of what we will see but how we will feel when we see it. In other words, IMAX stages dramas of scale, characterized by a gigantism that entails seduction and repulsion, search and loss, aggrandizement and belittlement. It does this with a certainty – a series of declarative gestures – informed by a collection of identifiable formal techniques and institutional controls. IMAX employs extreme realism to emulate a full-body immersion in its story, rife with the anxiety integral to its enormity. It is an experience of bodily thrill facilitated by the eye. IMAX draws as much on narrative, realist conventions as it does on the logics and exaggerations of the thrill ride. Its aesthetic is one of movement, immersion, and enormity in which the spectacle of nature is paramount. Further, as Charles Acland has argued, this construction of cinema as travel is as much about the spectacle of the technology itself as it is about the thing being depicted. Just as QuickTime is always in part about QuickTime; IMAX is always in part about IMAX. The IMAX system is designed for invariability. This is one reason IMAX leases rather than sells its equipment and the use of its name, thus allowing tighter control of its network and ensuring that its big images will always satisfy corporate standards. This is true not only because of its distinct size and conventionalized aesthetic, but also because the discursive framing of IMAX films and theatres inevitably calls your attention to the IMAX brand. Introductions to the technology, displays of the projector, and corporate logos are standard elements of the experience.30 Regardless of where you have travelled, 86 Haidee Wasson you know that it is always courtesy of IMAX’s network of technologies and institutions. Like QuickTime, IMAX presents us with a kind of branded cinema, one that explicitly and implicitly bears the marks of its network. To repeat: the IMAX screen does not simply occupy the theatre; it constitutes the specificity of the viewing experience. These branded screens differentiate themselves in several ways from the conventionalized branding of dominant cinema. Yet, considering the small and the big of screen culture reminds us that all screens now operate in a comparative field that is always, in part, differentiated by size. The proliferating screens that constitute our screenscape are both expanding and contracting, ranging from the diminutive size of a human iris (evident in the artwork of Pipilotti Rist) to the enormity of the NASDAQ building’s eight-storey video monitor in New York City;31 previous dynamics of scale and experience have been dislodged. Compared with two-by-three-inch Web movies, home televisions seem monumental. Considered next to the huge IMAX screens, once-spectacular theatrical film screens seem notably diminished. Importantly, the endurance of screens paired with the flows of images that fill them enact a dynamic of stasis and motion, effectively combining still and standardized screens with moving and various images. The moment of the screened image is the product of this dynamic pairing, which should be understood as heterogeneous yet specific. These screens invite us to look in particular ways. Big screens engage us differently than small ones. Further, because images are more malleable than most of the screens on which they appear, contemporary screens are frequently host to a particular kind of distortion. We become witness to the abstractions attendant upon the moment that screens of an unchanging size display the fluid images which grow or shrink to fill them. In other words, the pictures that travel across these screens participate further in a drama of distortion and size. Whether it be digital video stretched to pixelated distortion on theatrical movie screens or widescreen features reduced by small television sets, these transformations provide test cases to explore the limits of image fluidity as well as the specificities of the screened image. There is perhaps no more telling evidence of the importance of screen size than a cruel exercise of endurance I like to force upon my students. I show them an IMAX film – preferably Everest – in a large auditorium on a twenty-seven-inch television screen.32 If IMAX-as-IMAX can be thought of as a meditation on the gigantic, then IMAX-as-TV becomes a tortured forty-five minutes of trite narration, staid framing, and orien- Moving Images. With special attention to questions of size. On a television. According to Stewart. Susan Stewart’s research can help us to further understand the specificity of IMAX’s enormity and QuickTime’s smallness. It produces a sensation of discomfort and danger. and scale. size is always about distortion. or small – for aesthetic experience. According to her. changes in size determine a particular and increasingly distorted relation between the conventions of the mark and its meaning. she argues that the gigantic and the miniature involve a distinct kind of experience for any given observer. Having shrunk by a factor of over three thousand. The characters are flat (and perhaps clinically pathological). IMAX films hold no promise of engulfment. it needs its giant screen to fully unfurl its own logics. The images are dull. IMAX is made qualitatively different by a small screen. or seduction. When we watch IMAX. The drama borders on senseless.33 In other words. which brings us within an immediate and lived relation to nature as it surrounds us.’34 For Stewart (as for Burke). medium. She writes: ‘The gigantic continually threatens to elude us. profuse. Stewart explores the phenomenology of collectible objects and their display. Both the miniature and the gigantic thus present themselves as abstractions of knowable relations between things. Materiality. changes in size augment and subvert otherwise recognizable images and objects. There is something lush. which frequently features images . materiality. size is relational but also specific. The film’s monumentalism seems self-indulgent and unappealing. and parodic. In their smallness or their largeness. unstoppable in the very idea of the gigantic. the differences between the miniature and the gigantic are numerous. they distort or abstract our understanding of any given object and carry with them connotations that further shape their meaning. assessing the phenomenological dimensions of an observer’s encounter with objects of varying dimensions serves as a fertile site to consider the interplay of meaning. Analysing the results of this distortion allows insights into the distinct function of size – large. tiresome. Stewart argues that in the context of display. Shrinking its images results not only in a diminishing sense of awe but also a distorted picture that consequently clarifies its preoccupations. and the Aesthetics of Size 87 talist thematics. In her book On Longing. The latter incites awe rather than intimacy. enrapture. the slow and breathtaking surveys of Everest’s towering peaks and deep crevices become stretched. The parallels to IMAX are instructive. to grow too large for possession by the eye. the gigantic is most fully articulated by the experience of something like landscape. As an aesthetic and an experience. As opposed to the gigantic. one must select a portion of it. it can only be seen in parts. frequently squinting. monumentalism. of the domestic. and the corporate logos contradicts the blurred and unpredictable nature of the images inside. which promises to contain us. We tower above the miniature. IMAX may be about the power of the camera to survey everything. we instinctively watch IMAX with an eye to caution. and of possession. The tight sense of order and systematicity implied by the geometrical frame. it is always beyond this. She suggests that miniature objects and collectibles invite a sense of mastery. As such. in which we are reminded of our relatively minuscule status. but it is simultaneously about our own lack of power to see as it sees.35 The gigantic is not about the individual.’36 Moreover. little Web films enact the logic of the private. enlarged to eight storeys. wary that at any moment it may overtake us. Because of its overwhelming invitation to surrender. offering its grand vision only to capture us in its labyrinthine tracks. its gesture outward to the rest of the world. the images take on their fullest meaning in their enormity and enveloping size. In their smallness. and physically hunched forward. In contrast to IMAX.88 Haidee Wasson of expansive nature. The gigantic functions as a container. We envelop it. streamed Web films also convey the constraints of the highly rationalized and limited systems that yield them. in QuickTime we are invited to lean in. To explore it. move into it. The gigantic is similarly not easily contained by a single glance. Watching such images necessarily involves viewers in a subordinate relation. the buttons. the miniature is easily contained. We look at little films from a distance rather than with a sense of being inside of them: ‘To be above. to look down. and the awe of exploring the unknown. the time bars. survey it all in a quick glance. The result is frequently a degree of distortion and abstraction that leaves us puzzled by the commonly indecipherable nature of what is on the screen. They create a scenario in which moving images are articulated to individuals who are largely immobile. we are submitting to the disorder and disproportion presented by any given image. The small . streamed Web films are more akin to what Stewart identifies as the miniature. hold it in our hand. Whereas IMAX spectators can commonly be seen leaning back. to take into the yearning eye more at a single glance: here we are at the very threshold of the lure of the miniature. It is akin to the grand gestures of statehood. The gigantic image invites us into its exteriority. and thus be further enveloped by it. IMAX augments but also confronts the limits of human vision. Paradoxically. The distended code yields images incompatible with the dominant conventions of the intelligible screen. for instance. As the image strains to fill the screen. the other miniature. this cinema of suggestion draws the eye of the viewer in. exaggerating a sense of interiority already endemic to the mode by which such images have travelled and the domestic context in which they are often seen. Rather than a cinema of attractions. I have initiated a dialogue on the similarities and dissimilarities of two distinct forms of networked cinema: IMAX and QuickTime. their formal properties seem strikingly different. As Stewart suggests of the miniature book. the very fact of the miniature object as marker of meaning is an ‘affront to reason and its principal sense: the eye. Yet. The smallness. declarative images. for instance. It is a small cinema that suggests ownership and depends on fantasies of the private and the domestic and yet – at least for now – makes powerful use of the unseen to establish its visual distinctiveness. One is based on crystal clarity and steady. One is gigantic. the flatness of Web films exercise a kind of cat-and-mouse game with the new user-spectator. paradigmatically transfiguring what we see.Moving Images. one is faced with increasing abstraction. Perhaps most important. Taken as dislocated images. Engaging with streamed Web films is a kind of leap of faith into the limits of the cinematic signifier.’37 The miniature images push our understanding of cinematic convention and our habits of watching. if one should choose to control the image by. as they seek to mimic Hollywood realism but spiral toward the abstract despite themselves. sending us searching for clues as to what this new form means. materiality. it is stretched and becomes meaningful less by what image appears than by the innumerable spaces between the pixels. . and demur. There are no opportunities to choose one’s relationship to the scale of the screen. little Web films suggest what I would like to call a notably fragmented cinema – a cinema of suggestion – that calls attention to its materiality and its status as bound to a tightly integrated network. and the Aesthetics of Size 89 size and consequent abstraction of more familiar realist representational practices provides a further example of Stewart’s basic assertion about the relations between meaning. Playing with scale invokes an image that recalls now-distorted cinematic conventions. Materiality. and size. Conversely. jerky. by choosing a seat in a movie theatre. the thinness. enlarging that image alerts us to the material specificities of the little movie and extends the distortion further. closer and closer. enlarging the window in which it appears on screen. The other is grainy. it is equally important then to acknowledge the parallel increase in screen networks. screens are not blank frames but active forces. images. clarity. drive-ins. and the perforated film screens required for sound projection require us to move away from our ideas about screens as blank spaces and to think of them more as part of elaborate technological apparatuses that shape the aesthetics and experience of cinema. They are thus a reconfiguration of cinema institutions and aesthetics: the images they currently yield are uniquely small and unclear yet omnipresent. are not autonomous sites but windows connected to complex and abstract systems: corporate. Moreover. Screens. IMAX. Moreover. Both suggest the importance of size as one feature of our expanded viewing conditions and call attention to the resulting phenomenologies that evolve from the little and the big. in ways worthy of further exploration. screens take on fuller meaning when understood alongside the material and institutional conditions that surround and embolden them. These networks are not new. and screens. They announce themselves as such. Both present emergent examples of specific institutions of cinema. and blurred abstraction.90 Haidee Wasson through the concept of the networked screen. Screens are implicated in identifiable institutional formations and also inextricably linked to multiple systems. and control (or its loss) in relation to the images we see. aesthetic. Through dynamics of size. in other words. and political. IMAX and Web movies propose. Computer screens in particular are increasingly integral to emergent modes of cinematic practice. As screens proliferate. The concept of the networked screen helps us to better acknowledge the interconnected relations among specific institutions. I have suggested here that screens elicit dramas of scale. colour. shape. distance. their similarities become apparent. television. and invite us to think more about the basic fact of networked films. the importance of the material conditions of distribution. Both bear the marks of their distinct networks. Both exist as apposite to Hollywood cinema. which play on our sense of proportion. Widescreen formats. but their relevance for critically engaging our expanded viewing condition will only grow as images themselves increasingly become a form of currency in our everyday exchanges. examining particular . Each is entangled in a dialogue of control over the image and of looking that implicitly and explicitly engages but also extends our dominant ideas about watching movies. suggesting that the metaphor of the network – as well as the size of the screen – will over time prove only to be more important for understanding both the little and the big of film culture. As screens become both bigger and smaller. and spectator to spectacle.’ Screen 41. and to the material contexts in which such screens connect viewer to image. Steve Neale and Murray Smith (London: Routledge. and consumerism. and the Aesthetics of Size 91 networked screens allows us to avoid the vague assertion that images are everywhere and thus everywhere the same. no.’ or ‘visual studies’ to what he calls ‘software studies.’ 4 Richard Maltby. . 1 (2000): 115–19. 2 See. Materiality. it is crucial not to lose sight of the persistent forms of materiality that undergird the meaning and experience of visual forms. The Language of New Media (Cambridge. Straw draws attention not just to the proliferation of screens but to the importance of addressing the material products of film culture that have accompanied cinema’s dispersion through digital networks and satellite systems.’ Screen 41. ‘“Nobody Knows Everything”: Post-Classical Historiographies and Consolidated Entertainment. Constance Balides. user to screen. no. These alignments continue to be refigured in countless ways across a range of local and global formations. 2000). ‘Jurassic Post-Fordism: Tall Tales of Economics in the Theme Park. 1998).’ ‘media studies. some do not. 3 At the Society for Cinema Studies meeting in Denver 2002. Lev Manovich asserted that in the face of such changes we need to reorganize the discipline away from ‘film studies. for examples. ed. 21–44. But in order to understand these expanded viewing contexts we need analytic tools to help slice through the perpetual motion and endless flow. Moving images still largely come to us on screens that are themselves highly standardized and rationalized products of modern alignments between industry. science. Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. and images become more fluid. linking screens to the larger and frequently amorphous ideas and practices that constitute them. NOTES 1 I am indebted to Will Straw’s brief but suggestive essay on these themes. Moving images may be increasingly fluid but their fluidity is not limitless nor can it be fully understood without recourse to the expanded viewing contexts and the enduring screens which enable their visibility. Vivian Sobchack. Lev Manovich. ed. 2 (2000): 139–60. 2001).Moving Images. Some of these involve a reconsolidation of familiar forces. ‘Proliferating Screens. MA: MIT Press.. The networked screen is one such concept.’ in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life (Berkeley: University of California Press. 9 For exemplary work that also synthesizes trends in film historiography. Receptions. Barbara Klinger. executives in charge of home sales approve films for production because of the primary role home and soon DVD sales have in the market. Magic Theater.92 Haidee Wasson 5 Among those voicing such claims. Trick Films. NJ: Rutgers University Press. Ludwig Pfeiffer (Stanford. video). ‘Screening Space: Architecture. 2002). DVD ranks as the most profitable and fastest-growing revenue generator. MA: Harvard University Press. 244–74. Laurence Goldstein and Ira Konigsberg (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. see Barbara Klinger.’ in The Movies: Texts. 1. Film Art: An Introduction. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht and K. 12 Vivian Sobchack. ed. Tom Gunning. 17 August 2003. 1997). ‘The New Media Aristocrats: Home Theater and Domestic Film Experience. Vanessa Schwartz and Leo Charney. 1992). Movies. Widescreen Cinema (Cambridge. For the Love of Pleasure: Women. MA: Harvard University Press. Technology. Exposures. and Photography’s Uncanny. 7 Anne Friedberg. Kirkpatrick. 42–71. 1995). and the Motion Picture Screen.’ Velvet Light Trap 42 (fall 1998): 4–19.”’ in Materialities of Communication. NC: Duke University Press. ‘Phantom Images and Modern Manifestations: Spirit Photography.’ Screen 38. ‘The Scene of the Screen: Envisioning Cinematic and Electronic “Presence. 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill. At some studios. 11 Anna McCarthy. 1996).’ in Fugitive Images. ‘Film History Terminable and Interminable: Recovering the Past in Reception Studies. my scope is by no means as ambitious. 2001). ed. CA: Stanford University Press. William Paul. 1996). no. 8 Lauren Rabinovitz. ‘Action-Hungry DVD Fans Sway Hollywood. and Culture in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago (New Brunswick. and David Bordwell. 87. On the History of Film Style (Cambridge. See David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson. 6 The New York Times recently reported that 58 per cent of Hollywood’s income in 2002 came from home video sales. David D. ed. While I take inspiration from Sobchack’s work. Within home sales.’ New York Times. 1998). more than twice as much as box-office revenue. Whereas Sobchack explores a phenomenology of ‘the cinema’ and other visual media (photography. I am committed to . 1994). David Bordwell is perhaps the best known. 1993). 10 John Belton. eds. Ambient Television (Durham. 2 (Summer 1997): 107–28. Patrice Petro (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press. Window Shopping: Cinema and the Postmodern (Berkeley: University of California Press. ’ For a speculative consideration of the effects of theatre size and also screen size on Hollywood’s changing style. Manovich makes a similar point.Moving Images. Materiality. and the Home (Berkeley: University of California Press. production techniques. Non-flammable film was in use in other home film systems as early as 1912. New Technologies. ed. Melvyn Stokes and Richard Maltby (London: British Film Institute. and aesthetic strategies adopted by the film industry in the context of changing screen formats and the importance of television as an exhibition outlet.’ For a cogent analysis of recent changes in the discursive shaping of new technologies of cinema in the home.com). See also Beyond the Multiplex: Cinema. See Ben Singer. see Patricia Zimmerman.’ Film History 2 (1988): 37–69. Widescreen Cinema. see Paul. including screens that doubled as card tables as well as rear projection units the size of a small television. For more on the history of film technology and the home and amateur fields. and the Aesthetics of Size 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 93 investigating the more specific and materially grounded site of specific screens rather than media per se. see Charles Acland. ‘Early Home Cinema and the Edison Home Projecting Kinetoscope. 132–51. See. esp.com/af/home/). It is also clear that the 16 mm format and changing markets for film effected changes in content. 6.g.. For examples of debates spurred by such transformations. Any casual glance at a Kodak catalogue from the period will demonstrate a surprising range of screens designed to accommodate such images. especially chap. Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 2 (April 1990): 12–20. 2. see Barbara Klinger. At the time of writing. ‘Screening Space. ‘The Shape of Money.ifilm. shockwave. Kodak edited its features and shorts to make them fit efficiently into a minimal number of film cans and to eliminate possibly offensive scenes or images.’ Wide Angle 12. chap. IFILM (http://www. 10. ‘The Contemporary Cinephile: Film Collecting in the Post-Video Era. no. For an overview of changing film formats. the phenomena change rapidly. see Belton. E. 2001). As with all discussions of recent or emergent technologies.’ in Hollywood Spectatorship: Changing Perceptions of Cinema Audiences. ‘Tampering with the Inventory: Colorization and Popular Histories. for instance. See also YouTube (http://youtube. previously streamed Web movies are now migrating to DVD. 2006).com/) and ATOM Films (http://atomfilms. 1995). George Lucas in Love (Joe Nuss- . A few prominent examples of high-traffic websites include BMW Films and the Whitney giftcard site. See The Language of New Media. especially chap. to loops.com.imax. 1984). ‘Flux Films in Three False Starts. self-consciously hi-tech. See Craig J. and Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace (1999). 1993). institutions. 124–37. 1999). But I would like to suggest that it would require a somewhat modified analytic terminology. downloading and storing such movies affords the user increased individual control. networks. IMAX Inc. The Matrix Reloaded (2003). in particular the films produced through this movement and the subgenre of mail art. See Vivian Sobchack. Vivian Sobchack has articulated the rich links between QuickTime and the work of Joseph Cornell.’ http:// www. and Simon Anderson (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center. planetariums and maritime centers. As it has aged. Elizabeth Armstrong. Both flux films and mail art were particularly attuned to the question of time. Spiderman 2 (2004). ‘Nostalgia for a Digital Object: Regrets on the Quickening of QuickTime.’ There are productive links between Web films and fluxus. . Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet. Correspondence Art: Source Book for the Network of International Postal Art Activity (San Francisco: Contemporary Arts Press. and to the materiality of aesthetic forms. See Sobchack. This diminishes but does not eliminate variations in play speed.) QuickTime also functions as a computer-based media player. ed. Bruce Jenkins. and aggressively corporate forms as it has expressed a kind of quaint and nostalgic yearning for cinema’s past. ‘Little Movies: Prolegomena for Digital Cinema. See also Lev Manovich.manovich. IMAX has aggressively sought relationships with Hollywood distributors in order to expand beyond its educational and exploration titles and to insert IMAX into the commonsense of everyday film culture. Internet traffic does not. While computer speed and video cards maintain relevance.’ The other 50 per cent are in commercial theatre complexes.net/little-movies. and approximately 50 per cent are in ‘museums.’ in In The Spirit of Fluxus. 2001).com/ for more corporate information. This includes films such as Polar Express (2004). allowing moving images to be downloaded fully as complete files and then played at the discretion of the computer user. Joan Rothfuss. Networked Art (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. reports that 60 per cent of these screens are in North America. (I would suggest that these are thoughtful though extremely partial renderings of the form.’ Millennium Film Journal 34 (winter 2000): 4–23.94 21 22 23 24 25 Haidee Wasson baum. eds. available through Amazon. As distinct from the streaming capacities of QuickTime. Saper. ‘Nostalgia for a Digital Object. packaged along with other Web shorts. I will not explicitly address this particular use of QuickTime. QuickTime has ushered in as many innovative. See http://www. 40. 35 Ibid.400 LED panels were designed to endow the electronic stock exchange with a physical presence that it otherwise lacked. ‘IMAX Technology and the Tourist Gaze.’ Studies in Cultures. the Gigantic.. the 8.9 feet (29. 1993). . The imperialism of IMAX as gaze but also as a mode of production is transparent.’ Cultural Studies 12. NC: Duke University Press. underwritten by numerous American museums and scientific foundations. What Is Cinema? trans. and the Aesthetics of Size 95 26 There is some indication the IMAX screens will actually get bigger.. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature.Moving Images. and vision. 38. 129. see Charles Acland. Organizations. xii. 36 Ibid. 3 (1998): 429–45. in an essay called ‘A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful’ (1757). 31 Plugged in on 29 December 1999. knowledge. is 96. Australia. 29 Edmund Burke. 131. and Society 3 (1997): 289–305. of course. 1967). emphasizing its imperialist tropes. A recent addition to Sydney.. The sign is used to display market information and advertisements. 30 For more on IMAX. 34 Ibid. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press. 33 Susan Stewart.5 metres/ten storeys) high. This journey is. documenting not just a journey to the peak of the highest mountain. no. 28 André Bazin. but also the journey of the biggest camera up the biggest mountain. The camera was carried by local Sherpas. the Souvenir. the Collection (Durham. It is also in many ways prototypical. Materiality. 37 Ibid. see Charles Acland. 32 Everest is the most profitable IMAX movie.. NASDAQ’s video screen at Times Square was heralded as ‘the largest and most expensive video screen in the world. ‘IMAX in Canadian Cinema: Geographic Transformation and Discourses of Nationhood. 27 For a persuasive analysis of IMAX that extends this line of thinking to include the relations between IMAX.’ At a cost of $37 million. while they may prosper in other cognitive societies. Such concerns are leading to a polarized debate in which ‘the reaction to emerging technologies is usually – and simplistically – divided along a horizontal axis of paranoid technophobia versus an enthusiastic endorsement of the “revolutionary” powers of “innovation.2 Pierre Lévy suggests that some types of cultural representations will have ‘difficulties surviving. in some circles. who acknowledges ‘the brutality of cultural destabilization’ but insists that such negative outcomes should not ‘prevent us from recognizing the most socially positive forms now emerging.’3 Thus.1 Even the evolution of such global conventions as the basic ‘desktop’ interface can have a profoundly chilling effect on the rise of innovative ways of conceiving points of contact with computer technology.’4 Based on the Western assumption that such ‘advances’ necessarily outweigh the ‘losses’ that might occur.6 Added to this is a growing sense that computer-based narratives are . or even coming into being. The rise of a virtual global culture seems inevitable to theorists such as Lévy.’ which occurs when a new and revolutionary technology arises and subsumes old forms within it. Lévy’s position underscores the very real imperialist threat posed by computer-based forms. in environments lacking certain intellectual technologies.4 The ‘Iterative Circle’: Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika sheila petty The power differential created by Western-dominated technology’s colonization of global cyberspace raises justified disquiet. the changes wrought by computer technology are considered seriously detrimental and capable of eradicating or eroding existing representations of oral traditions or other modes of expression not rooted in Western precepts.”’5 Such anxiety can be attributed to what Michael Heim has referred to as the collision of the ‘tectonic plates of culture. it is seldom the sole rationale for its existence.9 From this position. Sean Cubitt has posed a counter-argument to the cultural imperialism thesis by suggesting that there can be no translational culture in which products arise that are not specific to the cultural ecology in which they occur: ‘a song. in Cubitt’s view. Westocentric technologies to local concerns is well established. conceived in a power structure that is undeniably imperialistic. Such binaries risk deprecating local cultural imperatives for. a concern registered by Teshome Gabriel and Fabian Wagmister when they note that the ‘Third World’ will ultimately have no choice but to ‘adapt technologies produced in decidedly different cultures’ in an effort to prevent them from ‘simply overwhelming or dominating traditional ways. it is possible to open a dialogue on form in which local preoccupations challenge colonizing imperatives by ignoring them all together in favour of pursuing Web narrative forms based on precepts different from those underscoring Westocentric standards. Africa has a longstanding track record in terms of transforming Western communication technology to meet local concerns. the rise of sub-Saharan cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s led to the development of unique cinematic and narrative conventions based on concepts of oral tradition and social space that allowed filmmakers to use this technology meaningfully ‘as a voice of and for the people.’7 This concern has serious implications for questions of representation of cultures outside of Eurocentric milieus. although resistance may figure in the creation of an indigenous work. it is problematic to regard the colonization of the Web by Westocentric cultural standards as a purely monolithic and inevitable process. nor does it belong to Africa’s histories.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 97 inherently Westocentric because the technology is largely developed in the West. and ultimately transforming. a website. where the process of adapting. be truly evocative of local cultural imperatives? In fact.’10 In addition. This is certainly the case in cultures in sub-Saharan Africa. The cultural imperialism thesis is unable to facilitate the textual analysis of locally produced Web narratives except as Westocentric clones or points of resistance against the colonizing tide of Westocentric Web forms. For example. and where the very question of equal access is problematic. mean one thing here and another there.’8 Thus. and ephemerality. Can a Web product. one thing now and another then.’ questioning. translation of Westocentric standards by local cultures disintegrates translation and ‘conservation in favour of openness. sub-Saharan Africans have nev- . although it may be argued that television is not a product of African countries’ normal development. 12 As one of the first Web narratives undertaken by Senegalese artists. Amika demonstrates how existing narrative strategies and aesthetic constructs can be adapted to new media contexts. Hence..’14 In addition. The lack of economic wherewithal to support information and communication technology (ICT) has created what has been described as a digital divide between Africa and other technologically advanced developed countries. Moussa Tine. high service and connection costs place this technology beyond the range of most potential users. African teledensity remains below one line per 100 people. time. are taken in distant capitals and in global institutions’ without adequate input from these nations. this chapter intends to explore the Senegalese Web-based narrative. computers and the Internet. For example. broadcasting. 1999) as an exemplar of early African interactive narrative form and consider the implications of its aesthetic and narrative presentation on Dakar Web. the chapter will examine how Amika uses the specific aesthetic structures of space.13 This has led to ‘inadequate access to affordable telephones.. Massamba Mbaye.11 These successes suggest that what is at play here is something beyond the origin of a technology: once the technology has entered into a new context. and Madické Seck. it is possible to effectively mould it to suit new cultural purposes and means of expression. Given this framework. such obstacles lead to a justified concern with dedicating ‘scarce funds on new and unfamiliar technologies when needs for basic services such as fresh water and classrooms are not yet met. As the members of the controversial New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) observe. the absence of effective voice in the area of ICTs means that ‘many decisions that impact on the African continent . Amika (Ndary Lô. This lack of access and infrastructure potentially has serious repercussions. and oral tradition as a means of expressing uniquely African cultures and identities. the lack of resources results in a brain drain in which Africa’s digital leadership will migrate to more developed regions.17 Finally. Africa’s inadequate ICT infrastructure is made less functional by a shortage of human resources and lack of effective policy and regulatory frameworks. it may be argued that sub-Saharan African artists will bring a similar approach to computer-based narrative forms despite the Westocentric foundation of the technology.16 In addition. In particular.’18 .15 These conditions result in Africa’s continued limited participation and access to information-based technologies and economies.98 Sheila Petty ertheless been very successful in creating specialized serial narratives that combine education and drama. In addition. and Catherine McGovern. and Talibés. and music. literature.24 the workshops took place at Metissacana.25 However. a women’s fishing cooperative is using Web technology to compete in world markets. with the opportunity to create Web fictions based on a collaborative working process. Michel Lefebvre. these examples provide evidence that. NEPAD recognizes that the integration of Africa into emerging information societies is critical and views Africa’s cultural diversity as a means of leveraging entrance. participated in an archive project that preserved one of the largest insect collections in Africa. Senegal.’23 An early illustration of this transformative progression is demonstrated by the website Dakar Web. creative control of the final product and conflicts between culturally different approaches to production can become issues of concern.19 African nations are coming together to create strategies that would redress these barriers. whose dependence on technology produced by the West is a continuance of colonial legacies. given access and opportunity. For example.22 Thus. Dakar Web ran from 1 to 24 February 1999 in Dakar. Petit Pagne. Lait Miraculeux. ‘Africa is able to take advantage of the ICT revolution. despite the many social and economic barriers facing African people.26 Yet.21 In West Africa. such cooperation can also have positive benefits. on the other is the real possibility for development of the continent by African regional integration and expansion of African products and services into a global market. For . as a series of workshops intended to provide African artists drawn from various fields of visual arts. Co-productions based on what have been described as alliances between North/South partners can be potentially problematic given undeniable power differentials between so-called developed and underdeveloped nations. Directed by Montreal artists Eva Quintas. and Namibian secondary school students.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 99 This paradoxical struggle between colliding imperatives is underscored by Moudjibath Daouda.20 Furthermore. the fact that Dakar Web is a co-production between Senegal and Canada raises issues of authorship and control. Senegal’s first cyber café. Facilitated by the Inter Society for Electronic Art (ISEA). early evidence already demonstrates that Africans not only make innovative use of new information and technology strategies but are also effectively competing in the global market. and culminated in five Web fictions including Amika. Cauris. many of whom had no previous computer experience. who suggests that the development of the Internet in Africa presents conflicting terms: on the one hand is Africa the consumer. and spiritual connections ‘between older ways of weaving reality and newer ways that tend to emphasize independence and innovation above all else. as Diadji argues. and created links between them. Arising out of a post-Independence context in which African artists sought to redress Westocentric misrepresentations and recoup cultures disparaged during colonization. aesthetic. as a point of departure. a question of standards arises: how should African Web narratives be analysed and within what specific parameters should their efficacy be interrogated? Gabriel and Wagmister address this issue by challenging the position that digital technologies and the works that arise from them need not be solely delineated within ‘the paradigms of the industries and interests that produce and promote them. one of the clear outcomes of the Web fictions of Dakar Web is the fact that African artists are frequently open to cross-disciplinary influences. Diadji views initiatives such as Dakar Web as an opportunity for African artists to explore new aesthetic horizons and mutual enrichment between Western and African viewpoints by focusing on the intersection between Western technology and African cultural traditions as narrative inspiration. ‘the links between various forms of artistic expressions is an important characteristic of this artistic Africanness.’31 Certainly. Given this context.’32 This is reflected in the dominant role played by orality or oral tradition across artistic genres. narrative transformation has been a commonplace process for. Iba Ndiaye Diadji suggests that opportunities for networking in Africa are constructive. Western technology in African hands becomes African technology.100 Sheila Petty example.28 Furthermore. ‘African artists have used.27 Certainly.’ thus arguing against the primacy of theories based on Eurocentric precepts. given the potential for cultural exchanges.30 Instead. they foreground another way of framing the digital imaginary by exposing the vital structural. and literature: as Diadji observes. oral tradition has played a major role in shaping the worldsense of African identity in narrative forms ranging from literature to film to television. creating aesthetic hybridity between visual arts.33 .’29 This demonstrates that Africans are extremely adept at moulding so-called Western technology into a means of expression specifically designed to suit African purposes and issues. In other words. Ultimately. cinema. this reduces the influence of Western technology to a more appropriate perspective in that technology becomes a tool of artistic expression and not an end in itself. or blended them in order to create something completely new. classical forms of expression. as a cultural construct.’36 This is evident in Amika’s narrative structure in which the interweaving of mythical forces and contemporary issues combine to play a major role in the dissemination of the Web fiction. The text on this page invites the user into the story by offering the following ambiguous fragments: ‘Amika . Et les Témoins passent/Amika .’35 As an example of the latter...’ The ambiguity of these words is emphasized by the repeated image of a question mark that runs vertically down the centre of the screen. textured background.34 On the surface. and oral tradition are reconfigured for interactive spaces.. is the icon for the Lanternautes.. against an ocean backdrop. these works mark a transition in aesthetics in which African sensibilities of time. Amika. the front page offers the user the choice of narrative branches in the form of three oval icons arranged in a triangle against a grey. extends oral narrative structure to new media by continuing to contemporize these strategies. of the lights.. Like a phoenix . thus engaging the user immediately by encouraging her or him to join in the process of assembling the narrative. the Witnesses’ icon reveals an abstract human stick figure fashioned from thin metal bars and clad in African cloth. The icon at the top of the screen features a sculptural image of Amika. Tel un phénix . Most importantly. along with the other Web fictions of Dakar Web. For example. pairing digital still images of artworks with blocks of text that suggest a hypertext story. Time.. a female figure created from scrap metal and ragged cloth.. the work has a deceptively simple design. has a profound role in defining many different forms of African narrative structures. space. and the Witnesses go by. As an explanatory tale charged with the task of exposing a range of cultural ideas. Amika emerges as a complex Web fiction driven by a rhetorical structure that relies on an African sense of time and space in which absence becomes a means of engendering debate. written and oral cultures have created ‘narrative structures based upon seemingly opposing metaphors: the unidirectional line and the iterative circle. or form in sculpture are secondary to flashbacks and repetitions and stylized flourishes. Amika draws strongly on the metaphoric and poetic structure of oral tales to create an immersive environment that foregrounds Senegalese concepts of community and critique. des lumières. To the left.. fantastical figures comprised of lanterns on legs. African art forms evoke a distinctive rhythm in which ‘linearity in a tale or a brushstroke in a painting. and to the right. However. . as the narrative progresses and the spectator is actively drawn into deciphering its meaning.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 101 As an early example of African digital narrative. As Pamela Jennings argues. allowed things to weigh too heavily on her mind. warp. the above example demonstrates a slower.102 Sheila Petty The text is interspersed around and between the images. The text opposite the . This concept of space and time is similar to that employed in sub-Saharan African cinema. woven from ideology and linked together by ‘narrative “modalities” of passage. the narrative branches to a screen divided into two regions. It goes on to portray Amika as an individual who has not. creating a series of shifting and interlocking blocks through the visual interplay between text and image. a strategy that encourages a contemplative rhythm as the user considers the ideological relationship between text and image. more deliberate unfolding narrative in which emphasis is placed on taking time to appreciate the relationships between image and word. The digital image reveals Amika. The user must engage each element individually. this time on the left and standing in the centre of railway tracks that disappear in the distance behind her. are interwoven into a distinctly African pattern.’38 The metaphor also de-emphasizes linear notions of history by raising the possibility of three-dimensionality through texture. Hence. Amika could be likened to a piece of cloth in which the three narrative strands. then Amika is a spatial narrative in which the journeys of the characters become a digital geography. The metaphor of weaving. if weaving is a map of colour and form. and weft in which unseen forces can have a visible effect on real-life events. In the lower section of the screen is another image of Amika. As a narrative. each with its own colour and form. tend to repudiate. until this point. the figure of Amika foregrounds the fictional structure of the narrative while connecting it to real places and time.’37 Thus. a young woman who lives in a poor squatters’ area amid garbage and other castoffs from a material society. The top half features text on the left and a rectangular digital photograph on the right. Placed against a real background of sandy earth and distant trees. in which the time the narrative subtends creates ‘a vision of the world registered in movement. as a means of creating ‘pedagogical links by which non-Western peoples can integrate digital technologies into their own lives’ reflects an openended connection that gives primacy to a concept of social space and community which Western notions of technology ‘in their instrumentality and emphasis on the individual.’39 When the user clicks on the Amika icon on the front page. The text that accompanies this image describes Amika as awaking early and pondering the fleeting and treacherous morning light. and the Centre. indicating a lack of access to water and hence underscoring her poverty. For example. In each of these cases. the icons from the front page repeat in the last section of the screen. These sections underscore Amika’s innocence by foreshadowing the unending poverty that will later drive her to despair. where the wealthy make their money. Yet another indication of marginalization occurs in an incident where Amika. which some of the ‘gentlemen of the Plateau’ take as flirtatious. the text offers no explicit judgment on whether or not the economic gap between Africans is just: it merely describes the situation. The influence of oral tradition on African narrative structures creates a profoundly unique worldsense based on ontologies in which ‘the world consists of interacting forces of cosmological scale and significance rather than of discrete secularised concrete objects. they occupy an interesting middle ground between the two. The extent of Amika’s exclusion from privilege is implied by the revelation that people of her status are only allowed to travel to the Mountain in order to sell the flowers that grow on the garbage heaps in the Plateau. Finally. The economic divide is heightened by a depiction of the Mountain people as scarabs who descend to the Centre to roll up large balls of money that they then stockpile on the Mountain. happy smile. the social environment through which Amika navigates is implied by a description of three metaphorical zones: the Plateau and its poverty-stricken inhabitants are caught between the Mountain. This strategy evidences distinct pedagogical goals as the discursive space that arises from the narrative encourages the user to debate ethical quandaries raised by a community divided into haves and have-nots. leaving the user to choose her or his own perspective regarding the significance of Amika’s living conditions. rips her own to just above the knee. Dedicated to gossip and their own amusement. nor are they purely mystical. Ambiguity and metaphor are major contributors to the shape of the narrative. despite their human-like figures.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 103 image emphasizes her infectious. rather. As it branches out. the Witnesses are not clearly human. allowing the user to move through the three narrative threads in the order she or he chooses. the . this is indirectly alluded to by the fact that her exposed knees reveal that she does not have the opportunity to wash often. in a desire to fit in with the fashionable young women of the Centre who wear short skirts. where the wealthy live.’40 This is evident in the narrative structure of Amika as supernatural forces play a major role in the development of the action. There is no direct statement that Amika fails to achieve the desired acceptance: rather. Another difference between the two is evident in a later branch that describes the daily activities of the Witnesses. foregrounding the dissimilarity between their state and that of Amika. the Lanternautes are portrayed clearly as supernatural forces. who is often depicted alone in the frame. the images and the text accentuate the nonproductive leisure of the Witnesses’ existence. Both depict the Witnesses gathered in groups beneath a tree and are accompanied by text that reveals how they while away the daylight hours by exchanging witty remarks disparaging the last spectacle they observed. there is no specific condemnation of the values held by the Witnesses. once again. alluding to their supernatural qualities. unlike Amika. suggests that the Witnesses symbolize a timeless force. Rather. arranged above and below the image in the centre of the screen. the Witnesses conduct their activities within the frame of a journey that parallels and eventually crosses that of Amika’s. Taken together. Clicking on the Witnesses’ icon on Amika’s front page leads the user to a screen that features a still image of a group of Witnesses lined up against a wall. Hence. In contrast to the ambiguous nature of the Witnesses. nor is there an openly negative portrayal of their actions. However. This emphasizes their role as a societal force in contrast to Amika’s role as an individual. the narrative posits the failure of the Witnesses to intervene as a story strand that is then to be placed into context by the user with all the other strands offered by the narrative. In addition. It is significant that they are always portrayed in a group.104 Sheila Petty Witnesses take joy in observing other people’s pleasure or pain without intervening. This process encourages the user to participate in meaning-making by creating their own ideological map of the Web fiction. although in this case it takes the form of a restless passage through the Centre as they seek out the next victim to satisfy their voyeuristic needs. the association of the Witnesses with the urban space of the Centre provides the user with an additional level of discourse in which the Witnesses’ predation on weaker members of society signals a breakdown of community values in the metropolis. The text. The page is dominated by two still images: the first is located on the top left of the screen and is a medium long shot of the Witnesses and the second is a long shot located at the centre left. This is indicated in the first segment of their narrative thread that is divided into three sec- . thus making them a metaphorical representation of an uncaring society. thus according them a position of power while reinforcing Amika’s vulnerability. who must work for her meagre living. As bearers of light. Thus. as the user must delve into the relationship between narrative fragments. the Lanternautes represent an affirmative connection to the rhizome of African identity and are symbolic of positive community values worth reverence. The above descriptions of the three narrative patterns that comprise Amika may appear to reflect a linear arrangement of story elements.41 In other words. The digital photographs of the Lanternautes emphasize a particular relationship with Yémanja. the Lanternautes appear associated with the mystical force of African tradition as a means of healing urban alienation. Furthermore. The metaphorical presence of the goddess.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 105 tions and demarked by text and digital photographs. what has been described above in a linear fashion for the sake of clarity is experienced by the user as a series of fragments assembled through choice. digital weaving involves interlacing lines that are connected on an aesthetic and conceptual level by the cross threads of interactivity. Viewed in this light. However. evokes a sense of spirituality that is absent from the urban space of the Witnesses. This is underscored in a later branch revealing that the Lanternautes only leave the sea when they are responding to the distress of individuals who have lost the light in their lives. when their journey through the city takes them across busy roads. In this sense. goddess of the sea. The text at the top of the screen identifies the Lanternautes as the children of Yémanja. otherworldly visual force. as Gabriel and Wagmister argue. the user is at the loom. just as she or he must determine the ideological relevance of each page. strongly linked to nature imagery. the Lanternautes illuminate the depths of the ocean but leave their marine world for land if they hear a genuine distress call. Their drive to intercede on behalf of these individuals and rekindle their light makes a powerful contrast with the Witnesses. The difference in their status as narrative agents is further demonstrated by the respect they command: for example. truck drivers yield to them in deference. Amika unfolds like a mystery. who not only refuse to intervene but subject the individual to ridicule. The story space of the Lanternautes. giving them an ethereal. Portrayed in long shot. the structure of the narrative threads ensures that the user must explore them all in order to . Thus. they are depicted in the foreground on a sandy beach with blue water in the middle ground and luminous sky in the background. indicated by the water and brilliant sky. grounds the Lanternautes in nature. drawing threads through at will by clicking on the icons at the bottom of each page and creating a narrative pattern and meaning that is unique to her or his experience. For instance. filtered or layered. in which meanings are generated. or in a growing realization that she is marginalized in her society. a variety of interpretations are possible: it could be grounded in her poverty. The Witnesses appear at the top of the screen in a digital image on the left and are accompanied by text in orange on the right. The character of Amika exemplifies this process as key questions of motive are left unresolved in the story. The process of non-linear assemblage undertaken by the user underscores the importance of narrative ambiguity in Amika. and withheld or retrieved according to definite and specialized conventions. The role of metaphor. The effect of this strategy is to reinforce an African sense of time and space as the narrative requires persistence and reflection on the part of the user in order to derive its full meaning. leaving it open to wide speculation. the presence of ambiguity in Amika reflects a narrative strategy specifically targeted to enhancing the user’s role in creating meaning. The text. Therefore.’42 Thus. and where access to these meanings may be highly restricted. the source of which remains a mystery. the ambiguity of her psychological distress emphasizes the recombinant possibilities of the story’s competing ideological thrusts. she or he will be unable to follow the narrative thread to its conclusion: the final icon will lead back to the front page.106 Sheila Petty arrive at a full understanding of Amika’s experiences. and absence in the Web fiction results in a certain obscurity in events and character motivation that demands interpretation by the user. or in a growing desperation that she will never escape the interminable road that connects the Plateau with the Centre. Amika is depicted on screen right in a digital image in which she is isolated in darkness. the screen is divided into three sections at staggered intervals down the page. secreted. now in red. the reason for Amika’s journey to the city is never explained. Here. The use of obscurity and ambiguity is a narrative hallmark in many sub-Saharan oral genres and is intended to engage composers and listeners in ‘a game of signification. as Amika approaches the city. indicating that they are searching for a spectacle to enjoy. Furthermore. From the point of view of the user. Amika encounters the Witnesses. should a user decide to click solely on the Lanternaute icons. The final image on the screen reveals her prostrate . describes her as she collapses to her knees. At the height of her anguish. For example. violently wracked with sobs. allusion. she becomes overwhelmed by a sense of spiritual malaise. encouraging the user to explore the other narrative threads in order to place the story in its proper context in terms of the whole. hurling body as a sight no one pays attention to. it could indicate an affirmation of African spirituality as a reservoir of strength or represent the selfknowledge attained through a difficult journey. Thus. Hence. Ultimately. screen space is broken into three sections. the proximity of their image to those illustrating her distress implies that this is the case. it serves to give primacy to the supernatural forces that rescue Amika. indicates that they have heard Amika’s piteous cries and have come with the light she needs. therefore creating an open ending as the light given her has many possible explanations. as a means of restoring happiness to their lives. In the top third. Second. To the right. it is worthwhile noting that Amika possesses narrative resolution in which the intervention of the Lanternautes is key to restoring positive African social values. indicating that Amika has been spiritually restored. The fact that Amika does not acknowledge their presence heightens the sense of voyeurism by leaving it open to interrogation. Although the effect is somewhat delimited by the user’s non-linear assemblage of the narrative. The last section is dominated by two phrases. connecting the Web fiction to the continuing evolution of African oral history. For example. located left of the image. The text. The first asserts that the Lanternautes return Amika’s smile and the last. cast in a larger font. the strategy foregrounds the word as the most important aesthetic in the work. as the text describes her screaming. Although there is no direct reference to the Witnesses encountering Amika and participating in her humiliation as onlookers. this time of a single Lanternaute striding across the rocky ground. by engaging the user’s imagination. the success of Amika as an early African Web narrative lies in its ability to recast existing African narrative and aesthetic strategies to . the text states they will build a bonfire if they find the person they are searching for. This achieves two goals: first. the absence of an explicit statement of relationship between the sections compels the user to forge the interconnections her/himself. It is significant that the narrative climaxes ambiguously in the text. the absence of a definitive resolution creates a kind of narrative persistence that fosters discussion beyond the conclusion of the story as the user seeks to interpret the true meaning of the ending.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 107 body on the ground. Below the text is another photograph. declares that it is a genuine smile. Although the question of access to technology remains contentious in Africa. Amika generates both debate and interactivity. In the final branch of the narrative. a digital photograph on the right depicts the Lanternautes gathering around Amika’s prostrate form. 1998).. NOTES A version of this chapter was originally presented at the Media in Transition 2 Conference at MIT. 6 Michael Heim. 126. trans. you can easily locate those African signs and symbols where the ethnic roots offer as much to the continent as to the outside world. MA: MIT Press. ix.’44 Thus. 5 (1996): 345–50. by leveraging digital technology and adapting it to African aims through an African approach. no.’ Leonardo 29. Becoming Virtual Reality in the Digital Age. Gabriel and Fabian Wagmister. 1998). 7 Teshome H. . ‘Notes on Weavin’ Digital: T(h)inkers at the Loom. 1–2 (1997): 105. 1 I borrow the phrase ‘iterative circle’ in my title from Pamela Jennings. 8 Sean Cubitt. Digital Aesthetics (London: Sage. Joan Broadhurst Dixon and Eric J. 229.108 Sheila Petty bring African imperatives to a global platform. as artist Moussa Tine observes. 140. See her ‘Narrative Structures for New Media: Towards a New Definition. Peter Lunenfeld (Cambridge. Robert Bononno (New York: Plenum Trade. no. I am indebted to Michel Lefebvre for providing access to the Dakar Web projects. 1999). 1998). 2 Steven Johnson. 1997). they allow us to push the limits of chromatic research.L. Technology. ed. 147. ‘Preface: Virtual Futures. My thanks also go to Santichart Kusakulsomsak and D. Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate (New York: Harper Collins. If you know how to see. ‘Whatever its form. ‘we will never abandon our paintbrushes because they are irreplaceable: however. artistic expression stems from a lived and shared social reality . 3 Pierre Lévy. 10–12 May 2002. As Ousmane Sembène remarks. 5 Eric J. subject or content.’ in Virtual Futures: Cyberotics. 44. ‘The Cyberspace Dialectic.’43 This new technology complements existing means of artistic expression for. Cassidy (London: Routledge. Cassidy.. it is evident that the intersection of African oral and artistic traditions with outside influences is leading to the development of a unique African newmedia aesthetic as a continuation of long-standing artistic traditions..’ Suitcase: A Journal of Transcultural Traffic 2. and Post-Human Pragmatism.’ in The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media. 4 Ibid. ed. McGregor. Pape Teigne Diouf. ‘A Strategy to Accelerate African Development through the Increased Use of Information and Communication Technologies. Séa Diallo. 26 The question of ‘authentic’ African authorship in European/African co-productions is the subject of much debate in African indigenous media production. http://www. 108. ‘The Influence of Aid on the Creativeness of Filmmakers. Lait Miraculeux (Mamadou Fall Dabo. 3. 13 NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development).pdf (7 August 2001).org/codi/docs/doc25EN.’ Black Renaissance / Renaissance noire 3 (fall 2000): 145–67. 19 Moudjibath Daouda. 14 Ibid. 11 Yaya Karim Drabo. Frères Guissé).ca/africa/dakar/index. Djibril Sy). 16 UNESCO. Petit Pagne (Rackie Diankha. Assane Gning. Moussa Tine.qc. 6. africanrecovery.uneca.’ in Petits Ecrans et Démocratie: Vidéo Légère et Télévision Alternative au Service du Développement. Massamba Mbaye. For further discussion see Clément Tapsoba. 23 Ibid. 22 Ibid. Cauris (Serigne Mbaye Camara. Fatou Sow Ndiaye. ‘Information and Communication Technology Policies and Strategies.’ Ecrans d’Afrique 13–14 (3rd–4th quarter 1995): 86–93. 17 Ibid. 18 UNESCO. ‘FESPACO 1999: The Cultural Politics of Production and Francophone West African Cinema.html. Madické Seck).’ http://www. 24 Eva Quintas is a photographer and initiated the workshops for ISEA.Transformation of Web Narrative in Amika 109 9 Ibid. . Vidéo Tiers Monde and Vidéazimut.. 25 Workshop participants: Amika (Ndary Lô. 14.pdf (7 August 2001). 21 UNESCO.’ Africultures.’ 2. Talibés (Anta Germaine Gaye. ed.org/Documents/AA0010101. Nancy Thède and Alain Ambrosi (Paris: Syros-Alternatives. 1992). ‘Le Paradoxe Africain de la Télévision: l’Alternative par la Contrainte. ‘A Strategy. 11. 2. December 1999. 15 Ibid.org/codi/docs/doc22EN. and Teresa Hoefert de Turegano. Black African Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press. 20 NEPAD. 23. Michel Lefebvre is a writer and multimedia producer. Viye Diba.isea.uneca. Catherine McGovern is a Web art producer. 23.pdf (October 2001). 10 Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike. Vieux Mac Faye). 12 See http://www. 1994). ‘Les Enjeux d’Internet en Afrique. Alpha Sow).’ http:// www. ‘L’Africanité Artistique.. ed. 5: ‘C’est comme si. Harrow (Trenton.’ 105. 29 Ibid.qc. Cinema. 32 Diadji. les artistes africains étaient en train de sceller des mariages entres elles.’ 346. Montreal). Arnold Shepperson. ‘Chakide – The Teller of Secrets: Space. and the Moving Image. 40 Keyan Tomaselli. 34 Ibid.html (site now discontinued). ed. 203. Theory. 185.’ Colloque: Art Africain et Nouvelles Technologies (23 April 1999..’ in Oral Literature and Performance. Power. Vues d’Afrique: 11. 36 Diadji. 39 Carol Muller. mais elles permettent de pousser encore plus loin la recherche chromatique.110 Sheila Petty 27 Iba Ndiaye Diadji.isea. 45. ‘Towards a Theory of Orality in African Cinema.’ 106. Brown. ed. Culture. 28 Ibid. NJ: Africa World Press. African Oral Literature: Backgrounds.’ in African Cinema: Post-Colonial and Feminist Readings. 1999).ca/africa/colloque/ bio_fr/iba_conf. African Cinemas: Decolonizing the Gaze. June Givanni (London: British Film Institute. 230. 38 Gabriel and Wagmister. http://www. ‘Notes on Weavin’ Digital.’ in Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences. 2000). 31 Ibid. 44 Moussa Tine.’ 37 Olivier Barlet. 293. ‘Narrative Structures for New Media. ‘Dakarweb. and Television in Africa. ‘L’Africanité Artistique Face aux Défis des Nouvelles Technologies. tout en partant des formes d’expression classiques. ‘Notes on Weavin’ Digital. 42 Karin Barber. and Story in Zulu Maskanda Performance. ‘Notes on Weavin’ Digital.’ Africultures. Song. à des répétitions et à des courbes fortement stylisées. 41 Gabriel and Wagmister. ‘Obscurity and Exegesis in African Oral Praise Poetry.’ 4: ‘Ici la linéarité dans le récit ou le trait en peinture ou la forme en sculpture laissent leurs places à des retours en arrière. pour que demain naissent peut-être d’autres formes jusque là inconnues.’ 33 Isidore Okpewho. and Continuity (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 43 Ousmane Sembène. 173.’ 30 Gabriel and Wagmister. ‘L’Africanité Artistique. 2000). and Maureen Eke.’ . Kenneth W. 1999).’ 5: ‘La parenté entre les différentes formes d’expression artistique est à retenir aussi comme une des caractéristiques de cette africanité artistique. trans. 35 Jennings. Chris Turner (London: Zed Books.’ in Oral Literature and Performance in Southern Africa. 30. December 1999. Duncan Brown (Athens: Ohio University Press. 47: ‘On abandonnera jamais nos pinceaux car ils demeurent irremplaçables. ‘Information Technology. ed. 1992).’ 108–9. Different areas of interest come into play – including accessibility. Content becomes king. Bold = Playlist project meeting notes (from entries in spring 2003). The materiality of the image means very little on digital. untouched. blacks are Regular Type = Comparisons between digi. not content. You are working against density. since you can potentially address every pixel individually. film: the ‘backstory’ (from entries in fall 2000). a mapping to create meaning. In this way. an array of possible structures. space named in order to reconstitute time.5 Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue a b i g a i l c hi l d 8-14 In rural Vermont. unspoken (from entries in summer 2003). . Italic = Inner thoughts. large swaths of data. I receive my first e-mail from Africa. subtlety is lost. responses. it’s not what you see so much as how it’s permutated? how it’s reconstituted? A friend argues digital is more material. You are viewing a recomposed material. are everywhere. externalized. becomes critical: how the data is accessed is the determining feature. questions. analogue. broad lines of action – that’s all you can see. no place remains unknown. a recontextualization through variable indexing. no matter how distant. boundary rocks are hidden in the forest. 8-15 Perhaps in digital. and reproduction. Thus structure. repetition. Digital = a conceptual device. admittedly. In video and digital projection. Your eye grows accustomed to the deteriorated quality of the image – it adjusts – and with it a whole set of values – shadows. By the 1970s. with a nifty switching system where the gears and sprockets could be changed between 16 and 35 mm. the Moviola. a bug on its back with its legs flailing. we live in a world of frontage. and surface. and thus would eventually have far greater resolution than film. mobility. colour. were a more stable option. you need to consider that as processing speeds increase and storage gets ever smaller and cheaper. they were common in the States. behind which a one-storey. and a foot pedal. Duration becomes less important than contact. 100 times more pixels than 70 mm has grains. many wheels. The aesthetics and social implications of Robert Venturi’s theories of a mobile spectatorship for architecture are instructive here: for the Baseball Hall of Fame he designs a ‘billboard building’ wherein ‘stats’ from baseball history are manipulated onto a giant billboard as seen from the highway.’ their reels lying flat on the machine. With depth gone. It’s not there yet. was a brand name that became the name for the thing. So the promise of superseding film is still on the table. but it was never as reliable as the more sturdy and mechanically designed Steenbeck. which. Today. there’s slippage. like Kleenex. though a part of me says this has been on the table for fifteen years. temporary-looking structure houses the museum – that is. argues a friend. The ‘flatbeds.1 8-18 But. illusion. And surely some future liquid crystal display (or whatever) could produce black-black blacks. . The United States turned out its own editing table. I edit my first film on an ‘upright moviola’ with a postcard-size screen. The machine resembles an old sewing machine turned upside down. detail – are undermined. say. History: In 1970. You turned it on and it would spin in a furor and split your film lengthwise down the middle (as likely as not).112 Abigail Child hard to judge. the philosophical basis is changed. cosmologists are saying that Surface is the limit of knowledge. there is no reason that home video couldn’t have. particularly the German-made Steenbeck developed during the war. This laser-like slip to the beginning – the cyclical repetition – satisfies some primeval loop-need in us all. and interactive Forms view Search thread Generic raw clips Operation plug-ins How to make the interaction more than just choosing between limited givens? Film looks the best at this point in time. and more accessible. repetition is an elemental aspect. Yet. 8-20 Sometimes for me all the processing reads as meaningless abstraction. How to make processing meaningful? How to avoid sameness? Or perhaps what I’m asking is what is the meaning of abstraction? When . you can play it immediately. once you have the equipment. this doubling of the editing tool – as printer and composer – means repetition is a governing principle. digital is mighty fun and convenient – a kind of optical printer or copying machine. autonomous. is the most material in an era that grows steadily more virtual. Whether early Dara Birnbaum cut-ups of TV shows (analog) or contemporary performance constructions of the collaborative Ng.2 Media artists create an ‘interface’ that permits a dialogue so the public can access several views through multiple filters to create unique paths through the material. If you choose an ‘in’ and ‘out’ point to make a loop. Editing in film might be cheaper than video if you take into account buying all the digi equipment. plus recording instrument. With digital editing.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 113 Topology Intellectual property In kind How to keep it tidy Three kinds of new media: algorithmic. It’s cheaper and quicker than film for shooting. plus titling production all-in-one. becomes a structural trope in much video art. contact. is our flesh a kind of limit? Can I void these questions? They keep bobbing through the weave of this article – limits.3 Piaget points to Godel’s discovery ‘that the formalist program cannot be executed.’ In any case. post ‘airport music. flesh. political manipulation. to distance as a way to connect. which are often echoed in minimalist works of today. Have other aspects offset this loss? What are they? Whenever we talk about pathways on this project.4 . abstraction. that the idea of structure as a system of transformations becomes continuous with that of construction as continual formation. meaning. rather than envisaging human knowledge as a pyramid or building of some sort. body. whereas now it has more to do with contemporary life space. become a cover or excuse or lack of courage to investigate the real? Or/and is there any ‘real’ to begin with? Is this question moot? In light of the present? Another friend underlines that the same gesture means something different in different contexts. economic manipulation. stem from different aims: in the ’70s the quest was epistemological. Am I being nostalgic for the material body? Can I say nothing’s gained aesthetically through digi except speed? Does it matter if an aesthetic response is diminished in a medium if this is the contemporary state? The quality of the ‘sacred’ has declined in Western culture. in effect. So that..114 Abigail Child does abstraction. where he speaks of ‘wholeness as a defining mark of structures’ with its high hopes for organizing systems or information: our trees of video involving many branches. which applies as well to tech talk. depth. surface. the sound and art of the early ’70s. in connecting and indexical structures. This means. he showed that no consistent formal system sufficiently ‘rich’ to contain elementary arithmetic’ can demonstrate its own consistency. I think of Piaget’s structures of cognition and his essay on structuralism.. to the language of power especially. we should think of it as a spiral the radium of whose turns increases as the spiral rises. different eras. for instance. to language itself. In the first place. to a rhetoric of specialties. Piaget concludes: . post disco. the handmade or the translation of the energies of the body. printed/saved. word processing a kind of printing – similar to letterpress (surprisingly) in the sense that there are a set of parts to be combined.’ 8-23 Has the human achievement been to constantly overcome the limits of the body. VHS ten years. at war. and omnipresence of digi/video? It’s cheap (at least to shoot). co-existing in contradiction. How can we resist the fetishistic speed. New York 9/11. the 01s code files. drawing – now CDs you make yourself have a two-year life. 8-31 The miniaturization of information in digital allows for omnivorous inclusion. stills. is the live feed component of simultaneous broadcast. Digital utopianism confronts crass commodity/distribution. résumés. such as the book. in order to last? Has art practice focused on the making body. and then recombined for the next page. Structural. too. digital twenty years. the groundedness of body. or interfered with in air. on the outside. intercepted. Chicago ’68. Seattle ’99. the paradoxes of the body in vital contrast to the objects that survive? Has not reproduction long worn away the grain of the sacred? Benjamin’s ‘aura’ left dangling in ether? Sacred becomes cartoon power as transmitted into digi-cyber culture: machines attached to body. Tiananmen Square ’91. whether that be coverage of war or a trip to the moon. of the fragility of life on tape. reminding you of the frame of the presentation. elements peeling off. as populist intervention. in sexual-social fantasy. it’s everywhere. Still other structures of video/digital are transmission problems that haunt the reporter appearing on your television screen.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 115 8-21 As an artist involved in making. potential live feed. it’s bubbly (all those plastic colours). We witness through degradation the short life span of various media modes.5 8-22 He describes himself as ‘on the outside looking out. convenience. not as an inversion but as opposite sides of the same sphere. music. Music decides the path. all with a shorter life span than classical art forms. moving images. The laptop becomes a library in a box. painting. an encyclopedia at hand. this seems irresistible. This sense of structural elements that can . books. spreading information. A powerful sense of invention.ch/mullican/WorldFramed. Degradation as Genre. More remotes. Reminding me of the way New York is often behind technologies of Europe and Canada. as does digi and film long before. A concentration of flesh in which technology is not deployed as contact so much as consultation. The ability to pinpoint interests makes the Web an intrusive commodity machine but also a profound tool for getting you out on the streets. There will be nothing random in the branches of images we produce. On another hand. It shocks because it has no information. Regarding the fetish aspect of miniaturization. and multitudes is indicated. this sense of time to research or time to compose. People move to cities to be bodied together. and before digital. Analog video editing is linear. voting. An ideal of distribution without purpose. the edges of objects bleed until eventually the video image is five or six generations down. Rather the public will perform a meta–data search among authored clips. More on Earth: at the Langlois Foundation building in Montreal. Eventually. without language. it’s actually comfortably old-fashioned if foolishly parochial. a generation or more down.centreimage.html. you need to copy the sequence that follows. utterly frus- . and bring back to zero. One could argue digi was developed to solve the non-linearity issues of analog video. that means the colours degrade. using language to activate the parts of the weave to create an architecture or new patterning through the system. the image quality degrades. The march in New York City in 2003 is testament to Web organizing and to Howard Dean’s banished presidential campaign. to make the insert and re-edit the previously cut piece back in. a black one-inch round metal piece is the key that magically opens doors when you hold out your hand. It is a copy of a copy.116 Abigail Child recombine. is Matt Mullican’s http://www. we think of Star Trek and the characters’ inevitable diagnostic palm computer/transporter. More locked remotes. combination. then print forever (lightly). In analog editing. when you wish to insert a shot. which means it does not ‘open’ when you insert a shot. the Internet O Internet provides a forum for politics. 9-3 The only site on the Web I know that exists without text. I always liked that ‘look’ myself. right now? They jump the film model entirely – there is no uni-focus and more clearly multiple screens recreate the way information comes in at us. We represent precedence (hierarchy). We come up with Corn syrup Saccharine Zylotol Aspartame Glucose Sucrose Honey Let me finish my recap. non-linear timelines – all reference mainstream cinema practice – while these. You could make tweaks. frames. systems. You could edit the numbers. so delicious. pixels leached. gaps. impossible to take in at one time. jump-cuts. but it is fabulously unstable – an artifact as out of date and appealing as drive-ins themselves.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 117 trated. pouring off the surface. Who is that ‘we’? . 9-5 Why is everything processed? Why wish it weren’t? Film is the digi model clearly: ideas of ‘bins. the image melted. plus ideas of discontinuity.6 9-6 Why do multi-screens seem so palpable. interruptions. its reds and greens sliding like a high-contrast duplicated film print at old drive-in movies where the pizza ads look bloody and hysterical. dissolves.’ cuts. weave. and repetition explicitly reference experimental film practice. ability to insert words and phrases. 9-10 I buy hand weights to have beside my editing table to work out my upper body while I’m waiting for rendering or the machine to come on. demands unique particularities. When the piece is close to being done. however transitory.118 Abigail Child We represent volume. I’ll go through all my material a second time and more for selects. more exploratory (potentially): all these versions available and re-available. redo and looping functions. material copies imagined out of factory models. I’ve often thought the best shots show up now – not the obvious ‘good’ take. I am usually looking for some remembered shot or seeking some ‘bridge’ and might go through . THE MACHINES ARE TRAINING THE BODY. or is it space. we realize digi life may have a short future as well. Waiting to render. dates and intertitles at the moment of ideation. We represent breakpoint. Time. permanent dupes. oddball material. more spontaneous. immediate feedback. Haunted by thoughts of degradation when we read that the cloned sheep Dolly is/was aging more rapidly. witty. Early on in the editing of 16 mm. are nothing so much as Xeroxes: fading copies. but the strange. A very immediate performative time at the edit bench. Go around non-stop Change to plastic money Jacket and sneakers mark globalism Creating a universal system of clips with directory and database of views We get stuck with engineering A scatter bulletin view 9-12 Am I wedded to depth? How a timeline keeps going? Handcrank that globalism. It’s a different kind of time certainly. What we thought were exact reproductions. yes. Some makers have their digi masters transferred to VHS to protect the fragile original while they log and familiarize themselves with the material. I’ve adapted this process to digi. alien to the concept of digital. This is a reconstructed ‘workprint’ model. 9-13 Drop outs Crackling Rumble Flipping Sounds like turning motors Ripple delete Cocks and guns In the can The other screen has genitals Set it Forget Our Method of investigation involves a deliberate poetics. but a practice that acknowledges digi-tape’s real-life fragility. We aim to create an interface. to be read off a magnetic head on the synchronizer. underscoring the idea of original and copy. Connect any cold to hot lead Wrap what happens at edge to go further Don’t do anything until we harness the cold lead Reds are potentials From 1973 to1975. 9-14 How many paragraphs could be written on that word interface? The language of the new technology is suggestive of and strangely references analogue processes and meta-definitions – this insistent reference to the arguably outdated body. it’s a time-consuming process. It works best when you digitize every shot of your original. Either way. With these . the later process is complicated by the need to digitize all parts you missed. otherwise.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 119 all my material again. WNBC editors are still working with hand-cranked rewinds and a jerrybuilt system that rigged the sound rolls under the viewer. editors are working analog since they haven’t retooled!]. Usually it’s been a dance of getting up to the bin. and Time view. but I do feel a video effect on the brain and eyes. I don’t have headaches every time I edit now. A chain of vast plug-ins 9-16 We’re making Vertov’s dream plebian All access depends on how we navigate. after all – making decisions faster. invented in the 1950s. these news editors could cut synchronous pictures amazingly fast. I edit 3/4” analog video and have a different kind of headache that night than I had ever had before. how we name history. searching or picking out shots. less bodily structured. i. We are going to have chains of processing channels composing ladders of operations across everything. under the gaze of the computer.e. We have Scatter view.to twelve-hour day. And they were using a technology already fifty years old [rumour has it that at CNN. On a motorized editing table. Space view. That was nothing. And it’s much harder on your eyes.to twelve-hour day on the Avid/FCP. reaching over.. [Does this sound nostalgic at this point in time?] As far as getting a notebook or a cup of coffee. Unlike other views. My brain circuits do adjust. but the muscle/bone dance has been in a smaller circle – the bin is a click away.120 Abigail Child improvised and funky mechanics. In 1989. these activities recur in the eight. stopping and returning the film to fast rewind and relooking. This is spatial? I’ve only just invented this and we may not make it. geometry counts. Data index is Bin view. you feel physically exhausted after a solid eight. Plant sign posts Reuse a phrase Trans-global ELITE Neo PETS Hacker conventions and a doc plot Letters talking across borders Time and money BETAVILLE – the Premise: imagining technology more accurate than human sight . My body aches. Containers are where the mutability occurs. There’s a latency issue here. Maybe we should begin each statement with ‘Bastard. but will we be able to sludge through it? How to negotiate the fear of the human body disappearing into the Net? We have incorporated – taken into the body. into our day – the ephemeral. We experience the corporate machine as surveillance of the local. I was blown away.’ Perhaps Peter Kubelka’s Pause (1976) marks a significant moment.’ Some things never change. tape overwhelming Kubelka’s avowed classicism.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 121 9-17 But isn’t that replaying Dziga Vertov’s outdated optimism? His 1928 formalist film masterpiece Man with a Movie Camera combines humane city symphony with exhilarating referential film form. distance. This 16 mm film by the great Austrian film experimentalist is a monument to the inability to speak face to face. Emotion refigured in non-language. We use it to ‘get closer. Duration filled with expressive body movements suggestive of intent but unreadable. You see the beginnings of this decline in Vertov’s sound film Enthusiasm (1931) with its billowing factory smoke and darkening drums. It was a girl doing electronics. A head room issue. By the 1930s this energy is not so much exhausted as controlled. Today we exist in a more pessimistic. A reversal of the pyramid of power and information is what is needed.’ How to move into another environment? A file handler can solve these problems? In a real-world scenario rounding them up. pause button and absence. stymied by Stalin. . ‘Man. Legend examining different ways to collaborate. slicker state. Kubelka has before and after Pause been involved in an ongoing unfinished film project: Monument for the Old World (Denkmal fur die alte Welt). Then comes the question of ownership? We discuss Leningrad vs. It is tempting to think of Pause in relation to Beckett. things get moved. My film DARK DARK (2001) is constructed around just such ideas.122 Abigail Child Error as Genre: The mistakes one makes on the flatbed with celluloid in hand are different from those encountered on a computer. I want to upset the file holders . Searches are alive You want a dead search? Why? 9-18 Using physics. Implicitly created directories as opposed to explicit and unconsciously created directories All the past available all the time That would be a key word thing. composed and ordered by what seems an incredibly complex design. The disorientation of duration is complicated by the film’s physical disorientation: it’s frequently ‘rotated about the horizontal or vertical axes. In this case. Narrative chronologies are alternately ‘straight’ or inverted. We already have a ton of names. on the time line. Cutting film directed me to these structural errors and fortuitous possibilities – grabbing the ‘tail’ [end] of a shot when one wants the ‘head’ [start]. within each of which the individual shots proceed alternately forward or in reverse – the film simultaneously goes backwards forwards and forwards backwards. Labels become essential in digital even as an indexing error can cause fruitful digressions. seeing the upside result. The result is experienced as multiple waves of counter-intuitive time that collide with each other like ripples in a bathtub. described as ‘a montage of footage from four pre-existing films. There are also artifacts. the image is printing over material. covering up one track or another. Though you can ‘reconstruct’ them. a process that is intrinsic to analogue video as well. the hard-drive spins A set of instructions for my notes Many alphabets for instructions Many letters for action Shift drag backwards. fallacies of cloning and looking for a source that mistakenly lies under same names. but not to film editing. In the digi realm.’7 The point – that this is a kind of mistake you won’t encounter on digital. creating rhythms and unexpected counterpoint. there are other errors: for example. It’s in my dossier.’ the ambivalent Luddite in us all wonders how and if our real memories are being diluted. There is no escape from the barrage of commodity ads. The future is behind us. edit on digital and transfer back to film for projection.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 123 What about the unadvanced? We’ve finished the recap I’m serious. It seems film will struggle on until Hollywood decides to shift to hi-resolution DV. multiple-screen movies. As what we describe as ‘memory’ grows ‘cheaper. sabotaged by stereotypical sentimentali- . and time entrapments. Students shoot off the screen and combine that with digital and process through Premiere. By then there will be mini hi-def DV. inducements. There will be wall TV. The process is a conversation There will be nomenclature Wiki it out. out of control. I don’t want to go there. as are now on Viennese subways and in New York cabs. 9-19 O wick wick wacky. happy with their dub. and then there’ll be more years of activity among persistent artists celebrating the fragility and light-projected hallucinations of film and mixed mediums. cheap(er) and sophisticated systems with user-friendly interface and add-ons. Rapid fire Thumbnails Bites • Points • Modifications Edit the view mode Property can change Meta-data you can’t Change newer than one hour will be red Hybridity lives! Colleagues shoot a feature in half-inch because they like that ‘slippery’ look. the phone is ringing. and mini single-channels everywhere. Fulfilling Venturi’s prophecy of the mobile spectator by mobilizing the billboard as well. Protocol of long distance collaboration: off the hook. 9-25 A disposable technology. we are seeking to make interaction more than a choice among limited givens. migrates – immigrates. When the cell is saturated it is simply sub-divided. by distance as relation. it destroys the pretty picture and the detail of the long shot. My mobile went out to hear. random. non-lasting mock-heroic. Its radiant room energies and physicality in-the-making are different. unconvinced. assimilates. The cynicism and opportunism of commodity capital is obvious. Your speed reinvents and recombines. and. Artificial and fictive: a kind of crumbly. a web of anecdote and transitory experience. It changes the type of edit.’ So reads the latest bulk mailing I receive from a nationally based cable company. exhausted by no ‘off’ time for creative meditation. multiplied into ether. nifty historical device. finally. it refines the edit from the butt cut of celluloid.124 Abigail Child ties. Function follows tool. convinced. waiting for new conditions. Digital is a drift from the body whatever its connections to film editing. Rather. Speed is a censor Naming gives the action Speed is a SENSOR Reversing input Flip is a form Connecting by clicking and dragging name to key words Generates Flag morph to Flower to Pirate Picaresque One-eyed Cyclops to war victim Texts or rants that horrify Make interventions be the image 9-21 We double star that line ** 9-22 ‘One of the first applications (of interactive television) will obviously be pay-per-view movies. emigrates. So. It combines and recombines. it layers and it reproduces. Your SPEECH which is the physical . and how film’s ability to transpose. architect-turned-videomaker. used looping and interruption from contemporary TV shows and advertisements to humorously investigate and critique mainstream gender stereotypes. 6 See Lev Manovich’s Theory of New Media (Cambridge. and ed. Mars shadow ate up the lander. as well as Henry Hills and Melissa Ragona. all of whom read and advised.. Any remaining errors are mine. for publication in XX. Museum of Modern Art Papers on Architecture (New York: MOMA. how a library of film facts parallels the idea of data bank. 34. Media City Program Director. ‘Mr. . 1968). 3 Jean Piaget. 7 From an interview conducted in September 2003 via e-mail with Jeremy Rigsby. Windsor. and move non-linearly in the editing process etches out decades earlier these same processes in the digital revolution that takes place at the end of the twentieth century.Handcrank That Globalism: A Digi-Dialogue 125 manifestation of b r e a k – u p. Structuralism. MA: MIT Press. trans. invert.’ 18 September 2003. Wonder Woman and Kojak/Wang. Roboto. Chaninah Maschler (New York: Harper Colophon. 2000) for a more lengthy analysis of how avant-garde film practices predicate ideas embedded in the digital explosion. 5 The information about the life of CDs comes from a column on computers in the Village Voice. 4 Ibid. There were no signals coming back. Ontario. 2 Dara Birnbaum. a quarterly published by the Windsor Feminist Theatre (winter 2004). whose early works from 1979. NOTES With thanks to Playlist originators Willie La Maitre and Eric Rosenzveig. insert. 1970). 1 Robert Venturi. I am convinced that new discourses are needed. especially with respect to spectators. The term ‘user’ refers to how people interact with the screened interfaces of a computer and what they do or accomplish in the process. The question is: are digital forms of expression genuinely transforming traditional forms of representation and expression from literature to media?1 Are we dealing with a new set of phenomena and practices that require a different approach to the analysis of digital cultures and the discourses and representations that they produce? The answers to these questions may well be found in new ways of thinking about the photographic foundation upon which so much traditional and new media are built. even encourage. not only because it is derived from the early days of research in the computer sciences.6 From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor ron b u r n e tt Introduction Discussions of digital aesthetics in the context of new media tend to focus on characteristics that are for the most part drawn from previous media and art forms. that Lev Manovich discusses in his book The Language of New Media is the change from ‘viewer’ to ‘user. for me. as well as how humans use them. My response to these questions has been to develop some new terms that.3 but also because it constrains our understanding of how computers actually work. interaction or use.’2 Most of the literature on new media carves out similar distinctions – old media are for passive viewing and new media allow for. This essay tests out that claim. One of the central characteristics of new media. I offer these for debate and discussion. explain more easily the synthesis of new media with conventional forms of expression that use images. it . As a term. ‘User’ is not a term I am comfortable with. extremely reductive. There is an unproblematic understanding of the way in which information and experience contribute to the development of knowledge and human understanding. and surfers in generating their own experiences in viewing any form of media expression. Forsythe also suggests that for knowledge engineers. is a visualiza- .’ Forsythe continues. I do not believe that people who interact with media are just using the technology. Part of the reason for this is that the engineers and computer scientists who have been largely responsible for the creation of digital technologies think about the communication of information through models that ‘treat knowledge as a purely cognitive phenomenon. Knowledge in this sense is a stable entity that can be acquired and transferred. at worst. and reflection are pursued.’6 which feeds into a limited and limiting understanding of the complexity of human interaction with digital media. The term is just too reductive to explain the complex relationship people have with images irrespective of their digital or analogue origins. ‘thought and action are isomorphic. If the knowledge model is so weak. and this is described as ‘interaction. for example. communication. “knowledge” means explicit. ‘to knowledge engineers. Manovich’s suggestion that the move to user is a defining moment that distinguishes new media from old is steeped in a set of assumptions about human experience that are at best behavioural in orientation and. The more puzzling and important question is why the cultural notion of use has become such a normative constituent of the thinking around interactive media in general.5 In other words. then the challenge to find new discursive models will require us to revisit conventional notions of interaction as enunciated by the creators of the technology.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 127 actually devalues the intricacy of interaction because it narrows down the complexity of human–computer relations as well as simplifying our understanding of human subjectivity.’ The problem is that new media are supposedly about completely different paradigms of interaction that radically alter the ways in which meaning.4 This narrowing is largely the result of fundamental misunderstandings of the role of spectators.’8 The user operationalizes the scenarios that have been put in place for him or her.’7 ‘In short. navigators. globally applicable rules whose relation to each other and to implied action is straightforward. Tor Nørretranders makes the claim that the concept of user is a metaphor for a series of activities that are part illusion and part reality.’ and there is a guiding assumption that ‘knowledge is conscious. The graphic user interface (GUI) on a computer. In other words.)9 In response to these issues. The question is: what are you doing when you manipulate the GUI of your computer? When you are playing a computer game and using a joystick are you actually moving characters on the screen? Or are you playing within a fairly limited set of variables that generate the illusion of choice? Do these questions matter if the illusions work? The GUI (or the dock or the window) is taken as evidence for a series of hierarchical organizing principles that are supposedly mirrored in use. The interface is just a convenience. We need to inform the examination of these issues with more interdisciplinary work that makes use of lessons learned from the social sciences and the humanities as well as engineering and the computer sciences. There are not folders and so on. This is as much a claim for the importance of new media as it is an attempt to question whether radical innovation is in fact one of its characteristics. but an icon is hardly a representation of its complexity. Another line of argument about new media makes claims about changes in the ways in which the human body is perceived and experi- . but it is essential to the humanization of the experience. and creativity at the GUI level. I believe that we need to fundamentally rethink how images have evolved since the invention of photography in light of what new media technologies are suggesting about their function and purpose. It is an irony that even the most sophisticated of experiments in virtual reality rely on forms of visualization that are derived from initial interactions. then one of the main elements of that change will be found in what people do with the media they encounter on a daily basis. the ‘visualization’ of computer functioning through a series of iconic representations suggests more about human expectations than about the computer itself.128 Ron Burnett tion of computer functions. Computers are about electrical interactions and the speed of connection between ones and zeroes. development. It is only when the history of images – their evolution and aesthetic patterns – are firmly situated in the context of new media that we may be able to argue persuasively for some of the transformative shifts that digital technologies are engendering. For the purposes of this essay. and about audiences. it is necessary to recognize that the metaphor of ‘use’ has infiltrated all aspects of new media. There is a hard disk. (Even the most sophisticated animations begin their lives within the confines of two-dimensional. There is not really a garbage bin to throw out files.10 If we are in the midst of a revolution. GUI-based spaces. the work of Char Davies) are simply duplications of previous forms of media practice and experience. virtual experiences need to be brought into the foreground of critical work on digital technologies. and what we are describing as immersive. It must also be remembered that the icons of a GUI are for the most part titled to make sure that the meaning is clear. Even in those areas of the cognitive sciences where great strides have been made. Thus. have the underlying characteristics of digital technologies .13 Is there something specific about new media that shifts the parameters of human perception beyond what conventional media have provided? If the answer to this question is ‘yes. too little is presently known about the interactions of perception.11 Yet. the clear links between performance. information.12 I am not suggesting that wearing a helmet and engaging with a virtual space (see.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 129 enced within virtual environments. However. Flat surfaces have a variety of visual constraints that upset the hierarchical order needed to operate within the visual space of the computer. Rather. That is. rituals. and awareness in digital spaces to give these arguments real substance. theatre. the aesthetic base for most of new media remains photographic. then how do we evaluate that shift? Telepresence ranges from the use of an avatar as a representative of a human player in a game to doctors who examine patients from a distance. telepresence signals a move from proximal relations to more distant ones.’ then what methods of study are available to examine these changes? If. painting. within this evolving and complex area. This is really a photographic space. digital technologies need to be contextualized within a historical framework of human experience and immersion within media of all types. and it is powerful precisely because the discourse that we have available to analyse its meanings is both established and full of acceptable conventions. for example. What are the modalities of interaction within a computer game that make use of avatars or the remote manipulation of a robotic arm to perform surgery on a patient? What are the implications of these activities for conventional definitions of the human body and for the ways in which images are used as devices of interaction? It is ironic that. in particular. even the screen of a computer and the interface that provides access to its parts is structured along a compositional framework that is two-dimensional. an understanding of how mind and body interact to make sense of sensation remains a subject of debate and dissension. physical sensation. the circus. but also conventional notions of representation.130 Ron Burnett changed the way photographic/image environments operate?14 In other words. from still to moving. Imographs can simultaneously be in many places at once and move in and out of different software programs. authorship in the traditional sense is transformed. changed. What happens when imographs are produced from the interactions of computer programs without the direct intervention of humans? To what degree are digital cameras out of the control of imographers and as a result reconfiguring some fundamental ideas about photography and human subjectivity?17 . in large measure because digital images are essentially highquality video images. or even become the basis for a series of moving images?16 Distinctions between still and moving images also lessen in the world of imography (witness the still-photo function in most DV camcorders). no longer exist in isolation from the many different ways in which they can be transformed and networked. but what happens when still images can be converted into pieces and then layered into other images. This fluidity challenges not only meaning. therefore. ‘Imography’ is a term that brings photography into a close and interdependent relationship with the word ‘image’ and that recognizes the foundational role now played by digital tools in the creation and dissemination of meaning and messages.15 I have chosen to combine image and photograph into ‘imograph’ as a way of acknowledging the foundational role of photos in the development of digital media. Imographs also refer to the power of morphing and the ability to introduce a high degree of elasticity into digital images. Imographs can be placed into real-time contexts. and manipulated by a variety of real and potential authors. Moving images have always been kinetic. Imographs are images that can be transformed through the use of software within digital environments. Photographs and images of all sorts. what happens to a two-dimensional GUI in a context that is increasingly driven by more and more complex forms of visualization? Imographs This then leads me to ask whether we have moved from the era of photographs to that of imographs (pronounced ‘eye-mographs’). The dynamic interplay of software and imographs means that conventional notions of look and feel are disrupted. or clear focus is not a requirement for the imographs to be used for communicative purposes. these two-dimensional environments have facilitated the creation of a multiplicity of expressive forms that include the body. it is possible for all of these elements to form the foundation for a new aesthetic in which clarity. language. most of the technologies used to create digital forms of expression as well as different forms of digital communication are based on two-dimensional. (3-D work continues to remain at the margins of creative activity in the arts and media. and so forth. The arrival of haptic interfaces for games and other forms of physical manipulation will further break down the boundaries between screens and humans to enhance the fluidity as well as unpredictability of potential outcomes to imographic processes. composition and graphic design. images.18 Waking Life In the world of imography. bound to time with more and more layers of artifice built into the very fabric of the work. for example. movement. played with and manipulated by players. sound. This is an interdisciplinary space. in fact. is not using the traditional parameters of the screen to achieve its results. A further example is editing film or video using digital tools.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 131 As I have mentioned.19 Even more important is the shifting nature of space and time within the world of the characters and the way the imographs become concrete visualizations of their inner states. to some degree.) Screens – that is. the screen of a computer or video monitor – largely define these activities. in the control of players. music. (The . voice. Another example is computer games. GUI-based creative environments. In other words. which uses digital video and rotoscoping to remake video images into imographs. Visualization and experience combine in new aesthetic forms of expression and representation. the aesthetic is defined by the orientation of the playerscreen-design space – a space that. Nevertheless. Digital media depend on the continual fluidity and shifting expressiveness of imographs in motion. which gives meaning to movements and exchanges that are often unpredictable but also. One of the best examples of this is the recent film Waking Life by Richard Linklater (2001). Waking Life moves between digital video and animation such that it is possible to ‘see’ both forms at play at the same time. The games are about a completely different use of colour and form. which are not just images in motion. Can we talk about an aesthetic of the mathematical? Should we?20 Imagine a context within which you could actually. the construction of the screen space allows for interaction. Aesthetics As the digital infiltrates every aspect of our lives. yet. Digital tools are changing the landscape of expression and creativity. at the same time. are we going to have to rethink what we mean by television screens? What happens when rendering processes create three-dimensional worlds inside computers? Can the polygons that are the basis for the creative work here become the objects of analysis and critique? All of these questions need to be explored with a different set of discourses from the past and a heightened sense of the radical transformations that digital forms of expression are making possible. . For example. at the centre of the aesthetic concerns of the Matrix series of films. This is precisely the kind of dynamic media environment that begins to describe the aesthetic potential of imographic activities and is. not only in the arts but in every cultural form. What must be understood in all of this is that representational and symbolic processes have been transformed into geometric and mathematical activities. quite appropriately. the question of aesthetics will become ever more urgent. It will be necessary to respond with new critical languages and new categories if we are to critique digital cultures with more than just a descriptive response or a duplication of previous models of aesthetic analysis (fig.) What do virtual fish swimming in a virtual fish tank ‘look’ like? What kinds of discourses are we developing to deal with increasingly intelligent objects like the Sony robotic dog Aibo? What does it mean to visualize the human body through techniques that have been drawn from holography? Remote sensing permits the visualization of contexts that are far removed from the viewer. 6.1). transforming objects into intelligent vehicles for visualization and representation.132 Ron Burnett use of Final Cut Pro to edit a film is not just a duplication of what might have been done with machines like a Steenbeck or a Moviola. physically pick up a mathematical symbol and then throw it into a space and watch the symbol morph into a character. what will happen when a fridge is given the ability to talk? Will we begin to wonder about its shape and colour in a completely different way? If televisions are going to make choices for us based on our viewing patterns. the fact that figure 6. and playfulness. The screen turns into a canvas with powerful tools including the possible use of network-based elements. but now can be scanned into a computer and. it turns into a more fixed form. .1 This is a good example of an imograph. As a file.1 is a file means that it can be converted and changed further by anyone. become data. Does this mean that the word ‘text’ is different when placed on this page using Microsoft Word than when placed within the context of a JPEG built using the tools of a graphics program? Are all of the variables different enough here to suggest that the word ‘text’ has become an aesthetic object? How does this differ from what the poet ee cummings did with words on a page? In the first instance. It is this set of possibilities and potential shifts (both in character and quality as well as location) that make figure 6.1 an imograph. it is just data.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 133 Fig 6. once again. Second. On the printed page. It was created using Photoshop. both the word processor and Photoshop encourage manipulation. transformation. In other words. 6. and the results are a variety of windows. unlike the book that you are holding in your hands. The distinguishing factor is that the computer builds all of these variables into its operations. In other words. and this makes it possible to reduce or to expand upon all of its elements instantaneously. and yet my use of some of its elements binds me to the program and many of its aesthetic assumptions (fig. It means that the reproduction of imographs can take place within so many different venues. the equivalent of data. maps. I would go further and suggest that digital technologies encourage transformative and playful forms of interaction. Networks I would suggest that imographs no longer operate outside of the networks into which they can be placed. and using so many different tools. in large measure because it is invisible. Now. all of the elements of fig. It is simply that an imograph housed within a computer becomes. the printed page will become more fluid. Many different stages of creativity can be developed.134 Ron Burnett Transformations The key term here is ‘variables.1 can be transformed. it is not possible for me to ‘recode’ the programming logic of Photoshop. as more and more texts and images appear within computerized environments. and configurations of information that often defy easy classification. This in no way precludes the fact that the same activities can be pursued using analogue tools. it can be argued that a Xerox copy of the page in which this illustration appears has many of the same possibilities. This is true. This will have a profound impact on potential interlocutors and also on the nature of the viewing process. that the . Digital environments build on these potential transformations. as I have said. the role of the printed page will change into an artifact with many variables – in other words.’ Within the context of the computer that I am using. and generated within a time frame that is compressed and very fluid. 6. 6. It would also be possible to extract the imograph and move it to another program.1.2). The presence of the underlying code has no material impact on the relationship viewers or readers develop with the imograph.1 was created using a series of mathematically defined codes that translate fragments of an image into a series of ones and zeroes. Fig. 6. imagined. The ‘material’ of the digital world is radically different from conventional materials. it would be possible to add sound to fig. and. In the digital world. It was loaded into a Macintosh G4 and further altered within Photoshop. On the printed page. and there are resonances with the process of creating a collage in analogue media. It was then imported into Microsoft Word.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 135 Fig 6. I could send this imograph via e-mail and ask for feedback or place it onto a Web page. On a computer this image can be e-mailed to another individual’s graphics program and then altered in a variety of unpredictable ways. This is very similar to sampling in music. . This ability to borrow from a variety of different sources is made easier within digital environments in part because of the fluid way in which imographs and sounds can be networked.2 This imograph was taken using a digital camera at low resolution. the feedback can only be asynchronous. which becomes one full of flickering light. museums. which has two rearprojection screens floating in a space. and other institutions of display. (1) ‘“Dinner Table #1” is a table and a machine that listens in on table talk.’22 . The still greens of the image reflect around the space. The difference with imographs is that uniqueness and originality are far less important than networking. when you move again. (2) ‘“Sinking” is an interactive video installation that seeks to explore how diving under the water can act to slow your body down into a relaxed contemplative state. the images are still and the sounds are softer and slower. Compared to the other images. The system takes into account whether or not you are moving more or less than the average visitor to the work. and more traditional forms of expression that are beholden to galleries. So if you are slower to move and stand still for some time. You walk into a room. raising important questions about history and meaning. the space erupts in a jolt and the images return to the surface. and dissemination move further and further away from any initial context. Distribution and dissemination are foundational rather than an outcome of the creative process. The light and colours from these reflect around the space. Then. and translates these events into interactive games. Creative Projects and Imographs In order to understand these changes let me focus on a few examples of works that explore the multi-dimensional layers that I have been discussing. The table becomes ‘intelligent’ to the extent that the imographs visualize both the game and people’s reactions to the games. then the overall images and sounds are softer. production. the image shows you dropping down to the bottom of the sea. Compare this with the constraints of painting. The screen is no longer a privileged entry point for experience. The distance of imographs from the time during which they were taken to further production and then interaction can be as broad as is needed and as narrow as the imographer demands. sculpture. projected on these screens are images of waves lapping around you as if your head was just at the surface of the water. When you stop moving. objects become possible sites of visualization. As a result.136 Ron Burnett various stages of creation.’21 Imographic spaces are about the possible eruption of meaning from objects. spins stories according to the events surrounding it. The ‘Argonauts’ choreograph not only their own physical movements. but the imographs as well (fig. (3) ‘“Microworlds. (4) ‘The Iliad Project (2002) performance architecture by Jeff Burke. images. repeated performance that uses new technology.’ Imographs use objects. This installation is about navigation as much as it is about creating a new kind of imographic landscape and is akin to the work of Bill Viola. taking part in the complex visual and aural behaviours of the environments.3). Jared Stein. It will merge an on-line exploration of the world of the piece with a combination of interactive galleries and performance spaces.’23 The flexible articulation and visualization of meaning through a combination of different colours and shapes now moves from the screened space to a ‘living narrative landscape. and sounds to ‘envision’ an aesthetic that becomes an on-thefly dynamic expression of an ecological experience. 6. This piece is open to change as the participant moves around in it. Through careful integration of a database of audience information. however.’ 1997. © Agueda Simó. This new work is being constructed as a process that the audience intersects with and influences. It remains intensely metaphoric. the notion that images ‘respond’ to movement and that meaning changes according to the type of motion suggests that imographs no longer need to be fixed. the virtual space becomes a living narrative landscape as the Argonauts (users) navigate along time and space. Thus.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 137 Fig 6.3 Stereogram from ‘Microworlds. not simply a single. Sirens and Argonauts” introduces the concept of “living narrative landscapes”: virtual spaces that allow users to successfully construct their own navigational maps and to build their own representational models that can co-exist with the narrative of the environments. Adam Shive. sensing and image capture . Sirens and Argonauts. imographs become the interface to meaning. live video. The computer can then translate these data into rudimentary scenarios. The most important element of this example is the responsiveness of the avatars. Proximity or waving the navigation wand causes the environment to react and demand reaction. the piece will engage the audience-participants by modifying its own text and design elements based on the groups of people who visit the website and attend a particular performance. the goal of Blue Window Pane is participation. The CG characters are activated by the music dancing to its rhythms and beats’ (fig. when the activities of computers take on an automatic role.4).25 Like many experiments in this area. and sound-activated graphics. 6. The screen becomes both a tissue and a barrier: what artists like Dolinsky are trying to do is break down the differences between the real and virtual. However. As more information is gathered about participants.138 Ron Burnett technology. the desire is to move from outside of the screen into the actual virtual environment. Due to the mathematical nature of digital technologies. and this may well be one of the crucial outcomes of digital processes. programmers can .’24 The Iliad Project makes active use of another crucial characteristic of imographic media: databases. The difference is that the CAVE environment increases the degree of immersion because most of the space is screens. reality and its virtual offshoots co-exist. Participants explore and actively ignite events to gain a knowledge base through exploration and perceptual interaction. going beyond the parameters that have been entered into the coding of a program. As with computer and video games as well as online games. that is. Even more interesting is the relationship that is developed between the remoteness of the Web and the immediacy of the performance. (5) ‘Blue Window Pane is a CAVE virtual reality art experience that includes networking. and dynamically processed media. Conclusion In all of the above examples. Different levels of dimensionality are added through 3-D glasses and various pointers. their activities and actions become part of the ‘memory’ of the performance. Events are triggered by the participants’ approach to an object. The process builds upon itself with the result that generations of audiences ‘interact’ without necessarily knowing what they have shared and why. the imographs are non-figurative. create a series of random interactions among various strings of code.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 139 Fig 6. What I am getting at here is the manner in which increasingly complex physical forms approximating human shapes and looks have become the holy grail of imographers.26 Generally. an evolutionary process develops.4 Blue Window Pane (CAVE). The drive to reproduce the human body within imographic spaces is a rearguard action. In some senses. Imographs presage an era of exploration when it will be possible to touch images and grasp their physical form. because imographs inevitably shift bodies into data and then into form. and. some experiments have produced generations of imographs representing a physical output that could not have been achieved any other way. infor- . Notions of content. It is hard to imagine a process that would evolve with enough consistency to produce an interesting and original figure. The aesthetic power will come from the strength of the narrative and not necessarily from a naturalist approach. © Margaret Dolinsky (used with permission). through it. Random interactions produce unpredictable results. MA: MIT Press. On the Origin of Objects (Cambridge. and the Romance of the Real (Cambridge. 1998). . communications. 1999). Imography may well be the first stage in a long-term evolution that will transform human–computer interaction into unpredictable forms of learning and experience. 4 Tor Nørretranders. 10 Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin. Lev Manovich.R. 53. 9 Richard Coyne. and Embodiment in Virtual Reality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 5 See the first chapters of Ronald Burnett. The Language of New Media (Cambridge.. Media and the Imaginary (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. This will challenge not only what we mean by ‘the real. Cultures of Vision: Images. Holism. 2 Manovich. Imography will increasingly reflect the variables of multimedia mixing and pastiche. 8 Ibid. MA: MIT Press. Digital Sensations: Space. 11 Ken Hillis. 2001). and knowledge will have to change in order to accommodate the drive to create a new aesthetic. 6 Diana Forsythe. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (New York: Viking. After all. The Dream Machine: J. any aspect of life will be open to inclusion within digital environments. Technoromanticism: Digital Narrative. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal (New York: Viking. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace (Cambridge. Brian Cantwell Smith. 1999). MA: MIT Press. eds. Perhaps we need to transform the engineering term ‘user’ into learner. Language of New Media.’ but also what we mean by content. Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge. The Brain (London: Transaction Publishers. MA: MIT Press. new discourses are most effective when they encourage learning.. 1998). Identity. and learning. 3 M. 1999). in some senses. 7 Ibid. Studying Those Who Study Us: An Anthropologist in the World of Artificial Intelligence (Stanford.C. 1997).140 Ron Burnett mation. CA: Stanford University Press. 12 Gerald Edelman and Jean-Pierre Changeux. 2001). MA: MIT Press. 205. 52–3. 2001). 2001). Mitchell Waldrop. NOTES 1 Janet Murray. 52. and. 1995) for an exploration of these issues. Mitchell. Envisioning Information (Cheshire. 25 Margaret Dolinsky.htm (site now discontinued). http://www. MA: MIT Press. 15 William J. Digital Mosaics: The Aesthetics of Cyberspace (New York: Touchtone.. 2001). 26 Gary Greenfield. 3 (2002): 283–9.au/exchange/writing/language_of_interactivity. ‘Blue Window Pane – CAVE Art Environment. Writing Machines (Cambridge. 20 Edward Tufte.andrew.’ Leonardo 35. 14 Marie-Laure Ryan. 23 Aguedo Simo. 22 Robin Petterd. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press. CT: Graphics Press. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era (Cambridge.cmu. 18 Steven Holzman. ‘Networked Multi-Sensory Experiences: Beyond Browsers on the Web and in the Museum.’ http://anim. 19 For further information on this extraordinary film.edu/%7Ebohlen/ dinnerTable. wakinglifemovie. 1992).com/. 16 N.archimuse. et al.usc. Jeff Burke.From Photography to Imography: New Media as Metaphor 141 13 Oliver Grau.fa.otheredge.html. Katherine Hayles.indiana. ‘Simulated Aesthetics and Evolving Artworks: A Coevolutionary Approach.com. 1997). 1997).htm. 1990).contrib. MA: MIT Press.’ http:// dolinsky. 21 Marc Böhlen. http://www. go to http://www. NY: Cornell University Press. ‘Microworlds. 2002).edu/bwp/synopsis. 24 Fabian Wagmister.edu/ simo/. 2003). ‘The Language of Interactivity in the Context of Immersive Video and Sound Installations’ (31 May 2001).com/mw2002/papers/wagmister/ wagmister.html. Sirens and Argonauts. . The Engine of Visualization: Thinking through Photography (Ithaca. no. http://www. Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 17 Patrick Maynard.’ Museums and the Web 2002. This page intentionally left blank . has specific implications for culture. commodity culture.PART II Digital Time – Archive The second section of the book moves from spatially based considerations to notions of time. The essays in this section are concerned with warnings such as those voiced by Bhabha and.’1 This historical memory itself was. and identity nexus. by struggle. The politics of time underscores much of modernity. of course. viii. never free of mediations. globalization. and the devastation of cultural differences rooted in traditions that are not part of Western or masculinist precepts. gendered. Considering contemporary worlds. memory. 1999). Homi Bhabha has warned of a ‘danger that the “presentism” of the net may drain everyday life of its historical memory. to value it unequally across classes and peoples. The writers go beyond the polarized arguments about technology. The power to fill or empty time. whether of national. 1 Homi Bhabha. Media and the Politics of Place. memory. leisure time. the processes through which memory becomes illuminated as history have been formed by contestation. ed. . especially in regards to gender. Hamid Naficy (London: Routledge. as such. Exile. Homeland: Film. especially in regards to technology: labour value. ask questions about the cultural and/or gender bases of the history. and history. preface to Home. and the ‘digital diaspora’ of the maquiladoras and the urban unemployed. or class-based inequities and fantasies. This page intentionally left blank . See. ‘It’s a vagina.’ and embodiment. ‘why would artists want to use this kind of imagery? What was going on politically at the time? What do you remember about feminism in this period?’ A hand shoots up: ‘Georgia O’Keeffe?’ ‘Hmmm. And while some hypermedia works I was exploring did use fragmented writing spaces and multivocal narratives to deconstruct ‘Woman. flowers. (I click the image on the screen).’ ‘Euuuwwwww!’ ‘Okay. at the turn of the millennium..1 to find so much of this ‘lost’ feminism again. Some students in the back stifle a ‘euuuw. Others?’ How quickly things are lost. online.’ I lift a copy of Tee Corrinne’s Cunt Coloring Book off the podium. I want to hand her a speculum. then. and contrasting these with the demands of geometric space and linear time..’ there was less interest in deconstructing her than you might imagine. And how odd it was for me. It’s got a huge vagina on it. seashells – recall Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party .’ I don’t want to get too off-track unpacking this.’ I begin again. Let’s get back to that.7 Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday cai tlin fis her I’m trying to explain core imagery to an Introduction to Women’s Studies class as part of my ‘Why have there been no great women artists’ lecture. Alongside hybrid . Adults only. Just show the pictures. ‘What’s that?’ says a girl in the front who should know better. An uncanny number of women working online were describing digital writing technologies through the invocation of second-wave feminist terms like ‘the everyday. ‘vaginas. XXX. peel off a layer of clothing to reveal my lavender Calyx Retrospective T-shirt.) ‘Core imagery.’ ‘women’s time. look closely – every plate has a famous woman’s vagina on it. I arrive at the 1970s. patiently. proliferating in feminist hypertexts. often posited as masculine.’ I start again. (On the back it reads: ‘Women’s Studies. with little flower petals around the edges.’ I explain. Perhaps it’s not much of a surprise that issues and strategies and theories that exist outside hypertextual discourses would also be present within them. This digital work recalled the theoretical and practical preoccupations of much 1970s feminist artistic practice and constitutes a return to what would seem to be a feminist yesterday.’ Hypertext author Judy Malloy writes. and women-only spaces. complete with core imagery. I believed it was ‘natural. and interior spaces – ‘the everyday’ – all woven together with striking consistency.. consciousness-raising manifestos. passing fancies. a widespread return in digital hypermedia practice to standard 1970s ‘female themes’: cooking and recipes.. for example: When I first began using hypertext almost ten years ago. even in the face of more contemporary feminist theoretical preoccupations – the difference debates. The gendering is implicit in . Hypertext practitioner Carolyn Guyer writes. From those first days till now. Affected by nearby hues we cannot or will not understand. we follow our influences. I have continued to see this medium as very life-like. and daydreams that we tell ourselves every day in order to make sense of things .’3 While the mapping of this technology with the body is famously found as far back as 1945 in media pioneer Vannevar Bush’s ‘As We May Think. Why here? Why now? And to what effect? Online. but amplified . to measure with our bodies. online.. I see it in the form of a quotidian stream. small stories. even in an electronic milieu.’4 we do find the argument gendered in interesting ways. performativity. letters. ‘hypernarratives imitate the associative. écriture feminine. trying to contend with the geometries of space we also inhabit. family discussions. and continue.’ body art. a flirtation with essentialism in discussions about technology is easy to find.’ designed to work associatively.2 And Guyer is certainly not the only woman to describe digital writing technologies in terms of the body and women’s ‘everyday. recovery of lost ‘herstories. oppose. But I was curious as to why this theoretical and political moment was seemingly privileged. I found.. as the human brain does. Surely not. The gossip.146 Caitlin Fisher ontologies and experimental narratives. match. and anti-essentialism coming immediately to mind. We live and make our stories in a line of time that wraps and loops on itself. family albums. herstory archives. I still believe something like that. contingent flow of human thought and the unpredictable progression of our lives. along the same lines. ephemera. or almond-shaped map headed by a Mandorla. by Guyer and Petry’s text. intuitive power originating from within women’s bodies themselves. rewritten and swallowed up. a hypertext authoring package with a spatial interface (each hypertext screen is represented by small boxes that can be moved around to form diagrams and images).8 This kind of radical feminist discourse. while never disappearing entirely. Carolyn Guyer and Martha Petry’s hypertext ‘Izme Pass. the divine female genital. has long fallen out of favour. but theorist Sadie Plant makes the connection between multitasking hypermedia and the feminine explicit: ‘Think of the difference between DOS and Windows and you’ll see that the future is female. ‘Izme Pass’ subsumes ‘WOE’ within its structure.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 147 the texts above.’6 Shelley Jackson’s online hypertext My Body: A Wunderkammer contains the following vivid invocation of écriture feminine: ‘My vagina had rewritten Joyce. as well. the Asiatic signifier of the yoni. but possibly to Michael Joyce. unleashed. the feminism I ended up teaching – arguably less lyrical and decidedly less sure-footed. It was then I knew I was going to be a writer. against the uncomplicated dualisms and the unabashed acceptance of a chaotic. Indeed.’ for example. Written using Storyspace. And VNS Matrix. an Australian group. or a Memory of What Will Be’ – indeed. is a collaborative response to Michael Joyce’s hypertext ‘WOE.’7 The allusion is certainly to James Joyce.’ we are the modern cunt positive anti reason unbounded.’5 Core imagery abounds. too. in their ‘Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century. as you recall. unable to be women-centred in part because poststructuralism had taught us that there were no women really – struggled explicitly against this kind of formulation.or o. Guyer and Petry rewrite Joyce’s ‘mandala’ layout with their own: ‘a diamond. writes. . unforgiving we see art with our cunt we make art with our cunt we believe in jouissance madness holiness and poetry we are the virus of the new world disorder rupturing the symbolic from within saboteurs of big daddy mainframe the clitoris is a direct line to the matrix. Blair and Takayoshi remind us that ‘the Web is yet another cultural site where users are bombarded with representations of women based more on an essentialist definition of woman than the lives of real women from varying cultural backgrounds. Culture is tied. seashells. and even if the plates were more vagina dentata this time. this widespread attention to woman versus ‘big daddy mainframe. vagina as interface. I found dozens of examples of pieces that seemed politically and aesthetically anachronistic – action taking place in the ‘women’s spaces’ of kitchens and bedrooms as if the public–private split were only now being considered and interrogated for the first time. to me. uninfluenced by thirty years of debate. Flash animations of bodies. Jouissance. through which these themes had passed. madness. has also observed that ‘a more negative cycle is also repeating itself. indeed. but what about the difference debates? What about the feminism that moved beyond this kind of essentialism and this kind of dualism? What might the return of these familiar themes and devices in hypermedia in the year 2000 signal? The computer seemed. as the women who have found their way into cyberterritories are generally those who have economic and cultural advantages in other territories. as well as political texts.148 Caitlin Fisher As I continued to explore hypertexts online. And it was impossible for me to discount the fact that so many of these hypertexts were apparently being produced by white women. and poetry we could use more of.’10 Issues of sameness and access to cultural texts and production become urgent again. bodies. apparently effortlessly across a generation. Perhaps more . would seem to beg critical intervention. a feminist artist active in the 1970s (famous for her knitted ‘womb room’’at Womanspace) and one of the very few of those women working with electronic media today. holiness. rather than thirty years ago in important visual art.’9 And Faith Wilding. Did the appearance of these texts point to a calculated rejection of contemporary feminist theoretical preoccupations? To ignorance of key issues in Western feminism? Were they an expression of a longing I had yet to identify? My first thought was that these hypertexts should be read as being as much about nostalgia as about the future. the ocean. and cultural reproduction.’ this allegiance to gender binaries. feminist video work. negotiation. to a sense of place – to home – home as a site of exploration. images of naked women floating through the air – it was Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party all over again. and more bodies. of course. a fluid screen. undoubtedly. of course. links and networks.12 Consciousness-Raising It’s not surprising. when something like the sisterhood still seemed viable. pointedly.’ There wasn’t much public discussion until later.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 149 hauntingly. we’re already living ‘The Retro Apocalypse.’ She writes: Apart from multilinearity these were words in common usage among feminists in the 1970s. perhaps. going on to identify ‘its Greek roots – nostos. a certain longing for the feminisms ‘we’ who felt at home fifteen years ago knew – before sexuality and gender were uncoupled. margin. or irrelevant. culture is tied to an imperial centre.. before that. about who exactly felt at home in that second-wave feminism and why. too. nodes. where there is such a glut of nostalgia that ‘we get so nostalgic for nostalgia that culture implodes. nostalgia no longer has to rely on individual memory or desire: it can be fed forever by quick access to an infinitely recyclable past. And some feminists make the connection between the kinds of practices hypertext enables and the nostalgia it can trigger explicit: Australian feminist theorist Susan Hawthorne. and multilinearity certainly describes what we were .”’ Homesickness. notes that hypertext is described as a practice wherein ‘ideas of centre.. audio and video reproduction. Nostalgia perhaps isn’t surprising. at least to me. After all. Maybe it should come as no surprise to find texts that suggest. then. there was an often publicly expressed feeling of ‘homecoming. meaning “pain. of course. When I first encountered feminism. Thanks to CD ROM technology and. or about how those who found feminism as theorized then so comforting could possibly imagine that some women found the theoretical as well as the physical spaces of feminism uninviting. for example. then. Hutcheon continues: Nostalgia requires the availability of evidence of the past.’ according to one writer. meaning “to return home” and algos.’11 ‘What WAS nostalgia?’ asks Linda Hutcheon. hierarchy. and linearity’ are replaced by ‘multilinearity. in words resonant with Guyer’s assertion that hypertext – as a technology – is particularly feministfriendly. that we witness indulgence for those narratives of feminism for which ‘we’ remain nostalgic. and it is precisely the electronic and mechanical reproduction of images of the past that plays such an important role in the structuring of the nostalgic imagination today . disappointing. Abbe Don’s site Bubbe’s Back Porch. We were privileging the previously unheard.’ The stories here foreground women’s roles as mother. find the one piece of information that will transform an experience we had nearly forgotten into a life changing moment which has been waiting years to unfold. consciousness-raising. ‘What could be better than hypertext?’ writes one Net observer. unimportant. unspoken.13 Online. the sharing of recipes . writing as public discourse? Writing as process? What else is HTML?’15 But consciousness-raising groups have been critically observed to work best when their participants are fairly homogeneous (‘that happened to me exactly the same way’). as Hawthorne suggests. encyclopedic sites that aim to tell collective truths. and search the Web for similar encounters. A picture of Matzo Ball mix alerts us to a repetition of familiar domestic themes: birth stories.150 Caitlin Fisher doing in consciousness-raising groups and collectives. as Jewish. These digital projects often collect individual women’s ‘authentic’ personal stories creating archived. we return. We might too. If you want to add a story. which have mystified us since their occurrence. death stories. We could compare and contrast other’s experiences and draw deeper meaning into our own experience. you can simply email your text and a digitized photo (if you have one) to bubbe@bubbe. as daughter. ‘we could take events in our own lives. to the consciousness-raising (CR) group: ‘I have this theory.’14 It certainly sounds like a consciousness-raising manifesto. linking with one another through common or different experience. except that rather than have twelve women sitting in your kitchen.com. the members of your CR group would be an unknown quantity. making associations across those experiences and expanding those associations into a cultural life which was built on a strange scaffold that only we could see as it slowly grew into what we now know as a culture centred on women’s experience. Archives Some feminists online aim to construct new narratives and stories or resistance – ‘new “wholes” replacing “holes”’ – encyclopedic. for example. grandmother stories. accessible. invites ‘women from around the world [to share] stories in real time and then post them to Bubbe’s Back Porch.’ one online journal manifesto reads. ‘to engage the too long either-or of writing as personal expression vs. is the lack of critical framework offered by the women constructing these archives. ‘like a quilting bee. ‘MEMORY IS CORRUPTIBLE. our hearts and our kishkes.’16 Another example of an encyclopedic. like early CR groups. ‘I just found it around the house’ Like much second-wave feminist aesthetic practice – think video. biography. ‘Bubbe’ writes: ‘Nothing makes me kvell more than seeing people connect with a dormant part of themselves or their past. gathers stories about mothers. family photographs.’ writes Dawn Stoppiello in the ‘Gender & Identity in New Media: Open Forum’ bulletin board. these spaces of comfort. ephemera. these theoretical homes.’ Bubbe’s Back Porch also urges women to meet face-toface. too. grandmothers. I realized there’s something about stories that enable us to learn from each other and make a connection between our heads. collage work. stories of pregnancy and birth. Mother Millennia.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 151 and wisdom among a community of women. Collections of family pictures have been noted as strengthening the metaphor of home online. ‘I would say traditionally that it has been the women in families who organize and cherish the family photo albums. consciousness-raising site. perhaps especially.’18 What is striking. and. mini-shrines we . What past is being valued here? What kind of culture is being supported and reproduced in these homepages? Whom are we saving for? And what do we tell ourselves about these collections. food. allows privileged women to find one another to theorize (and problematically generalize) on the basis of that experience. ‘STRUGGLE TO REMEMBER – CONSTRUCT AN ARCHIVE. Themes on this extensive site include adoption. ‘I like the idea of Web pages as the fat photo wallets my adolescent friends and I carried in the 1950s.’ the site proclaims in menacing CAPS. given current feminist projects aimed at deconstructing identities and challenging even the building of narratives or bodies to inhabit. and oral history. meeting places of sisters whose visions of the world were coincident with what you’d known all along but had never before communicated: this feminist culture? Perhaps this online work. Ever since I began putting stories on the Web.17 After you visit the mother archive. visit the World Lesbian Biography site with its archived stories of Home / Dream / Style / Sex / Biography / Politics / Art / Relationships / Adventure. and so forth – many feminist hypertexts make use of recipes. 20 While her work has been compared to the cinematographic montages of Trinh T MinhHa’s films in which fragmentation and discontinuity simultaneously lead to opening spaces for multiple readings. everyday fragments. ‘The project is composed of ten animations and soundtracks inspired by ten old black and white photographs of my family. a text that makes extensive use of photographs. The photographs. and Jael Lehmann that also uses family photographs to explore the relationship of personal history to public politics while at the same time continuing the longstanding feminist project of telling the ‘lost stories’ of women. Each of the project members identifies as a granddaughter.23 It is their ordinariness. positioning herself on the motherline. Trudel’s photographs are ordinary.’19 The fat photo wallet is deployed again in Judy Malloy’s fictional Its Name Was Penelope. in which the personal and the visual meet. along with historical photographs of Nazi atrocities taken at the end of the war. resonates at the same time with earlier.’ she writes.’22 Pascal Trudel’s hypertext Synchronicité also takes domestic themes of the family album as a space of departure.21 this kind of digital photographic practice. In the work. old photos represent individual memories whose associations are changed each reading as the photographs are constantly shuffled by the computer.’ Like the photographs we see in Third Generation. they write.152 Caitlin Fisher whipped out of our gigantic purses. especially given its thematic relationship to ‘private’ domestic space. seemingly personal but made for show. vacations. ‘most of them taken between 1910 and 1940. in fact. portraits – but their larger historical context makes them extraordinary as well. ‘are often ordinary: holiday celebrations. that Trudel sees as poetic and magical – photographs so specifically grounded in narratives of family . Recovering Herstories Third Generation: A Website Project on Family Photographs and the Rhetoric of Memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust is a lifewriting website project by Rachel Schreiber. less experimental feminist work like collage work and quilting. family gatherings. Perhaps it’s not surprising that so many feminist hypertexts make use of family photographs. Each of the project members was raised looking at these photographs. captured in albums across families: Two children and their mother / Two boys and two cats / Two girls and a ball / The brass band / Venice / The nurses / The wedding / The honeymoon / The young woman / The labyrinth. Andrea Slane. ‘View of Eiffel Tower from the street. revealing these snapshot moments as being less about individual families than about the narratives that structure family life in specific times and places. Longstanding feminist preoccupations with recovering lost stories find a more explicit place in digital work. readers encounter lexias about cooking and quilting and uncover. more intimate spaces which. This echoes much earlier feminist preoccupations. relationships among diverse women. tells a story of reunited lovers through the montage of a series of haunting black and white images that take different shapes and occupy different territories on screen. sewing. Deena Larsen’s Marble Springs. Large images divide by two (and divide by two again and again) as the reader follows Lialina’s links. creating smaller. Faith . of course – for example. stitching. Trudel’s site reminded me of how I had once found a blank photo album at Goodwill and all the pictures had been taken out but small typed captions had been left beneath ghost outlines of the spaces once occupied by photographs (where are they now?).’ and so on.’ ‘Uncle Ernie and Aunt Phyllis. The reader is also presented with ‘anonymous’ poems found in an abandoned ghost-town church and is invited to excavate textual clues as to the poets’ identities. cutting the cake together. is an interactive poetry hypertext that explores the lives of frontier women of the American West. ‘to weave’ – there are explicit and ubiquitous references to women’s traditional needlecrafts (weaving. too. While some of this work makes use of personal photographs. in a manoeuvre suggesting the recuperation and rediscovery of ‘forgotten’ and anonymous women artists that was also a focus of second-wave feminism. I loved it precisely because this could be anyone’s album: ‘Uncle Harold standing in front of the Louvre’ (and I can see him there). for example.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 153 life that they take on a universal quality. patching) and the urgency to mimic and resurrect them in hypertext works produced by women.25 Feminist hypertexts also tell the stories of private domestic spaces that so often go unnoticed.24 Along the way. guided by the complex linking structure. juxtaposed with the images of the explosive outside. 40th anniversary. as discussed.26 Craft From the root of the word hypertext itself – texere. Olia Lialina’s hypertext My Boyfriend Came Back from the War. for example. eventually become claustrophobic. and Coyote. to the overtly misogynist Malleus Maleficarum (‘The Hammer of Witches. consciousness-raising. Jackson’s text also deploys another classic feminist strategy: retelling the stories we have been told from a different vantage point. adding new stories to old.. a story. Samplers is richly suggestive of women’s needlecrafts but also returns to oral forms of telling and incorporates Navajo myths of creation. When I did a small one. There’s a graveyard. a crazy quilt. now digitally canonized? ‘The future. as Disney and Spielberg have taught us. lost stories. domestic themes and tools – is it all just retroapocalypse? A digital doorway to the ‘infinitely recyclable past?’32 Nostalgia for an unchanging feminist home. I couldn’t resist making a mola myself. Hopi tales. only about a quarter the size of one of the Kuna pieces it was not particularly fine work. Then.154 Caitlin Fisher Wilding’s knitted ‘womb room’ mentioned earlier. Patchwork Girl riffs on both Frankenstein and The Patchwork Girl of Oz as well as women’s traditional craftwork and works outward from a speculation: what if the monster was a woman. Influenced by the feminist movement of the early 1970s. but the next one was better. and a journal. Schapiro ‘used textiles as symbolic of feminine labour. First she attempts to fix it and in so doing conjures the women who first sewed the quilt. with tombstone lexias. and what if she fell in love with her female maker?29 Like some of the other work discussed here.. She writes.30 to Deena Larsen’s work Samplers: Nine Vicious Little Hypertexts. and the one after that better still.’27 In her hypertext ‘Fretwork: ReForming Me.31 Essentialist arguments about technology. Tomorrow will be a heyday of nostalgia. a quilt. Literary intertexts in feminist digital work abound.’ the bible of witchhunters) in Juliet Martin’s A Witch’s Work Is Never Done. and broken accents’ – begins with the figure of the stitched female body. I stitched these beginner’s pieces into the quilt top.’ writes hypertext theorist Stuart Moulthrop. core imagery. makes an appearance too.’28 Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl or A Modern Monster by Mary/Shelley and Herself – ‘a graveyard. ‘I imagined these stories as I sewed. and soon she is adding to a palimpsest of stories. from Frankenstein (a feminist favourite). that ubiquitous woman’s art. a journal. and the collage work of Miriam Schapiro called ‘femmage’ (female + collage). ‘is a place we must come “back” to . and the hypertext is composed around the figure constructed carefully to accommodate the parts.’ Carolyn Guyer talks about purchasing bits and pieces of a discarded mola (a Kuna quilt). an intensive pursuit of “lost” or “forgot- . ’ to what extent should these feminist hypertexts and digital archives be read as attempts on the part of some women to shore up against the loss of this feeling of coming ‘home’ some women found in ‘feminism’? How many of these digital works.35 Following Braidotti then. of the homogeneity of CR groups. of repetition and so forth.’33 If collecting can be understood as a consoling substitute and. for example. as one writer puts it.. If so. can apply in exactly the same ways. even if feminist hypertext practitioners are not consciously engaged in the ritual of burial. like the totemic meal recommended by Freud.. essentialist. The way out can be found by mimetic repetition and consumption of the old. the rehearsal of the ‘old’ . function merely as nostalgic reconstructions of an imagined (much better. ‘evidence of continuity and symbolic communication with the past. or naive. less fragmented) feminist past? As a fluid screen between the second wave and now. what’s already been done and what is no longer worth pursuing to produce jarring and inspiring new insights? Rosi Braidotti offers that the new is created by revisiting and burning up the old . unmediated by lessons learned? But is there only one way to tell this story from the naive 1970s to the sophisticated here and now – except online? Do all of the old criticisms apply in exactly the same ways? What would happen. not all of the old criticisms of essentialism. you have to assimilate the dead before you can move on to a new order. Much of the new digital material is generated by young women and women new to feminism for whom these debates are being staged for the first time. then. of the sisterhood. We need rituals of burial and mourning for the dead. including and especially the ritual of burial of the Woman that was. and who bring new experiences and.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 155 ten” values. To the extent that this is true. I would like to suggest that productive tensions and pathways might generate new texts. perhaps the ‘feminist yesterday’ I see all around me has more to do with my own reading practices. if we were to ‘allow our nostalgia to channel new possibilities into old pathways?’34 Rather than dismiss these formulations as old. hypertext theorist Johndan Johnson-Eilola urges us to consider. Could these hypermedia practices disrupt understandings of the boundaries of feminist theory and the stories we tell ourselves by dislodging our assumptions about. expectations of hybridity and diversity to the encounter. possibly. By revisiting 1970s feminist preoccupations in hypermedia a new kind of critical space may be opened up with fresh answers as to where we might go from here. that we will be challenged to arrive at. female. fleshy shapes. a real rethinking of the place of essentialism in feminist thought or the continuing need. Linda Dement’s inspired little cyberflesh girlmonsters are visually suggestive of the weaving together of cyborg and speculum: linda dement (ld): I collected body parts from women. They are indebted to growing up with the legacy of feminism in popular culture and a curiously ahistorical cyberfeminist girl power that at least occasionally gives a nod to both Haraway and Irigaray. they donated their body parts digitally. this return to familiar domestic scenes. revealing tensions and pathways that prove to be productive for feminisms. Intriguingly. different body parts. there are little monsters and digital videos of various monsters’ behaviours and stories and medical information about the physiology of certain monsters. across generations. arguably this reconstruction of ‘Woman. From that I made a work that is really about monstrous femininity. bums. hands. This return to the body. in the context of hypertext projects whose centre is always shifting. it might well be through this kind of work. anything. and I put those bits and pieces together to create little monsters. not many though. And by the time I’ve made the monsters you can’t really recognize particular things anymore.36 . it’s like a black comedy. for example. A lot of scars. They are just strange. feet. Lots of people sat on the scanner. They are conglomerations. to share individual stories in search of pattern.156 Caitlin Fisher may have surprising value. conglomerate. no longer so easy to imagine as being possible thirty years ago. miss m: To give people a picture who have not had the chance to see [the work] what do you mean by body parts? ld: Everything. can also be read in the context of being produced by hypertext practitioners who have no idea that they are engaged in repetition and whose entry points are various. The Web offers a different arena for politics with the possibility for wide dissemination. Alongside monstrous reading practices we may wish to bring to these texts. miss m: What kind of monsters are they? ld: Very fleshy. All of the monsters are made up of women’s body parts. We’ve got hands and faces.’ here in the digital realm. because it’s hard to put your face on the scanner. some of the core imagery online is already pretty monstrous. the lights are too bright. Alt-X Publishing Network (1997).org/Carolyn/Estuary. ‘The Future Looms: Weaving Women and Cybernetics. coordinated by Carolyn Guyer (2000). able to be read as both naive and fresh.’ in Clicking In. As Jackson herself writes in Patchwork Girl. http://mothermillennia. 2 Carolyn Guyer. and in so doing reveal new possibilities.html.’ Writing on the Edge 2.org/vns/manifesto. then. 4 Vannevar Bush. http://www. 7 Shelley Jackson. And we are haunted. http:// www. ‘Hypernarrative in the Age of the Web’ (2003). ‘WOE. 3 Judy Malloy. we are revenants. ‘we are ourselves ghostly. to conceive ourselves’37 – a palimpsest of theories and stories. My Body: A Wunderkammer. arguably as much about feminism’s past as about its present.well. one of the most insistent of which appears in the way we use our information technologies. 6 Carolyn Guyer and Martha Petry. disrupt the easy linear developmental tale of the feminist then to the feminist now.html. these invisible strangers who are ourselves. this homage to Frankensteinian femininity. 2 (spring 1991). We haunt the concrete world as registers of past events. notes that in reading hypertexts ‘we increasingly come to realize an assemblage of points. through their performance of feminist theories. ed.’ and Michael Joyce. 1996). writing about Shelley Jackson’s own patchwork tale about monsters.html. July 1945. encourages the reader/viewer to think in complicated ways about identities – both individual and collective – and their relationships to bodies. George Landow. http://sysx. our prosthetic memories. suggestive of new ways to think about who we think ‘we’ are and what we carry within us. Lynn Hersham Leeson (Seattle: Bay Press. Our whole life is a kind of haunting. 5 Sadie Plant. wrapping and looping on themselves.Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 157 This collage of parts to produce composite monsters.com/user/jmalloy/neapaper. in which the linking structure itself signals a departure from uncomplicated telos. 8 VNS Matrix. 134.’ Mother Millennia. no. .’ Atlantic. 101–8.’38 These feminist hypertexts. by these ghosts of the living. ‘Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century’ (1996). dangerous and productive.altx. ‘Along the Estuary. NOTES 1 Most of the hypertexts discussed in this paper were visited in 1999–2000. ‘As We May Think. the present is thronged by the figures of the past. ‘Izme Pass.com/thebody/. html. My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996). ‘The Edge of Difference: Negotiations between the Hypertextual and the Postcolonial. 24 Deena Larsen.net/identity/ open. 23 Pascal Trudel.’ Mosaic 29.’ Romanticism on the Net 10 (May 1998).utoronto. http://www. and Creativity. ‘Introduction. Bubbe’s Back Porch. ‘Navigating the Image of Woman Online.html.awaken.mica. Marble Springs (Watertown. 2 (summer 1998).html. 1993).html. Awaken. and the Future of Literature. ‘Notes on the Political Condition of Cyberfeminism. and Jael Lehmann.’ in Cyberfeminism: Connectivity. http://users. 25 Molly Abel Travis. 13 Susan Hawthorne.’ http://www. ed.2/ binder2. Thomson. http://www.html?coverweb/invited/kb. Web forum posting.ac. http://www. 3 (1997): 598–630.html. org/.library. http://english. no. http://mothermillennia. 1999). Nostalgia.html. Critique.uk/ ~scat0385/work.org/maid-encore/intros/trudel. no. 14 Julie Ann Chiron.echonyc. 20 Judy Malloy.com/. http://www.’ Modern Fiction Studies 43. 1998). http://www.edu/kairos/2.htm 12 Linda Hutcheon. 21 See Jaishree Odin. MA: Eastgate Systems. 1993).158 Caitlin Fisher 9 Kristine Blair and Pamela Takayoshi. no.edu/schreiber/thirdgeneration. http://www.cfa.com/angst/harleyculture. 10 August 1999.studioxx.org/. http://www-art.org.org/war/war. Australia: Spinifex Press. and the Postmodern.’ Kairos 2.com/~lesbians/. Andrea Slane. 11 http://www. ‘Gender & Identity in New Media: Open Forum.’ Art Journal 57. 15 Douglass H. 17 Mother Millennia.ca/utel/criticism/hutchinp. http:// www. Hypertext. teleportacia. coordinated by Carolyn Guyer. Third Generation: A Website Project on Family Photographs and the Rhetoric of Memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (1999). 16 Abbe Don. no. ‘Synchronicité. 12. ‘Cybernetic Aesthetics.’ Maid in Cyberspace – Encore! (Studio XX. MA: Eastgate Systems.cmu. 19 Dawn Stoppiello.judymalloy. . 26 Olia Lialina. 18 World Lesbian Biography Site. 4 (December 1996): 115–29. Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein (North Melbourne. 10 Faith Wilding.html. 22 Rachel Schreiber.edu/ www-wilding/notes.bubbe.ttu. ‘Irony. 2 (1997).ox. Its Name Was Penelope (Watertown. ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production.’ University of Toronto English Library Criticism and Theory Resources (1997).html.goingfaster. http://www. ed. 28 Carolyn Guyer. ‘Cyberfeminism with a Difference’ (University of Utrecht. or a Modern Monster by Mary/Shelley and Herself (Watertown. 9 November 1999. A Thirty-Year Retrospective.or.org/maidincyberspace/index. ‘You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media. Patchwork Girl. http://www. http://mothermillennia.let.’ 33 Stuart Moulthrop. Nostalgia.html. http://jefferson.org/cpace/ht/pg/pgmain. MA: Eastgate Systems. ‘Miriam Schapiro: Works on Paper. Mother Millennia.591/moulthro. 1998).Feminist Digital Aesthetics: The Everyday and Yesterday 159 27 Missoula Art Museum. 1995).studioxx.tfaoi.at/sadie/intervw. ‘A Witch’s Work Is Never Done.. 1997).org/Carolyn/ Fretwork1. 1996).’ Maid In Cyberspace (Studio XX. 1995).htm. http:// www. 32 Hutcheon.t0. MA: Eastgate Systems. 31 Deena Larsen. 37 George P. 38 Shelley Jackson.edu/pmc/text-only/issue. 36 Miss M. no. 29 Shelley Jackson. MA: Eastgate Systems. Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing (Norwood.com/newsm1/n1m552.html.’ Cyberarts and Cyberculture Research Initiative (2000). village. ‘An Interview with Sadie Plant and Linda Dement’ (1997). 1997).html. 35 Rosi Braidotti.virginia. http:// www. Self: Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl.uu. and the Postmodern. ‘Fretwork: ReForming Me. ‘Stitching Together Narrative. 30 Juliet Martin.htm.. http://www.’ Resource Library Magazine. 34 Johndan Johnson-Eilola. coordinated by Carolyn Guyer (1999). Samplers: Nine Vicious Little Hypertexts (Watertown. 3 (May 1991). ‘Irony.htm. Landow.’ Postmodern Culture 1.cyberartsweb. Patchwork Girl.nl/womens_studies/rosi/cyberfem.’ rev. Sexuality. or a Modern Monster by Mary/Shelley and Herself (Watertown.591. NJ: Ablex Publishing. . unpag. Music videos have changed how many of us respond to music and how we make meanings of. have been changed either by the passage of time or by their displacement.2 This ‘new’ relation to music. to blacken it) has given sight to sound. That is. a sonic sighting if you will. This new relation of the sight of sound and a new history for the relationship between the ear and the eye have profound effects for the future of musics and the . The tensions produced by attempts to compare or evaluate differing black cultural formations can be summed up in the following question: How are we to think critically about artistic products and aesthetic codes which. music. It is undeniable in the age of music television that music can be seen. which their musical habits reveal. working on the contemporary forms of black expressive culture involves struggling with one problem in particular. has inevitably changed the shape and sound of music and how it is represented or seen both in our imaginations and. for my purposes in this essay. or dissemination through networks of communication and cultural exchange?1 Paul Gilroy.8 The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History ri naldo walcott The basic labours of archaeological reconstruction and periodization aside. though they may be traceable back to one distinct location. and post-BET. It is the puzzle of what analytic status should be given to the variation within black communities and between black cultures. The post-MTV era (or post-MuchMusic. in the filmic text. to Canadianize. music now has a sight to it as well as a sound. The Black Atlantic Introduction: The Emergence of the Sight of Sound Let me begin with an obvious observation. relocation. and out of. For Akomfrah to achieve his intentions it must be understood and taken as serious that the first technology of the modern was the enslaved bodies of Africans made into machines in the plantation economy.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 161 future of popular musics in particular. in its dispersal and yet its apparent coherence. In recent scholarship. In short. black diasporic response to the continuing and increasing presence of the World Wide Web in human life has been a feeling of disenfranchisement.’ The metaphor of the Internet is apt for the black diaspora. But because those bodies refused such a limited designation. producing the optics of music. 45 minutes). The World Wide Web. as Kodwo Eshun argues in the film. rhythms. they immediately became cyborgs. Scholarship pioneered by Lisa Nakamura and Beth Kolko has been important for demonstrating how various colonial narratives of race and nation have come to characterize how black people and other people of colour are represented on the Web. and gaze that I want to explore in this essay in relationship to John Akomfrah’s The Last Angel of History (1995. and simultaneously its knowability and uncertainty. parallels the black diaspora. The film is a theoretical excavation of the relationship between black popular musics. futurism. The film gives sound sight. science fiction. However while that scholarship plays a crucial role in pointing to how various forms of sedimented whiteness organize assumptions on and about the Web. but in its most problematic forms it is produced as a form of black anti-technological attitude that is somehow mysteriously embedded in the African cultural psyche. Instead it posits a relation to technological innovation and its discourses that sees black people as intricately tied to technological innovation. the film calls into being a cinematic sonic diaspora constituted through the ‘Internet of black cultures. It posits quite explicitly a critique of the assumption that black people have been more alienated from technological innovations than anyone else. and the alien history of transatlantic slavery. It has been important for demonstrating the ‘worldliness’ of the Web. It is the sight of sound in its black diasporic tones. the film offers a partial but important critique of some narratives of modernity by demonstrating how black musics have fashioned a relation and a discourse of futurism that both borrows from and sits in relation to yet simultaneously alongside other modernisms – the film works with music to accomplish this claim. In short. In short we must now confront the optics or the visuality of sound. such scholarship does not account . This disenfranchisement is understood mainly as access to technology. to us? The look of music helps define and answer such questions. In short. depicted on the cover of a score or record. the visuality of the black body has played a role in claiming its humanity through sound/song and thus offering another narrative of modernity that is aurally visual. These contemporary black noises are wholly imaginary sounds. That is. the remaking of the turntable into an instrument ‘releasing the inert energy’ within it. Knight writes. It is part of the goal of this essay to think about the ways in which music has been continuously visual and optical for black diaspora peoples even before the advent of music television and the music video. They make the technological utter its form and its content otherwise. techno. That is. funk. house. and I think Akomfrah’s.’4 I am re-inflecting Knight’s phrase to move it beyond the genre of jazz to account for a larger body of black diaspora musical sounds – rap. music has played a fundamental role in the shifting and re-education of a racist gaze positioned on black bodies in an attempt to force an understanding of black bodies as bodies which inhabit the qualities of humanity. is a case in point. It is in part my argument. let me suggest that by the sight of sound I am reworking what Arthur Knight calls the ‘sight of music’ in an essay on the use and abuse of jazz in Hollywood films. or suggested by program notes or words of a radio announcer.162 Rinaldo Walcott for actual black peoples’ ongoing relations and engagements with resignifying various technological forms. ‘the sight of music becomes the object of industrial mechanisms and forms. drum ’n’ bass. black people attempt to make the technological human and not otherwise. that when black people engage the technological they make its appearance different from what it was intended. as Derrick May articulates in Last Angel of History. as David Toop understands them. reggae. These musics that are constructed mainly in the studio represent black peoples’ deep engagements with technology. making it speak an experience and a history that it was . For example. Is it “art” or “commercial claptrap”? Is it music or noise? What is its relation to me. First. jungle. avant-garde jazz or free jazz – to name a range of black musical languages and noises. the “look” of music influences how listeners categorize what they hear. This provokes a confrontation with those discourses of modernity which seek to render black people less than human. as Eshun points out in the film.’3 He further states: ‘What music looks like relates crucially to how it sounds and what it can mean. Whether viewed in performance. But most importantly these engagements with technology resignify and rearticulate it. These new or different histories require that we rethink the place of black people in the modern and postmodern articulations of our times. we should also be cautious and note that not all consumption is the same. London. In the chapter ‘Of the Sorrow Songs’ – popularly known as the Negro spirituals – DuBois suggests that these songs/sounds represent the only authentic cultural expression of the United States. forged in the crucible of the conditions of early nation-state formation – that of chattel slavery. What is crucial is that the music and its consumption must be placed in the discontinuous history of black Atlantic music-making and its specific historical context. Do black people consume these musics differently from others? Are there different ways in which black people in Toronto. Additionally. most of all what is referred to as free jazz or avantgarde jazz. They share a discontinuous history with some previous black musics. these new technologically driven musics occupy a place within black diaspora cultures through which the communicative aspects of transnational community are maintained and transformed for local consumption. In W. I am interested in the sight of sound as it recombines new and old musics to create new ‘sound sculptures’ that our ears have not borne witness to before. all the while fitting contradictorily into the networks of global capitalist relations – for these musics are produced for consumption and are consumed. these musics are as much related to the very specific personalities who make or create them as they are tied into a complex network of nightclubs and other parties which provide a transnational network of demand and consumption.E. Consumption varies with regards to historical relations of production.B. However.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 163 often largely not intended to speak. the human spirit in this New World has . Many of these engagements suggest new and different histories. and Detroit consume these musics? And what about the overwhelmingly large consumption of these musics by white cosmopolitan youth and others? One cannot be too glib about the complex terrain of consumption and desire that these computer-driven sounds occupy in contemporary musical taste cultures. a sound and practice of ‘noise’ which had to retrain the ear’s sensibilities to make it intelligible to listeners. DuBois’s seminal text The Souls of Black Folk. music plays a central role in his suggestion that African Americans have given the United States any folk culture that it might have.5 These musics provide a new history of the ear. However. DuBois writes: Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on her bosom. Black musical performers have had a long and sustained relationship to the look of their sound. a form of optical relations to the word.7 The massive curiosity that greeted the Fisk Jubilee Singers as they travelled in Europe to raise funds for their college also brought sight to sound as well. The music in Souls stands as a kind of visual demand of black peoples’ demands for freedom. such a prac- . This use of music forces readers to confront music as more than tonal. DuBois’s musical epigraphs force us to consider the sight of the Sorrow Songs. the text. This sight of sound has its parallel in the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ travels to Europe. he is attempting to suggest that the music is American folk music because of the ways in which it evokes the humanity of those who were enslaved. it has been. reading is a kind of seeing. and is half despised. This in a manner not witnessed to the same degree and with the same spirit in other American cultural texts. but notwithstanding. Many were as interested in seeing these black ‘ambassadors’ of song as they were interested in hearing their stirring songs.164 Rinaldo Walcott expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty. as we range or read across the pages. It has been neglected. the gaze is posed through an exoticism of the quaint African-American performers. DuBois thus inaugurates the sight of sound in Souls. The significance here is that the music articulates one of the fundamental tenets of modernity – a desire for liberation and freedom. And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song – the rhythmic cry of the slave – stands to-day not simply as the sole American music. But what is equally important about DuBois’s text is the way in which he deploys the use of musical texts or bars of music. In the latter case. but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas. and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood. we are forced to visualize the music of black humanity and therefore to embody the music and in some ways its message. Each chapter of the book begins with a bar of music from one of the Sorrow Songs.6 While DuBois is concerned to position the folk/volkgiest of the United States as largely African American. the page. verbal qualities. This music in retrospect signals what I would characterize as DuBois’s attempt to bring sight to sound. its language becomes more wide-ranging and thus forces other kinds of questions. it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people. In its simplest form. Think for example of Miles Davis’s practice of turning his back on his audience as he played his horn. or more specifically the local. This irrevocable mixing or creolizing of the conceptual terrain of thinking the Human and therefore thinking community is Mercer’s attempt to ‘overturn the oppositional relations of hegemonic boundary maintenance.’ writes of a ‘critical dialogism.’9 Mercer continues to argue that ‘critical dialogism questions the monologic exclusivity on which dominant versions of national identity and belonging are based. In this way. and yet something more. What is at stake within diaspora workings when we confront moments of critical dialogism is how to understand and make community. Critical dialogism allows for both antagonism and connection within and across the black diaspora as well as within and across national boundaries. in ‘Diaspora Culture and Dialogic Imagination: The Aesthetics of Black Independent Film in Britain. This is so because diaspora concerns itself with both the national. questions of race and class are irrevocably linked with questions of gender and sexual politics.’ For Mercer a critical dialogism allows for a reworking of both nation and community as multiple.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 165 tice was as much about the look of masculinity and a certain kind of creative insubordination as it was about the performative qualities of Miles Davis as entertainer. pleasures. that something more is the cybernetic as cipher of transnational communicative practice – a web of historical and contemporary conversations. and disappointments. Mercer is interested in critical dialogism because he wants to author a the- . deracialized body. and its outer-national identifications. In numerous hip-hop videos technology and computer paraphernalia are everywhere seen.8 But the era of music television has such a profound impact on the look of sound that a film like The Last Angel must negotiate some difficult terrain in terms of how to represent sound visually without creating a music video. but what Akomfrah does is to refuse the cybernetic as spectacle but to integrate it as one important component of sound.’10 A generous reading of diaspora perambulations can be ceded within Mercer’s conceptualization of critical dialogism. By so doing the film fashions a site of sound. disagreements. In this way community is struggled over and not assumed despite or in spite of some common historical moments. This look of sound as mapped onto the body of the entertainer takes its ultimate spectacle in Michael Jackson’s recreation of himself as a kind of multiracial. which engages with the cybernetic as source. The Workings of Diaspora Kobena Mercer. and the vectors of difference and rapture. the vectors of similarity and continuity. by hybridity. even if it means pushing other people into the sea. For black peoples..’12 Therefore diaspora identities are not locked into uncovering their relation to a lost past. Hall also points out that ‘diaspora identities are those which are constantly producing and reproducing themselves anew. Stuart Hall tells us that diaspora is about a point of departure that does not necessarily only mean a place of origin or an original homeland. Hall further states: ‘The diaspora experience as I intend it here is defined.’13 Thus Hall’s caution is against a search for origins into what might be needed in this moment. instead a different kind of archaeology is needed. work in Akomfrah’s film. Furthermore. This cinematic nearness is an indication of the relationship between . through transformation and difference. Hall is careful to chart history not as a linear progression but rather as meandering and much more Creole than we sometimes are willing to acknowledge. modalities which recognize both pleasure and pain. We shall see shortly how these vectors of difference and continuity. not literally: diaspora does not refer us to those scattered tribes whose identity can only be secured in relation to some sacred homeland to which they must at all costs return. the place of origin is often signalled as that Enlightenment invention of continental space/place known as or called Africa.. but rather diaspora identities seek to come to terms with a past interrupted and to make sense of the new modalities through which life is lived. In an essay in which he looks at Caribbean diaspora identities in England. desire and disappointment as the conditions of its humanity. by a conception of “identity” which lives with and through. not by essence or purity. Hall cautions us and I follow him: I use the term [diaspora] metaphorically. Hall tells us that instead departure might suggest ‘axes or vectors . difference.’11 These vectors signal the more nuanced and complex facets of black diaspora identifications instead of a return to origins as a site of certainty and knowability. It is an archaeology concerned with uncovering the ways in which our remaking can allow us to live with and through the complex communities we inhabit. similarity and rupture. not despite.166 Rinaldo Walcott ory of aesthetics that can move beyond the invocation of mythical and singular origins. but by the recognition of a necessary heterogeneity and diversity. I want to continue to suggest that the film under discussion is about more than recording a history or histories of . rather than being forever placed by it? Can we ever recognize its irreversible influence. It is always-already fused. it is nowhere to be found in its pure. syncretized. and contemporary racisms. In many ways The Last Angel takes us in another direction towards answering this question. to resolve. whilst resisting its imperializing eye? The enigma is impossible. It is always-already creolized – not lost beyond the Middle Passage. we can place it.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 167 black cultures and what Hall calls ‘Présence Européenne. traversing and intersecting our lives at every point.’ The central importance of Kraftwerk’s The Man Machine to contemporary black electronic musics is a case in point. with other cultural elements. imperialism. so far. pristine state. This cinematic creolizing moment is important because it signals a much more complex archaeology of the nation and its history than we often encounter. However. The Last Angel of History: An Aesthetics of Cut ’n’ Mix Given my comments above. without terror or violence. but ever-present: from the harmonics in our musics to the ground-bass of Africa. As Hall has pointed out concerning the complexity of the situation: In terms of popular cultural life. vicious modernism stemming out of Europe but for which they are both its examples and its detritus. the relationship is also somewhat more complex than the technologies of victimhood used to subordinate black peoples. It requires the most complex of cultural strategies. How can we stage this dialogue so that. This nearness cannot be too easily overlooked. This cinematic move is in part a move to figure out how New World blacks can make reparation with the violent birth of their ‘newness’ within the contexts of an emergent. finally. The European presence in the Americas in relation to blackness obviously conjures up the violence of colonialism.14 In Hall’s conception of the ways in which Europe figures in New World black creolization. a call is made for both an understanding of the terror of the effects of transatlantic slavery and then something else. for it complicates the question of how we might call community into being and how we might understand the historical relations of what community we attempt to call into being in specific political moments. and dissemination’ that Gilroy alerts us to that gives music sight in the film. and this is where the sight of sound becomes both evident and blackened. It is the ‘displacement. Last Angel. Following Hall we can now come to terms with diaspora as being more than a traumatic dispersal from an original homeland – yes it is that. As Dick Hebdige put it some time ago: ‘The roots don’t stay in one place. In particular a cut ’n’ mix aesthetic structures the film’s narrative. That is. Instead. But also Last Angel takes this musicality to reframe cinematic language. sensibilities. is a double project or what Hall calls ‘the double inscription. To reiterate Hall. then. They change colour. Last Angel gives sight to the process of renewal through the cybernetic orderings and disorderings of contemporarily derived technological practices. relocation. By musicality I mean something broader than music as form and content. Even more specifically. a constant crossing. and it also seeks to mirror those musics in content and form in its cinematic language. diaspora is about renewal. They change shape. The film itself draws upon black diaspora sonic aesthetics. Highlighted in the film is the ambivalence of history. returning home is impossible. and its political identifications might be partially exposed – might be seen. As the Data Thief or narrator tells us. in its Afro-futurism but rather in its unsentimental gaze backwards.’15 It seems to document contemporary black musics and their relationship to technology. the film refuses linearity in favour of a back and forth. but that doesn’t mean there isn’t history. And they grow.’17 Akomfrah draws on the music and its untraceable genealogy to produce a film that while aware of the place . least of all in something as slippery as music. a kind of collaging of image and sound text to frame the cut ’n’ mix of black diaspora sensibilities and histories. but it is also much more.168 Rinaldo Walcott black music. consciousness. I would suggest. pleasures and pains. and archaeology as fixed signals of time. That is. genealogy. it is about black music and something more. community. There is no such thing as a pure point of origin. its disappointments. it is more than figuring origins. I want to suggest that music is given sight in the film so that the workings of diaspora in its ephemera. I mean an entire cultural apparatus and sensibility encapsulated in something called black sound/music. and identity. The something more is a nation of a community born into but more usefully a community built out of meaningful political dialogue.16 Last Angel maps a history of the trauma that ushered in contemporary black musicality. The real vision of the film is not. something else is being appealed to. material and other conditions. specifically drum ’n’ bass: It is possible to hear the full force of the improvised tradition of jazz. or rather what we must now call drum effects in the technological era. free jazz and reggae. invention. and new locations. The ‘imaginary musics’ under discussion in the film are musics that take history as both the ground of their movement and the category that must be exceeded. drum ’n’ bass. combined with reggae sounds and toaster voiceover of the Jamaican dancehall. dislocations. or dub featured in Last Angel defies any search for origins. In this way the musicians discussed in Last Angel offer a dynamic revisioning of black diaspora history in their musics that is pedagogical in terms of how to enact the kinds of creolization or hybridity discussed earlier. now souped up by technological means to produce a thunderous and uniquely black and . Angela McRobbie writes of this new music. since these effects are often produced through means far removed from the drum as we know it. This is not a dismissal of history. These are pleasurable mongrel musics. The music of techno.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 169 or history of Africa – in Hall’s sense of placing – does not concern itself with tracing the origins or source of contemporary black musics. in particular computers. But it is a project that seeks to uncover not the stability or certainty of origins. For Africa can now only be but one place or spot on the postindustrial production line of black imaginary musics. but rather the messiness of historical recombination. and renewal. The film takes its tenor from this attitude as well. These musicians and musics are not lodged in a moment from which a concern with origins is all that they can tolerate. synthesizers. Instead Last Angel is concerned with the ways in which the use of technology. the echo of Africa in these musics lies in their use of the drum. This new emphasis is in part the attempt to make reparations with the new humans or what Sylvia Wynter calls ‘new forms of human life’ produced in the moment of the post-1492 European voyages to the Americas. The Afro-futurism that Last Angel chronicles and fashions as its theme and form – its practice – is one of the elements of diaspora sharing. with the hip-hop tradition of the rapper. The Data Thief returns to Africa as source but only ambiguously and ambivalently. house. drum machines. But nonetheless the Data Thief is still engaged in an archaeological project. Instead. but rather an attempt to make history usable. and sampling machines remake soundscapes in both imaginary and socially realistic ways. This use of technology refigures the black body in modernity and postmodernity because.170 Rinaldo Walcott British underground sound.’ Reed is speaking to the contradictions of modernity and its inability to ever allow full access to the subaltern. as DJ/musician Derrick May suggests.’ has meant that the play with musical history and history more generally is much more open and malleable now than for previous generations.. the effort here is not to demonstrate the alienation of technological innovation but rather to humanize technology. As DuBois pointed out in his essay on the Sorrow Songs: ‘Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things . this ‘digitized race memory. as Tate puts it. as ‘far out. The irony of May’s assertion is obviously not lost on viewers who must continually confront a discourse and practice of modernity that strove to make black bodies less than human – to make them machines – in early modernity. These new musics are exemplary of what Paul Gilroy calls a counter- . But there is no crude ethnic absolutism inscribed within this form.. that sometime. Access to this archive. As Goldie confirms in the film. But these musics can also be read back through a genealogy of black musics.’19 It is exactly the question of justice that Reed tries to articulate when he declares the experience of African Americans in the United States as an alien experience. which centre some concern on the discourse of hope. most forcefully. pinpoints the alien experience of transatlantic slavery. indeed scholarly. as pointed to by Greg Tate and. instead its openness and fluidity and serious. In fact. or. Delany and Octavia Butler.18 As Greg Tate tells us in the film. technological advances have allowed for access to an almost complete archive of black music now available to these DJs and MCs. the attention to the alien experience in the film. who have emerged as the most creative musicians of the late twentieth century. along with DJ Spooky and Kodwo Eshun. by Ishmael Reed and science fiction writers Samuel R. somewhere. which is one aspect of the genesis of these ‘imaginary musics of the future.’ The discussion of the drum as an instrument for covering communicative distance and its illegality in plantation slavery serves to bring historical weight to bare on the renewal and inventiveness of black diaspora musical practices. concern with the music celebrates the movement between black. men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins. riffs from particular songs can now be lifted and placed in sequence with other sounds to produce sounds/musics that the ear has not heard before. white and Asian mixes which is such a hallmark of this musical style. and this notion has travelled to the New World. The film’s thematic focus on three musicians who call on the trope of movement to give sight to their sound – Sun Ra and his Arkestra. This myth understands black people as being displaced. Lee Scratch Perry and his Black Ark.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 171 culture of modernity. however. in particular. This citation of birthplace is one way in which the ‘advanced’ technologies of the music under discussion and the relationship of filmmaking to Africa as a geopolitical entity are made evident. specific musical trends now cross each other in ways that allow for far more multiplication than we can sometimes immediately acknowledge. In the film Africa is also a specific place with a specific history. forged as they are within the contexts of dislocations and displacements. raises many questions concerning issues of place and displacement as well as citing the filmmaker’s birthplace. and movement is central to Last Angel. This downloaded Africa is. The iconography of space and alien beings used by these musicians when they visualize their music is as much about futurology and its potential for liberation from an alienating ‘real’ world as it is about the historic alien experiences of black life in the Americas. These musics occupy an ambivalent place in capitalist relations of production not only as exchange value but also importantly as use-value. The crossroads in West African cosmology are places of danger and possibility where communication can occur.21 The Sight of Sound and a Sonic Diaspora Community Part of what I am suggesting is that struggles around the making of community are a central aspect of our thinking about what diaspora . not devoid of its presence and its present – that is. migration. its current and past historical contexts. but rather an Africa that lives through digital and cybernetic relations. and the invocation of Ghana. It is the use-value of these musics that Last Angel engages in an ‘archaeological dig into the crossroads’ for viewers to see. The language of movement is important to diaspora aesthetics. and George Clinton and Parliament and their Mothership Connection – brings into the discourse of black diaspora aesthetics and narratives the futurology of the past. However. But the important thing about renewal in the context of the postmodern world is not a return to the invented space of Africa. By this I mean that the Exodus narrative is a central aspect of the narrative myth-making of the black diaspora. sometimes roaming in a place they do not belong to and requiring a necessary return to their original homeland.20 The trope and language of travel. A downloadable Africa. But the collage flag that he is forced to carry actually highlights the problem of origins. May’s and Gerald’s disagreement centres on the use of the term ‘jungle. Gerald. and.’ What is interesting about this disagreement is that it highlights the antagonisms of divergent yet related histories. What is highlighted in this debate are the differ- . Last Angel gives two interesting examples of the struggle to make sonic diaspora or digitized community and their potential pitfalls. rejection of the term ‘jungle’ and therefore cannot understand why black London calls their music Jungle. Last Angel returns to Africa as source. Jungle as a name comes out of an area or neighbourhood in Jamaica referred to as ‘the Jungle. For example. This species jump should complicate the categories through which we live out our social and cultural identities. imaginary desire. an Africa he needs. for his flag cannot pinpoint any one or specific ‘African’ place but must instead forge a unity that can only be an ambivalent and ambiguous site of desire and representation. in his case. importantly. May brings to the conversation a U. It is. who credits his desire to make music to having heard May’s music on the radio.S. Harris’s desire to place Africa in a central position vis-à-vis his space experience is part and parcel of the relation between those in the diaspora and the imagined lost homeland.’ Thus black London’s music takes its name from the back and forth movement between Jamaica and London. as a ‘son’ of Africa he had made it into space as their representative.172 Rinaldo Walcott might mean. It is also an attempt to make community through a particular and specific appeal to history – a history of origins and. however. in all its viciousness and possibilities. The question of origins lies at the heart of both. Issues of community and diaspora raise such questions as: What kinds of transnational or outer-national political identifications are worthwhile and useful? What new codes of belonging will be developed that would allow for a much more far-reaching notion of what constitutes the human? At stake is what Derrick May calls a ‘species jump’ in his attempt to argue for a humanizing of technology. since. has a different history of the term ‘jungle. Harris’s desire to return to origins is already complicated by his having to stake a claim to an invented Africa. the astronaut Bernard Harris tells us in the film that on an intended tour to Africa he would be displaying a flag that is a combination of all the flags of the nations of Africa. Similar tensions exist between musicians/DJs Derrick May and A Guy Called Gerald. affiliation.’ As he tells it in the film. as a code for understanding modernity as we know it and live it. The film brings sight to this transatlantic debate. more specifically.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 173 ent ways in which knowledge. The immediately felt presence of Jamaica or Jamaican-ness among black Londoners frames this diasporic disagreement. Gerald seeks to account for another moment and must therefore disagree with May. it is not necessarily the only reason. connectedness. Historically. May is concerned to read the name Jungle through the racism of his locality – since one of the central recurring myths of racism in the United States is that black people hail from the jungle. thus marking them as primitive and uncivilized. there is a more immediate relationship between black Britons and Jamaicans than between African Americans and Jamaicans. Even within the black diaspora the struggle to make community cannot be assumed as a foundational basis that is immediately explanatory to all who inhabit the space and conditions of diaspora. each speaker framed within a split screen that clearly features their presence on computer screens – a cinematic double inscription. and disconnectedness circulate across the black diaspora or more specifically the Black Atlantic. Thus what we encounter in the debate is the limit of transnational political identification. identities. and political commitments and affiliations are also at stake. In this sense viewers are faced with a different relation of black bodies and ‘black debates’ to and within the technological and. transnational community that is immediately knowable. The percentage of Jamaicans who moved to England in the post–Second World War migrations had a much larger impact on black British culture than similar migrations to the United States. Instead. It can be convincingly argued that black London’s cultural forms rely as much on European and African genealogies as they do on Caribbean and more specifically Jamaican cultural forms. The intervention of history means that other kinds of political positions. This demographic difference has much to do with the different naming and the different levels of comfort with the naming. part of the reason why the Data Thief cannot . This means that diaspora discourses do not call into being an immediate and identifiable community founded in the original dispersal and then stop there. While such a discourse can and probably is a part of the reason why a neighbourhood is called the Jungle in Jamaica. In short. Thus to invoke a black diaspora is not to invoke a foundational. What is ultimately at stake are the points or the cracking of the code upon which community might be made – in the above case the different codes of history. the cybernetic age. In fact. other moments of one’s making must also be taken into account. The Last Angel of History highlights how this works. or any number of black musicians without also thinking of their image simultaneously? Rappers have taken the visuality of music to a new height. helping to usher in a ‘visual diaspora’ where fashion codes designate one’s relation to hip-hop culture as a sign of ‘passionate attachment’ to the music. This politicization of memory highlights the fact that knowledge is not innocent. cultural realities of life in . The site of memory. in its most extreme case. The film I have been discussing is representative of the elements or the conditions of a visually sonic diaspora and the history of remembering that unfolds within the expressive cultures that give life to the diaspora. memory and how we remember mediate against attempts to render blackness either subordinate in terms of all of human history or. is a place where the traumas of history can be differently mediated and where we can take some control over how history shapes us. Conclusion: Afro-Futurism or the Future of the Past As I suggested earlier. black musics have always been characterized by a certain kind of visuality. the Jackson Five. to think of Sammy Davis Jr. renewal. In the case of black diaspora musics in the cybernetic age. In short. However ‘re-memory’ is a politically active site where history and the terms of remembering are crucial to rethinking the self. the artist now again known as Prince. as Toni Morrison put it. is it possible to think of Cab Calloway’s music without seeing him in his tails. Therefore a new politics is required for the making of community. For example. digitized race memory allows for a musical memory which can mediate between musics of the past and musics of the present-future in ways that continually return to important moments of cultural sharing. The Last Angel of History is concerned with how we remember. non-existent. Bob Marley.174 Rinaldo Walcott return home is that home too is dispersed and is no longer a clear-cut prospect. The film highlights the optical illusions of social reality through the ways in which memory works to imaginatively represent the social. black music has always played an optical illusion on its listeners so that other kinds of messages or conversations might be had when one encounters the music. and other unknown possibilities. In the realm of black diaspora art-making. It is the kinds of politics that will be the foundations of this community making that are crucial to the workings of diaspora – only a species jump can produce a new kind of community and politics. Michael Jackson. DuBois.B. Gender. ‘Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies. 9 Kobena Mercer. Nicholas Mirzoeff (London: Routledge. David Morley and Kuan-Hsing Chen (London: Routledge. to cite Derrick May again. 15 Stuart Hall. 265. 2000). 1982). 1993). and diaspora belonging. Krin Gabbard (Durham. a ‘new humanism’ or. ed. The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Signet Classics. ‘Cultural Identity and Diaspora. 31. MA: Harvard University Press.’ in Representing Jazz. In this way the sight of sound the film offers us is an archaeology of our present-future.’ in Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing Africans and Jews. 80.. 10 Ibid. ed. ed. 7 Gilroy. 11 Stuart Hall. or the Sight of Jazz. The film offers up an ethics of what. community. 14 Ibid. ‘Jammin’ the Blues. 80.’ in Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies. 3 Arthur Knight. 59. Mbye Cham and Claire AndradeWatkins (Cambridge.E. 30. MA: MIT Press. a species jump may look like. Negotiating Difference: Race.The Sight of Sound: The Last Angel of History 175 late capitalist culture. 13 Ibid. 8 See Michael Akward. Avalanche (Minneapolis: Coffee House Books. 1995). 1995). NC: Duke University Press. Simon Frith. . 24. The Black Atlantic. 1992). ‘Diaspora Culture and the Dialogic Imagination: The Aesthetics of Black Independent Film in Britain. 6 W. 1996). NOTES 1 Paul Gilroy. The Music Video Reader (London: Routledge. 1996). 80. ed. 5 Quincy Troupe. and Lawrence Grossberg. 13. nation. 4 Ibid. 1988). Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture (London: Routledge. Andrew Goodwin. in the words of desire in Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Mask. and the Politics of Positionality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. The Black Atlantic. 1993). 16 Gilroy. 12 Ibid. 2 See Andrew Goodwin. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge. eds.. This different archaeology allows us to assess the ethics of race.’ in Blackframes: Critical Perspectives on Black Independent Cinema. 18 Angela McRobbie. and Popular Music (London: Routledge. Postmodernism. 19 DuBois. Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music. and Caribbean Music (London: Comedia. 21 See George Lipsitz. 16. In the Fashion Society: Art. Fashion. 1994). 1984). 20 Robert Farris Thompson. 274. . Identity. Flash of The Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy (New York: Vintage Books. The Souls of Black Folk. Cut ’N’ Mix: Culture. 10. 1987). and the Poetics of Place (London: Verso.176 Rinaldo Walcott 17 Dick Hebdige. 1999). about the so-called Final Solution. Kemal Idris. the only eyewitness I will accept would be a victim of this gas chamber. there is no victim that is not dead .. Indonesian Army General who oversaw the extermination of the PKI4 Towards the end of his life.. former Khmer Rouge leader2 The plaintiff complains that he has been fooled about the existence of gas chambers. Jean-François Lyotard. . I just can’t say specifically when. Ronald Reagan could remember nothing.. fooled that is. The holes in his memory into which slipped illegal arms shipments. The Differend3 The Indonesian army did not kill anybody . I’ve never heard of the civilian death squads. There is. but today I am very clear that there was genocide .. for vi sion mac hi ne Forgetting to Remember One thing still upsetting me. His argument is: in order for a place to be identified as a gas chamber.9 History and Histrionics: Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics m i ch a e l u w e me d i m o a nd j o s h ua o p p e n he i me r . I did approve it. however.. This led to my failure to recollect whether I approved an arms shipment before or after the fact. Khieu Samphan. Ronald Reagan. now . no gas chamber.. My mind is still confused.. is that no one kept proper records of meetings or decisions.. It was so unjust for those people. Iran-Contra scandal admission1 I have found it so difficult to believe what people told me of what happened under the Khmer Rouge regime. therefore. We propose a practice that is at once intervention and investigation into history as terror. Like Reagan before. he too has trouble remembering. His memory was all hole from which no fact. or forensic frame – a history that nonetheless conjures and casts the spectral threat of that violence. the U. suggesting ways in which a hitherto untheorized ‘digital poetics’ may inform the notion of history on which the practice is predicated and the mode of historiography through which it proceeds. and the Agency for International Development provided support for ‘youth groups’ that were groomed to become . ethical. The CIA provided radio equipment and arms. State Department provided death lists. Martyrs and Memory On the night of 30 September 1965.S.S. Both these examples of troubled recollection were staged within the purview of a judicial and forensic apparatus that affirmed the reality of a historical event whose details called for determination. This essay reflects upon the implication of the digital in this practice’s methods and processes. MI6 provided ‘black propaganda’ (propaganda whose imputed source is the enemy). General Suharto seized control of the armed forces and instigated a series of nationwide purges to consolidate his power. It was not so much that he had forgotten. or image could escape. as well as their final objectives. remain unclear. six of Indonesia’s top army generals were abducted and murdered in an abortive coup attempt. his memory became all black hole. ‘Who was ultimately behind this operation. had opened alarmingly. He recognizes that something happened. the U.’5 In a response that appears to have been remarkably well rehearsed.178 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer and much else besides. something whose details needed to be remembered. something terrible. military provided training and cash. in both these cases there had been at least an admission that something had happened – something criminal. where no event is admitted to have passed. figure. Much harder is a process of remembrance where no such apparatus exists. The mind of Khieu Samphan by his own account is still confused. it was that he could not remember. This chapter sketches out a practice whose aim is to seek a media form that might adequately address a history that refuses to recollect its systematic violence within a judicial. specifically the history of the 1965–6 Indonesian massacres. Plainly put. but he just cannot say specifically what happened. Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 179 death squads. where the bodies of the assassinated generals were disposed of (dumped down a disused well). and anybody else the army considered a threat. their memorialization served at once to justify and mask the memory of the massacres.. though under the supervision of the army.10 . organized peasants.S. the events have been all but erased from official histories. save the odd encouraging message of support. Gardner observes. These tales of savagery served to conjure an overwhelming and spectral threat facing the nation – the ‘evil seed’ as Suharto called it.6 With this assistance. made no official protest and little public mention of the slaughter. Western governments.’9 A History of Holes: The Crocodile Hole Lubang Buaya (Crocodile Hole) was the name for the area. diplomat Paul F. was actually carried out by paramilitary branches of political groups in competition with the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunis Indonesia. In any case. Tales of ritualistic savagery inflicted on the murdered generals were circulated widely. ‘[Surharto] did not wish to involve the army directly . within the Halim Perdanakusumah Air Force Base perimeter [Jakarta]. covertly and deeply involved. members of the women’s movement. murdering alleged communists. “to assist the people to protect themselves and to cleanse their individual areas of this evil seed. the massacres were not murders. In the face of this threat. self-defence. he preferred instead [quoting Surharto]. ‘the Indonesian army did not kill anybody. no national or international juridical process has been launched. As pro-Suharto U. they were at once justice. General Suharto engineered and set in motion a killing machine whose chain of command reached into every region and every village. In 1965–66 a successful psychological warfare campaign was launched by the army to persuade anti-communist notables and political leaders that the PKI had secretly prepared thousands of comparable ‘holes’ for their burial after execution.8 The Western press was equally mute. Since then. or PKI) and affiliated groups. no days of public mourning for the victims of the massacres. no memorials. The campaign was deliberately organized so as to implicate the ‘masses’: much of the killing. trade unionists.”’7 The massacres that swept the archipelago in the months after October 1965 were one of the most savage and systematic genocides of the twentieth century. and victory.. While martyrs were made of the seven murdered generals. No trials. from time to time. who had been arrested for PKI activities. the trail of noughts in these tallies are more precisely ciphers in that they mark both mass graves and empty graves – graves waiting to be filled. they are radically deflated and kept from circulation so as to shield the operation from the condemnation of the ‘international community of conscience. The Sungai Ular.500 people is recorded in a typical entry as follows: CARD NO: 20 143 DATE: NO DATE INDIVIDUAL: N. are deliberately allowed to circulate threateningly. This history itself does not seek merely to deny or hide its violence but to allow it to circulate as a haunting force that suddenly. flares up in an awesome display of violence. That is to say. a network of absences and silences haunted by whispers and by a sometimes spectral. and to hold to account the murderers fraught with terrible uncertainty. as were the rumoured ‘crocodile holes’ that supposedly awaited the anti-communist notables and political leaders. and the ciphers in the tallies of the dead form an abysmal archipelago. smaller rivers. A history of the massacres would be a string of such holes.000 and 2. sometimes spectacular. It was for this reason that it was chosen as an execution site – unlike slower. is distinguished only by its size and relatively swift flow. the Snake River could be relied upon to carry the dead out to sea.14 Before the river meets the sea.’ On the other hand. higher figures.180 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer This psychological warfare campaign was part of a systematic extermination program in which anywhere between 100. violence. A Sumatran massacre of 10. to recount their history. They are threatening placeholders.000 people were murdered.500 prisoners. .11 These figures are impossible: on the one hand. Their bodies were thrown into the Sungai Ular. or Snake River.12 Such divergent estimates render attempts to count the dead. even inflated figures. an anonymous and untitled folio of notes records some of what little is publicly known of the 1965–6 Indonesian genocide.13 Snake River At the National Security Archive in Washington. DC.000. Sumatra ITEM: From North Sumatra came a report of the slaying of 10. and rituals that were the motor of the massacres. looks on. This method. Since 2001. they are working with political. this method opens a process of simultaneous historical excavation (working down through strata) and histrionic reconstruction (adding layers of stylized performance and recounting). military. There is a chilling scene in The Globalisation Tapes (2003). Let us turn to one series of reconstructions and encounters. In various infiltrative modes. The work of the collective consists of research into and performance of this impossible history. and its restaging with historical actors. relies in large part on digital media as the relay channel between different participants. and to do so by going through the motions of historical events to develop a densely layered artifact. the gestures. History and Histrionics: An Archaeological Performance To excavate the history of the massacres. Here each layer is at once rehearsal and performance. in which a small girl. theorists. re-enactment and response. and union activists all based in North Sumatra. and paramilitary groups in the same region. routines. a collective of filmmakers. a video that Vision Machine co-produced in Indonesia. and activists. and scripted. bored. Vision Machine has developed a research and production method that is perhaps best thought of as an archaeological performance. The successive performances aim both to tap an embodied memory of singular gestures and to reveal the body’s singular movements as moments of the minutely geared motions of a killing machine that mobilized well-rehearsed ideological roles. A former Komando Aksi executioner and hired thug of the plantation manage- . Within sight of a bridge where the highway spans the river is one of the clearings in the plantation where the Snake River was loaded with its nightly freight of bodies.Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 181 it passes under the trans-Sumatran highway at Perbaungan. An archaeological performance entails successively working with. Between a buried historical event. Vision Machine. about thirty miles southeast of Medan. and working through. or the same participants at different stages of the process. at her grandfather. Intan Sinaga. North Sumatra’s capital city. former bonded plantation workers. which typically moves from interview via narration and re-narration through increasingly elaborate restagings.15 The method seeks to reveal what was at once singular. Sharman Sinaga. has been working collaboratively in this region with a community of Indonesian ex–political prisoners. that appear to motion from a still-vivid and singular scene. The interview moves already beyond recounting towards re-enactment. a layer constituted by a field of action that directly overlays the site of the historical event. Vision Machine invited Sharman Sinaga to reconstruct his nightly routine on the banks of the Snake River. His demonstration veers between chilling pantomime and forensic reconstruction. It seeks out what might be lodged in embodied memory and asks questions of the position of the body in the motions of history. It is for the most part a conventional interview. those of the ‘heroic and pure national struggle. begs questions not just of what happened at Snake . As a result of the interview’s disclosures.’ Yet there are gestures that appear to break out by reflex. Sharman is encouraged not merely to tell but to show. nor are its words privileged as a source of truth or of untruth from which truth is somehow extracted. This re-enactment is the second histrionic layer. displays his own ferocious machismo at the same time as he speaks the script of the purity of the heroic national struggle against ‘atheist communism. explains the organizational and operational structure of the killing machine. he details most precisely the modes and methods of decapitation. even here. His performance. The interview is not relegated to a merely informational source. staging himself for an imagined movie audience. illustrates angles of approach and attack. Equally apparent is that this self-image is projected and refracted through a symbolic universe of ideological tropes. as he plays to the camera. This brutal and direct account is the first layer in the archaeological performance. then. Rather.16 He held him upside down in a flooded field. where he dispatched perhaps many hundreds of people. He mimics the gargles his victim made as he choked in the mud. Sharman Sinaga stands up during an interview to demonstrate for the camera how he killed a plantation worker considered kebal or ‘invincible’ – he couldn’t be killed with knives. There is a tension here between remembrance (an attempt to recall an event in its singularity) and performance (the acting out of a role and speaking of a script that is generic). On the one hand. He elaborates kung-fu movie-style sequences. On the other hand. However. The words and gestures of his interview continue to haunt this scene. it is one layer in a densely layered series of performances.’ His projected self-image is clearly inflected by the imagery of genre (he imagines himself a kung-fu movie star).182 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer ment. the rehearsal of recursive motions breaks into a performance of disturbing improvisational flourish. as well as by downward pressures from the sedimented layers of historical revision that have buried them there. This method begins to suggest the ways in which what happened was itself already staged and scripted. From this staging emerges a complex artifact that gestures not only to the past but to the operations that continue to bury the past. stories and stories about the stories. history. and they are invited to review it. The footage is transformed from a chronicle of events at the riverside clearing into a reflexive document of how Sinaga sees himself and how he would like to be seen by others. As they watch and speak. and the ways in which genre inflects the memories and imaginaries of those who were its historical actors. footage of Sharman Sinaga demonstrating what happened at the Snake River is screened back to Sharman for him to narrate.Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 183 River. the ways in which the massacre mobilized well-rehearsed ideological roles and relations. The encounter with the screen is a moment of remembrance. His words and re-enactment stretch a spectral screen between these strata. So staged. The material is then re-screened. Sharman’s performance constitutes a layer whose contours are defined at once from underneath. and the politics of genre. Sharman’s performance becomes a kind of ghosting. This process of layered performance and response simultaneously reiterates the irrecoverability of the historical real and resists its erasure. This material is then taken to survivors of the massacre and families of their victims. memories and memories of the process of remembrance. The content is described to them. they not only recount their own experiences but also imagine and attempt to determine the motives and processes of the killers. Soon after this shoot. or shadow play – it both accentuates the terrible absence of the victims and conjures their spectres. Each screening and each response is a mnemonic trigger. This re-narration is the third stage of the process. constructing in real time a crystalline constellation of voices that speak of the relationships between history and trauma. memory. It is also an encounter through which the sur- . and another layer of response and re-narration is added. as it were. but also of the relationship between trauma. recounting and remembering. spawning further narrations and re-narrations. by the now-buried events that passed at this site. It becomes his own reflection on his own representation of himself as hero to the audience. This cinematically mediated exchange between perpetrators and survivors opens a historical process that is not merely recuperative but transformative. During the screenings of this material they are asked to voice their responses. based on the layered film material. recounting.17 The scenes. then the Ludruk appropriation of his performance instances another form of historical revisioning. Again. allows them to speak and to speak into their own history. to imagine oneself as other in the act .184 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer vivors imaginatively infiltrate the history from which they have been excluded. are performed in the village. one path towards transformation. Durasim. trauma. Perhaps it is a first step towards justice in a context where no effective judicial framework has been established or is likely to be established soon. Decidedly carnivalesque. high and low. another layer. widely considered one of the form’s greatest talents. this staging suggests the subversive and therapeutic possibilities offered by popular genre forms in the recovery. to an audience that includes Sharman Sinaga and those he once terrorized on the London-Sumatra plantation. It is a form of memorialization. towards becoming other. and a moment of healing. Yet another histrionic layer is added as this footage – re-enactment overlaid by re-narration and response – is used as source material for a performance by the local Ludruk troupe. the possibilities of ‘going through the motions’ are moments not only of historical recovery but of imaginative transformation. its subversive mocking of established orders has at times been met with severe official response. This show and its reception are also filmed. Recording their responses to the contemporary performance of a history of terror. a history that is itself an instrument of terror. These experiments with genre are one passage. If Sharman Sinaga demonstrates one mode of revisionism. mourning. The process offers a medium through which they can respond to events that they are unable to forget but have been forbidden to remember. Here lies the redemptive potential of the method. and the politics of genre through a performative investigation of the ways in which the televisual and cinematic imaginary has shaped historical imagination. The aim is to both reveal and resist what the method makes manifest. a Javanese improvisational popular village theatre. performance and response together becoming another stage. Ludruk incorporates dance drawn from the Javanese martial art pencak silat and borrows promiscuously from a host of sources. Whereas the staging of Sinaga’s performance invites a consideration of the connections between history. was tortured to death by the Japanese military administration in the early forties. and working through of traumatic memories and histories that are otherwise repressed or suppressed. memory. It is a history in the performative register. Digital Palimpsest: Supplementary Layering Digital technology is key to the process of political and historical reimagining and to a method of archaeological performance. rather. Images of the former CIA director giving a speech on the progress of the pacification of South Vietnam are taken from the National Archive in Washington. This can be neatly illustrated by an emblematic experiment with the re-narration of an archival film of William Colby. This project’s intervention is to restage this history differently from its ceaseless rehearsals in schools. the significance of Colby’s convulsive cameo resists résumé. one-time director of the CIA and architect of the Phoenix civilian extermination program in Vietnam. unconcerned with adequacy to actual events. it is rehearsed in order to exercise a power. and so Vision Machine employs a deaf man – a lip reader – to read Colby’s lips. acknowledged. Wherever the official history is rehearsed. it waits in the wings. It is not a history in the realist register. It is not easy because the footage is blurry and the lip reader requires eight passes to produce even a fragmentary . DC. and contested. Here. threateningly spectral. This process of becoming other was dramatically illustrated by the sudden possession of one of the Ludruk players by the spirit of William Colby. Rather this project intervenes in an official history of post-1966 Indonesia that has been consistently staged so as to terrorize precisely through what it renders obscene. on national television. on days of official memorial – to restage it in such a way that the operations of its obscenity can be grasped. the aim of the project is not to restage the performance of terror in the journalistic genre of exposé (which would attempt to render a coherent summary of a violence that defies summary). Indeed. The sound remains classified. the script is deliberately and necessarily incoherent. it does not speak in order to refer. to make one’s history one’s own at the moment of transforming the self. so that the spectres it produces can enter the scene and be addressed.Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 185 of remembering. The systematic and deliberate nature of the massacres is excluded from the official script. This is not a case of a performance making explicit a shadowy aspect of this history (here the CIA’s involvement). unmentionable within the terms of the official discourse. a figure who lurked in the wings literally steps onto the stage. a spectral figure who haunts the history of the region is suddenly given body and voice. The silence beneath the re-narration is telling. The historical fragments that are recovered are artifacts of the present. the syllables of each interfering with those of the others to produce a perverse double. This process is a form of archaeological performance. Some historical knowledge is yielded. in itself. With each pass. Some words are picked up on one pass and not another. a crowd of echoes seemingly to issue from Colby’s mouth. the best one could do is replace one of two soundtracks on a videotape or else use a mixer to blend the narrations which could not be unmixed. we have footage of a small. this process would be all but impossible.’ The words from each pass are layered over the others. In a project on historical remembrance and excavation in situ. and the official history that he authored is given another voice that speaks out against it. distinct. this is essential. digital technology makes possible a method wherein each new layer is an addition or a supplement. different words are read from the same mouthing.(or triple-) speak. of course. More tellingly.’ ‘isolating the population. we give him a voice. Thus. portable tape recorders for recording and playing back successive narrations. rather than something that erases earlier versions. both mocked and mined for what he withholds. It becomes the material of a historical imagination it would want to destroy. Whereas in the Ludruk performance the spirit of Colby possessed the performer. and something more is made known of the regional policy that he was instrumental in shaping and administering. Unless one had dozens of small. As he mimes. With analogue technology. Each layer interacts with . but. the banal administration of tremendous power and violence is made to speak through his silence. This results in a thick and strangely contoured voice track – some moments become dense with the same words or phrases. William Colby is saying different things at the same time. he is saying nothing. It speaks at once of the uncertainty of historical knowledge and of the deliberate attempt to erase it. and in place of the voices of the murdered. spectacled man in a suit mouthing banalities in silence.19 A digital palimpsest is fashioned where overwriting does not entail writing out. We speak as Colby. he is mimicked. here we possess Colby. In place of an account of the murders.’ and ‘sportsmanship. each at the same relative point of utterance.186 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer picture of what Colby is saying. the lip reader picks out more and more phrases like ‘from time to time. The speech of the past reaches us only as a contemporary performance. At other moments.18 Each stage of the interpretation exerts pressure on the preceding and subsequent stage yet remains. denials made to betray themselves. Memory.Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 187 and refracts the others. The material infrastructure informs our conceptual framework and a working methodology of successive reenactment. If in The Sorrow and the Pity each account that abuts the next in some sense betrays the other as ‘untrue. puts together fragments of testimony. that re-members. The process can be heard in any pop song where voices are filled out. asking participants to repeat and rehearse. yet its singular features remain intact. inconsistencies exposed. The production process must include both the community of spirits and the fraternity of metaphors. however. is built into the architecture of the editing software. the same event. of ghosts informing the quotidian field in which the digital project unfolds. Importantly. or in the voice-over commentary on DVDs. circling the same gesture. which is essentially a montage of testimonies.’ the elements are nonetheless the lies from which emerges the truth – a truth against which the lies can be judged even if it can be arrived at only via these lies. This spectral realm is not so much contiguous with the corporeal world as it is co-extensive with it. and the resistance to remembering. and then relaying these rehearsals to different participants. This articulation proceeds by way of a subtle cross-examination whereby one account is held up to the next. The hinge of the edit is the pivot of the scales that weigh one account against the other. Digitally layered artifacts pervade contemporary media space. After all. confessions teased out. the same scene. the world of the living. Yet it occupies the same space. this process of digital layering allows the figuring of a particular construction of spectrality. in multi-screen news initiated by CNN. Let us take for example Marcel Ophüls’s film The Sorrow and the Pity (1972). of course. For Vision Machine the tools of digital post-production offer an ideal figure and metaphor. Contrast the digital process of layering with the analogue process of montage. and the totality of accounts . Indeed the video itself has conjured spectres. It is montage. That is to say. This conception of remembering history is predicated on the possibility of recovering and articulating a coherent and original historical event and truth. the history that the project addresses is quite literally haunted. Layering.20 The instrument of this cross-examination is montage. The domain of ghosts is parallel to. articulates memory into historical chapters. and distinct from. it produces and is populated by ghosts. projecting them onto each other and into different generic contexts. speak through testimony. precipitated possessions. It is down through these layers. and produces works. paradoxically by a working up. while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. that the archaeological performance proceeds. it got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. and digital layering allows working methods. he [the angel] sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. These figures tentatively suggest a critical difference between an analogue process of montage and a digital process of layering. and authenticity. Working with digitized elements allows for this simultaneous working down and working up. structured by the possibilities of a congruent spectral coextensivity. Freud found the analogy ultimately unsatisfactory. Thus. But a storm is blowing from Paradise. Here the judicial figure cannot be drawn on and history has been rendered incoherent by a stillpresent terror. however. Rather than a chain of events. The image of contemporary Rome superimposed on the sedimented ruins of ever more ancient settlements served Freud as a spatial metaphor for the psyche. and much of the evidence that might supply a coherent account has been destroyed. awaken the dead. Freud’s figure of the ‘eternal city’ is appropriate here.’ Walter Benjamin provides another figure through which to imagine this difference between a process of chronicling structured by syntagmatic contiguity and a historiography that works through successive layering: Where we perceive a chain of events. Much is in the balance.188 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer against a notion of justice. and make whole what has been smashed. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned. The angel would like to stay. Ophüls uses montage to deliver justice from history. while in the psyche this co-extensivity is achieved. Indonesia’s relationship to the massacres of 1965–6 remains beyond the frame of judicial scrutiny. truth. we have layer after layer of wreckage. They point to why the formal and technological approach of layering – a digital . In his ‘Theses for a Philosophy of History. The architectural figure points to the physical impossibility of two objects occupying the same space (one building can be built only on the ruins of another). collecting the fragments and gluing them together will not produce a coherent whole. A spectral co-extensivity structures the field of social relations the film involves. Working with relatively localized communities (for instance. In London. and create intercontinental chain stories to fashion dense. multi-layered works. In more remote locations. Coming together to make a medium of creative reflection. disks. Indeed. Vision Machine aims to give voice and vision to the singular stories of these communities. many exist. In effect. and cameras to developing online collaborative editing environments. From production through to exhibition. digital technology enables practices to be driven by an economy of enthusiasm and commitment rather than cash. To underpin the network of collaborators. In time. It has long been the dream of activist and avant-garde artists to create robust alternative distribution and exhibition circuits. from simply being able to distribute tapes. The low cost of digital video equipment has been a decisive factor in the evolution of not only Vision Machine’s practice but that of innumerable activist and community video projects. we hope to develop a global Internet-based video-on-demand and streaming system. palm plantation workers in North Sumatra or former child soldiers from El Salvador in Los Angeles). digital technology is relatively cheap. the collectives that Vision Machine works with swap footage and experiences. dis- . that is. the network exploits the local East End free wireless network. activist and cultural links. Collaborating collectives will upload. One of the perennial promises of the Internet has been the possibility to radically transform the relation between moments of production. Digital technology has been a means of exploring not only media forms but media forums. we are developing a network of social technology. distribution channels. England. and other documentation. and satellite links. and recut each others’ footage as well as contextualize their work with writing. we hope to use satellite broadband as well as other available community broadcast infrastructures. Shared Time While it may be a relatively obvious point. these collectives produce a narrative geography. download. share tactics of resistance.Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 189 poetics – is appropriate to the historical site and historiographic approach of the film project. What digital technology offers practices such as ours are tactical opportunities to exploit a massively expensive global infrastructure. the digital has opened new ways of generating webs of stories and networked solidarities. NOTES 1 From a speech broadcast on PBS. Georges Van Den Abbeele (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.’ in Pacific Affairs 58 (Summer 1985): 239–64.S. Vision Machine cassettes I3–17 through 20.S. 229. 1990). 7 Paul F. this is a promise that Vision Machine hopes to fulfill. afterword to ‘Am I PKI or Non PKI?’ Indonesia 40 (October 1985). 21 July 2004.’ and also John Pilger’s film The New Rulers of the World (2001). 3 January 2004. For the CIA. Defense Department’s roles. from a filmed interview with Vision Machine. 4 March 1987. ‘Indonesia 1965: The Coup That Backfired. 10 Benedict Anderson. 1965–1967.’ New York Times. and exhibition. along with the research of journalist Kathy Kadane. Australia: Monash University Press. see especially Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–1968. DC: U. he says Edhie claimed that two million were killed.000 dead in The Indonesian Killings of 1965/6: Studies from Java to Bali (Clayton. . Robert Cribb cites 500. 1997). and U.–Indonesian Relations (Boulder. Separate Fears: Fifty Years of U. ‘The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno. 2 Seth Mydans. trans. 8 See Scott. ‘Petrus Dadi Ratu. vol. In a July 2004 interview. Footage available upon request.’ The CIA cites a figure of 100. ‘A Top Khmer Rouge Leader. Shared Hopes. Pleads Ignorance. See also Jeffrey Winters’s Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State (Ithaca. Regarding death lists. 5 See especially Benedict Anderson. The same report appears in Anderson’s ‘Petrus Dadi Ratu. Going Public. see document 185.190 Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer tribution.’ New Left Review 3 (May–June 2000): 9. see Peter Dale Scott. 1988). In ways that we hope will go well beyond the experiments of the twentieth century avant-garde. CO: Westview Press. Government Printing Office). Gardner. 20 July 2004. 6 For excellent background on the United States’ role. ‘The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno. documents 142–205 (Washington.S. The Differend: Phrases in Dispute. State Department. 4 From a filmed interview with Vision Machine. 26. 1996).’ December 1965. 3 Jean-François Lyotard. 11 Indonesian member of parliament Permadi received the deathbed confession of Sarwo Edhie.000 in their own research study internal report. NY: Cornell University Press. 9 Commander of Kostrad (Indonesian Army Strategic Reserve) General Kemal Idris. Responsibility for the Slaughters in Indonesia and East Timor. 14 Rivers like the Sungai Brantas. 18 The contemporaneity of this historical project is important to stress. threatened. See Scott. The profound violence of 1965–6 still haunts national life. for instance. 104–5. .Vision Machine’s Digital Poetics 191 12 So. Peter Dale Scott. 70 minutes. that very terror was deliberately conjured by the CIA six years later. 19 Even where multiple analogue tracks might produce comparable results. going after Salvador Allende.ac. 2003.id/eastjava/cities/sby/performing. Several of this paper’s key insights were offered by her. ‘Using Atrocities: U. rather. 1980).’ unpublished monograph. Popular Theater from East Java. ‘Am I PKI or Non PKI?’ Indonesia 40 (October 1985). they sent cards to key figures on the radical left and the ultra-conservative right. when.petra. See P. 17 Petra Christian University. 15 ‘Remembering. reading ‘Djakarta se acera’ (Jakarta is coming). 20 The phrase ‘two lies between which emerges the truth’ is Susan Lord’s. were choked.’ http://www. it is whispered. flowing from Kediri through Surabaya.htm. and Working Through’ is the essay in which Freud first outlined his ideas on the ‘compulsion to repeat. similar experiments with re-narration certainly would not be portable enough to bring to remote villages in the Sumatran plantation belt. ‘Performing Art: Ludruk.’ 16 Vision Machine film project. Death in Washington (Westport. The Indonesian Killings. each day for a month.S. ‘The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno.’ and also Donald Freed and Fred Simon Landis. Repeating. Rochijat. Cribb. The Globalisation Tapes. 13 Vision Machine interviews with victims’ families suggest that the trauma of this spectral threat is always linked to the fear of the spectacular return of the violence. though the systematic terror of the massacres was downplayed for an international public. CT: Lawrence Hill. insinuated into the subtext of daily discourse. in East Java. it is neither spoken nor unspoken. The second focus of the essay is on the work by digital media artists from the late 1990s until today. ‘Memories of Utopia’ Introduction With the concurrent emergence of database narratives. access to classified documents. affiliated with decoloniza- . I explore the relationship between these elements of digital technologies. has become progressively unmoored from tradition.10 From Sequence to Stream: Historiography and Media Art susan lo rd When this present itself . archives. archive plundering. when media saturation wipes out spatial and temporal difference.1 Andreas Huyssen. I argue that there is a historiographic imaginary and an aesthetic specific to this confluence of events and processes.. every time available to instant replay.. which finds its expression in many social and political forms (dispersions of identity politics after the end of cohesive structures) and which in media arts is expressed through the language of the history/ memory debates. The art of memory counters aesthetic desublimation and the ideology of the anti-aesthetic. The shift from politics as a project connected to left history. anchored to class analysis and struggle. to politics as subaltern emergence.. file sharing. by making every place. then the turn to history and memory can also be read as an attempt to find a new mooring . The first part of the essay is focused on the post-1968 instability of futurity. and I use the occasion of this essay to investigate that imaginary. and databases in the context of globalization and the political affinities forged under these conditions. In this essay. copyleft. we are seeing new elements and formations of the historiographic imaginary of media artists.. and ontologies. and the Black Audio Film Collective took on the enormous project of historiography of the African diaspora from the decidedly post-colonial vantage of hybridity and personalized passages. Indonesian genocides. Rea Tajiri. Some of the most important works of historiography come from feminist artists such as Sara Diamond and the Women’s Labour History Project and the post-colonial identity projects of. If this is the condition of the archive for Vision Machine. justice) that the interrogated. History and Memory The media arts of the last twenty-five years contain innumerable examples of tangles with history. this is not merely about timelines of capital or about the ruined index. Iran-Contra’s effects. John Akomfrah. vocabularies. Similar to Julie Dash. and Richard Fung. has become unusable for the production of counter-truths. ‘guest workers. its truth-yielding potential. These artists are deeply interested in the universals of their time: the suffering and injustice of global capital. the Sankofa Collective. it is also about new movements of time and uses of technology that take place with ‘liquid modernity’: the infinite multiplication of truth claims and their correlative commodification create a condition in which the interested artist (one concerned with. the Lebanese wars. Isaac Julien. for example. has found artists of commitment operating with very different tools. The archive no longer offers artists a hardsought kernel or crystal of revelation.Historiography and Media Art 193 tion struggles. The difference between Emile de Antonio and Walid Raad is perhaps the most extreme comparison of that which can be found between Sara Diamond’s work of the 1980s and Vision Machine’s project in development since 2000: the ontological status of the archive. In other words. Perhaps what they share is the effort to create a form for this truth that can get a purchase on the contemporary realization that a history of colonialism produces an archive of spoils through which an artist makes and unmakes his or her history of the present. hence. Walid Raad and the Atlas Group. critically montaged archive had promised.’ a thirtyfour-year civil war in Guatemala) is now forced to relinquish the future of truth (and. for example. some of the work of Trinh T Minh Ha. and The Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification then why use it? These are not cynical or merely formalist projects. the Black British film and video collectives of the 1980s and early 1990s. The archive is now babble – the noise of power. these identity-based projects differ from the work of Walid . evidence. largely anarchist. At stake in the current history/memory debate is not only a disturbance of our notions of the past. 2001). Activist media in these opening years of the millennium has burgeoned from a few ‘in the crowd’ left-wing media artists to thousands of digitalvideo-carrying protesters from the anti-capitalist. broadly speaking. In response to Homi Bhabha’s assertion that ‘there is a danger that the “presentism” of the net may drain everyday life of its historical memory. and reordering of archives.org’s website offers a page of Internet links to activist libraries. imaged.3 Images. assemblage. But. There was an ethical imperative in this work.org people’s message is that there is no time but the present to help hunger-striker Simon Chapman (a young man arrested by Italian police during the antiglobalization demonstration in Genoa. That work on the archive was a critical engagement with . memory. That the activist media are being undertaken by a largely under-thirty-year-old group of people raised in a vehemently anti-aging era is but one way to understand the shift in temporal consciousness that has taken place since the activist/politically engaged ‘old’ new-media artists of the 1970s and 1980s busied themselves in the interrogation. Although Indymedia . underlying them is a fundamental disturbance not just of the relationship between history as objective and scientific. or. few of the images I could find date from before the mid-1990s. Andreas Huyssen discusses the history/memory debate in terms of the problems of futurity: Whatever the specific content of the many contemporary debates about history and memory may be. the imaging was referential. and demands for change comprise the intense present of the activist archive. Such imaging was refracted through the working-through of trauma. testimonies. more precisely. This present tense is arguably part of digital culture.194 Susan Lord Raad’s because they believed an alternative history – the untold story.’4 the Indymedia. and forgetting. from fear of the loss of cultural memory to jubilation over the instantaneousness of what is hoped to be history-in-the-making. international crowds. but a fundamental crisis in our imagination of alternative futures. factoids. and memory as subjective and personal. and it has been met with a range of responses. but of history itself and its promises. the counter-history – could be spoken. fantasy.2 The shifts in historical consciousness are brought into focus when we consider the memory works of politically engaged media artists of the 1980s and 1990s alongside the contemporary activist media artists. org and Grin without a Cat or Millhouse or The Women’s Labour History Project – produces a series of questions about the politics of time as it relates to the takeover of historical documentary by The History Channel. and a sign of the loss of national or communal memory.6 But there is more to the story.Historiography and Media Art 195 history as a project of human creation and. and where one sequence of temporal events. One of the difficulties with discussing GWC is that the overt chronologies indicated in the initial voice-overs for each section – ‘From Vietnam to . albeit unknowable and unstable.5 The juxtaposition of these two moments of political media – that of. the archive raiders of this period were granted a moment of collision between time zones. they were more properly in the flow of televisual broadcasting – thinking in video (Sara Diamond). Thus. can be radically discontinuous from another.’ ‘The form in which we think the past is increasingly memory without borders rather than national history within borders’ and has been read variably. If we accept Allan Antliff’s claim that all activist media is anarchist. This kind of temporality can also be understood as filmic. then the culture of the left is not only concerned with history. Indymedia. the expansive media archive. Western project of historicity and political imagination where the future was thinkable. The intense present of digital activism lives alongside what Andreas Huyssen calls the global ‘memory industry’: ‘the seduction of the archive and its trove of stories of human achievement and suffering has never been greater. the privatization of archives.7 In their ‘interview/conversation’ of Chris Marker’s Grin without a Cat. Media artists of the ’70s and ’80s were. the de-lefting of anticapitalist culture. media. however. and its practice is that of montage. an attack of the present on the rest of time. and heterogeneous modes (Chris Marker). say. I quote the following passage at length because it points to several important aspects of Marker’s project that concern me here: the creation of an aesthetic and politics of time. as a bulwark against obsolescence. situated between the filmic and digital consciousness. and politics. as such. the particularity of human suffering. the culture of obsolescence and the expansion of the memory industry. although internally unified. television (Emile de Antonio). it has actually become historical. an extension of a modern. Yael Simpson Fletcher and Nalini Persaud discuss the cascades of time and event that replace a linear historiography of the left in Marker’s film. historiographical processes. and the institutionalization of the artists and intellectuals of the 1970s and 1980s. argues Huyssen. 8 The abiding concern for class in the political media arts from the 1960s to the 1980s was inextricable from a historical consciousness about political life. layers of memory are strewn between and disturb the public face of the loved one. when the reedited video was released. ‘May 1968 and All That’. as posited from a Marxist position. Instead. The image banks that constitute the work undertaken by Marker or Sara Diamond. one precipitating event leads to a cascade of other events as a way of explaining what has been viewed. but really it is narrative segments swirling around. Tho- . leaders speaking. In an article analysing Patricio Guzmán’s films about Chile. personal testimonies are set against public records.196 Susan Lord Che’s Death’. to be left was to be historical insofar as the future was thinkable. The dual work on history raises a series of questions relevant beyond the specifics of any one artist’s work. Time and space don’t appear to be defined by the linearity and contiguity imposed by our experience of one day appearing after another day only to go into another day. for example. and. sometimes of 1977. making all kinds of marvelous patterns. when the film was completed. And mixed with footage of the various presents are interviewees’ and narrators’ voices assessing events from the vantage points of the time during the assemblage of the film [early to mid-1970s]. In many ways. ‘From the Prague Spring to the Common Program of Government in France’. police repression. crowds of demonstrators. bring us to the powerful poetic dimension of GWC. and sometimes of 1993. What do we want from the past? What longing is the image performing? Is the image from the past activated by an interrogation of its status as truth or is the image from the past an unquestioned testimony of injustice? But what meaning for the present or future is suffering supplying for us? The answer to this question. and history. the continuities lie in the images: funerals. is the fact of the continuity of oppression. This consciousness is what motivates the assemblage of a left archive and what informs the montage of sequences. in Diamond’s own personally derived works. And the titles of the two parts. ‘Fragile Hands’ and ‘Broken Hands’ [referring to the May 1968 poster ‘From the Fragile Hands of the Students to the Strong Hands of the Workers’]. that is. ‘From Chile – to What?’ – make us think that there is a clear linear narrative. can be understood as having emerged from a process of working through the problematic polarity between historical consciousness and memory work: images taken from public archives are set within a Brechtian fiction (Diamond) or poised against the personal archives of social subjects of the documentaries. memory. ’11 Walter Benjamin’s formative text for our thinking about history.Historiography and Media Art 197 mas Miller Klubock discusses the dynamic between the distortions of memory found in testimonial footage and history’s meta-narratives found in archival material as a necessary tension for the process of social change: ‘While memory guides history to issues of critical importance for the present.’ wherein he engages Daney’s work on cinema.org’s footage of police beating protesters and then the next day images of the beatings of the On-to-Ottawa trekkers in 1935. The Image of History and the Politics of Time When Roland Barthes mourns the death of his mother in a series of meditations on the photograph. it is the image and its readability – or our ability to read the image – that redeems history. as we view one night Indymedia. of the junta’s disappeared. as Huyssen writes.’12 And Hayden White’s contribution to modern historiography presents us with the question of not just the fragility. ‘History is hysterical: it is constituted only if we consider it.’9 Working on this project today. the pedagogy of perception and the spiritualization of nature (postwar and visionary cinema). History is the supplement of the image. Yet. our responsibility to the past. instability. is likewise practised through the act of looking at an image ‘which flashed up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again. only if we look at it – and in order to look at it. or ephemerality of modernity’s historical referent. ‘the enlightened notion that one can learn from history has been so violently disproved both at the social and political levels as well as in its experiential dimension that the very legitimacy of the historical enterprise is shaken. and the professional training of the eye (television). of the American government’s hide and seek with Vietnam. history critically engages personal memory to establish the conditions for collective forms of recollection and solidaristic action. but of the very possibility of representing the modern ‘historical event. which is ‘about being in contact with technology . the issue of ‘learning from the past’ comes hard and fast to mind.. he presents a periodization of cinema in terms of three functions of the image: the encyclopedia of the world and the beautification of nature (early cinema). the artists of globalism and the third millennium present us with new soft architectures of being historical. we must be excluded from it. In Gilles Deleuze’s ‘Letter to Serge Daney.’ In each instance. a .. he writes.’10 Here. the nodes are functions of their networks. are sites of oppression. especially those localities that. and aesthetic stakes and possibilities of space–time compression.’13 The function of the image for thought (Deleuze’s question) raises different questions than does the status of the image in relation to its historical referent.’15 The new-media artist of the contemporary period works within the third phase of periodization.” but to new forms of composition and combination. The ‘modern event’ – the ‘holocaustal event’ – which White discusses as that which exists as image. ‘Montage became secondary. The vertical historiographic imaginary of these practices is one built on a given of the intense interconnectivity of global flows. and certainly not from metropolitan prurience. in contact with the image. would be sufficient to understand the forces acting on her. The reality of a woman forced into prostitution by the strategic requirements of the global economy cannot be photographed. was confronted by filmmakers such as Alain Resnais as a problem for seeing: ‘can I bring myself to look at what I can’t help seeing. and this idea of slipping into an image because ‘each image now slips across other images’ could best be understood in terms of streaming. entering into the image. The global today is necessarily prior to the local. thus it is the surface of the image itself that we must learn to read as it unfolds before us. Sean Cubitt’s chapter in this volume is concerned to present a specificity of the digital aesthetic. but from understanding the networks that force her into this double economic and sexual oppression.’14 Behind the image is nothing: ‘You see nothing’ as El says to Elle in Hiroshima Mon Amour. In the shift in historiographic practices from sequence to stream. A photograph would only stir the sentimentality defined a hundred years ago by the novelist Meredith: pleasure without responsibility. Deleuze and Daney’s periodization is helpful for understanding the work of media artists who think history in terms of images. the works reflect on the political. Responsibility today derives not from empathy. The task of an iconic art is no longer . giving way not only to the famous “sequence shot. ethical. No indexical account. instantaneity. simultaneity. like the border-free trade zones of Tijuana studied by Coco Fusco.198 Susan Lord privileged spectator allowed into the wings. anchored in the preeminence of the local in industrial culture. Networks and connectivities of technologies of capital become the content of works whose ostensible subjects are unavailable to the sequential forms of representation: In the information economy. its status as document or visible evidence. and so forth that arise with the confluence of globalization and digital media. and the formation of alternative networks is a critical function of them. unspeakable.’18 Work by Walid Raad and the Atlas Group is especially given to a ‘virtual’ analysis. for The Speculative Archive and the Terminal Time project. ‘closing off past from present. inscribe. between incompossibles (co-existence of exclusive or divergent ‘not-necessarily true’ pasts). the experimental tradition of cinema offers a dynamic range of works that resist or refuse to represent or re-recreate the past.’ Virtuality is taken from Deleuze as a dynamic between the actual and the virtual. limiting the complex ways different moments of time commingle.Historiography and Media Art 199 to depict but to articulate the symbolic regimes that describe. Films such as Signal – Germany in the Air by Ernie Gehr or Utopia by James Benning (as well as the numerous other works Skoller discusses) think history through the materiality of the cinematic form and make present the past through strategies of duration. I have found two formulations especially useful for the digital work I discuss in this essay: the concepts of ‘sideshadowing’ and ‘virtuality. By critiquing older narrative tropes of historical writing such as backshadowing and foreshadowing as producing the sense of inevitability or causality in . editing. and Recombinant Histories As Jeffrey Skoller makes clear in his recent Shadows. what was actual. Sideshadowing is developed by Michael André Bernstein in his Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History as a means to create historical narratives in which the multiple possibilities for the outcome of historical events can coexist alongside the actual outcome of events. This is also true. The virtual is not the possible but the potential for change over time that is generated by the powers of the false: ‘undecidability between what is true.16 Streams. and sound–image dissonance. The digital artwork must be networked. the very unrepresentability of which makes the present. who include every user of the computers she builds when not supplementing her non-union subsistence wages with sex labour in the tourist economy. Simultaneities. ephemeral elements of the past. but to a lesser intensity. Shards: Making History in Avant-Garde Film.’17 Instead. Of Skoller’s impressive range of analysis. and what is potential. and inflect each other. define and give meaning both to her experience and to that of her oppressors. the avant-garde tradition attends to the unseen. for such specularization and literalization of the past construct a gap between now and then. Specters. While sideshadowing does not deny the reality or historicity of an event. For example. Gibson and Richards’s Life after Wartime is a CD-ROM and installation project that comprises images from an archive of crime scene photographs from Sydney.’ Hold the mouse down on the ‘glimpses’ thumbnails to see the enlarged image. Toggle between scenes using the spinning icon. These are represented by accumulated ‘glimpses. forming around various characters and locations. and vertical narrative structures. the simultaneity of events. it creates an awareness of the indeterminacy of relations between events. ‘the structure exposes or thematizes the dual processes of selection and combination that lie at the heart of all stories. sideshadowing opens the possibility for narrative forms that can render events in all their complexity rather than as binaristic narratives of cause and effect ..200 Susan Lord what are actually random events.19 In Skoller’s elaboration of this form of historiography in the experimental traditions. Australia. There is no inevitable outcome to anything. The explanatory text for the CD-ROM underscores the ‘select and combine’ historiographic mode: There are 2 scenes in the Life After Wartime CD-ROM. and Ross Gibson and Kate Richards’s Life after Wartime. Ken Jacob’s Urban Peasants. and the unfulfilled or unrealized possibilities of the past are qualities that adhere to works such as the database narrative Tracing the Decay of Fiction by Pat O’Neill (in conjunction with the Labyrinth Project at USC’s Annenberg Center for Communication). In the first. Each choice in scene 1 is constructing a web-like meta-narrative in the other scene. Linda Wallace’s Living Tomorrow. choose from the image stream by clicking on an image. After 3 choices an image/ text/music sequence plays.. The ESC key returns you . and Daniel Eisenberg’s Cooperation of Parts. The combination of digital archive and random-selection database yields a heightened sense of simultaneity. from 1945 to 1960 combined with remains of text fragments that function as captions to the images when the work is played. The indeterminacy between events. the Recombinant History Project’s Terminal Time. For each of these works. temporal interconnectivities. because so many things are happening simultaneously. he turns to Eleanor Antin’s The Man without a World.’20 The coeval relation between events is heightened through the deployment of a random dynamic between archive and database. Choices in scene 1 influence the image flow in that scene. Each of these films reflects on the Jewish cultural histories that were lived out during and after the Holocaust.’ ‘rumours’ and ‘facts. as a means by which to understand how cultural difference fractures the time of modernity. gender-psychic. mirroring. In post-colonial and globalization studies. the representational strategies employed to address the radical temporalities that emerge in the contexts of cultural difference and the politics of decolonization have been analysed by writers such as Homi Bhabha and Dipesh Chakrabarty. revolutionary-utopian. While a collagist travels through imagery and memory at their work table.’22 What we need to add to this formalist approach is the political concerns that inhere not just as content but as that which yields specific forms. pivoting. various cultures of time and accompanying orders/theories of history: aesthetic-narrative. splintering. It will take you hours to explore Life After Wartime. of course. economic-rationalist. remixing. as well as Latin Americanists such as Nestor Garcia Canclini and Angel Rama. It is recommended that you SAVE/LOAD your progress from the startup screen. distorting. as opposed to acculturation. Victoria Lynn elaborates on the connection between streaming.’24 In Latin American studies. layering. Bhabha and Chakrabarty in particular argue that the analysis of the social formations and cultural enunciations of temporality permit us to think other forms of ‘worlding’ (Chakrabarty) as coexistent and as possible.21 In her exhibition text for Linda Wallace’s work Living Tomorrow. “streaming” (metaphorically) into the three separate yet connected screens you see here. national-monumental. cultural-ritualist. and . reversing. fragmenting. and the indeterminacy of the archives’ limits: ‘Linda Wallace has created an archive of images which are transferred into Mpeg2 files that then (in Linda’s words) “peel away” from the database. who have been influenced by Fernando Ortiz’s theory of transculturation. masking and layering through software filters.Historiography and Media Art 201 to the startup screen at any time without affecting progress (click on PLAY to continue). In the formation of cultural identity in cross-cultural encounters there are. The question raised by the work is: where does the archive begin and end and where does the interface to it begin and end?’ She further discusses the digital artist’s work by differentiating it from the modernist montage: ‘The digital “stream” makes montage dynamic.23 As Bhabha has written: ‘What is in modernity more than modernity is the disjunctive post-colonial time and space that makes its presence felt at the level of enunciation. editing. an electronic media artist can travel through imagery within space and time. Canclini and Rama advance Ortiz’s theories of transculturation. is an ‘artificial intelligence-based interactive multimedia apparatus that constructs real-time historical documentaries covering the past 1000 years of human history. Terminal Time is well described and analysed by Steve Anderson in ‘Past Indiscretions: Digital Archives and Recombinant History’26 and Vision Machine’s project is presented by two of the collective members. And these larger or macro-temporalities never exist one without another. modern anthropology is now familiar. in this volume.’25 Written in 1983. Michael Uwemedimo and Joshua Oppenheimer. The interactivity is enacted through audience responses to the presentation of the apparatus (survey questions are . nor do they exist without a correlative practice in everyday life. but all living societies were irrevocably placed on a temporal slope. ethical. a critical praxis can be built through. These macro-temporalities come into existence as such with modernity. commentaries. first of all. modernization (and their cousins. and epistemological consequences of anthropology’s advancement of colonialism through the tool of evolutionary time (the sequentialization/ spatialization of time): ‘It promoted a scheme in terms of which not only past cultures. Terminal Time. Of the many Eurocentric traps available to the critic studying cultures of time is one laid out extensively in Johannes Fabian’s Time and the Other. this critique of Eurocentric. computer scientists. and specific variants have been vigorously taken up in ethnography and documentary film studies. Two works that are particularly interesting to consider in terms of this idea of coeval temporality within the context of colonial history and globalization are Terminal Time and Vision Machine’s ongoing project about the genocides in Indonesia. evolution. and video clips. a stream of Time – some upstream. Briefly then. and hence with colonialism and with the difference the encounter brings into history. urbanization) are all terms whose conceptual content derives. development. His critique concerns the moral. others downstream. Particularly useful to the digital forms of database narratives and recombinant histories is his corrective: an argument for coeval temporality. in ways that can be specified. from evolutionary Time. a recognition of the contemporaneity and synchrony of observer/observed. and filmmakers. He argues that because the history of the discipline of anthropology reveals that the use of naturalized-spatialized time almost invariably is made for the purpose of distancing those who are observed from the time of the observer.’ The database consists of thousands of image stills. industrialization. The recombinant histories produced from this material are broken down into three parts representing three epochal periods of time. acculturation. Civilization. created in 2000 by a group of artists.202 Susan Lord so forth. and its re-staging with historical actors. as well as through its critical deployment of the technology of storage and retrieval systems. which combine to produce what they call an ‘archeological performance. and the coeval temporalities of contested interests in historical events. gender.’27 Terminal Time’s politics of time is activated through its performative layering of history’s construction. the trauma that lies at the heart of Snake River and The Globalization Tapes requires a different mode of analysis: digital layering of historical excavation and histrionic reconstruction. These are then recombined.000 Indonesians during the anti-communist campaign of terror that began in October 1965. Vision Machine has developed a research and production method that is perhaps best thought of as an archaeological performance. communications industries. historical authorship and utopian discourses of interactivity . While all of Terminal Time’s ‘facts’ are true. as well as the layering of discontinuities.000 to 2. As Uwemedimo and Oppenheimer explain. While ideology critique is certainly an effect of their project. and the apparatus presents a final version that reveals the structuring of historical thinking and ideological interests in history. Terminal Time offers a form of participatory history in which individuals and groups are positioned as possessing the potential to radically alter conceptions of the past.’ The historiographic method produced by Vision Machine produces a density most usefully understood in terms of sideshadowing because the history is literally haunted with an unrepresentable and irrecoverable history of the genocide of between 100. The content of the documentaries reflects a slightly exaggerated version of the audiences’ stated values’. Between a buried historical event.000. obfuscation and silence. artificial intelligence. and foreshadowed paths of history. Vision Machine’s project also works with documentary material and participant-observers. technological positivism.Historiography and Media Art 203 measured and coded through the use of an applause meter) – first in the form of genuine responses to survey questions that are ‘intended to refine and focus [the audiences’] attitudes towards ideologies of race. etc. ‘Terminal Time presents a three-pronged critique of documentary conventions. ‘To excavate the history of the massacres. this method opens a process of simultaneous historical . According to Anderson. webs of stories. the apparatus is interested in demonstrating the productive power of the false. colonialism. and in the second presentation they are asked to elicit different responses to the apparatus.. but here the interactivity is not given to database narratives but to re-enactments and digital layerings of evidence and interpretation.. The innumerability is also used as a form of terror. while the image track has been unclassified. the soundtrack remains classified. During one of the Ludruk troupe’s performances. and histrionic reconstruction (adding layers of stylized performance and recounting). The work on and with historical evidence – testimony.204 Susan Lord excavation (working down through strata). and then an Indonesian voice is layered among the others. After eight passes. The Speculative Archive is concerned with the way in which the document is always about secrecy and obfuscation. about the ‘progress’ of democracy in Southeast Asia. and other records of historical fact – yields a network of truth and falsehood. Vision Machine retrieved previously classified footage of a speech by William Colby. Each pass at the interpretation is layered upon the previous. As Uwemedimo and Oppenheimer write. for all three. form a powerful imaginary for their historiographies. ‘The domain of ghosts is parallel to. material from the recently unclassified archives of the American government. head of the CIA during the 1960s. In order to bring the text to light.’ There is one specific part of Vision Machine’s project – ‘Reconstructed Speech: Successive Layers over Silence’ – that presents this most clearly. The use of Indonesian opera and other generic devices is a means by which the successive layers of trauma are made present. . the audio passes are heard in overlapping registers of differing volume and tone of the lip reader. For Vision Machine and The Speculative Archive. But where for Vision Machine the ghosts and sideshadowed histories expand the screen of historiography. the passes are registered on the image track like waves. which captured only fragments. the world of the living. the politics of globalization is rooted in the arms trade and militarization of the world from the Vietnam period through the Iran-Contra and the contemporary history that such forms of globalization have produced. and distinct from. So. Yet it occupies the same space. they hired a lip reader to interpret Colby. And.’28 The contemporary projects of Walid Raad and the Atlas Group. Vision Machine. in this one fragment of the project William Colby is standing and moving his lips. In the trance. they showed the tape to one of Vision Machine’s collaborators in Indonesia who is a visionary. and The Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification each undertake their historiography from within a digital aesthetic. in another part of Snake River. the visionary was possessed by the ghost of William Colby. re-enacts his acts of execution as historical performance. The executioner. the secret and the hidden. the obfuscated and the erased. Colby’s bureaucratic language was replaced by commands from Colby to an executioner in the same village as the visionary. The confidence of power that gives agency to these officials and the way in which a particular historiography is produced by the culture of secrecy are themes that in themselves deserve attention. their tape ‘It’s Not My Memory of It’ is composed of three sets of potentialities. with a voice-over of a subject of the text – an Iranian man named as a CIA informant. The voice-over analyses the various potentialities of meaning in the recombinant secrets as they are streamed before us. ten years of litigation later. In the project’s use of fictive and historical data of the Lebanese wars. performing the inevitable artist’s talk as an extension of the work of debilitating the fetishization of fact. and pieced back together.S. I want to briefly discuss the first of the three parts. strips of shredded paper are aligned and realigned in an effort to bring sense to the text.’ the tape continues with a rescued document: a text that had been shredded by the U. He explains the way in which declassification guidelines work and so forth. the way the state creates its archive of secrets. After his ‘testimony.Historiography and Media Art 205 That is. each one opening with an interview given by a government official involved in the regulation and release of secret material. While the ‘Atlas Group’ is the virtual diasporic name of Walid Raad’s art context and collaborative network. the ostensible fact is a productive fiction. as well. Walid Raad and the Atlas Group is virtual and is located between Beirut and New York City. embassy in Tehran. For example. it undertakes the unmaking of the archive and its ‘atrocity aesthetics’ by deploying the power of the false and a constellational historiographic mode facilitated by digital processes. rescued by a group of Iranian students. The project produces ‘documents’ based in the declassified and partially declassified materials from the United States government. thirty-two linear feet of paper was reduced to one linear foot. In one instance of this perfor- . The Speculative Archive is interested in the way state self-documentation functions to produce both a particular history and a potential history – a fork in time that brings multiple secrets into a type of composite. they work with the way in which the government documents classified material – that is. It opens with Charlie Talbott – deputy director of the Directorate for Freedom of Information and Security Review in the Pentagon – speaking about how the Freedom of Information Act functions. Raad himself appears with the work. He provides an example of how in the time of the Iran hostage crisis during Jimmy Carter’s administration the Washington Post requested all the top-secret information on the crisis. In the animation of the text. The Speculative Archive’s project here is to animate the restoration of the text. and limiting their search to a fifty-three-day frame. television news footage. The three assembled press reports. and other intellectuals.206 Susan Lord mance. Other elements in the project include a videotape of The Dead Weight of Quarrel Hangs. The relationship between chance and structure is expressed here by one critic’s description of a part of the project: Generally. archival photographs from media events where important political and military figures are shown standing around bomb craters. the timing of that win. it delves into one particular explosion. a digital database of information about the Lebanese wars. Raad formed a research team of sorts. This diary is filled with notations related to the horse races attended by Prof. while performing the ‘set up for the presentation’ projected his computer’s desktop on the screen. and so forth are at once obsessional absurdities of the control. They trawled through the neighborhood and interviewed people living there now about the bombing. radio programs. Specifically. an installation sculpture of one such bomb crater. Conclusion The storied or fabular nature of historical knowledge – the meaningfulness given to fact – has been taken by new-media artists as a given. 1986. In fact.29 The Atlas Group resists the atrocity aesthetics that are inevitably produced through the victimologies of documentary projects by interceding with potential narratives and random structures of composition. the impossibility of certainty. the random access to events. a car detonated in the Beirut neighborhood of Furn al-Shubbak on January 21. and interview transcripts. This mapping of virtual history is at once fictive and virtually true. each given a precise ‘archival’ title such that in combination we see the potentiality of a complex history. My Neck is Thinner than a Hair deals with the history of car bombings during the civil war. and material from a historian of Lebanon. gathering anything they could get their hands on. each folder is empty – producing one moment in a virtual historiography of the Lebanese wars. With colleagues Tony Chakar and Bilal Khbeiz. and are expressive of the sense of the gamble of history. Raad. and measurement of facts that anchor war to both capital and national history. The concern over the winning horse. and the incompossible relationship between chance and structure. The desktop is replete with folder icons. precision. . This essay works through a number of historiographic modes developed by media artists since the 1970s.’ says Chakar. whether working through public archives. or a biography of participants. ‘But there is no history. [that] acquire their attention in a fundamental way. even if they have nothing to do with what really happened. by excisions and direct acts of censorship. We are certainly saying that history cannot be reduced to this . They also require from us an attention to the interconnections of silence upon which the babble of the archive is built – a silence produced by genocide. or abandoned materials. is predominantly unconscious and concentrates on facts. as if it is trying to find a place so it can evacuate the other history. We are not saying history should not include this. and it tends to be the history of conscious events.. I explored the shift from sequenced temporal relations and the attendant political engagements of left history to the streamed aesthetic contemporary digital sideshadows and virtual images of potential histories and global networks. There is a huge catastrophe that’s in the making all the time. While they are arguably artist-historiographers.. ‘But not an alternative history that is necessarily additional or that must be thought of as something that completes something that was missing. political. I don’t like when work I do or that Walid does is presented as an alternative history to something else. It might contradict. Traditional history tends to concentrate on what really happened. by the political jockeying over and fetishization of facts. and aesthetic projects. classified documents. they produce a historicity that asks us to think otherwise about records or dominant formations of historical knowledge. and feelings that leave traces and should be collected.”’ adds Raad. and by fear. There is wreckage that is piled upon wreckage and that’s it. experiences.’30 . ‘There is this notion of chronological history where the past is certain. A reductive notion of traditional history is written as a chronology of massacres... as if it’s out there in the world. the future is certainly coming. I wish to end the essay with a dialogue about history that took place between Walid Raad and Tony Chakar because it expresses the problematics faced by the engaged.. by the arms trade.’ ‘I wouldn’t give up the term “alternative history. historiographic artist.Historiography and Media Art 207 which they then work on through their particular ethical. the present is certain.. Most people’s experience of these events . of events. objects. it might just add temporarily and then disappear . We are trying to find those stories that people tend to believe. 11 Roland Barthes. 1999). Media and the Politics of Place. is drawn from my essay ‘Activating History: Sara Diamond and the Women’s Labour History Project. The reliance on oral testimony for the production of a counter-history of class and gender makes Huyssen’s remarks especially cogent for the material with which Diamond is working. Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Stanford. there is much to be said about the trauma of gender and class violence and poverty and their occlusions and distortions in the written and visual history of modernity. which works through the theories of historiographer Reinhart Koselleck.’ in Twilight Memories: Marking Time in a Culture of Amnesia (London: Routledge. and media. Politics and the First American Avant Garde (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ‘Scenes from the Revolution: A Dialogue on Film. Homeland: Film. viii. 100. Hannah Arendt. . Malek Khouri and Darrell Varga (Toronto: University of Toronto Press.’ in Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema. 3 This discussion of activism. especially chapter 3. Hamid Naficy (London: Routledge. ed. 8 Yael Simpson Fletcher and Nalini Persaud. 9 Thomas Miller Klubock.’ Radical History Review 85 (2003): 274. and chapter 8 on old and new media. Present Pasts. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken. While I am not making a homology between the subject matter of Diamond’s tapes and the Holocaust. ed. temporality. 5 and 11. traumas of global violence.208 Susan Lord NOTES 1 Andreas Huyssen. 2. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. Politics. ‘History and Memory in Neoliberal Chile: Patricio Guzmán’s Obstinate Memory and The Battle of Chile. 1981). 2001). Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang/ Noonday. 6 Allan Antliff. and History. 2003). Present Pasts. Anarchist Modernism: Art. ‘Memories of Utopia. yesterday and today. ‘Theses on the Philosophy of History. 255. ed. 2006). 1995). 4 Homi Bhabha. Historicity. Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 7 Huyssen. 65. 5. more recent. CA: Stanford University Press. trans. preface to Home. It should be noted that much of the literature on memory to which Huyssen refers addresses the Holocaust and other.’ Radical History Review 91 (winter 2005): 172. Exile.’ in Illuminations. I strongly recommend Philip Rosen’s Change Mummified: Cinema. 1969). 10 Huyssen. for instance. 12 Walter Benjamin. trans. 5 For more on the relation between modern historiography. 2001). such as the disappeared of Latin America. 2 Andreas Huyssen. Subalternity and Difference. 28 Ibid. S. 97–8. 25 Johannes Fabian.’ 69. Narrative. 17 Jeffrey Skoller.machinehunger.E.au/LivingTomorrow/VictoriaLynn_launch. 2003). ‘Read-Me. xxxix. 21 Ross Gibson and Kate Richards. Shadows. 251. and R. Pessimism and Travel.’ in Negotiations. C. 30 Quoted in ibid. 1983). 11 March 2005. ‘Letter to Serge Daney: Optimism. 19 Ibid.’ 69. 1990). .’ Opening Remarks. Casarino. ‘Precepts for a Digital Artwork. 71.. The Location of Culture (London: Routledge. 1996). 72. trans.’ res magazine.html. 29 Kaelen Wilson-Goldie.com/articles/atlasgroup. www. Specters. Montevideo.’ http:// www. Marsha Kinder and Tara McPherson (Berkeley: University of California Press. ‘Archive Montage Network: The Art of Linda Wallace. January–February 2004.’ Life after Wartime. 1995). Martin Joughin (New York: Columbia University Press. 14 Serge Daney.Historiography and Media Art 209 13 Gilles Deleuze. forthcoming ).’ in Interactive Frictions.pdf. 20 Marsha Kinder. See also ‘DisseminNation: Time. 62. 26 Steve Anderson. Homi Bhabha (London: Routledge. 27 Ibid. Karl (London: Routledge. ed.. 16 Sean Cubitt. ‘Select and Combine: The Rise of Database Narratives. 15 Deleuze. cited in Steve Anderson. and the Margins of the Modern Nation. ‘Past Indiscretions: Digital Archives and Recombinant History. CD-ROM (Australia. 2005). Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Other (New York: Columbia University Press. ‘The Atlas Group Opens Its Archives. Shards: Making History in Avant-Garde Film (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. 24 Homi Bhabha. ‘Letter.’ in Marxism beyond Marx. com. ‘Marxism after Marx: History. 52. quoted in Deleuze. Makdisi. 23 Dipesh Chakrabarty. xv.’ in Nation and Narration. 22 Victoria Lynn.txt.bidoun. ‘Letter. 18 Ibid. ed. ed.’ in this volume. 1994). says Nietzsche. himself. instituted. But the digital revolution.1 The grounds for such an aesthetic have already been laid. any such mastery? This question has been asked before. of art itself. We are used to the idea that nothing is simply present to us. the media artist.11 The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics gl e n n wi l l mo t t We are used to the idea that everything is a medium: everything is structured. beyond any such self-image. that mirror in which we see ourselves – artists and audience alike – over and over again as a McLuhanesque cliché. For the limits of self and mastery. We are even used to the artist who gestures toward that. informed. if Sean Cubitt is right. without that supplement of a medium. What kind of art could work otherwise? Can art help but objectify as object or event. as early as the modernist dada events and other happenings. communicated. are the domain of tragedy. who routinely abandons herself. tragedy is being reborn. the work of the media upon us – work that is driven by bodies of force and desire. and. the medium and its own message. one might add. the limits of representation itself. textualized. In digital art. . and ourselves – that part of ourselves subject to forgetting – to the prisonhouses of media. the most desperately new. Even the most superficially strange. coded. and thus mediated. recasts this question as a demand: ‘against the thingness of world. moreover. as mastered form and product. aesthetic form all too readily cloaks a compulsively reproduced art object. dead and living. body and other’ and. arises a demand for ‘their mutual interpenetration.’ so dissolving self and mastery in a deliberate invocation of the ‘liberating void’ that is the presence of loss and death in a materialist universe. and there are deep media. as they underlie the current production and existence of surface media themselves (machinery behind the electronic network. even as it also presents the can itself. of industrial processes and countless scientists. – the whole world of global work and movement of capital which makes this unobtrusive little thing possible. however. suffering. because they are immediate to us and are the media with which our bodies and senses directly interface (the computer terminal our hands are typing upon. which is to say textualized and communicated. dig the ore. the roads our vehicles are traversing. which is to say. the radio our ears are hearing). There is a great grinding. When you have a deep medium that is dominant in a society. but also communicates to me its label. the printed text. as Marx reminds us. On the surface are all those particular media of which we are normally aware.2 Whether deep media are thought more in terms of language systems. and a whole world of fantasy and desire. but which I’ve bought into – the world of preserved food storage that structures my diet. their function has always been grounded in symbolic exchange and the reproduction of values. a textuality. etc. that underlies at some level all or most other media (hence social communication and individual subject formation). This is a . Deep media. labourers. a mythology of weiner-sausageness the depths of whose connotations only Roland Barthes could plumb. I might set before myself a typical commodity. or of economic or other systems. in my purchase and consumption of these sausages. and whose commodification only Andy Warhol could completely de-reify in the absurdity of a restored human creative gesture.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 211 Deep Media But there are surface media. perhaps precarious. investors. the electronic network behind the weapons of mass destruction). a signifying system. joyous world – a world that is no more or less than a particular and powerful. the image. refine the metal. or the ‘artisanal’ and feudal or ‘industrial’ and capitalist cultures described by Marx. are never immediate to us. condition of our present history – produced and reproduced. who make the can. of course. Such a tin does not simply present to me the anticipated referent within. say a small tin can containing cocktail sausages. the electric light our eyes are ranging across. you have the ‘oral’ or ‘print’ cultures described by McLuhan. the labouring body behind the machinery. It does all this. the ‘gift’ or ‘commodity’ cultures described by Mauss. which I try to forget. managers. as Marxist philosophy has long understood them. tendentially.. to an end. and immediate. are no longer the antinomies they have become in the modern world.212 Glenn Willmott world that depends on and is now inseparable from systems of digital technology. but while Davis and Stack’s utopian argument may have its .3 This is not simply another utopian vision extrapolated from what digital machines can do. but so is the digital. or (2) the digital subject world. i. Digital Revolution Existing ideas of digital revolution have generally articulated one of two romances: (1) the digital object world. Its etymology already warns us it’s got its fingers in everything. if not. you incline toward a bright digital romance. you have felt the digital revolution. For if Jim Davis and Michael Stack are right. our work. at some profound. is likely in itself.e. Digitization promises something deeper. the basis of a world in which work and play. and scarcity from class struggle – so bringing capitalism and its particular evils. labour from alienation. our weather. mundane. will free us collectively from all but virtual labour. less visible. That is the revolutionary interest of the digital – not as a special or new medium. This is a tall order. If you think the fingers are your own. automation as the basis of a ‘postindustrial’ information economy. increasingly making all of the systems described above possible. as with the romances mentioned above. art and life. toward a dark digital fate. i.e. Not only are media everywhere.. and a virtual utopia will flourish. nor. but as a newly containing or enabling medium that reaches far beyond its own hardand software to create new foundations for us: our art. may be seen as complementary fantasies emanating from our brushes with new deep media in which the real and the virtual lurk without distinguishing themselves. and subsonic level. But if you feel that both romance and fate ring somehow false in the virtual world. which is to liberate production itself from commodification – hence culture from reification. Neither romance implies the other. cybernetic communication as the basis of a ‘postmodern’ sense of identity will free us individually in the development of ourselves. and a real-time utopia will flourish. our friendships. objective and subjective. nor the experience offered to their users. Yet these antithetical romances. most of us will again agree. as do banality and bliss. the digital deep medium is initiating a radically new mode of production which is. thus to the dissolution of commodity value as required for the generation of profits. In brief. by strategies from the capitalist past. An underclass is fated to grow in . The net effect is to erode the commodity basis of the capitalist mode of production itself. through myriad last-ditch efforts. Digital rendering thus liberates information from the constraints of any particular medium and raises the possibility of the liberation of “information” from the constraints of scarcity and rationing by price: easy and cheap replicability means that whatever can be digitally rendered can be made universally available. which is accumulated by a wealthy class at the expense of a deprived one). in work and play. but in the values – the systems of value production. nor in subjects. Digitization offers a ‘universal rendering that is resource-conservative. a commodity. its point of departure.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 213 weaknesses. not only does digitization tendentially destroy by supplanting the commodity value of human labour across nearly every sector of our productive activities (as imagined by the automation romances in terms of an object world of surface media). is for Marxist dialectics and digital aesthetics alike highly suggestive. meter. and manipulate.’5 So. tries desperately to squeeze marginal values out of its own hyperproductive digital economy. but its replicability further depreciates (in the downwardly spiralling cheapness of the production of the copy) whatever commodity value – or profit margin – inheres in any product. cheap to store and transport. and easy to copy.4 This point of departure allows the digital product to be grasped in our times as a capitalist product. and throw the value of all our labour time. Baudrillardian depreciation arises from the unlimited ‘dissemination’ effect of the digital medium as supplement to our intentionally created content (as imagined in the decentred values and identities of poststructuralist romances). Is this another romance? For Davis and Stack. they suggest. whose value depends upon ratios of labour and other commodity values in the marketplace (in relation to a surplus value or profit. as capitalism. and exchange – that circulate between the two. the most profound product of the new deep medium is a crisis in unemployment and underemployment. reproduction. This can never be solved. Davis and Stack argue that digital production will lead to a catastrophic depreciation of labour value. into a maelstrom. for the social contracts that have always inhered between capital and labour are in the digital age severed. The latter. The digital revolution is not a revolution in objects. which is to see digitization at the roots of a structural mode of production below the surface of other media. of course. but must come at the cost of the social wealth. . and wears the digital nomad like a second skin. unlike in the past. and all that is left is to create a human world in which this power is justly distributed – with revolution. dependent on the devalued work time of an underclass. For the leisure time of the virtual reality (VR) user is. Not the digital user but the underclass is the real. in the game world – floats up like a mirror image of this real. The digital revolution is not. for these few themselves. which remains in the hands of the few still locked inside the capitalist cage (who can perhaps fetishize. even as it is recontained in the commodity form of specialized leisure products. but an extra fifty-some minutes spills open at midnight. Digitization can only create the situation wherein a human revolution can begin. Bungled Time These are precisely the new digital media parameters explored by Stanley Kim Robinson’s epic novels of the civilization of Mars: the power of digitized analysis. perhaps. because the distribution of wealth can be unfair under any conditions. The poor are freed from commodified labour. The twenty-four-hour Earth clock keeps on ticking. as has often been pointed out. because the work that most people can do is no longer valuable in the virtual factory and marketplace. Behind every screen is a sweatshop. On the other hand. tragic freedom. This is a profound gain. as in the white appropriation of rap. when the clocks stand still – and time is set free – to signify the difference of the Martian day. if immiserated. a tattoo. whereby production may be seized in the name of new values because. the value of labour time – the sheer temporality of human effort in production – that is shucked off by the new commodity is ready for new energies to inhabit and expand. without a negotiated plan. a merely technological one. the dispossessed creativity glimpsed without). the dialectical twins of a new age. its technology has exhausted one system of value creation and opened up the possibility of another. and automation is there complete. without any common principle of organization. therefore. The homeless kid roams the pavement while the computer kid surfs the Web.214 Glenn Willmott size and discontent. The userclass knows its uncanny kinship. production. subject of the new economy. the experience of virtual play – on the Internet. and indeed from alienation as such. Centrally.6 But the new temporality is also curiously thematized. Now it is the insider. in the new sense of radical mutability. non-uniform. without regarding either as unreal or beyond what seems the normal progress of history. of instability. I learned his story from Julian Dibbell. unemployed or working overtime.7 MOO stands for MUD (MultiUser Domain)–Object-Oriented. in which the complexities of subsequent developments writ themselves large in a simpler. it was the outsider – like Camus or Beckett – who felt. fantasy chateau and with each other in real time (so they can do things in and to the rooms and corridors of the chateau. We can already experience this new temporality directly in any work which interfaces the dizzying registers of financial markets. who can invent any persona he or she likes. is as the opening up of this radically different and subversive valuation of time. If everyday time was once metered on the inescapable clock of commodity production – a clock now stuttering and wheezing (as Dostoevsky’s Underground Man first heard it) – then our time is henceforth transvalued. that time was absurd. in a virtual time very close to real time). and he deserves to be remembered in a pantheon of original. the Village Voice cyberspace writer who in 1993 (in a decade that may now be considered the archaic period of popular VR space. Take Mr Bungle. But most of us feel it indirectly. digitally implicated. This one is a software product stored on a Xerox Corporation computer that allows multiple users from anywhere in the world to interact with the object world of an architecturally mimetic. and indulge both in realistic action and conversation and in the cre- . in the world of institutions. chaotic. In modern times. The utopian experience of a VR is obvious in LambdaMOO: the world is there for the user. or paradigmatically. jobs. He was a persona in the leisure-time VR system called LambdaMOO. and in the systemic sense. in any electronic play which interfaces the shapeshifting registers of VR. and interact gesturally and verbally with each other. the citizen and consumer. therefore. mythic VR types. demographies. We are liberated to enact equally fantasies of utopia and fantasies of terror (and condemned to be acted upon by them). who embraces it as cliché. and conflicts in which we are ineluctably. He and his crime are an exemplary expression of this dialectically ambivalent new mode of production in the aesthetic sphere. less mundane digital world) witnessed some of the events and wrote them up.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 215 The best way of grasping the implications of the digital revolution. having any physical or emotional characteristics. to distinguish its all-textual format from VRs that include images and/or sounds. more heroized and demonized. in the force of a revelation alien to his or her clockbound milieu. whose welcome pages look like travel brochures advertising the social opportunities and leisure activities one associates with a luxury cruise. Need. but subsumed into play rather than productivity.com). paradoxically. Despite its attempt at VR realism. which if Davis and Stack are right. There is no work. indeed. expelling. scarcity. The experience of time.. and of making objects like clothing. could not be sustained even if itself created in VR). there is no need to work. because there is no need (as in classical cinema. and death are no longer absurd. even in those MUDs that impose strict limits on time and agency.S. All this is even more emphatic in the commercial-product MUD called There (at http://www. In a radical sense. and no scarcity (for example. everything is work: the user is engaged in a continual activity of production. Rather.216 Glenn Willmott ation of fantasy objects and situations. generation. that disowns the producer. to the symbolic order). This is nothing less than the reproduction of life. It’s like “The Matrix. In a VR world in which ‘why are we here?’ has no meaning apart from the will and agency of the player seated before the screen. as they were for a Catch-22 or M.. eating. tools. which simulates an urban terrorist conflict zone under military authority. etc. is the experience of creativity without the alienation of an object world. Strangers talk to you and take an interest in you. This alternative time sense may be felt.H. you can create a personal room of infinite dimensions). as a rule rather than the exception. such as the noncommercial version of There developed in 2003-4 for American military training.there. one’s time is one’s own. therefore. and social world. only appear when they belong to the plot of desire. such ironies are obsolete. But from another perspective. the domain of work translated to the VR world..”’ One reason such realism dissolves into a more utopian time sense is that . The user loses track of time because the fullness of time presents itself. It is very like a nostalgic vision of community. commodification.A. it is not sold to anyone under any system of surplus value (i. the work of doing whatever is done in VR – is work in the realm of play. It feels like play and may even confuse itself with the formal playfulness of art because – just like the work imagined in William Morris’s aesthetic utopia News from Nowhere – it is work free of alienation (within VR). or a kind of play whose pleasure and ends are in the creation and re-creation of the self and its social and physical environment. a soldier at the first military ‘test drive’ of this MUD responded: ‘Cool . of interacting with others. process rather than product.e. The work of creating a persona. the bodily routines of needful labouring. or gifts – indeed. There is no room for alienation even in this community. a persona who evidently failed to appreciate what Dibbell called the milder ‘communal spirit’ of LambdaMOO. I have suggested the digital utopian register of MUDs like LambdaMOO: it is free of the structural alienation of self and degradation of time that so constrains our productivity in the real world. His crime was to force the personas of other users into abusive or violent sexual acts with a voodoo doll. The VR world is a totally possessed. of symbol and reality. But the premise of the VR screen is that you always have something to do. and makes perfect sense. is an intrinsic part. and their sexist codings. It may offer a virtual disalienation experienced in a virtual time. in RL – whence Mr Bungle ultimately comes. But this is only true in VR. It is a silent contract between the screen and the player. the world goes on without your work or your play. ‘Boredom is a key part of training. an actual utopia that depends on escape from (and within) – rather than revolution of – existing social relations. you have nothing to do.10 It is thus paradoxical. of word and act. Dibbell sees in the profound feelings of violation and subsequent political will of the LambdaMOO users a revelation of the indistinction. It differs in the non-compliance. whose realist war zone is the occasion for an ecstatic expenditure of individual will in a utopian world in which even death is created. it may just as likely be due to LambdaMOO’s own contradiction as VR with actual power structures and alienated social relations. of other users. Yet I am inclined to believe that if Mr Bungle contradicts the essence of LambdaMOO’s VR. ‘since part of the challenge of gun battles is that they often come out of nowhere after hours of tedium. hence virtual rape. It is a quality as dangerous as it is utopian that he sees in the digital world reaching far beyond LambdaMOO and beneath us.’8 In real-life (RL) boredom. tried by an ad-hoc court. a holistic field of action in which the player. In some respects. Mr Bungle’s violence. but the VR system is itself a materially and institutionally bounded form of alienation. misogynist clown.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 217 even in the military There.’ another soldier reported. then. this was merely an importation of the antisocial fantasy life of other VR systems (such as games) into a more neutral and creative environment. Mr Bungle presented himself to his fellow users as a grotesque. How then to explain Mr Bungle. there is no boredom. creative world. like the hero of Northrop Frye’s notion of romance. in VR. as Sean Cubitt has argued. and destroyed by a Xerox arbitrator? In the surreal world of VR.9 when Mr Bungle used it serially to rape other personas until restrained. an alienated disalienation. from this van- . sets new parameters for self and community reproduction in VR. reveals itself to be violence directed toward VR itself. For the artist in a VR community like LambdaMOO or There can only be identified by productions (narrative actions. just as any user is who. violence directed toward VR as a real product. limits.e. If Mr Bungle is a kind of sadomasochistic double of the repression of the real in VR. for not being real (enough) – that is. and possibilities of the virtual medium. these questions point to the end of art as mastery of form in commodifiable space and to its rebirth as mastery of initializations in a postcommodity flux. not to indulge fantasy violence in a VR game with merely VR characters (like a video game). he is from this perspective akin to the normal user. For VR. the suffering inflicted by his virtual crimes is not simply evil. Of course. as Dibbell says in his title. productive of a new kind of community. This is digital tragedy. while Mr . Mr Bungle is the return of the repressed. For his readers.. and so uncanny. like Mr Bungle. modern economy) of VR. of the gateways in what Lord and Marchessault call our fluid screens. rather than the interfering Mr Bungle. and specifically at the illusion of power (the users as their own producers. Hence Mr Bungle’s desire.218 Glenn Willmott tage point. It is this violating appropriation of others’ work of creation. that is so horrifying. rather than the imaginary abuse alone which doubles it in content. a deviant – a kind of structural fate or revenge. and its personas as the productions of real people. but to strike out at fellow VR users themselves. by producing new gates which send the digital user toward the unseen creative depths. The programmer who creates or alters the software foundation of a MUD is thus engaging in artistic production. through their created personas. Gates in Time Mr Bungle’s story expresses in digital aesthetics the archaic tragic structure – as opposed to romance – of the digital revolution. but revelatory and. i. object creations) that stand apart by initiating or diverting the flow. Mr Bungle’s voodoo doll’s actions may thus be read as overdetermined performances of alienation – both for Mr Bungle (as doll) and his victims (ventriloquized). If MUDs are a sign of things to come.11 Does the tragedy belong to life or to art? Is the virtual community’s ongoing re-creation of itself through narrative text an art or everyday life? The shifting ontologies of VR and RL make these questions difficult to answer. even as he is from another. [He] scanned the inmates’ bodies.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 219 Bungle’s user. such as digital theatre. Eliot called disciplined dreaming: play grasped precisely as work. as in interactive installations and Internet programs. stored them in memory (note that Rehearsal of Memory abbreviates as ROM). rather than expressive forms from without. the patients offer anecdotes about their crimes and sufferings. This is most readily seen in digital art created in interactive surface media. immersed in the flow of the deep medium. a tragic embrace of the suffering-liberating ambivalence of the digital revolution is unavoidable.. users trigger memories: with sounds from the hospital resonating in the background. The VR community is the tendential product of any radical or fully immersed digital art. it finds completion as product in the propagation of work beyond it. radically modified the raw images. Interactive Spectacle Peter Lunenfeld describes the CD-ROM installation work created by Graham Harwood. merely indulge in fantasy or dream creation along with the culture industry at large (Cubitt has said that MOOs articulate an infantile maternal world). Using a mouse. and perhaps the VR programmer. The form of the virtual work of art is contingent not only on its media and mediation but on the past and future work of others. and created a series of composite naked figures to form the ground for his interactive work. While Lunenfeld finds the work suffers from a romanticism and sentimentalism regarding the violent and mad (no doubt with Foucault in mind).S. But it is also echoed in spectator surface media. this may put too much emphasis on the content as . as just such a tragic gate: Harwood went to Ashworth Mental Hospital in Liverpool.. where he recorded the thoughts and memories of the inmates . nor simply the dialectical antithesis of a real-life digital society described above.12 the work of the artist will always be what T. A Rehearsal of Memory. producing new origins and parameters from within. For the digital artist. video. For this reason the VR community is not just one digital product among others. As they pass over this fleshy sea of scars and tattoos. the artist here creates the parameters for a virtual narrative activated by the user. users scroll across Harwood’s patchwork prisoners. and cinema. in the symbolic rather than imaginary orders.13 By digitizing the bodies and memories of mental institution patients. 14 The outcome of the combat would . between digital society and exclusion. of bodies severed from work. were digitized and engaged in virtual sumo bouts onscreen. like the growing dispossessed. from the ability to work productively in society: the insane who. both of the inmates and the users. This physical and imaginative sensation of work is counterposed to the virtual traces. But clearly it is the memory of the user that is called to rehearsal. somatic and cognitive. it would indeed signify a Foucauldian romanticism deserving of Lunenfeld’s hesitations. Hence a kind of performance of real work takes place in order to generate the work of art. For example. to produce a new narrative flow. all those able to emulate and navigate the VR of the doctor’s work. which must therefore be grasped precisely as work on the part of the user. The beauty and magic of the point-andclick. The user is invited to probe the tattoos and scars of the virtual body just as a doctor examines it for signs and symptoms. but of its serial users. Iwai created an interactive VR television program for children users. are free from one kind of work (as alienation) but deprived of another (as reproduction of social wealth). real depths. somatic and psychic. The virtual community implied by A Rehearsal of Memory is not that of the inmates (whose real community – the individual bodies – and devalued productivity – the stories – have been dissolved and recomposed in a ‘fleshy sea’ sutured together by institutional noise.220 Glenn Willmott opposed to the medium and form. Need tragedy be so dark? The suffering of tragedy was by Nietzsche paradoxically identified – as having a common basis in flux and transvaluation – with the pleasure of play. the individual user necessarily works on his or her own memory. Ugo Ugo Lhuga. The surface technology employed here uncannily duplicates the medical technology of diagnosis and monitoring familiar to hospital rooms and operating theatres. If it were the memory of the mad and violent which needed to be ‘rehearsed’ by users of Harwood’s digital machinery. the user trying to forget the tightrope that body and mind must walk between digital value and worthlessness. This kind of tragic play may be felt in the ecstatic narratives flowed by children through the gate work of Japanese artist Toshio Iwai. virtual narrative is married to the inhospitability of its intimate. both virtual and real. between digital misery and paradise. and so become parameters for virtual community production at another level). in whose ‘Voice Sumo’ segment individual users’ drawings of creatures of their own imaginings. mailed in on postcards. Linked thus to the work of others. The result is perhaps the closest thing to a Dionysian celebration of the terrible and violent ephemerality – yet overriding and ecstatic creativity – of self and mastery as spectacle that art has offered to Nietzsche’s future.’16 Spectacular Interaction While interactive media works may seem uniquely able to represent. the same body in Iwai’s work belongs to children. a process quite similar to Heraclitus the Obscure’s comparison of the force that shapes the world to a playing child who sets down stones here. but contrary to Mr Bungle’s example. the ritual combat which is the purified basis of the work. in the still barely recognized forms of aesthetic gateways. and the next place.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 221 depend on the audience of users telephoning in their support with shouts. for one creature or the other. But where the tragedy of real-life digitization is channelled in Harwood’s work through the insane as a socially unproductive (or improperly productive) body. in real time. The agon. their productions affirm and reinforce rather than appropriate the creative work of others. the anatomy of the digital revolution. The VR community of children users is invited to participate in a festival of destruction. Chris Marker’s film Level Five (1996) uses digital cinema technology . The elegance of this interactive work is its integration of individual creative work with collective interaction (a characteristic of Iwai’s work generally) and the brilliant re-appropriation by the child artist of commodity products and the commodified work stored in them and in their value (rather like do-it-yourself Pokémon monsters). At this level they are spectacles. will doubtless recall the shadowy nature of Mr Bungle’s appearance in VR. Conversely. and who builds up piles of sand only to knock them down again. the loudest side winning. there. it must be remembered that even these – as I asserted in the case of LambdaMOO – produce VR communities that are relatively contained systems proper to the leisure worlds of art and recreation. and yet to long to go beyond looking. we ‘understand the meaning of our desire to look. just like theatre and cinema. one which reveals to us the playful construction and demolition of the world of individuality as an outpouring of primal pleasure and delight.’ and recognize ‘a Dionysiac phenomenon. with a measure of safe voyeurism.15 When we understand tragedy. says Nietzsche. art in these latter media need not be any less authentic in its emulation of the digital world. the parameters set in the organization of the surface medium. never seen in the film. since both the relationship between the missing friends (the communication between their very souls) is now in VR. There is a sense of failed navigation or paralysis of memory – viewing the othered work of the film.’ The VR community explored by the film is twofold. This effect of the organization. but the future. this kind of work is bewildering enough. There are only text and image traces that function as somatic and cognitive gates. who navigates in this way. who must develop an imaginary identification with this work in VR but cannot navigate it him or herself.222 Glenn Willmott in both form and content. one’s own work excluded from it. allowing memory to flow without pooling or stabilizing in any character (woman or man) or setting (Paris or Okinawa. for either of these VR communities. For the passive user of Marker’s digital cinema. real and virtual: the real concerns a woman searching the computer memory of a vanished friend. It alternates between two spaces.17 Here the digital production – using sound and video to create VR spaces and worlds which interact with real ones – evokes not the past. and apart from the work of others. the virtual concerns the history of the Japanese island of Okinawa during the Second World War. then. Like A Rehearsal of Memory. dependent on the navigations of the user – the woman or the cinematic audience. the work is a call to remember oneself in digital flows into. the horror is twofold. Tragedy grasped as the double-edged. and on a larger scale. there are no characters. (not resisting) the tragedy of Okinawa: (not viewing) the work beyond the film. The personal and the public are alike digitized communities. fuses with the horror of failed navigation or paralysis of history itself. The gates in Level Five are the characters – that is. utopian and terrible. The one VR is allegorical of the other. For the woman user represented in the film. which is digitized in the friend’s computer memory.’ which is ‘the global . each confronting the recognition of hardly representable suffering and the creative value of survival. The digital production is not technological. out of. past or present).’ the stage drama Kyotopolis (1993). the relationship between the French present and the Japanese past (the communication of history as social memory) is also in VR. at a hidden depth of digital architecture cryptically coded ‘level 5. spectacle of digital immersion in history is also witnessed in Daniel David Moses’s ‘play of light across and through and in and out of the open face of the planet. It is insistently intersubjective. ‘that almost present dream of the city of tomorrow. 18 This repeats a cycle of images. and for us. She required the . foreseen by McLuhan. also return. and the suffering she must confront and work through as she pushes this identification further into the truth of Babe’s life. Tommy Hawk. a turning tesseract. part virtual. a future spirit catcher. an ‘Indian clown’ who is host of and presiding genius behind the ‘Little People’ TV program (a shape-shifter whose production studio is a Batcavesque hideout inside a Hawaiian volcano). a spectacle of rings and squares. spheres and cubes – a gigantic high technology astrolabe. as the re-appropriated product of Native history. It is the latter plot. This dialectic is played out by Mary. rises above a clearing bank of clouds.’ Moses recasts the digitally transformed and interconnected world. It’s moon bright and large. RL society persists in the (oppressive) appropriation of Native to non-Native prejudice and economy. a ‘little Indian girl’ who is the star of a VR community of ‘Little People’ mediated by television (but who is now literally lost in space. creative power of the digital trickster Tommy as well as the (real) exploitation and misery of the virtual idol Babe. of a transformed moon. Near the end of the play. At the heart of the drama are three characters more virtual than real: Babe Fisher. In a word. in their cycling. her only trace the televised image of a rotating spacecraft. common ground. Babe’s death is explicitly Christlike: she becomes the hurt and loss at the centre of things that allows the characters ‘to turn and talk to each other’ – she becomes their part real. For Mary and the other characters. her face perhaps at the window). as VR communities perform a (utopian) reverse-assimilation of non-Native to Native life and history. at once digital life world and guidance machine. and its real and virtual communities as the extended relations of Native family. and Mary Oh. the utopian (because global village) identification of the non-Native with the Native character. and the space station. who must ultimately confront the (real) joyous. dreamed of by Babe and now realized. the projected petroglyphs and city and Milky Way. a VR media celebrity (and grown-up Little Person.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 223 Indian village. here. from the outset of the play – except for the new element. creating a virtual ‘path’ down which Babe tries to dance. Moon Two. a cycle of projected images appears in the chaotic wake of a butterfly: The butterfly disappears into a shadow as the other pulsing places. that is central and the tragedy of Kyotopolis. who seeks the life story of the orphan Babe). good or bad. the democratic. that someone – some cybertopian or cyberphobe – might expose. as the closest thing to the language of the will deployed across time. but is now everywhere. We consume and incorporate it everywhere. public forums. It is the balance.224 Glenn Willmott words of the others to complete her own dream. or for the disruption of orthodox notions of the text or the self in digitally structured communication. in a manner seductive or terrifying. as democratic ideals. McLuhan imagined the totality of human existence as a single. As a drum beats at the close of the play – each beat a pulse of energy. an ultimate freedom of the senses – that is. by descending into the digital as mundane. the liberating – but when it (equally) astonishes us. Hence digitization is not something new coming into the world to tip the balance toward good or evil. or turbulent rhythm. But what Nietzsche really saw was not time. the senses of that literally unlimited and indeterminate human community he called the global village – to interact totally and simultaneously. But the romance of the digital has taken many forms since: an enthusiasm for unregulated. everything we do in media as artists or otherwise has a value-laden purpose. Of course. as the ultimate technological exercise of power over time itself. but the mastery of time as history (but also the unmasterability of time as history) that music stood for – the barely imaginable. Zero Work The digital world has produced its romances. McLuhan’s was perhaps the first: the digital world as an apocalyptic good. blithe. interconnected work of art – which meant the final ranging of forces of good and evil toward some unthinkable utopian or dystopian future. the rhythm precisely of . ultimate technical rhythm of human control over nature and remastering of communication. This is where the idea of digital art is most interesting – not when it purveys another romance to consume of the good. What my digital sausages warn me is that the digital is not one vehicle for such values or romances among others. as everyday. belongs to some romance. which Nietzsche failed to dream of. a digital unit of light in dark – Babe finds her steps and dances away on this path. or for interactive play. It is beyond good and evil. Nietzsche thought of music as the medium closest in form to the reality of power and historical time as an unpredictable. except as music. and the work of the others to complete her life. has all other media as its content. It is not one thing out there among other things. or social noise. already impertinently insisting upon the mediating. because also beyond. malleable. our sense of pleasure and work alike. That is. even as. as Sean Cubitt says of textual communication. It is always. is somehow and radically our own (not out there beyond us. The concept of deep media is not totalizing but generalizing. of the fate of media. We must inhabit this zero that ‘is no longer void but has to be rethought as a kind of solidity: a break in the flow that marks the negentropic intervention of intelligence. NOTES 1 Sean Cubitt. and release us to new possibilities for. in a utopian role for art today. it will perhaps have to come from this overcoming of time as masterful objectification and degradation. any work of art and its audience. any moment of time. Digital Aesthetics (London: Sage. It will not at present be sweetness and light. But digital tragedy is perhaps a way of thinking of degradation.19 in whose digital form the terrible and seductive flux of time as history reveals itself. and zones of sensory and psychical experience. but if it is to come from digital art.’20 We may justly believe. 2 A theoretical note on deep media: The cultures I list here are all multiple media social formations encompassing a heterogeneous array of material and institutional technologies. human or technological. in the timeless time of the electromagnetic. economic practices. as itself a creative process. already too degraded to be separated out as culture. it may not be recognizable as culture. as a material. degradation. 1998). as a kind of sociality degree zero. seducing and flaming. or digitization. but at least reveals itself in a virtual mirror of collective desire. ephemeral yet consequential. yours and mine). A deep medium is pervasive enough to affect all other media (including the negative effect of marginalization or transvaluation of media . It is always. the rhythm of the digital. but within us. we do. with tragic fascination. This degradation must be thought of. human thing.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 225 smallest. is human. but from the spirit of digitization would be like. It is worth trying to imagine what tragedy born not from the spirit of music. virtual units in time. therefore. The digital is Nietzsche’s true element – willful yet mercurial. as in market forces or new technologies. We don’t like to look at that. commodifying rhythms of digital engines chugging away beneath any message. artificial. with an immediacy that no other media could have. 23–4. The Mars Trilogy. and Michael Stack (London: Verso. media were not only ways of communicating but ways of knowing. but they are not themselves other than objective processes. cannot be identified with what Marxists have called modes of production. in similar proportion. Even so. ed. and making (of making things. remind us that these institutions are also multiple and irreducible to a total system. and why. 121–44. and adjudicate value. a dominant mode of institutional formation as a mode of production. Kim Stanley Robinson. digital technology has completely transformed personal written correspondence. or How an Evil Clown. create us. it enfolds group values and decisions that are properly institutional. in countless specific and different ways. and Social Revolution. hence the end of capital accumulation as such.’ in High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace. with a dominant or deep medium. Deep media may profoundly affect our subjective lives. feeling. 1993–6). For McLuhan. 1996). so that we speak of a dominant institution such as contemporary capitalism as a mode of production in the understanding that we are speaking of a general condition rather than a dystopian or utopian unity. it is now possible to identify social and economic institutions as modes of information.226 Glenn Willmott 3 4 5 6 7 outside its realm) and the zones of experience they produce. numb us. media translate us. or making things happen). ‘The Digital Advantage. ed.’ 128. MA: MIT Press. a Haitian Trickster Spirit. . Two Wizards. The latter term is a historicist one that already signifies human power over what gets ‘made’ for whom. and excite us. at the bedrock of culture. Rather than posit a Marxian class revolution on the grounds of such class struggle. As extensions of ourselves. while itself remaining only sporadically or partially affected by other media. 3 vols (New York: Bantam. For example. Postmodern critics. Jim Davis. Julian Dibbell. Peter Ludlow (Cambridge. Davis and Stack postulate (contra Marx) a redistribution of wealth that should follow from the end of productions of surplus value. 1997). the deep media that I have called dominant in this regard. an ‘end to scarcity’ is hardly imaginable. Thomas Hirschl. ‘A Rape in Cyberspace. Davis and Stack. but personal written correspondence cannot be imagined. Information. 375–95. both Marxist and non-Marxist. distribute. and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society. Given current world population and pressure on resources. ‘The Digital Advantage.’ in Cutting Edge: Technology. In shorthand. A mode of production is perhaps best thought of as the intersection of human institutions which create. and the dominant technology of interface or translation among institutions as a deep medium. Jim Davis and Michael Stack. to have transformed digital technology. nor a struggle between classes for control of them. Capitalism. 35. and Cultures (Cambridge. 15 Whereas either pleasure or violence is an implicit. ‘Good Vibrations: Time as Special Effect. if powerful. MA: MIT Press. 18 Ibid. 20 Sean Cubitt. for modernity. 19 Cubitt. trans. 13–22 April 2000). ed.ac. October 1992–March 1994). even the most seductive of his works. The Birth of Tragedy and Other Writings.html.’ abstract published in the program for Images: The 13th Annual Images Festival of Independent Film and Video (Toronto. 2000). 12 Cubitt. Above all. 11 I am drawing on Raymond Williams’s notion of tragedy as a historical genre in which disorder is suffered in order to reshape and renew a community – in short.The Birth of Tragedy in Digital Aesthetics 227 8 Clive Thompson. 1999). Digital Aesthetics.waikato. Japan. ‘The Making of an X-Box Warrior. explores at the level of digital surface media the repetitive compulsive seduction and destruction plots that overtake users’ personas and relationships as they lose the ability to distinguish between VR and RL. Ronald Speirs. . their complicity itself is the explicit theme of recent cinematic works by David Cronenberg. however. 16. 23. 14 Toshio Iwai. tinged with the same cynical horizon. Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999). Cronenberg’s films. is by virtue of its political and betrayal plots. register of the tragic gateways digitized above. 13 Peter Lunenfeld. 16 Friedrich Nietzsche. Raymond Geuss and Ronald Speirs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Digital Aesthetics.nz/film/staffpages/sean/ as.’ 377. Ugo Ugo Lhuga (Fuji Television. Kyotopolis (Toronto: Playwrights Union of Canada. 36. A revised version of the talk may be found at http://www. which is about a VR community interacting in a three-dimensional game world.. 9 Dibbell. perhaps tend toward dystopia more than tragedy. Snap to Grid: A User’s Guide to Digital Arts. Digital Aesthetics. ‘A Rape in Cyberspace. 1993). 17 Daniel David Moses. 10 Cubitt. Media. a viable aesthetic for revolution. 22 August 2004. 16. M Butterfly (1993).’ New York Times Magazine. 91. This page intentionally left blank . and material structures of screen technologies in terms of the mobility of cultures and people. economic. The specific responses to this condition include the use of digital media. such as cell phones. This section connects analyses of media industries with the liquidity of capital in terms of labour practices within a Canadian film and television industry context. and reception is considered throughout the essays in this section by an emphasis on aesthetic phenomena. The first essay in this section provides a chilling and detailed reading of the military entertainment complex and the aesthetic/anaesthetic tension of its users. The section ends with two analyses that focus on efforts to intervene in and redirect the flow of information and power through the specificity of citizenship in global contexts and through the processes and connectivity of a digital aesthetics of the committed artwork. to animate protest and expand the theatre of the public. .PART III Liquid Space – Mobility The final section of Fluid Screens seeks to understand the social. This materiality of the circuitry of media production. distribution. This page intentionally left blank . 12 Armed Vision and the Banalization of War: Full Spectrum Warrior ni ck dy e r- w ith efo r d a n d gr ei g de peuter Games of Empire Video and computer games are exemplary media of contemporary empire. Just as the eighteenth-century novel was a textual machine creating the bourgeois subjectivities requisite to an emergent capitalism, and as television and film were media vital to twentieth-century Fordism, today digital play – a global industry whose revenues exceed those of the Hollywood box office – is a constituent component of both planetary hyper-capitalism and of insurgencies against it. And nothing is more central to games or empire than war. In this essay, we briefly review the historical relationship between military simulation and digital play, and then focus on one instance of this connection – Full Spectrum Warrior, a dual-purpose simulation designed both as a training aid for the U.S. army and as a commercial game. Such games are among the visualization and virtualization technologies of what Jordan Crandall calls ‘armed vision,’ which, he argues, are essential to new global complexes of military power.1 In their crossover of combat training and popular entertainment, digital war games are a major site of the ‘banalization of war’ that Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri describe as necessary for habituating imperial biopower to perpetual conflict.2 MIMENET and the Institute for Creative Technologies Several recent studies of the military-entertainment complex, ‘militainment,‘ or what James Der Derian calls MIMENET (‘the militaryindustrial-media-entertainment network’), have delineated the shared genealogies of digital play and military simulation.3 At first, the domi- 232 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter nant partner was the U.S. national security state. Pentagon funding supported the computer laboratories where Spacewar and other protogames were created in the 1960s.4 By the 1990s, however, post–Cold War military budgets were declining, while commercial games had advanced so fast as to be superior to the Pentagon’s in-house simulations. A newly frugal military began to adopt or adapt civilian games for training purposes. ‘9/11’ gave this rapprochement a massive boost. U.S. military budgets shot back near to Cold War levels, but alliances between games companies and armed forces did not disappear. On the contrary. The military poured funds into co-designed simulations to anticipate the new challenge of the ‘war on terror.’ Developers rushed to capitalize on market opportunities created by media coverage of terrorism and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq: Sony infamously attempted to copyright the slogan ‘Shock and Awe.’ War game sales rocketed, and collaboration with the military gave such products the cachet of authenticity that console-warriors craved. Some instances pushed the intersection of virtual and actual war to the extreme. One was the U.S. Army’s widely discussed online computer game America’s Army, launched in 2002 to recruit young Americans with no experiential connection to war, but plenty to video games. Another, starting from a commercial basis, was Kuma Reality Games, an online gaming service launched in 2004, whose website reports the war on terror in a format mimicking CNN or Fox, and then invites paying subscribers to ‘re-live’ an event in the form of ‘playable missions’ – an attack on Al Qaeda in the Afghan mountains, the capture of Saddam Hussein, or the assault on Fallujah: ‘Wherever the war takes our forces, we’ll put you there.’5 While America’s Army and Kuma Reality received most attention in the mainstream press, military–game industry overlaps were ubiquitous. The Department of Defense Game Development Community, a network aiming to connect ‘the entire community developing games within the US military’ and supported by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), currently lists some forty games ‘custom made’ for military purposes, about twenty-five ‘off-the-shelf’ products considered useful, as well as several ‘mods,’ or game modifications.6 Even in this crowded field, however, the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) occupies a special place. ICT epitomizes the intersection of military planning, computer simulation, film studios, and video game developers in what Der Derian terms ‘a new configuration of vir- Full Spectrum Warrior 233 tual power.’7 Based at the University of Southern California, it was created in 1999 by the army and funded to the tune of $45 million to tap into the entertainment industry’s high-tech expertise. A senior official, Michael Macedonia, describes its goal as ‘to produce a revolution in how the military trains and rehearses for upcoming missions’ by ‘develop[ing] the art and technology for synthetic experiences’ to a pitch ‘so compelling that participants will react as if they are real,’ thus providing a ‘quantum leap in helping the army prepare for the world, soldier, organization, weaponry, and mission of the future.’8 The ICT hired talent from game companies and film studios to collaborate in this mission: the artists who designed the special effects for The Matrix and Total Recall, screenwriters for films such as Training Day and The Fast and the Furious, a designer from the Alien movies. The deal was clear: the military got sophisticated training aids for its soldiers, entertainment companies got insider military knowledge – and products to sell. ICT creations include simulations with ‘branching storylines’ to train U.S. officers negotiating with Afghan warlords; ‘compelling filmed case studies’ of ‘interpersonal military leadership issues’; investigations of neurobiological discoveries linking affect to learning, aimed at harnessing ‘emotional valiance and training retention’; anticipatory visualizations of future war, such as the award-winning film Nowhere to Hide, ‘a sweeping vision of the Army’s Future Force in action’ depicting ‘vertical envelopment conducted against a fleeing asymmetric enemy’; ‘FlatWorld,’ which ‘allows users to experience virtual worlds – say a Baghdad street corner under enemy fire – without wearing clunky goggles’; and the Sensory Environments Evaluation program (SEE), an ‘immersive virtual-reality tunnel that can re-create unpleasant environments’ – such as abandoned bunkers filled with bats – ‘with astonishing verisimilitude.’ The aim, according to one ICT spokesperson, is ‘to create veterans who’ve never seen combat.’9 Not the least of ICT progeny are a series of game-like training simulations: Full Spectrum Commander, Full Spectrum Leader, and Full Spectrum Warrior. To understand these titles requires a short excursion into military doctrine. Full-Spectrum Dominance ‘Full-spectrum dominance’ is a concept whose centrality to Pentagon thinking was announced in Joint Vision 2020, a planning document released in 2000 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Its opening page declares 234 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter the U.S. military aim over the next two decades to be ‘the creation of a force that is dominant across the full spectrum of military operations – persuasive in peace, decisive in war, preeminent in any form of conflict.’10 Joint Vision goes on: The label full spectrum dominance implies that US forces are able to conduct prompt, sustained, and synchronized operations with combinations of forces tailored to specific situations and with access to and freedom to operate in all domains – space, sea, land, air, and information.11 Additionally, ‘given the global nature of our interests and obligations,’ full-spectrum dominance requires that the United States ‘maintain its overseas presence forces and the ability to rapidly project power worldwide.’12 So ‘full-spectrum’ designates military force that can flexibly modulate its activities across different types and theatres of operations, scaling its responses up and down as its goals and circumstances require, shifting seamlessly, from, say, tactical nuclear options to guerrilla war, with planetary reach.13 The possibility of ‘full-spectrum dominance’ is in turn given by the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), a transformation in military practices occasioned by the shift from industrial to informational warfare. The possession of overwhelming strategic, operational, and tactical advantage is determined by superiority in high technology, especially in communications and computing, rather than quantities of manpower or even equipment. RMA identifies a situation of ‘virtual war,’ fought out ‘onscreen,’ in which the enemy becomes visible, knowable, and destroyable through the mediation digital technologies, from satellite-generated maps to heads-up display systems, and computercontrolled and dispatched weaponry. What causes greatest disquiet to U.S. planners, however, is the threat of low-tech opponents and ‘asymmetrical conflict.’ The NATO and Red Army forces that faced each other in the Cold War were ‘symmetrical’ enemies, mirror-images, each with missiles, tanks, artillery, air and infantry, and tactical and operational doctrines that fell broadly within the same plane of military logic. But the U.S. troops fighting Iraq or Afghanistan face ‘asymmetrical’ foes: insurgents massively outgunned in terms of high-technology firepower, far less well trained, but retaliating with practices, such as suicide bombing, assassinations of civilian collaborators, and other forms of terrorism that seem, to imperial eyes, alien, uncivilized, and inhuman. Joint Vision 2020 identifies such ‘asym- Full Spectrum Warrior 235 metric approaches’ as ‘perhaps the most serious danger the United States faces in the immediate future.’14 Associated with ‘asymmetric’ conflicts is yet another acronym: MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain). As Mike Davis has noted, Pentagon strategists consider the Third World city to be the ‘key battlespace of the future.’15 The view that ‘the slum has become the weakest link in the American empire’ is based not only on the disasters that befell U.S. occupations of Mogadishu and Beirut, but also on Israeli experiences in Gaza and the West Bank. If ‘the future of warfare ... lies in the streets, sewers, high-rise buildings, and sprawl of houses that form the broken cities of the world,’ special training is required for the soldiers who will fight in such conditions.16 MOUT tactics are applied on a daily basis in cities such as Baghdad, Fallujah, and Nadjaf. Preparation for such fighting involves incessant war games, physical and virtual.17 ICT’s ‘full-spectrum’ simulations are part of these rehearsals. All are onscreen, digital trainers, modelling asymmetric combat: Full Spectrum Command aims to train company-level leaders, in charge of about 120 men; Full Spectrum Leader works at the level of thirty-men platoons. Full Spectrum Warrior (FSW) deals with very small-scale squad-level operations: the army intends it not to train officers but to help soldiers understand what their leaders are asking them to do: ‘By taking the boss’s job, Soldiers might deepen their appreciation for the correct execution of dismounted battle drills in the urban context.’18 What really distinguishes FSW, however, is that it is a military–civilian co-development with two versions. The military version teaches soldiers how to make smart decisions in the nightmare of urban combat. The civilian version, released in 2003, makes this an entertainment experience. Under the auspices of ICT, Pandemic Studios developed both versions, with Sony Pictures Imageworks doing special effects. The giant game publisher THQ Inc. later prepared the game for commercial sale. Civilian and military versions alike are playable on Microsoft’s Xbox, with the commercial version later being ported to the PC and PS2. From the army’s point of view, ‘leveraging Xbox’ capabilities saved on special simulation devices, and capitalized on young recruits’ familiarity with game consoles, creating a ‘potential efficiency in “training for training.”’19 The army invested $5 million. Pandemic and Sony did the development, promising $2.6 million worth of in-kind work. In return, they got the rights to the commercial game. It is with this entertainment version of FSW that we begin. 236 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter Mission to Zekistan Turn on your console, load FSW; skip the manual, the tutorials, and the introductory video; jump directly to the first ‘mission.’ Here is the dusty, deserted, sinister Middle Eastern town, with its labyrinth of winding streets. Here ‘we’ are, your point of view embedded in the midst of a U.S. infantry squad. Already barely visible enemies have opened fire from ambush; in front of you, a truck burns; its driver lies wounded; automatic weapons chatter; distant explosions reverberate. You are a soldier-subject in the war on terror: kill or be killed. And this is all you really need to know. After a few mission failures you may return to the tutorials, or the manual. There you find the backstory. Zekistan is an imaginary Central Asian country with a ‘three thousand year’ history ‘punctuated by violence and bloodshed.’ After guerrilla struggle against Soviet invasion comes a civil war in which ‘Mhujadeen fighters’ led by the charismatic ‘Mohammed Jabbour Al Afad’ emerge supreme. Afad’s regime converts the country to ‘fundamentalist worship’ and persecutes the ‘ethnic Zekis, the nomadic mountain people that had originally settled the region,’ practising ‘genocide’ and ‘forced sterilization.’ Thousands of ‘ex-Taliban and Iraqi loyalists’ set up ‘terrorist-training facilities and death camps.’ Following a ‘devastating wave of terrorist attacks’ across ‘Europe and South East Asia,’ U.S. intelligence tracks the source to Zekistan. After ‘repeated warnings and failed diplomatic resolutions in the UN,’ NATO votes to invade. Massive air strikes prepare the ground for infantry and armour to begin the ‘land war’ – which is where you, the virtual warrior suddenly inserted beside a burning truck on a dirty street, come in.20 This is a complex geopolitical story. But it is basically irrelevant. All the parts are familiar from innumerable CNN reports, news photos, and movies: the political premises, the allotted roles, and the desired outcome predictable. In a prophetic essay, ‘Requiem for Our Prospective Dead,’ written at the time of the first Gulf War, Brian Massumi observes how, in a situation where ‘war and nonwar was getting harder and harder to tell apart,’ the legitimation of state violence operates primarily in ‘an affective register, through the mass media.’ This ‘affective circulation’ depends on a series of conversions, elisions, and blurs. On the one hand, the enemy combines attributes of military opponent, despot, terrorist, thug, genocide perpetrator – omni-purpose evil. On the other, there is an implied identification between U.S. soldiers, media audiences, and foreign populations supposedly being philanthropi- Full Spectrum Warrior 237 cally aided by ‘our’ side. As Massumi puts it, ‘All you need do is feel – a oneness with the prospective dead hero, and, based on that, hostility for the hypothetical enemy.’21 Such is the universe of FSW. Zekistan is Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo; Al Afad, bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and Milosevic; his Zekistan Liberation Front are composite tyrannical, ethnic-cleansing, weaponscaching terrorist malefactors. You, the player, are ‘our’ troops, at once defending the homeland and liberating oppressed inhabitants of invaded countries. One of the U.S. soldiers whose position the player adopts displays on his helmet the letters ‘NYPD’: New York Police Department. U.S. soldiers in Central Asia are planetary police. In a moment of scripted dialogue, after a ferocious firefight has left bodies strewn all across the streets, one of our infantrymen reflects aloud: ‘I think just by being here we help.’ First-Person Thinker The virtual experience of FSW is that of commanding two four-person teams of U.S. infantry: Alpha and Bravo. The player’s point of view is normally from behind the shoulder of the sergeant commanding a team. He voices orders entered by the player on the console pad or computer keyboard – ’Bravo, pay attention! Move!’ – which are then executed by the fire team as a group. But the player’s in-game subjectposition is more complex than it first appears. One can switch from leader of Alpha to that of Bravo, and back again. Indeed, one can ‘see’ from the position of any member of the team if it is necessary to get a specific line of sight on an enemy position. Even if a sergeant is hit, his team continues to operate and can carry him to medical aid. So it could be said that the player’s implied position is that of a ‘ninth’ officer, invisible and invulnerable, commanding both fire teams (and indeed in the military version this figure is included, and can move between Alpha and Bravo). But even this officer could not ‘see’ from all the perspectives available to the player. Ultimately, the player of FSW has a trans-individual position, as the consciousness of a collective entity. The protagonists are Alpha and Bravo, a military team experienced as microcosmic group mind. The player must complete a series of increasingly challenging missions. Alpha and Bravo clear streets, evacuate wounded, relieve surrounded comrades, discover mass graves, eliminate anti-tank weapons halting U.S. armour, call in air strikes on enemy vehicles, fight their ’ In a bow to Middle Eastern amity. The art of the game is the balance of fire and movement. Thus of Sergeant Santiago Garcia Mendez we learn that he is a ‘first generation American. manoeuvring one so that it can cover the other’s assault. Fire commands select weaponry.’22 Alpha. the squad includes both Arab-American Private Asher Shehadi . The process is remarkably cerebral. The player. geometric. all while managing ammunition supplies and navigating through a city.’ There are two types of commands: fire and movement. Contrasting FSW with conventional ‘first-person shooters’ games. and eventually unearth ‘Al Jafad’ himself. and the Tangos But FSW has its affective dimensions. It goes to some lengths to personalize the members of Alpha and Bravo. a trait which comes through in dealing with his squad. Bravo. with the cursor showing exactly where each member will end up.23 Cpl. the rapid detection of enemies. or ‘bound. happens on 24/09/2004. targets.’ moving with maximum speed. And all this. in introductory scenes. according to the in-game clock.’ advancing cautiously keeping weapons trained where enemies may appear. and an oil refinery. doesn’t directly fire weapons.238 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter way through a palace. and the intensity of fire: ‘point fire’ takes out specific targets. almost chess-like. summer camp and a trip to Orlando. Movement commands direct the team to its next location. The necessary skills are rapidly learned in the in-game ‘MOUT Training Course. Andre Ellis Devreux (‘Crawdaddy’) is an African American who had ‘a typical suburban middle class upbringing. whose backgrounds are described in detail in the game manual and. and Private ‘Gidget’ Ota is ‘the middle child of a single working mother in Honolulu.’ born to Cuban immigrants who instilled ‘his strong work ethic and drive to better himself and his community’ and that he is ‘a fiercely protective and loving father. complete with little league. teams can ‘rush. Florida when he was ten. and the interplay of support between the two squads. the location of covered positions with commanding fields of fire.’ ‘Nova’ Picoli ‘grew up in a crowded household with four older sisters’ and joined the army to escape debt. Michael Macedonia calls it ‘a first-person thinker. as squad leader. a university. in the Xbox version. ‘suppression fire’ unleashes a maximum volume of bullets compelling foes to keep their heads down or die. It’s a busy day. rescue captured aircrews. but rather orders others to do so. That was the summer before he lost his mother to cancer. inactivity: ‘Nothin’ wrong with chillin’ for a while.’ enlisted from people who are ‘upwardly mobile’ but from families ‘without the resources to send them to college. three are Caucasian.’ quips another black trooper. Sergeant Mendez then intervenes with a proper assertion of uniformed race-blindness: ‘There’s only one colour in this army. black’ remarks one of his Afro-American team. shitty grittiness of soldierly life.Full Spectrum Warrior 239 Ali (‘although he finds aspects of his parents’ culture fascinating and takes pride in his heritage. When a squad member is hit. one Arab. and more ethnically diverse. there is a cut scene where one of the white soldiers tries out some hip-hop rhyme. or whoever). nice and cold’. I suppose’. two from college. two black. and one from police academy.’ familiar in war movies. This militarized multiculturalism is explicitly thematized in the game. brother. At the end of one mission. green. is Alpha team’s ‘resident smart ass. than the statistical norm. race and class antagonisms are subsumed. The ‘buddy’ ethos is sustained throughout the gameplay. In their mix of ethnicities and classes. his team members cry. just . one graduate from university (pre-law).’ its composition resembles that of ‘a two year commuter or trade school outside Birmingham or Biloxi. but not unbelievable. and the ‘Caucasian. Alpha and Bravo are an equal-opportunity paradigm.’ but clearly Jewish. this is actually a semi-plausible representation of a combat squad in the contemporary professional army. he is also a proud American’ and considers himself ‘no different from any other Southern California guy’). In the imperial army. the pathos of war: ‘It doesn’t have to be this way’. ‘Blackness is a state of mind. Of their eight members. Soldiers comment on the heat: ‘I wish I had a pop.’ he retorts. ‘They got Philly!’ (or Mendes. ‘You are not.’ ‘Philly’ Silverman pipes up. Though programmatic in its inclusiveness. which is ‘in essence a working class military. I think that’s brown’ – presumably referring to the actual colours of camouflage battle gear. not only in the common uniform.’ One of the game’s main tropes is thus that of ‘Band of Brothers. Private ‘Philly’ Alexander Isaac Silverman. nor ever have been. ‘With respect sir. ‘Yo.’ With ‘minorities overrepresented and the wealthy and underclass essentially absent. and become agitated if exposed to fire without cover: ‘I thought standing out in the open was pretty much what they told us not to do!’ Remarks range from the salacious: ‘You should see my wife in the morning.’24 Alpha and Bravo are somewhat better educated. shit brown. and one Polynesian. but also in the shared. There are four high school diploma holders. and the virtually self-reflexive: ‘When we get back to base. Scarves often hide their faces. usually in the mid to far distance. the properly domestic: ‘Should be a letter waiting for you from your family’. ‘ or ‘aerial.’ they are nameless and mostly faceless. The vertical dimension is in origin an optic of surveillance and command: ‘Mapping changes and discovering patterns.’ ‘Motherfuckers.240 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter after she gets out of the shower’. They thus do seem like targets on a firing range. opponents.’ orientation is concerned with looking downward rather than sideways. Other than this.’ or.’ They appear with small icons above their heads indicating whether they are ‘under cover. I’m going to whip your ass on the Xbox. of course.S.S. and how that movement can be intercepted or exploited. the ‘vertical.’ The enemy is. ‘Mohammed Jabbour Al Afad.’ Armed Vision FSW features aspects of contemporary warfare beyond simply the firepower and discipline of U.25 The horizontal orientation is set at ‘ground level’ and concerned with ‘the advance or retreat of sightlines and perspectives along the terrestrial expanse of the earth. or dead – marked with skull and crossbones. nearly all of them. most often. the Zekistan Liberation Army always appears from the perspective of its U. and of course they must die. ‘Tangos. As Alpha and Bravo pass by. aspects specific to new media of visualization and virtualization. machinic eye involved in ‘modes of posi- . the derogatory: ‘This place sure is fucked up in all kinds of ways’. cinema. as rather rudimentary figures.’ In contrast. pinned down by incoming fire). and video. for the player to succeed. In an incisive analysis of ‘armed vision. at the end of streets.’ but rather is the perspective of a militarized. they crumple into inert heaps. troops roll into town. Alpha and Bravo identify them as ‘Zekes.’26 It adds to our visual experience an orientation that is somehow ultimately not ‘for us. one can distinguish two major perspectives: horizontal and vertical. When they are spotted. behind sandbags. the objective was to understand what moves (troops? construction materials?). Zeke.’ from ‘T’ for ‘target. When they die. how it moves. At the beginning there is a fast cut scene displaying masked figures opening a crate of rocket launchers as the U. or on rooftops spraying fire down the street. Apart from the Osama bin Laden surrogate.S. they occasionally give them an epithet: ‘Should have done something else today.’ Jordan Crandall posits that in the history of visual technologies such as photography. different. light infantry.’ ‘engaged’ (that is. the colours of flaming sunsets glimpsed at the end of streets. corner by corner. medical aid points and objectives are displayed. If a flight is available. The virtual urban landscape is lavish. building by building. She is (going by the accent) a black American: ‘Louise. But be entranced at your peril. street by street. with a view of several blocks surrounding your current position. in some of the most striking visual moments in the game. Here you see a city map. then a ‘continental’ view of the Persian Gulf and Central Asia. the beauty of tilework in Islamic palaces.’ Then you are down at street level with Alpha and Bravo. circling in the sky through gaps in the city skyline. Simply finding a designated objective can be a challenge. making your way through Zekistan. Here you progress horizontally.This invocation vertical vision is especially strongly marked because the helicopter pilot. and. seen. Papers blow on the streets. vulnerable to ambush. then a city image. you can request helicopter reconnaissance. the optic of miltary command. the two teams are marked. scoping out the battlefield from an ‘eye in the sky. targeting. in the face of waiting enemies. As she passes overhead. with static intereference. and enemies appear as red icons. Additionally. smoke from conflagrations billows thickly upward. finally zooming to an overhead view of streets where combat is occurring.’27 Each loading of FSW opens with a vertical perspective. a view of his global positioning system (GPS) receiver. by invoking vertical vision. Louise marks enemies on the GPS and informs the player whether their presence is heavy or light: ‘Tangos . the pilot confirms her approach via radio. although only present as a radio voice. your field of view shows as a green cone. burnt-out cars litter the crossroads. as team leader. identifying. tracking. The helicopter can be heard. aerial dimension breaks the game’s gender code. in the composite collective eye of the squad.Full Spectrum Warrior 241 tioning. These overhead views are granular. crows and cats rise and run as your squad passes. And since Alpha and Bravo are often outnumbered and always moving in the open. it is only by getting some advance warning: in other words. At any moment. and intercepting/ containing. is the one persistent female presence in the game (the only other women are medics and aid workers who appear fleetingly). predicting. a view as if from a surveillance satellite: first the earth from space. a marked mediated techno-vision. all are rendered in gorgeous detail. pressing key ‘E’ gives the player.’ So the move from the horizontal orientation of the grunt infantry on the ground to the vertical. The squalor of debris. what Crandall terms ‘the integration of analyst.’ ‘Wow. FSW takes things further. be carried by his squad back to a casualty evacuation point. If one is more seriously wounded. ‘to act as a direct human interface to a machine that cannot yet fully interface with all of the ambiguities of a material world’ – a function performed in-game by placing a special green bomb icon on target. ‘blood’ spatters across the screen. that’s a negative.’ Such flights are. however..’ ‘Tangos like ants on soda. unlike anything we understand in civilian perspectives. in Crandall’s words.’ Sometimes fire can be summoned from the sky. limited: use too many. and Louise may respond to your panicstricken request with a cool ‘Sorry Charlie. he falls. As we have noted. almost chess-like.’ ‘Targets up.’ FSW is one of what he calls the ‘new kinds of militarized formats’ in visual media. unaided. virtually. fusing ‘technological innovation and the erotic charge of combat’ in ‘renewed. in a situation where the role of the human horizontal sight is to vector in the apocalyptic power released from the vertical heights. the game is cerebral. Here the role of the infantry is thus. which depends on the combination and cooperation of airforce and army into a single invincible striking power. The wounded man staggers to his feet to upbeat comments: ‘You’ve still got your looks. and weapons network into a smart image . We experience. and will. After a few moments the screen is rocked with spectacular explosions. If soldiers in Alpha and Bravo are lightly injured. eventually die. however. by offering both vertical and horizontal perpectives on war.’28 The Big Lie That videogames are ‘too violent’ is a common claim.’ This interplay of vertical and horizontal is of course integral to ‘fullspectrum’ doctrine. database.. Full Spectrum Warrior is perhaps not violent enough. operator. The first Gulf War was christened the ‘Nintendo War’ because it introduced television watchers to game-like perspectives of gunsight and bombnose cameras. am I glad to see you again sarge!’ ‘He’s one tough son-of-a-bitch. And the price of failure is remarkably low. A crucial role for Alpha and Bravo is not directly defeating the Tangos in firefights but spotting for devastating air or artillery strikes.242 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter galore. providing a pyrotechnic gratification acknowledged by one virtual soldier’s scripted comment: ‘Ahh never get tired o’ that. He can. compulsive militarization.’ . where healing is almost immediate. Air and artillery strikes do not hit wedding parties. only lasts an instant. has their testicles blown off. for example. or wakes in hospital finding they have lost a limb.Full Spectrum Warrior 243 If two or more soldiers are seriously wounded. The animation and game physics involved in these moments is extraordinary. fountains of scarlet blood jet from the punctures stitched across their bodies. and houses empty. subsidiary lies in FSW’s virtual war.’ Then the ‘Mission Over’ screen appears – with the ‘Return to Last Save’ option.29 This is. of course. There is no collateral damage. It is war without mutilation or post-traumatic stress disorder. The miracle of Zekistan is streets are deserted. or are lifted off their feet by the impact of bullets and hurled through the air in balletic arcs. . the ‘save-die-restart’ sequence makes Alpha and Bravo immortal. the big lie of war as game. That missions end if you have more than one serious casualty reflects the U.’ Let this happen a few times and whatever horror you may have felt at the deaths of your men turns to exasperation. a voiceover comes up with some good advice: ‘Always use cover. There are almost no civilians. But it also means you never witness the annihilation of numbers of your own troops. an infantryman seeking cover among a stack of crates is caught in a burst of machine-gun fire. Bodies fall realistically in the precise situation where they were hit. apart from the ubiquitous Tangos (who all die instantaneously when hit.S. but the unfortunate soldier’s cheek slams against the side of the crate as he is hit. not only is the chipping of containers by bullets striking them and ricocheting around visible. Soldiers jerk back. military’s well-known concern for (and success in) minimizing politically volatile losses to its highly trained post-Fordist techno-soldiers (‘The US Army has zero tolerance for casualties!’ the manual sternly declares). There are other. This may mean having to repeat several minutes of manoeuvres. vitiating problems of prison guards or enemies wounded). There is a sudden cut to cinematic animations of your team falling to enemy fire. the mission ends abruptly. which restarts the game at the most recent of the designated save points scattered through its course. his head snapping back convulsively before he slides to the ground. and re-kill a number of ‘Zekes. And – need it be said? – this is war where no one lies for hours shot in the abdomen shrieking for their mother. It is also war without moral dilemmas. Almost before the player registers that they have led Alpha and Bravo to death and disaster. minor. crumple to the ground. however. All this. So. It is essential to FSW that time can be reversed and every mistake undone. War is peace. although the interplay between ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ vision is preserved by the ability to lift the point of view hundreds of feet into the air. The rich musical score that added excitement and intrigue is gone. The audio quality is markedly lower. Cover is scanter. capitalist pigs. Less spectacular than the civilian version. Apart from faint wind and distant gunfire.244 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter HA2P1PY9TUR5TLE: Decline and Fall? ‘Based on an actual training aid for the US Army. when the U. It spans two theatres of war. Immediately after release it was discovered that entering a ‘cheat code’ – ‘HA2P1PY9TUR5TLE’ – into the Xbox commercial game unlocked the army version (this option was disabled when the game was ported to the PC and PS2.’ or. In the commercial game this happens very occasionally and is entirely benign: in one cut scene Arab-American Private Shehadi gets directions from a friendly ‘Zeke’ (after a lengthy dialogue in Arabic. In the military version. the military version more accurately familiarizes U. ‘Go home. the sergeant asks ‘What did he say?’ ‘North. blur effects. but with significant differences. from a greater variety of directions. the military game is harder to survive. As many reviews of the game attest. seeing the entire map from bird’s-eye view in real time.S.’ the soldier gets a crude hand-drawn map of the missions. America’ – but also many expressions of hostility: ‘Filthy American pigs!’ ‘This is our home. fewer onscreen icons give information about the vulnerability of friends and foes. The military version plays like the commercial game.S. Rather than a ‘global positioning system.’ declares the FSW packaging. and visual detail. There are no cut scenes. so identifying ‘hostiles’ is harder. soldiers with being unpopular. all is quiet in the streets – with one exception: civilians speak to your soldiers more often. The enemy attacks more aggressively. So are much of the graphic polish.’ replies Shehadi). there are more civilians. troops are facilitating elections.’ While the civilian game presents a war of liberation. and also to change the capacities of one’s own . special lighting. the Middle East and the Balkans. the awkward behaviour of weapons like grenades is more accurately represented. The personalization of and banter between soldiers is removed. It is possible to modify the quantity and aggressiveness of opposing force and civilians. if not of real war. don’t vote. a major attraction of FSW is that it gives gamers a glimpse. suggesting the disclosure was unwelcome to the military). there is some of this fraternization – ‘Come this way. at least of real military virtuality. In 2005 scandal erupted around FSW when Taxpayers for Common Sense. Wounded soldiers cannot be carried to evacuation points: you gather their weapons and ammunition and move on.’35 Set against the daily death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan (where insurgents now refuse the sort of combat practised in FSW. the scandal around the ICT expenditures seems trivial.’ Paquette said. On balance. altering their accuracy and reaction times. declaring FSW a useful experiment that would improve other training aids.’33 Military personnel involved in training corroborated this. Paquette pointed out. ‘What they did. resorting instead to tactics of destabilization and mayhem). News reports suggested FSW should be reinterpreted as ‘Full Spectrum Welfare’ and that the army had been ‘out-gamed.’34 ICT spokespeople recouped the situation by ceding ground. Andrew Paquette. the military version is a sparer but more complex and challenging simulation than the civilian game.S. But they may spend it into the ground. Most of the city buildings.’30 The main source was a whistle-blowing graphic artist. suggested Sony. not to deliver a product. Pandemic.Full Spectrum Warrior 245 troops. he said the companies ‘didn’t pay attention to what the army needed’ and that their attitude was ‘We don’t care about the army. The low-casualty (for the United States). The Iraqi insurgents or the Taliban cannot better the U. Taxpayers for Common Sense unearthed internal ICT e-mails warning ‘we have a huge problem on our hands’ because the army ‘was not satisfied. army in the field. high-technology .’32 These complaints were echoed from other sources. His main objections concerned the inadequate modelling of the urban environments it purports to represent. an organization critical of the Bush regime’s military spending. ‘was give the Fisher-Price version of a city. we’re making money off this. Hence what is usually considered the worst parts of urban combat – floor-to-floor house clearing with enemies lurking in cellars or upper floors – simply doesn’t exist. But it provides an insight into the Achilles heel of ‘full-spectrum’ doctrine. But perhaps not complex and challenging enough. who claims he was fired from the FSW development team after writing repeated memos warning that the game would not be realistic enough for the army. and THQ had obtained massive public subsidization for a commercial venture that fell far short of military training needs. ‘and that’s the purpose of research – to learn those types of things. are just facades: those that have interiors can be entered only on one level.’31 Suing both Sony and Pandemic for wrongful dismissal. ‘We have learned a lot. saying that the game was ‘incredibly shallow’ and had a ‘very limited set of situational challenges.’ said Macedonia. ’37 Such assertions. Grossman to claim first-person shooters constitute informal ‘training to kill. but it offers a microcosm of imperial decline and fall. even this may be considered money well spent. And despite the furor over funding FSW.246 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter strategy on which the Pentagon depends is monstrously expensive. The Banalization of War In the short term. on 20 November 2004 the army awarded ICT a new five-year. but economic crisis caused by the collapsing overhang of military budgets. but also civilians. Military–civilian game collaborations are an aspect of what Paul Virilio calls ‘pentagoncapitalism. however.S. Sony. The success of military simulators in improving soldiers’ battlefield performance – for example. In a U. whatever the success or failure of simulators such as FSW in preparing soldiers for Baghdad. To suggest games such as FSW prepare not only soldiers.’36 Such partnerships contain the possibilities of boondoggles such as occurred with FSW. THQ.S. Col. who while seeking publicity for victims of alleged video game–induced shootings. in the larger imperial perspective. Empire’s vulnerability is not battlefield defeat. From this point of view. to enter a complex and frustrating debate about the links from virtual to actual. widespread after the Columbine massacres. in 2006. army by Pandemic. for war is. The heist of $5 million from the U. sold about a million units. however. denounced ICT as a ‘tax payer rip off’ responsible for ‘training’ terrorists.). context. have been revived by the demagogic lawyer Jim Thompson. Here we should return to the notion of ‘full-spectrum dominance. their role in habituating civilians to perpetual war may be as or more important. and Microsoft is dwarfed by the war profiteering of corporations such as Halliburton. Pandemic will release a sequel. Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers.’ Implicit in this doctrine is a lucid understanding of war as a project with not only military but also ideological and political dimensions. this is reflected in neoconservative determination to cure the ‘Vietnam syndrome’ of peacenik disaffection to which historic humiliation in Southeast Asia is ascribed. The commercial game earned enthusiastic reviews and industry awards. Maintaining an imperial populace’s will to fight is as important as battlefield dominance. learning to fire swiftly and accurately – have led video game critics such as Lt. Full Spectrum Warrior was a success. Yet. and grossed $50 million (U.S.38 . $100 million contract. acceptance of casualties in the course of struggle. and ideological chorus supporting militarization.’ This phrase.42 But the battle song is loud. and asserted by many institutions. ferociously etching direct lines from simulation to actuality. militarization becomes part of the ambience of everyday life. In the era of ‘war on terror’ this is the situation in the heartlands of Empire.’ where the boundary between barracks and the living room is imploded:40 hatred towards an officially designated enemy. The idea that these conditions are replicated every time a shooter is played in a civilian living room is naive – but that they are a component of a broader ensemble of ‘affective circulations’ that ready bodies and bolster legitimation for war is less so. disciplining. the chances for their successful reproduction rise. Positions inscribed in games (or other media) are not necessarily replicated by players (or audiences). and especially in post-9/11 United States. the opponents asymmetrical. or at least indifference towards its necessity.41 The persistence of anti-war activism within digital game culture itself is a potent reminder that ludic militarism is contested. as we have seen – is increasingly normalized. visual. virtual violence is part of an ensemble of practices aimed at disinhibiting. uncritical loyalty for ‘our’ side. Dissonance is still possible.’ From this perspective. Their virtualities enter a polyphonic affective. of loyal support for the president and the troops. vigilance for his wiles. In these settings. on a ‘full spectrum’ from the president’s podium to daily news reports. triumph in his death. Simulators in military training are one relay among the myriad circuits of the ‘war machine’ – part of what we can loosely term ‘diffuse barracks. assembled in manifold and contradictory social formations. Hardt and Negri use the phrase ‘banalization of war.39 For when the same identities and assumptions are reiterated by numerous media channels. we would wager. which echoes Hannah Arendt. Such games prompt not atrocities of gothic delinquency but. In societies on a war footing. games such as FSW generate subjectivities to which war – and a very selective rendering of it. We enter a version of ‘the society of control. Media audiences are composed of subjectivities that are multiplicitous. and directing deadly aggression. Referring to the process of socializing populations for participation in and endurance of endless imperial counter-insurgency conflicts. all become values promulgated across a wide social bandwidth.Full Spectrum Warrior 247 We find these unilinear media-effects claims tempting but unconvincing. conveys a situation in which ongoing war is a normalized condition in which the enemy is regularly depicted as ‘an absolute threat to the eth- . 7 Der Derian. ‘Armed Vision. Culture and Marketing (Montreal: McGillQueen’s University Press.44 But as one of the developers of Full Spectrum Warrior said of the game: ‘The bumper sticker version is.org/WGR. 84–90.fibreculture. dodgamecommunity. 5 KumaWar. Empire (Cambridge.samizdat. . http:// multitudes. 2003). http://www. Daya Kishan Thussu and Des Freedman (London: Sage 2003). and by making players material partners in beneficiaries of military technoculture. which provides an outstanding graphic and aural archive of the topics explored here. 3 (fall 2000): 289–335. 4 See Stephen Kline. 163–75. 2001).pomgrenade. and for. ‘All But War Is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex. http://www. Tim Lenoir. http://www.’ ‘Don’t bring out the general in you!’ goes Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s ethical injunction.248 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter ical order’ and ‘reduced to an object of routine police repression. “Everyone’s a general. ‘War and the Entertainment Industries: New Research Priorities in an Era of Cyber-Patriotism. Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media Entertainment Network (Boulder. and Greig de Peuter. no. ‘armed vision’.’ Multitudes (29 May 2004). CO: Westview Press. by routinizing the extermination of the enemy. 2 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. See also Tamara Vukov. http://journal.com/. Virtual involvement of civilian populations in actual imperial war makes military games a home-front component of ‘full-spectrum dominance. Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology.’ FibreCulture 1 (2003).’43 FSW contributes to this banalization of war by promoting uncritical identification with imperial troops. Jonathan Burston.kumawar. MA: Harvard University Press. 99–101. Nick Dyer-Witheford.org. Virtuous War. by diminishing the horrors of battle and exalting its spectacle.com/index.”’45 NOTES 1 Jordan Crandall. 13.’ Configurations 8. by investing pleasurable affect in military tactics and strategy. Stephen Stockwell and Adam Muir. 2000). ed. 6 Department of Defense Game Developers’ Community.’ in War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7. ‘The Military-Entertainment Complex: A New Facet of Information Warfare.php3?id_article=1491. 3 James Der Derian. The War Game Room. by forming subjects of.php.net/article. by celebrating the virtue of their cause and the justice of their activities. June 2000).com. 25 Crandall. 9 ICT Web page. com/military_mirrors. http://www.’ 26 Ibid.’ http://www. 17 Ibid.tomdispatch. 16 Ibid. 23 Full Spectrum Warrior Instruction Manual.htm.dtic. Full Spectrum Dominance: U.radicalmiddle. ‘Full Spectrum Warrior: How the Institute for Creative Technologies Built a Cognitive Training Tool for Xbox.htm. 2003). 28 Ibid. 2004). ed. 10 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘Requiem for Our Prospective Dead: Toward a Participatory Critique of Capitalist Power.edu/disp. see James Newman. 24 David M. http://www.Full Spectrum Warrior 249 8 Michael Macedonia. 20 Full Spectrum Warrior Instruction Manual. 18 James Korris. retrieved from http://www.usc. Halbfinger and Steven A. 22 Quoted in Bill Adair. Government Printing Office. ‘The Pentagon as Global Slumlord’ (19 April 2004).’ in Deleuze and Guattari: New Mappings in Politics. Power in Iraq and Beyond (New York: Seven Stories.com/Manuscripts/sessionI/IP-09. ‘Did the Army Get Out-Gamed?’ 31 Ibid.S. http://www.edu/inss/DefHor/DH11/DH11. ‘Did the Army Get Out-Gamed?’ Washington Times.’ New York Times. Philosophy and Culture. 14 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 11 Ibid.ndu. Inside front cover available online. ‘Armed Vision. 12 Ibid. 21 Brian Massumi. 15 Mike Davis. 19 Ibid.mil/jointvision/jvpub2. Videogames (London: Routledge. 29 For discussion of the argument that ‘save-die-restart’ makes games inherently trivial.’ Defense Horizons (11 April 2002).ict. asc2004. Eleanor Kaufman and Kevin Jon Heller (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 13 For discussion of the ‘full-spectrum’ concept.S. Joint Vision 2020 (Washington. Joint Vision 2020. 30 March 2003. 30 Adair. http://www.htm. Holmes. 20 February 2005. 84–6. 27 Ibid.php?bd=about. see Rahul Mahajan. ‘Military Mirrors Working Class America. ‘A View from the Military. .pdf. 1998) 40–64. DC: U. Ibid. Strategy of Deception (London: Verso. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Jim Thompson. Ibid.journal. September 2004. Gilles Deleuze. quoted in Steve Silberman. available online at http://www. 24–5. We discuss counter–war games in our essay ‘A Playful Multitude? Mobilizing and Counter-Mobilizing Immaterial Game Labour.’ October 59 (1992): 3–8.php. . ‘Open Letter to the Members of the Entertainment Software Association’ (14 July 2005). The War Game Room.fibreculture.com/ gaming/top/thompson-calls-for-esa-pres-resignation-112565. A Thousand Plateaus (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.’ Fibreculture 5.kotaku. 2000).’ 44. Ibid.org. On Killing: The Psychological Costs of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little Brown. Hardt and Negri. 1987). Paul Virilio.’ Wired. 1996). See Vukov. 13. ‘The War Room. James Korris. ‘Postscript on the Society of Control. Empire. ‘Requiem for Our Prospective Dead. Massumi.250 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Ibid. David Grossman. http://www. labour. International Rocketship Productions (Vancouver)2 With sequels of the Gulf War and the latest Hollywood blockbuster occupying our ‘free time. and I hope that my analysis will be useful in suggesting the . This process. Dog Day Afternoon.. Globalization. Now [the schools] are just churning them out. and meaning. Nation j o h n m c cullough It’s changed from working in a coal mine where you handle the film and it’s more physical – to feeling a bit atrophied because you sit all the time and your mind and eyes carry all the weight . Reds1 The studios used to be the schools. Dede Allen. unless the world is turning into a big entertainment centre. For instance.. CEO. Marv Newland.13 The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour: Technology. But the underlying logic of the state of affairs he describes is actually a complex story about culture. which sees Canadian cultural production transform itself into global economic activity. mostly you don’t get up because it’s so fast and easy. but this simulated world is a response to a labour crisis in the overdeveloped animation sector of the volatile global film market. The market can’t sustain it. editor of Bonnie and Clyde. which now consists of a large number of independent producers who use local and regional inducements (including surplus labour pools and tax relief) to compete globally. I don’t know where all these kids go.’ Newland’s observation about the world as a ‘big entertainment centre’ seems somewhat banal. one of the implications of Newland’s comments is that not only is the real world being effaced by image-based entertainment. is a central theme of this essay. His comments also draw attention to the particularly dynamic nature of the Canadian film industry. In fact. including Pixar Animation Studio and Lucasfilm’s success with digital image technology. television shows. any national culture that needs to be insulated from a variety of historical and existing eco- . by now. and global ownership structure.4 Those who borrow Collins’s perspective argue that attempts by Canadian state institutions and policies to impose. there remains an intimate relationship between the nature of work and the forms of culture.5 From this perspective. as well as video games. and films. Contemporary global image-making is characterized by scattered independent production. it is difficult to think of Canadian film and television culture as authentically unique.3 This essay presumes that the conditions described above are generally accurate for global media practice. and extraordinary dependence on high-end technology. In fact. Advanced digital technology has helped create a fluid. There are several good examples. rigorously controlled centralized distribution (including copyright enforcement). For. the extensive use of computer-generated image (CGI) techniques and software in all films and commercials. My analysis of Canadian film and television labour assumes that inasmuch as Canada is a cultural exporter and importer. thoroughly dependent on the global image market. a nationalist cultural identity in order to protect a national polity do not secure Canadian sovereignty or identity so much as admit the failure of the project. Furthermore. dedicated to information and cultural management. a materially sound description of contemporary media culture can also serve as a useful introduction to Canadian image culture. even in the ‘post-work’ world of digital entertainment. generally. The political economy of contemporary media features virtual monopolies. powerful. and a contracted labour force which is organized around a number of highly specialized tasks and widely dispersed production sites. This last characteristic has most recently featured the extensive use of computers to construct film worlds. or induce. reflecting neoliberal economic beliefs and a dominant ideology which welds technological innovation to popular culture and entertainment.’ which he uses to describe Canada’s responses to the.252 John McCullough place of labour in contemporary culture. as Newland and Allen make clear. worldwide phenomenon of American cultural imperialism. to the extent that Canadian film and television production and consumption are typical of generally recognized global patterns. has fuelled the emergence of multimedia conglomerates exploiting both information and entertainment markets. this is the assumption that underlies Richard Collins’s concept of ‘Canadianization. this critical commentary on inauthentic national culture is related to some of the scholarly analysis that has focused its attention on the mechanism of Canadianization – the Canadian state.8 I will argue from a relatively typical position that the two forms of development (cultural and economic) must be understood as conjoined. Gasher points out. to understanding culture and economy as overlapping spheres. for instance. as well as the historical organization of film and television industries and audiences in Canada. pedagogical.’7 Nonetheless. it is not surprising to find the market replacing . by emphasizing Canadian national identity. Fredric Jameson makes the overlap of culture and economy explicit when he observes that. geographical.’9 Consider the ‘case’ of Molson’s. This once-Canadian brewing concern has performed well against its main competitor. In a neoliberal economic context. and social contradictions will inevitably create abstract and idealized standards of national identity. legal. this gap ‘derived in part from the fact that cultural activities were not as profitable as economic activity. political. As he points out. lived Canadian culture has always been experienced as fully contradictory. prior to 9/11. For example. in which the state mobilizes to accommodate globalization. Manjunath Pendakur. Ted Magder. ‘commodity production is now a cultural phenomenon. preferring to use film as an information and propaganda tool. Labatt’s (which was once also fully Canadian owned).The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 253 nomic. particularly in the context of what is now called globalization. The imposed ‘national culture’ (which is always a negotiation with international commercial interests) is a ‘simulation’ and is usefully understood in the context of the critique of the culture industries as developed by Adorno and Horkheimer and. particularly when advertising its ‘Canadian’ brand. in which you buy the product fully as much for its image as for its immediate use. By contrast. and Michael Dorland have all analysed Canadian state film policy. Debord and the situationists. anti-American) television commercials that serve to emphasize Jameson’s point about the overlap of economy and culture. Molson’s produced a series of audaciously nationalist (in some cases. for instance. while the federal government may have been slow to see the economic value of cultural production in Canada. later. some regional and provincial jurisdictions have used movies and television as an economic engine for decades. in Canada.6 Dorland points out the resistance. that the British Columbia government has been involved in creating a favourable environment for Hollywood since early in the last century. As well. capitalism and democracy. Each of these areas provides a variety of insights. and it is hard to imagine that such a tone would be tolerated in a state-sponsored commercial or political statement. (2) changes in technology and the ‘loss’ of the workforce. or as denigration in regards to the perceived low artistic standards and coarse craftsmanship of contemporary image-making. It provides a series of insights that serve. In many cases. The explicit convergence of patriotic propaganda and commercial advertising was well received. (3) non-U. With these types of stories in mind. My analysis will focus on four areas: (1) atomization and the current ambiguity regarding responsibility for image-making. One campaign. which is related to increased commercial. and (4) the contemporary Canadian film and television labour experience. ‘I Am Joe. and particularly in light of Telefilm (1982) and free trade (1988). there has been a deskilling and instrumentalization of film and television labour. Ironically. more generally. technocratic.’ was so popular that it became an alternate national anthem during hockey playoffs in 2000 and 2001. Conditions of film and television work have changed considerably since the first conceptions and discourse emerged about filmmaking. and predictably. the actor who played Joe was so encouraged by his success as a national icon that he moved to Hollywood. and technologi- . but it is unsettling in its implications for the further erosion of the distinction between corporate and national identity and. labour used ‘in’ Global Hollywood. Which is to say that Canadian film and television culture is an ideological construct of an imagined industry and an imagined national identity.254 John McCullough the state as the promotional arm of the Canadian nation. I consider Canadian film and television to be involved in a dialectical struggle which is alternately cultural and economic.S. Moreover. but these conditions are rarely portrayed or acknowledged except as corporate celebrations of the media industries’ evolution. This suggests one more area of contemporary social life in which the state has been outpaced by the market’s response to populist desire. One of this essay’s central arguments is that the recent reorganization of film and television labour has had the consequence of altering media workers’ relationship to traditions of image-making. provisionally. What follows is an admittedly general institutional analysis of the Canadian film and television industries. but I will tend to generalize in order to provide a useful sketch of the overall situation. to describe the current conditions of industrial cultural production as they are influenced by changes in the international division of film and television labour. the chauvinism and xenophobia expressed in the ads were notable. ’ are in the last stages of their dominance in the North. These ethical parameters were developed as the means by which the practice of image reproduction could be controlled. These contradictions emerge and form the backbone of culture (national and otherwise) in the contemporary context. as though culture is now only about getting noticed and making money.10 The image-maker. Ultimately. to the manipulation and distribution of the image. Atomization and Responsibility in Image-Making In an early conceptualization of the photographer. All of these examples speak to the potential degradation of work. and projectionists whose job has been changed by platform systems and digital projection. At the same time. has led to a series of more or less misguided discussions of the ethics of taking pictures and image-making. One can imagine a variety of examples drawn from all areas of the industry: cinematographers who are constrained by commercial imperatives. to the context lost due to framing. Daily. but there has also been a democratization of the knowledge and technology involved in making and distributing images in contemporary culture. with attendant responsibilities which capital did not necessarily erode. and the responsibilities of so-called civil society and. humanist sentiment is overwhelmed by the commercial demands of the culture industries. From the perspective of contemporary media culture. In this sense. in a way that did not solely relate to economic exploitation or the concept of offering whatever the market would bear. the pressure to market images. by extension. which has had implications for cinematographers (especially documentarists). as well as being admissions that liberal humanism. the concept of the rationality of ‘the public sphere. editors whose work is now organized by digital editing and software innovation. from this perspective. image-making was considered a substantial privilege. the theme of responsibility is prominent.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 255 cal interference and mediation. and to use images in a commercial context. is responsible to the subject photographed. we are encouraged to believe that technological developments guarantee greater objectivity in the . and my argument is that the analysis of national culture looks different through the lens of labour than it does through that of the state or that of cultural or corporate elites (groups whose views have been widely perpetuated and legitimated). these discussions now appear somewhat quaint. and to the traditions of culture which impact on the process of image-making. and seems to not be work at all. because these workers were a clear force to be negotiated in the production of culture. Nowadays. their skills. in the contemporary setting.. homebased workstations). On top of all this.g. CNN and CHUM-CITY). getting paid is the single greatest influence in contemporary image culture. disparate and ‘hidden’ worksites (e. neoliberal state initiatives and representatives eagerly encourage American and international investment in Canadian cultural production by bending or breaking organized labour’s negotiated contracts.’ and there is a general consensus that Orwell’s Big Brother does exist.’ In these cases. in the contemporary context. Due to owners’ concentrated wealth and power. In fact. These earlier examples of image culture industries provide fixed spatial sites. and freelance status. Further. there is a willingness to believe that if humans do not get paid for images. In fact. a buyer’s market. machines will. and distribute images without human participation. These features of contemporary film and television labour create a situation in which cultural work is made somewhat ephemeral. Within the new media spaces. with the ability to take. and overwhelmingly.g. which can be considered tangible as ‘fixed capital.’ But.. one of the problems of perceiving and understanding labour’s role in contemporary media culture is its organization around atomized tasks. to raise the idea of the film and television workforce. and individually contracted (and sub-contracted) labour. Even television studios fail to impress the viewer as worksites so much as technology and research centres (e. films are made in a variety of locations (real and virtual). and their technology. The turning over of culture to commercial entertainment industries and the aggressive marketing of culture have given rise to a labour force which is dedicated to receiving fair market value for their images. Only the thinnest of lip service is paid to ‘image ethics. is to run into difficulty defining the object of study in a way that was never so acute when considering the world’s studio systems. which is generally. In fact. all of this is negotiated in an increasingly unregulated and competitive image and labour marketplace. This leaves workers and their locals (when they are organized) typically isolated and overpowered by ownership. is perceived as an anachronism. and even transparent. dispersed. which was present in the studios. make. as a factory (although these resources are still utilized). actually makes sense.256 John McCullough image-making process and thus the possibility of increased access to ‘the real. the designation of a workforce. and the concept of the Hollywood studio and backlot. there has developed a complex social realization that we live and breathe in a surveillance society of the spectacle. . and labour’s largely specialized. Foremost in this regard is the fact that while the culture industries. managerial.’11 Scott Bukatman calls this ‘terminal identity.g. people are working themselves to death. which are their point of entry into a network that provides them access to power and identity. at the same time as alternative production and labour control systems open up the way to high remuneration of technical. globally. a digital animator driven to anonymity in order to protect his job: ‘Work is so desperate that people will do anything to stay on. the network connection that is encouraged by digital filmmaking and television can be understood as rhizomatic and utopian. which rationalize the production process. but it also. One of the ways this has been achieved is through the introduction of machines. remarkably. including ideas about the workers in that industry. But the dystopian characteristics of this technology relate to the increased potential atomization prevalent in computer networks. The trend. it is necessary to think of technology as absolutely crucial in definitions of contemporary culture industries. recutting versions of the film).’13 Technology and the ‘Loss’ of the Workforce While there are a variety of reasons for the changed perception of film and television work.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 257 contract technicians and freelance specialists hover at computer consoles. and entrepreneurial skills.’ which well describes the subjectivity emblematic of the globalized digital factory.’ David Harvey describes these effects in the following way: New technologies have empowered certain privileged layers.’ has been to increasing inequalities of .12 It is also the work experience described by John. From some perspectives. While this often provides greater flexibility for independent filmmakers. enmeshed in ‘the screen and network. helps to control flexible costs of production by regulating and storing a typically timeconsuming labour practice (e. In a sense.. the Avid editing system allows for reduced overhead costs such as maintenance of an editing room. Baudrillard once described the identity encouraged by this structure as being as grand as a node. For instance. have expanded enormously since the Second World War (and with it labour forces). what makes Avid an ‘offline’ machine is that it allows for the meter of labour costs to be turned off. competition between owners to reduce the cost of labour has also intensified. further exaggerated by the shift to services and the enlargement of ‘the cultural mass. editors in the industry become subject to the effects of ‘flexible accumulation. No doubt.14 The advantages to capital of such technology are obvious.S. for instance.16 For those workers who gain privilege in the context of ‘flexible accumulation. although the skills have been achieved not so much through production as through consumption (of technology and software). the overwhelming impression is that the editor’s talents and obvious enthusiasm are tied to the technology just as a cart is yoked to an ass. allows him access to most parts of the production process. he has the ability to play a significant role in the creation of a multimillion-dollar cultural artifact.’ For example.’ they become. Dede Allen explains: Often the studio would get involved with a cut and executives would go down to the Avid and want to see it. the status that the technology confers is substantial and pays off in terms of being able to ‘pipe . an important node in the production network. which used to contribute to the overall ‘space’ of film production. as Harvey describes them.258 John McCullough income. according to the division of labour in his digital factory. the instrumentalization of the editing process encourages everyone to present themselves as skilled editors. Nonetheless. I am thinking here. supervising editor on A Bug’s Life (U. in an interview with Lee Unkrich. it is necessary to recognize how her sense of autonomy contrasts with the potential atomization of digital editing.15 Specifically. in this sense.. One of the results of digital editing is an intensified fragmentation of the filmmaking process and a devaluation of the various skills invested in making movies. part of the attraction of Unkrich’s job as a supervising editor is that. John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton). 1998. I think digital editing has created an environment where everybody thinks they know how to be a filmmaker. In digital editing. but this change to labour practice must also be considered in the context of the loss of the ‘space’ of editing. of Dorothy Arzner’s fond recounting of her apprenticeship as an early hand-cutting editor and her subsequent development as a feature film director. He is. The reason his contribution is significant is that his position. even if they don’t have any idea how to do it. in the combination that is him and his machine. While the job is standardized by the technology. an aristocracy within the film labour force. perhaps presaging the rise of a new aristocracy of labour as well as the emergence of an ill-remunerated and broadly disempowered under-class. this new aristocracy knows the value of ‘having the right tools. specifically the politics and ethics of image-making. which attempt . the market is the predominant space and force in these workers’ lives and. In some extraordinary cases.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 259 in and shape the film. Unkrich explains: ‘I have to be the one person who is looking at the film as a whole.18 New Hollywood has left the troublesome battle with labour to independent producers and politicians. The disconnectedness of this workforce from earlier traditions of imagemaking is amplified when their freelance status is considered.-based producers also undercut film labour by introducing nonunion and non-U. claims global perspective. union locals work to undercut their brothers and sisters in other locals in order to secure contracts. these workers consider themselves. and it is an astounding ideological triumph which even eluded the union-bashing monopolies of the golden age of Hollywood. and just knock ideas around. Non-U. and are considered to be. which. had to negotiate with organized labour. define the characters.’ Ultimately. and one state subsidy against another.S. let alone the larger frame of the responsibilities inherent in cultural production. working through the Avid. This practice resembles export-processing industrial models. but this has tended to fragment the labour movements in the entertainment industries. white-collar professionals. technology against workers. Without an identity grounded in a place.’17 So. the job seems to be equal parts creative expression and surveillance. No doubt. This is an achievement which favours capital. not even the A Bug’s Life franchise comes under Unkrich’s view. there are two points worth noting: (1) the workers under the supervisor are regarded as working on minutiae. at the very least. these workers assume identities derived from the values that dominate the other spaces they occupy – especially those of the market. Here. The obvious net result is the loss of power for organized labour in the culture industry. highly structured. looking at global continuity issues.S. and (2) the global view is one that is only directed at the film structure as the largest possible unit of meaning.S. because everyone else is really focused on the minutiae of the shot they are working on. and specialized nature of the work. Workforces ‘in’ Global Hollywood U. while the supervising editor. not blue-collar labourers. and this reminds us of the hierarchic. or organized by a collective activity.-based workforces into the production cycle. as independent operators use one group of workers against others. because the contemporary film and television workplace rarely looks like or operates like a production plant. 21 Notable in her account is her sense that she’s ‘just getting some experience’ when working for Hollywood.g. writers and directors. First. As Gordon Hardwick. in particular. This also routinely occurs in the well-known production practice that sees American film and television productions ‘run away’ to cheaper Canadian resources in order to offset the costs of celebrity U. The Simpsons is a good example of this. directors. man- . screen talent. though. casting agents. it is in Hollywood’s interest to control or manage this resource for its own specific benefit. moreover. but we’re not in the same orbit anyway . it is most obvious in commercial work and. producers. that this difference is marked by Canadian inferiority. While this strategy is generalized across all media production. one of its episodes even satirizes its complicity with this mode of production. to the extent that some Canadian workers have elite training and skills. the principle of leaving these specialists in Canada. television product and especially labour-intensive processes such as animation. in the culture industries these would include talent. On the one hand. and underpaying them accordingly. Canadian actor and three-time Dora award winner Kristen Thomson describes this situation well: I loved working with Stockard Channing and Sam Waterson. This internalized form of control. the theme of Canada’s ‘brain drain’ gains prominence.19 This creates a situation in which lucrative and glamorous design-oriented jobs are centred in Los Angeles and its surrogate cities around the globe. The meaning of this is quite slippery. who were both gracious and fine. which is one manner of colonization by Hollywood. designers). actors. That is. predictably. We don’t really do the same job. as it can be read in at least two different ways. low-paid general skill jobs are completed in contexts of underdevelopment.20 In the context of this particular business strategy.S. we can read these comments as indicating that she thinks her work is different from that of the American stars and.. is sometimes an effective form of control.. and postproduction staff.. cinematographers. and.260 John McCullough to achieve structural efficiency by retaining high-income specialty jobs in the domestic market (e. They are leading actors in a particular kind of film and I’m just getting some experience. can be seen to affect a variety of Canadian producers. while shifting labour-intensive tasks to low-wage areas of the world. and high-speculation profitable promotion and marketing jobs are clustered in metropolitan centres. Film Commission. locations and so on. and this is what constitutes the official ‘brain drain’ by Canadian standards. He correctly observes that ‘if Americans were discouraged from making movies in Canada. but as an admission that she is apprenticing in Hollywood. which tends to subvert national or regional identities in favour of generic skill competency. But it rings hollow for three immediate reasons: (1) the elite training received by Canadians must always be seen within the context of the exigencies of specialist work discussed above. In this sense. To return to Kristen Thomson.’22 Of course. In response to this situation. not to make conspicuous their Canadian cultural identity..C.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 261 ager of community affairs for the B. and nothing is necessarily going to change their attitudes except a positive show of Canadian integrity.-based media interests. This is the basis for the venerable Canadian tradition of blaming economic underdevelopment for cultural underdevelopment.S. film policy consultant and CEO of Humewood Communications. we can see that when she says she’s ‘just getting some experience. (2) elite training is often supported by the Canadian state and corporate sector in order to bolster Canadian industry not Canadian identity (and so it is naive to assume that these workers should restrict their aspirations to the farm team if they have a shot at the majors). Dan Johnson. food. because the Canadian economy is fully integrated with U. trucks. admits: ‘One of the biggest problems we’ve had is the negative campaign from the States .’23 Hollywood also exerts substantial explicit control over elite workers by hiring them as part of the American domestic workforce. and (3) workers usually invest in specialized training to augment their own conspicuous consumption. .’ this need not be read as a lament for the nation.. Canadian nationalists and certain offices of the state charged with resource management argue that Canadian culture is being diluted due to the economic disparity between the homegrown film and television industry and Hollywood. the ‘domination thesis’ is subverted by workers who understand Canadian dependency and work to advance their own economic security and career trajectory. explains that multimillion-dollar investments in Canada by American productions generate significant service sector economic activity affiliated with the film industry. with an eye to gaining all the privilege which that implies. Hollywood can presume this paternalistic posture and demand ‘integrity’ (which really means Canadian subservience). it would adversely affect companies which supply equipment. there is a good chance that it will have been fought over by several jurisdictions (e. provinces. This group directs. It was bound to happen. the union project by many cultural workers. If they work internationally. If the job is done in Canada. Specifically. is intensified in the current global context. cultural imperialism. writes.S. or wholesale abandonment of.g. But this dominance manifests itself in contradictory ways in the contemporary setting. and even union locals). all of which now understand culture to be fully economic. and moving bills. Association of British Columbia Animation Producers24 The theme of U. but aggressively closing them. always a significant feature in Canadian cultural debates. to the extent that Hollywood is integrated into the careers and livelihoods . By slight contrast. are doing various degrees of indirect branch plant service to the extent that they are making Hollywood product. municipalities. another group of Canadian film and television workers get their paycheques directly from Tinseltown. grips. shoots. Such reification of national cultural production is seen particularly clearly from the Canadian perspective. lights. air miles. The shortcomings of this have included a generalized resentment towards. and edits Hollywood films and television (both in Canada and around the world). The producers of these cultural artifacts. plans. This process has also involved the expanding assumption that Hollywood is a legitimate standard for cultural production. President.. so much of this inter-jurisdiction competition has emerged in Canada that it allows some regional workers and ‘industry’ to anticipate a year-round cycle of work. We’re getting calls from all over from people looking for work . which has enthusiastically embraced neoliberal market principles in relationship to cultural production. then.. In fact. not only in negotiating deals.. there is a renewed and intensified influence of the state. these workers are truly an elite and they live a life of professional privilege. films and television made in Canada (if not in numbers. As well. On the one hand. then at least in dedicated resources) are overwhelmingly made to be sold in an international market that nonetheless speaks the language of Hollywood. Mark Freedman. which includes high stress. almost exclusively in the form of contract labour.262 John McCullough The Contemporary Canadian Film and Television Labour Experience There are a lot of people floating around. regions. who is famous for his chilling images of dystopian futurescapes in Alien (UK/U. By looking at cultural labour. For instance. and this suggests something about changes in the concepts of culture and national culture that will become increasingly problematic. it also provides their paycheque. (3) the dubious fortune of living in a U.. and the pay is proportionately greater.S. by standards of national culture or artistic vision. because Global Hollywood teaches us that commerce is the . the cinematographer Derek Vanlint. Given all this (i.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 263 of thousands of Canadian workers associated with the film and television industry. given that they require less commitment in terms of time and energy.’ these paycheques are considered to be value-added. which has been superseded by technological interfaces and standardization. In such a situation. Ridley Scott) – images of such graphic power that we must consider the possibility that we have already seen our futures – was busy shooting a pizza commercial. new technology. 1979. but this international talent (now based in Canada) was working second unit on the commercial.S. by exploiting them as both producers and consumers. despite the fact that it orders their free time and seduces away their paycheque. and Hollywood’s market dominance). what is interesting about the Canadian situation is that it is becoming the norm.. one can understand the true heterogeneity of contemporary entertainment. it makes sense that workers would prefer work that. and (4) the emergence of a global cultural sphere. the ultimate goal is often to work on commercials. Hollywood can be said to have effectively capitalized on its legitimation. recently in Toronto. But for many Canadian film and television workers. (2) a sense of displacement associated with the job (both spatial and social).-supplement nation. In fact. which is characterized by aggressive neoliberal capitalism and atrophied state support for non-commercial culture. In such a context. as well as providing entertainment which orders these workers’ leisure time. it is important to realize that for elite media workers. seems degraded and generic. Not only that. Hollywood is not the enemy because. Canadian film and television worker identity is necessarily and thoroughly contradictory. applying his particular talents to capturing the beauty of rising crusts.e. It is characterized most obviously by: (1) the loss of autonomy and craft. And because Hollywood is still ‘Hollywood. specialized and atomized tasks. Despite the fact that this commercial work seems to be a retrograde creative move for someone of such obvious talent and stature. it is highly unlikely that a unique or discernible Canadian film and television culture will emerge. which has effectively become recognizable as the Pixar brand.’ The amplification. also put a lot of work into promoting their work.264 John McCullough heart of film and television culture. and hence protected by everyone involved in the franchise who see this aesthetic as their guarantee of a paycheque. for the more legs their project has. The use of culture to generate capital. It recalls the scene in Ken Finkle- . While this is not new to industrial media production. in relation to the marketing of culture. and information packets). one must appreciate these labour conditions. marketable commodities. to return to Pixar. but this talent is now locked into this aesthetic style. This logic encourages repetition. of Benjamin’s revelation forces us to confront the seemingly inevitable conclusion that art has become a displaced and empty signifier. as investors focus on expanded distribution of the commodity and protection of the brand and invest proportionately less money on experimental research or development of a new style. titles. All film and television workers now have to think about labour issues. serving now only to ‘aestheticize’ history. and packaging (including websites. there is an unwritten rule that unique. is related to a long history of attempts to give aesthetic value to standardized. Moreover. and eventually the routinization of work done at Pixar. This message is learned by everyone in the industry. in order to ‘cut through the clutter’ of a glutted entertainment market. its scale is unprecedented. in the digital age. and that risk must constantly be avoided. So there is an intensified emphasis on marketing product which amplifies the role of design and aesthetics. standardization. including the design of logos. the greater the chance they will continue working. having internalized the logic of consumerism. For instance. in particular their own jobs. Walter Benjamin recognized this democratization of the aesthetic as the end of ‘aura. documentary. This is also fundamental to understanding the ways in which independent producers and cultural workers are integrated into Global Hollywood. and the result is that it is difficult to find a space in visual culture that is not touched by the influence of Global Hollywood. and especially those who have survived the industry (such as Vanlint). This frenzy of self-promotion is so generalized that even avant-garde. we see that the extraordinary talents of independent digital animators gave rise to a particular ‘look’ in Toy Story. press kits. and in order to understand the value and meaning of culture today. including designing a ‘package’ that signifies their ‘brand’ of art. ‘style’ (beyond content) is absolutely mandatory in attracting an audience. generally. and alternative filmmakers. sometimes personal. the ways in which music videos have appropriated aesthetic value from young workers (e. engenders a series of boundary transgressions that touch on significant ethical issues. when he shoots the ad.’ These points draw attention to the aesthetics. the ‘aesthetic’ masks the apparatus of industrial commerce that structures the uses of ‘art.g. programmers. for example. to use unique work as a saleable commodity. to the sidelines of Madison Square Garden for Knicks games. CBC-TV) in which the news producer and technician. huddle over an editing console. My intention. The dialectic of labour and culture includes. the affect is valued independent of its cause. he is doing ‘trash for cash’. Spike Jonze.The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 265 man’s The Newsroom (Canada. capital). flippantly sorting through files of famous images of tragedies in history. the directors. performers. the industry is able to generate a variety of stories about the perceived value and meaning of culture. looking for images to pastiche together to introduce their fast-breaking story.. the artifact exists apart from its production. The scene is comedic because the images are both more empty and more ‘loaded’ than expected. designers. is one of the fringe benefits of being a cultural producer – it’s not really work!). technologies. technicians. this suggests. and when he promotes New York City (and himself) at MSG. he doesn’t seem to be working at all (which. When Lee is seen making a film. and encourages. to ads. at a certain point.e. and they encourage people in the world to consider how these different .’ inherent in modern image technologies (from 1830 to present).. an irreverence to the markers of history and to the idea of history itself. 1996–7. These are also stories about the capitalized value of contemporary aesthetics. in complex ways. and so on) and have ‘rewarded’ many of these young workers by putting them in other products owned by the ‘parent’ company (sometimes a transnational corporation) – in a sense. and workers involved in the creation of that increasingly valuable commodity that is culture. the ‘loss of aura. Or take Spike Lee’s ‘aesthetic value’ as he moves from ‘auteur’ film. by calling it style. shooters.’ or lack of ‘grounding. By treating film and television labour in this fashion. The careers of David Fincher. but the underlying tragic theme is that photography allows. his cultural value is understood to be real value (i. to labour value. In each manifestation. he is understood to be labouring for love and art. and these values are related. and Canada’s Mr X are fair examples. For instance: the real becomes effaced by the image. in opening this essay with reference to ‘image ethics. juxtaposing histories that are politically volatile or trivialized by their new context.’ was that. Michel Gondry. 266 John McCullough labour situations, and the styles they help generate, manifest themselves as differential registers of individual, personal wealth. While my focus on labour highlights the contemporary aesthetic from the perspective of pragmatic decisions regarding deployment of industry resources, it is also clear that this is not simply a story about the political economy of Canadian film and television activity. I have shown that the labour perspective helps us understand the impossibility of precisely naming a national culture, but this then introduces the possibility that we could think of culture as something that is made according to prevalent conditions of practice, and hence inspired by the heterogeneous ways in which we can imagine film and television playing a role in our lives. The point, then, is less to name culture than to understand the box within which it exists. In this sense, my emphasis on market imperatives helps us understand the influence of commerce in the style, treatment, and forms of all contemporary film and television cultural work, including that which is not primarily intended for commercial consumption. The role of advertising, and the central place of consumerism in cultural artifacts, not only is standard operating procedure in the private sector of media culture, but it actually provides a sense of foundation to an activity which has lost connection to earlier aesthetic, political, and social traditions. In fact, recent National Film Board of Canada (NFB) advertisements, intended to recruit new workers, emphasized that the successful candidates would be joining ‘a team of dynamic, young, media-savvy professionals,’ proving that even state filmmaking agencies have begun to speak the language of Global Hollywood. It is interesting, then, to reassess the various earlier attempts by the Canadian government to organize a national film and television culture around the centralized and service-oriented projects of the NFB and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). These efforts effectively brought workers within a somewhat uniform work schedule and labour contract and, in doing so, provided the basis for a similarly uniform cultural project. That cultural workers were used in this manner, to develop an affirmative image of the nation, is common knowledge to most film and television scholars in Canada. But it is worth considering the national identity-image that is being constructed by contemporary Canadian media industries and their workers. Brenda Longfellow’s analysis of The Red Violin (Canada, 1998, François Girard) is instructive in this regard, for it claims that a reading of the film must acknowledge the ways in which capital represents itself and is figured in media arti- The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 267 facts (even those which claim to be expressions of national and not commercial culture). In the case of The Red Violin, its fetishization of the instrument (and the artisan labour that produced it) is related to the film’s subterranean desire to privilege commodity fetishism in the context of globalization. Longfellow claims that the deployment of such a ‘romanticism exists only as a nostalgic alibi for the ubiquitous and overweening power of money.’25 This should remind us of the enduring relevance and possible contemporary applications of Peter Morris’s provocative phrase ‘embattled shadows.’26 We have to ask: what is being obscured in the Canadian film and television industry during globalization? My argument would be that labour, like capital, is also figured in the ‘identity’ of a cultural artifact. But in this conjuncture, in which the market is hegemonic, film and television workers are paid to live in the shadows of Hollywood: obediently consuming their productivity and misrecognizing their labour as the figures of triumphant global capital. Torontobased actor Alex Poch-Goldin describes the challenge of acting in a Hollywood product: ‘I have to tell myself that I’m here to do a job. My job is to provide support for the lead performer.’27 Almost invariably, of course, the lead character is an American star, and, in this instance, it is easy to understand what Marx and Engels meant when they wrote that, in its initial stages, class struggles correspond with national struggles.28 Daily, Canadian workers negotiate a space, within Hollywood, for their labour. Ultimately, we see cultural forms which correspond to these class, national, and labour relations, and, judging by the product, the lesson to be learned is that the world’s film labour cannot afford to resist Hollywood. NOTES 1 Quoted in Mia Goldman, ‘Dede on Digital: An Interview with Dede Allen (Part 1),’ Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine 21, no. 3 (May–June 2000), http://www.editorsguild.com/newsletter/MayJun00/dede.html. 2 Quoted in Sarah Schmidt, ‘That’s All, Folks,’ Globe and Mail, 29 May 2000, R1. 3 George Gerbner, Hamid Mowlana, and Herbert I. Schiller, eds, Invisible Crises: What Conglomerate Control of Media Means for America and the World (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997). 4 Richard Collins, Culture, Communication and National Identity: The Case of Canadian Television (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990). 268 John McCullough 5 For a succinct overview and current collection of essays which discuss efforts to define Canadian national culture, see Jody Berland and Shelley Hornstein, eds, Capital Cultural: A Reader on Modernist Legacies, State Institutions, and the Value(s) of Art (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2000). 6 Ted Magder, Canada’s Hollywood: The Canadian State and Feature Films (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993); Manjunath Pendakur, Canadian Dreams and American Control: The Political Economy of the Canadian Film Industry (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1990); and Michael Dorland, So Close to the State/s: The Emergence of Canadian Feature Film Policy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998). 7 Dorland, So Close to the State/s, 39. 8 Mike Gasher, Hollywood North: The Feature Film Industry in British Columbia (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002). 9 Fredric Jameson, ‘Globalization and Political Strategy,’ New Left Review 4 (July-August 2000): 53. 10 Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby, eds, Image Ethics: The Moral Rights of Subjects in Photographs, Film, and Television (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2001). 11 Jean Baudrillard, ‘The Ecstasy of Communication,’ in The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (New York: New Press, 1998), 146. 12 Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity: The Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993). 13 Quoted in Schmidt, ‘That’s All, Folks.’ 14 David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1990), 192. 15 Kevin Brownlow, The Parade’s Gone By ... (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 283. 16 Quoted in Goldman, ‘Dede on Digital.’ 17 Nick T. Spark, ‘Working Out the Bugs: An Interview with Pixar’s Lee Unkrich, Supervising Film Editor of A Bug’s Life,’ Motion Picture Editors Guild Magazine 20, no. 1 (January-February 1999), http://www.editorsguild .com/newsletter/JanFeb99/int_unkrich_bugs_life.html. 18 Danae Clark, Negotiating Hollywood: The Cultural Politics of Actors’ Labor (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995); Michael Denning (with Holly Allen), ‘“Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Walt?” Disney’s Radical Cartoonists,’ in The Cultural Front (New York: Verso, 1997), 403–22. 19 Joyce Nelson, Sultans of Sleaze: Public Relations and the Media (Toronto: The Dialectics of Canadian Film Labour 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 269 Between the Lines Press, 1989), 96–124; John Allen, ‘Post-Industrialism and Post-Fordism,’ in Modernity and Its Futures, ed. Stuart Hall, David Held, and Tony McGrew (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1992), 169–220. Toby Miller, et al., Global Hollywood (London: BFI Publications, 2001) and Global Hollywood 2 (London: BFI Publications, 2005). Quoted in Kamal Al-Solaylee, ‘More Than Guns for Hire,’ Globe and Mail, 6 January 2003, R1. Quoted in Andre Mayer, ‘Studio Builders Do Boffo Box Office,’ Globe and Mail, 10 December 2002, B17. Quoted in Cathy Carlyle, ‘Discussing Policies on Canadian Film-making at York,’ Gazette (York University), 4 April 2001, 1. Quoted in Schmidt, ‘That’s All, Folks.’ Brenda Longfellow, ‘The Red Violin, Commodity Fetishism and Globalization,’ Canadian Journal of Film Studies 10, no. 2 (fall 2001): 19. Peter Morris, Embattled Shadows: A History of Canadian Cinema, 1895–1939 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1978). Quoted in Al-Solaylee, ‘More Than Guns for Hire.’ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party,’ in The Marx–Engels Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978), 482. 14 Screening the Call: Cell Phones, Activism, and the Art of Connection ki rs ty robertson As at any other symphony concert, the sounds of coughing, shuffling feet, and creaking chairs greeted the opening of a September 2001 performance at the Brucknerhaus Auditorium in Linz, Austria. Audience members took their seats, the lights dimmed, and a pre-concert hush fell over the crowd. The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of a cell phone, ringing somewhere in the theatre. However, the familiar noise of interruption was greeted not with hushes, but with a second ringing telephone, and then another, until eventually a symphony of two hundred mobile phones filled the auditorium. Dialtones, a coproduction of artist Golan Levin with the 2001 Ars Electronica Festival, was a large-scale ‘telesymphony’ concert performance, ‘produced through the carefully choreographed dialing and ringing of the audience’s own mobile phones,’ each of which had been registered before the concert and given a specific ring tone that could then be ‘conducted’ by the techno-musicians on-stage.1 Part symphony, part artwork, and part social commentary, Dialtones can be read not only as a playful reworking of the ring tone, but also as a way of rethinking the cell phone as a tool of community formation and mutuality. ‘By directing our attention to the unexplored musical potential of a ubiquitous modern appliance,’ write the artists, ‘Dialtones inverts our understandings of private sound, public space, electromagnetic etiquette, and the fabric of the communications network which connects us.’2 By presenting a radical reworking of the ‘cellular,’ the anti-social and the dialogic (as opposed to polylogic) aspects of mobile phone use, performances such as the telesymphony instead generate playful adaptations of social communication, questioning any solely instrumental understanding of the use of cell phones. In this paper, I use a number of Cell Phones, Activism, and the Art of Connection 271 performative art/activist works to ask how mobile phones might be used as an activist tool within expanding networks of global capitalism and neoliberalism. In order to do so, I argue for an understanding of cell phones that takes into account both their productive communicative potential as well as their material production in order to posit an activism that takes place within the very zones of overlap and negotiation created by the spread of capitalism and the imaginaries of contemporary society. As their use proliferates across the globe, cell phones have become at once machines that create invisible threads weaving together the (apparently) seamless space of global capitalism, and also the opposite – a technology of caesura and of interruption in the seeming inevitability of global integration. Mobile phones are both participators and negotiators; they are, if we are to believe the numerous pundits, economists, and futurists, the tools, the mouthpieces, of a new, constantly connected, globally interacting society. However, the outward transcendence of a (global) sociality based on networking and connection depends exponentially on the material elements of communications technology, that is, the hardware necessary to create an illusion of ubiquitous (invisible) communications. The manufacture, use, and disposal of cell phones shadow the path of global communications and, I suggest, often act as a haunting, an absent-presence, in the use of mobile technologies. Through the history of the manufacture of cell phones runs a vector that connects the frenetic global circulations of commodities with the vast networks of communications, as well as the potential for both radical activism and also environmental destruction. The sociologist Manuel Castells wrote in 1996: ‘Our society is constructed around flows of capital, flows of technology, flows of organizational interaction, flows of images, sounds and symbols. Flows are not just one element of the social organization; they are the expression of processes dominating our economic, political and symbolic life.’3 Focusing on the role played by new technologies in the economic restructuring of the 1980s, Castells describes the globalized world as a space of fluidity wherein global information networks restructure not only economies but also social life. From above and from below, electronic, informational, and communicational flows integrate the globe through a distributed and reticulated global network. From the postFordist capitalist economy to the anti-capitalist ‘movement of movements’ that defined alter-globalization protest, the circulation of information has been essential to recent imaginings of globalization. And, 272 Kirsty Robertson perhaps not surprisingly, one of the essential tools creating and maintaining the global flows that underlie the network is the mobile phone. Used by both activists and consumer capitalists, and increasingly available across global lines of wealth and poverty, the cell phone has prompted revolutions, invented new languages and literacies, produced wars, transformed the sonic environment of the late twentieth century, formed new communities, encouraged new art for(u)ms, led to an increased jostling for supremacy in space, altered the choreography of people in urban environments, changed landscapes, and promoted new forms of communication. Though a tiny gadget, the cell phone is a life-altering prosthetic. To see it as such is also to rethink ideas of public space in terms not of concrete gathering places but also of fluid social fields that constantly shift and re-form. It demands, in other words, a powerful rethinking of the public sphere through ideas of confluence, vectors, trajectories, constantly transforming mutualities, and communities. The question then becomes whether such fluidity, such choice, and such speed lead to inertia or to potential. Appropriating the polysemic use of the word ‘screen’ in the realm of cell phones and communications, this paper suggests that not only do mobile phones act as a screen, obscuring the current inequalities of neoliberalism through a conflation of communication and freedom, but they also provide a performative canvas for new social roles, collectivities, and art forms. I suggest that it is this very multivalency that opens the discussion for possible new types of activism located within the space of global flows of technology, capital and communication, creative industries, and knowledge economies. To make this clearer, in a connected world, what spaces are opened up that might not even have been recognized as resistant? In the realm of global networked power, surely there are meandering traces of resistance that belong neither to the traditional dichotomy of capitalism and Marxism nor to the exhausted traditional left-wing critique. Refusing to choose between the pathways of transcendent communications or material commodity, I posit the in-betweenness of cell phone use as a place of potential, one that balances and questions the complex and fragmented spaces of contemporary capitalism. [ntrdctn] In the opening chapter of his book Constant Touch, Jon Agar comes into direct contact with the absent-presence of the material history of con- Australia. and the Congo. Activism. to transfer money for those without bank accounts.000 animals alive.7 Caught in the middle are great ape populations in the area. and . Russia. known as coltan. a metal found in Canada. leaving only 3. and the North Sea. With his phone in pieces. which in turn exacerbate the fighting. design. Rwanda. now has a skyrocketing price on the commodities market. and the Art of Connection 273 temporary communications technology when he takes a hammer to his cell phone. to call a doctor in an emergency. Agar traces the history of engineering. and New York.6 Profits from coltan fund the war. and Africa.5 At each stop both the emancipatory and the destructive aspects of the mobile phone can be unwrapped – the ability to communicate across distance in areas without landlines. Texas. and to keep in touch at prices accessible even to the poor contrasts starkly with the working conditions and exposure to carcinogenic and mutagenic toxins used at Mexican maquiladora factories in the production of mobile communications technologies. A little-known material before its use in cell phones. militias. leading to soaring prices.8 In this circle of destruction and war. forestry. and hunting have decimated great ape populations by up to 90 percent in less than a decade. such activities as mining.’4 Agar reveals the global passages of goods that had previously been hidden by the plastic casing of his phone. As Agar continues his dissection of the phone. and the environmental destruction wrought by discarded units. arguing that within the detritus there is ‘a new global politics [that] can be found among the dust. His act of destruction exposes nickel in the batteries from Chile. exacerbated by miners. microprocessor chips and circuitry from North America. columbite-tantalite. and plastic and moulding from Taiwan. Assembled in factories around the world. combined with a shadowy history of extraction. and coordinated in corporate headquarters in Northern Europe. Korea. Dependent upon intact forest regions. Tantalum is mined in the northeast region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). while a world both in and out of touch with the conflict in the DRC demands more. and microprocessing behind the ultra-small secondgeneration (2G) phone he has just smashed. he notes capacitors that regulate voltage and store energy made from tantalum. plastic casings and liquid in the LCD made from petroleum products from the Middle East. Japan. scene of a civil war that has seen tens of thousands killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a conflict waged in part over mineral rights on the disputed borders between Uganda.Cell Phones. the cell phone is revealed as a global gadget. and the often illegal trade of coltan in operation. the transnational governance of capital is collapsed into an intricate global system of regulatory bodies that act at both national and transnational levels. the collapse of space and time promised by globalization is far from inevitable. and mobile communications device have their obsolescence built triply in. profits are tied up in ‘wealth creation’ – the granting of property status to what had before been inviolate. where. As such. and experience can be characterized as property. of international trade. the expansion of direct foreign investment. and rapid obsolescence. That which is most tangible. the plight of the great apes. the plight of 3. and international trade agreements. software. Even more so than computers. intangible. and the promise of constant progress. or the conditions of manufacture are largely erased from discussions of cell phone use and innovation. and. cell phones as fashion statement. and capitalism is increasingly tied up in the transcendental flows of information production.274 Kirsty Robertson European forestry companies. instant newness. Factory workers and apes do not figure except in that their very tangibility seems somehow less real than the movement of information. Combined with the proliferation of international trading bodies (such as the WTO and the IMF). somehow . and outside of commodity status. since the 1980s. and currency markets. their evolution as gadgets overshadows and erases the global passages through which their manufacture takes them. The demand for more phones. bond. create conditions wherein technological devices are often built in less-than-ideal conditions. technological gadget. the fluidity that comes as part of a networked system seems rather to flow inexorably around that which might halt its passage. In other words.000 apes becomes increasingly difficult to imagine. in the low-wage and tax-free havens of global factories often divested of direct linkage to their corporate parents.10 Part of the fully integrated network described above by Castells is the growth. in fact. the war in the Congo. and the (intangible) stock. the warring factions in conflict.9 The forgetting of the plight of the apes is echoed in the factory conditions where mobile phones are assembled. the mobile phone is the tool of communication that keeps the bushmeat hunters on top of the location of both animals and police. Where knowledge. as outlined by George Yúdice and others. such as ape populations and factories. These stark contrasts are not uncommon in neoliberal systems. Rather than prompting a call for politically and environmentally cleaner components to cell phones. and . in which members do not occupy the same contiguous space. how might this be used to open new spaces of opposition? The Nomadic City Ideas of mobilization bring up notions not only of the global movement and exchange of goods but also of the flâneur in the city. virtual social communities. it is its productive capacities that tend to interest activists – how might cell phones be used to forward a struggle? Rather than focusing a criticism on this politics of contradiction. and environmental protests. Though the flâneur is primarily associated with the nineteenth century – Walter Benjamin. The first step here might be play. Though the links between production and use of cell phones remain largely effaced. It is these new solitary and collective spaces of possibility that interest Adriana de Souza e Silva. ‘with the aid of nomadic technology devices. that makes the cell phone as prosthetic. Moving through the city space. observed that the ‘unfocused longing for an unexpected (erotic) encounter’ gave way by the end of the century to the fragmented experience of the passer-by11 – ideas of mobility and of sensing in the city can be rethought through the use of the mobile phone.Cell Phones. observing the passing of life. It is perhaps not surprising then that the cell phone consumes its own material history – even among activists using cell phones to organize alter-globalization. anti-war. as wearable technology. activists will have at their disposal a particularly rich and layered tool with which to question and challenge the ever-adaptable status quo. a potentially embodied tool in an ongoing power struggle in which the boundaries are becoming increasingly diffuse. How have artists and activists used play to refashion the cell phone as a technology of tangible interpersonal connection. Rather. leisure time. all nodes on the chain of the phone’s existence to that point cease to exist except as the virtual – accessed only with a hammer and research. Activism. It is not so much that they do not matter as that in a lexicon that presents an object (phone) as already made when it arrives in the hands of its user.’12 In this context. and comfort with the public space of the city. and the stories of hardship that it silently carries with it. possessing money. when these links are made. I suggest that it is this very mutability. in turn. for example. creative. who writes. now emerge in physical spaces. cell phones are active. instead. and. production remains largely effaced. and the Art of Connection 275 becomes virtual. the flâneur has traditionally been imagined as the pastime of a privileged male class. both embodied and disembodied. [da na na na.15 The reaction to the ringing phone described by Plant is a moment full of potential. . In the first decade of the 21st century. a program that causes one’s cell phone to beep every time a user in a ‘buddy list’ is in the area. Pointing to ImaHima. what is important here is perhaps less the transcendent communications across space than the way in which mobile technologies can also be used to bring together real people in real space. In other words. The idea of a virtual world. a simulated space. generating new social communities. an auditory. brings about the creation of narrative and imaginary spaces. only to be apprehended at the last moment. completely disconnected from our physical environment. da na na na na] The ringing cell phone introduces a forced intimacy in the city – an intrusion into half conversations. suggests de Souza e Silva. and build up environments solely via text. and reaches out for it across space. I enter these two perceptive realms in greater depth – the cell phone as both a prosthetic ear and eye – and. everyone recognizes the sound. as immanent. I shall risk to say that cyberspace is gone. visual device that situates the subject as embodied. da na na na. Encouraging both community and individual spaces of reflection and collectivity. In the following section.13 The mobile phone. the mobile phone is a perception machine. Cultural critic Sadie Plant talks about a certain collectivity maintained by the ringing phone – everyone wants to answer it. de Souza e Silva notes: Virtual communities have often been studied as narrative places in which users create collective non-linear stories. that is.276 Kirsty Robertson productive. both material and transcendent. nomadic interfaces that actually heighten the awareness of physicality when dealing with digital space.14 The flâneur is no longer a solitary creature but is connected to others through a logic that can be described as anti-binary. such as cell phones. is challenged by the emergence of mobile technology devices. thus bringing together the threads of this argument. I will then return at the end of the paper to discuss how the history of the cell phone’s manufacture might be made material through the work of activist and artist groups. through an analysis of several art works specifically using the mobile phone. suggest how they might extend the perceiving body through and into space as a way of encouraging community formation. that speaks. organizers made extensive use of mobile phones and text messaging to organize protesters. was put together to engage pedestrians and viewers in a different sonic space. How then might mobile technologies be used to move the collectivities into action? During the 2003 protest gatherings against the Republican National Convention in Manhattan. and collective organization. but was based on a participatory engagement designed to connect passers-by with the people around them. to avoid violent confrontations. when the sculpture is in situ. for many. participants can either call live. wobbling jigsaws. of reaching out. dancing tumble dryers. for example – Perpetual Contact and Constant Touch – suggest a sonic tactility that turns the cell phone inside out. Moport. thereby directing attention away from the commodities in the shopping centre where the piece was shown. connecting people for exactly one minute to a 200-watt amplifier and speaker. from gadget to microphone.19 Outside of the surveillance and tracking that goes hand in hand with cell phone use. organ and brass. a mobile sculpture ‘designed to allow for instances of anonymous public speech. and towards each other.’ uses a cell phone that can be called. Shown in Osnabrueck. One Free Minute. radio playing toy trains. eventually resulting in the ousting of Philippine President Joseph Estrada. The artists behind One Free Minute write that its .Cell Phones. rattling kitchen mixers. and the Art of Connection 277 How might this potential come to fruition? Artists involved in Sale Away created a mechanical orchestra of ‘vacuum cleaners playing flute.16 The cell phone as symphony creates a sonic web that relies largely on collective participation to bring people together. Moport became a centre for the reconfiguration of the events of the National Convention protests in activist terms. like Dialtones. to the power of interpersonal communications of mobile phones. Activism. Sale Away.com was an attempt to put the media back in the hands of the people. text messaging ideas and events.17 Combined with mobile reporting. hacking. By phoning in their reports. buzzing ventilators. text messaging became a way of organizing instant support and seemingly spontaneous protests. As in the Philippine demonstrations in 2001 that relied on mass text messaging to organize protests and actions. [and] humming refrigerators’ that could be ‘played’ by people dialling in with their cell phones. and to keep track of hot points in the activity. or can leave a message on a trans-global answering machine. in 2004. in New York. Germany.18 It is an idea of speaking out. The titles of two recent books. and sending pictures taken by digital phones to the central website. But in this case the action was not purely affect. ’ Outside of billing. each participant adding another layer to the urban environment. URBANtells and [murmur] are both insular projects – they both emphasize the solitary. shaped like an ear. participants use a specially designed ‘digi-diviner. street sounds. passers-by might spot a small green sign. and historians are mixed with recitations. anonymous public speech. Joe Reinsel. An evolving database collects ‘layers of embedded histories and experience that define the urban experience. One Free Minute ‘break[s] the soundscape of public space with unpredictable acts of improvised. In a slightly more technologically sophisticated project. if only for a minute. URBANtells. the city becomes mutable. participants can capture sound clips and still images and write texts. sometimes tragic. with a phone number written on it. ‘addressing the complex layers of personal and collective. and processed sound. a project by Steve Bradley.278 Kirsty Robertson intent was to ‘investigate how public discourse has been changed by technology. . It is a take on this idea that comes up in the Canadian [murmur] project. Like the use of mobiles at social and protest gatherings. Here the city is screen onto which are projected the thoughts of the populace. and James Rouvelle.’ Arguing that cellular phones bring private space into the public through overheard conversation. they are gaps in the smooth facade of capitalism.’20 Recordings of residents. mapping their own sights and sounds onto the city. Occasionally funny. music.’ a handheld cell phone–like device that allows users to explore neighbourhoods on foot. Walking through the city. or create their own sonic spaces. The stories grant texture to the city spaces. Arranged on layered maps in the database.’21 Using the diviner. in maintaining anarchist communities and long-distance relationships. the sculpture allows anonymous callers to control public soundscapes. The cell phone encourages the ‘seeing’ of the city as something that can be changed – with the cell phone. cell phones can encourage the maintenance of already established links and collectivities. Calling the number from a mobile phone. the stories of the [murmur] project invest the spaces of the city with the memories of those who have been there before. flâneur-like nature of the cell phone user. users can either follow the directions of a predecessor. outside of speech regulated by pay-by-the-minute. participants are greeted with a recorded message telling a story of the history of the site. Through their use they encourage the reaffirmation of mutualities and the performance of community. collecting and listening to recorded experiences of the city. which can be plugged into the database. ’23 Thus far. In a recent text. ‘As the digital world grows to encompass all aspects of our life. According to the prospectus for a California exhibition Cell-Outs and Phonies. we have seen projects that highlight identity and group formation. the creation of ephemeral bonds through the often unconscious meetings of people offer a way of constructing a connectivity with revolutionary potential for rethinking the relations between and among people. soundless shots of the London Underground after the 2005 bombings. for example. viewing art becomes about the relationships between viewers. to warnings on change-room doors that cell phones are not allowed. a project by Dana Karwas. but as a tool of artistic emancipation. listener at the concert). Collectives can have a great deal of power. a new ‘we’ that obfuscates identity for ephemeral but often strong collectivities. Rogoff argues that in these potential mutualities lies a new definition of community. and the Art of Connection 279 [Screening the Call] Third-generation (3G) cell phones are increasingly less about talking and more about images.22 These projects bridge a fascination with the new and a limited engagement with politics. through links back to the disrupted habitat of the great apes . we see the gadgets of our day-to-day existence evolving into expressive art mediums. Activism. recreating text messaging as visual hip-hop. from the end product of cell phone art.’ The accessibility of photography and digital filmmaking through cell phones. then.’ she writes. Through participation. even at an unconscious level. freeSTYLE exposes the very conscious connection to one’s mobile identity by bringing the sounds and visions of mobility to the edges of digital space. For Rogoff. erases boundaries between art and technology. to photoblogs and snapshots. visual culture scholar Irit Rogoff talks of the potential for collectivity outside of prescribed cultural roles (for example. Cell-Outs and Phonies moved the phone into the gallery. freeSTYLE. disposing. ‘Cell phones offer an extension of and a portal into one’s own identity. From the eerie. Opening with a performance of ring tones by the German experimental group Super Smart.Cell Phones. turns cell phone text messaging into spoken word and customized graphics. recycling. between amateur and professional. and reinterpreting the idea of identity. viewer at the art gallery. not as an object of design. ‘Mobility is constantly defining. according to the exhibition curators. and followed by continuous screenings of cell phone videos. the mobile phone as camera has opened a whole new level of access to art making and sharing. artists of the Canadian SEED collective came together with Canadian Film Centre’s Habitat New Media Lab to put together SEED. Participants are given the choice of tree they want to plant and the ability to change its texture and colour. colourful. however. the participants’ trees come together to create a virtual. In 2004. participants are given a ‘seed.’ which is grown through the choice of keys on the pad of the phone. individual. 14. remain largely unexplored.1).’24 Using their cell phones to dial a particular number. Audiences use their cell phone keypads to grow a collective virtual forest. a project that ‘explores the convergence of rich media and wireless technology in the creation of a collaborative and evolving work of art. with the production of cell phones largely hived off from its productive capacities. These links. in the Congo.1 An image from the Green Arts Barn event. In the final project.seedcollective. . It is with a project that I believe makes this relationship tangible that I would like to end this discussion of cell phone art. taken from the SEED Collective’s online gallery at http://www.ca. yet communal forest (fig.280 Kirsty Robertson Fig 14. there might yet be hope. often unaware of the participation of other viewers. and surveillance concerns raised by some observers are not the concerns of Luddites but of users heavily invested in the social circumstances created by mobile phones. development. The SEED Collective has also worked hard to bring their project into a tangible reality and has turned profits and donations into real trees. As a first step at bringing together the productive capacities of the cell phone with discussion over urban decay and environmental destruction. and as I hope I have shown here. the silent phone picks up subvocal . But the cell phone has no master narrative. the cell phone has a mutability that allows it to create an always diffuse and always open theorization of its own existence. As charities have begun collecting and recycling cell phones. the SEED Project’s planting of actual trees in urban environments speaks to the potential of artists working at this juncture to bring about real change. and belts that can be worn right next to the body. People work together to grow a colourful forest. these links are waiting to be made. this has become an area rich in potential for activists. artists. Developed largely by NASA. And for those for whom the cell phone is at best a loud annoyance. Put together largely for use by stroke victims and for covert military operations. and use. The answer here is not to question the uptake of cell phones in general. and of the great apes remains uncertain. As an example. a silent cell phone might one day be on the market. the health. to my mind. has been just that – a search that has wrought destruction on a variety of areas of the globe. Although the future of such activism. of the precarious situation of factory workers. Activism. and the Art of Connection 281 The SEED Project. clothing is also manufactured to protect against the low-level radiation brought about by the use of cell phones. no single tale of manufacture. In its unpredictability lies its potential. As cell phones are adapted into soft fabrics. clothing.Cell Phones. and mobile phone users. As an example of how neoliberalism can be opened up through the use of its own developments. but to question how they might be used. one might look to the future of cell phone and mobile technologies.’ the application that will get all users to upgrade their phones. manifests the potential of cell phones as tools of collectivity. The affective relations noted by Rogoff are here visualized in the forest of virtual trees. the search for the ‘killer app. Epilogue: The Silent Cell Phone As mobile phones have progressed from first through third generations. environmental. horizonzero. ‘Merchandise Temptress: The Surrealistic Enticements of the Display Window Dummy.asp. Public Performance. 3 Manuel Castells. 4 Jon Agar. quoted in Katherine Sykora. 13. http://trace. 14 Ibid.motorola. [click]. Katz and Mark Aakhus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. NC: Duke University Press.’ in Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication.ac.ecoisp.’ Flong. 1996). Motorola. 16 ‘Sale Away.com/telesymphony/. transmitting and translating it to a ‘listener. See also Susanna Paasonen. 194. 7 Ibid.html. 15 Sadie Plant.org/ sale_away.’ http://www.. 412–13. 10 George Yúdice. 6 Ibid. James E. 5 Agar. ‘On the Mobile: The Effects of Mobile Phones on Social and Individual Life. http://www. 9 Ibid.com/mot/doc/0/234_MotDoc. 8 EcoISP. Christoph Grunenberg and Max Hollein (London: Hatje Cantz Publishers.’ http://www. Private Talk.ntu.php?is=4&file=15&tlang=2. 130. companies such as Nokia. and Ericsson buy already-made capacitors from manufacturers who must obtain coltan from shadowy intermediaries.ca/textsite/ touch. See also Kenneth Gergen.282 Kirsty Robertson speech. Constant Touch.’ Horizon 4. 9–12. http://www.cfm?article=121. ed. 14. 13 Ibid. 2002).’ in Shopping: A Century of Art and Consumer Culture. this time to one of silence. ‘The Challenge of Absent Presence.uk/Opinion/index.’ Staalplaat Soundsystem. 11 Walter Benjamin. ‘Mutation and Money: Arguing with Sadie Plant on the Mobile. Constant Touch: A Global History of the Mobile Phone (Cambridge: Icon Books.’25 The noise of the city might yet change again .. 2003). ‘Are Cell Phones New Media?’ Trace: On Line Writing Centre. http://www. The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era (Durham. 227. The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell.pdf. ‘Species on the Brink. 2 Ibid. 12 Adriana de Souza e Silva. Determined to keep their hands free of a bloody diamond-sized scandal.com/species20. NOTES 1 ‘Dialtones: A Telesymphony.flong. ed. 2003).staalplaat. . 2002). 19 One Free Minute.htm. 23 Dana Karwas. Activism. ‘The Latest Protest Tool: Texting. http://www. 21 Ibid.’ The Suburb. ‘Cell-Outs and Phonies. ‘freeSTYLE.org.Cell Phones.’ Joereinsel. 20 ‘URBANtells. .sciencentral.html. http://rhizome.net/. and the Art of Connection 283 17 New York Associated Press.seedcollective. http://www.’ Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.onefreeminute. http://www. ‘Secret Speech Aid.joereinsel. 16 September 2005.dk22.com/exhibits/august. 22 Laura Merians.org.com/articles/view.org/urbantells/ index.org/thread. http://www. 18 Ibid.’ reblogged at Rhizome.’ ScienCentral News. http://www.ca.php?p=44. 24 SEED Collective.php3?type=article&article_ id=218392411. 25 Stacey Young. http://www.lacda.com/suburb/ index.rhiz?thread=14421&page=1. how can we have our own experience? . On my return. sinking my toes in the crumbly red earth. the scents of frangipani and roasting eggplant. And that’s a Lebanese mountain: what of the billion banal urban milieus impregnated with corporate mediation. examining the growth of olives. for my friends are keen importers. they made pains to accommodate me to my unfamiliar setting. kiwi fruit and persimmons. the metallic Bach jingling from mobile phones – they all stimulated my senses and my imagination. [laugh] The Fox Channel. further. Old Spice and CK One wafting from fellow passengers. and also.15 Immigrant Semiosis l au r a u. another friend pointed to an animal on the opposite hill. advertising posters overhead. ‘It’s a fox. the clatter of jackhammers at the construction site across the valley. Indeed. alone. nor ours. fluent in English. ‘Are you making discoveries? [with a laugh of recognition] The Discovery Channel. Worldly people and. plunging to the cement factories just south of Tripoli and then to the sea. like riding a bus through streets thick with signage. fortunately for me. ma rk s On an autumn day in 2002. I clambered around their orchard. cell phones jingling bastardized Bach? In the age of hypermediation. and which came to me pre-formed? An ancient valley bustling with the construction of post–Civil War returnees: do I experience this with my senses or my intellect? Is a kiwi vine in Lebanon a plant or a sign? Is it a fox or a ‘Fox’? That beautiful afternoon was rich for me with affective experience.’ Later. I visited the mountain home of some Lebanese friends. as the sun began to cast long shadows in the orchard. the surroundings were glorious: scrub-clad mountains descending to valleys thick with olive trees and.’ Which of my experiences that day were my own. one of my hosts said. The mountain breeze. But much of it came to me already encoded in concepts that were not mine. embodied experience appears to be increasingly colonized by corporate culture. My Lebanese mountain anecdote hints at the way corporate branding and other forms of predigested experience permeate the very life of the senses. marketable skills. If. and necessitated by the first. who have no choice but to experience firsthand while the rest of us languish in the sweet suffocation of corporate interpellation. Second. by the wealthy countries of the West. must forage on the precarious shoals of real experience. Other examples abound. First. having spent their savings on fake papers. Illegal immigrants are not only an essential and disavowed source of cheap labour from .S. In particular. what makes us human is our ability to participate fully in the process of mediation. border by foot through the desert to fill the labour market for fruit pickers and hotel cleaners. Mexicans who cross the U. these accelerations appear to have a dehumanizing effect. as I will argue. as opposed to the false sociality by which corporate interests invade our very bodies? Are there people especially capable of immediate experience? Further along I will suggest that indeed there are such people. in the flow of mediated images in which we are enmeshed? How can our experience be meaningful? How can this process be truly social.1 The agents that I privilege in this essay are those who make the crossing out of dogged desperation. corporate interests have built a faux sociality in which meanings look like they are the product of democratic human communication but they are not. Not those immigrants who are cautiously solicited. Even the meaning of individual. Afghanis who survive the Channel Tunnel crossing clinging to the underside of the Eurostar. the global flow of capital and information has accelerated. Corporate meaning is imposed.Immigrant Semiosis 285 Two accelerations have occurred in the last 150 years. These are people who. These are Algerians who. the translation of embodied experience into disembodied information has sped up. immigrants who are unacknowledged and generally illegal. at a fractal level of detail. like the interesting recent phenomenon that youths who communicate via SMS messages on their mobile phones are starting to grow unprecedentedly large thumbs with extra nerve endings. and lack of dependents. they are immigrants. Nigerian women who pay extortionate amounts to a sponsor to become prostitutes. smuggle themselves into Spain to work in construction. falling out of official information grids. with their master’s degrees. So I expand my initial question into a series of questions that structure this essay: Where can we find individual experience. at the levels both of embodied sensation and of thought. As a result of these two speedings-up. on every level of life. such as the Internet and the mobile phone. to feel and sense (Firstness). communicable. these agents of social meaning reinvent popular media. the semiotic process (or. indeed demands us. Yet. Interestingly. exchange. as networks that offer sustenance. both of whose research was informed by contemporary experiments in psychology. Thus. for reasons I will explain later. takes part in this process. from crystals to hard drives (to crystals in hard drives). and meaningful. a continuum between impression. an attentive yet distracted subject susceptible to instrumental control. Why these two? Bergson and Peirce. I return more frequently to Peirce in this essay. at times even elegiac quality. Industrial production and mass media were bringing into being a new kind of person. a flow so continuous that it is difficult to iso- . to use his term. which informs my own thinking. both philosophers were defining these capable and relatively autonomous subjects of perception just when European and North American societies were being pervaded by mass-produced image media: photography. the subject of perception was changing. To analyse the apparent problems with the speed of mediated information.286 Laura U. analysed acutely the rich process of embodied. through their attentive perception of the world. for these reasons. I rely in the following on two philosophers writing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the French Henri Bergson and the American Charles Sanders Peirce. Everything in the world. hortatory. through a Peircean lens. As part of the process. the relationship between perception and meaning in the information age. perception. and cinema. I will argue. to distinguish among these feelings and act accordingly (Secondness). come up with rich and reliable information about it. and thought. Both attempted to define a process by which individuals. For Peirce. This life-giving process invites us. advertising. the twenty-first century’s best hope for experience that is immediate. The complementarity of their thought is attested by their mercurial union in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Marks Parma to Phoenix but also. Let me sketch. Bergson and Peirce provide useful models of a sensuous and knowledgeable subject at the beginning of the hypermediated age. their efforts to describe the human subjects of attentive recollection (for Bergson) and the semiotic process (for Peirce) have a certain anxious.2 Just when the new field of psychology was yielding data on perception. and to synthesize and generalize (Thirdness). semiosis) is a rich and constant process of mediation. multisensory perception. and – when necessary – disappearance from the grid. What makes us humans superior to other beings in the process of semiosis is that we are not only embodied but also have unique imaginative powers. nor to synthesize. Peircean scholar Floyd Merrell suggests that we may characterize different eras according to different relationships among Peirce’s categories of First. we are rich in the preconscious field of Firstness.3 What makes us superior to our technologies in the process of semiosis is that we have an unconscious. Computer games reward quick reflexes. it is. two things: the ability to receive our own impressions (Firstness) and the ability to make our own judgments (Thirdness). what comes First and what comes Third in experience. The logo of a brand of ramen noodles elicits salivation in some people. as well as in the synthesizing. as described by Peirce: they prompt us neither to be open to the broad expanse of perceptible experience. is dominated by Secondness. Clearly something is lost in the speed of this semiotic handover. rather than either raw sensation or synthesis. in the sense that the majority of what goes on in our minds-bodies never enters the narrow light beam of our consciousness. click an icon. is the ability called on most often. It is in the movement between First and Second . action. I will ask Bergson as well as Peirce what we gain from these aspects of experience. ask why information culture is weak in them. perception. it is easy to retrace the process a moment later.4 I suggest that our current era. then – especially for those of us living in postindustrial. information-dependent societies – these breaks in the semiotic flow make it difficult for us to have our own experience. Or rather. ‘Take back the flow!’ Firstness The moment at which the world first brushes up against our senses and feelings is precious. symbolizing powers of Thirdness. the era of information. but to act. and Third. and suggest ways we and our media might revive the rich and ceaseless flow of experience. If this sojourn has a motto. or slam on the brakes. Also they are fairly accessible to consciousness: if we are not aware at the moment that certain images make us salivate. since attention. Traffic signals ask only to be obeyed. In the following I will take a look at these two bottlenecks in the semiotic flow. Second. and reflection. If experience consists of the lively flow between impression. In other words. Such perceptions rest in the realm of Secondness. Nowadays many perceptions arrive to us with ready-made instructions for their use.Immigrant Semiosis 287 late its separate moments. 8 It is at a higher . Information necessarily bypasses the step of Firstness.288 Laura U. but we humans have also developed numerous technologies that carry out mediation for us. of a representamen 0 or 1. The feeling of joy. and so on. acting on the basis of distinctions that have already been made by someone else. Its creature. the so-called information culture is actually poor in information flow. we cannot have electrons spilling in the guts of our computers. and their interpretant a guarantee that this algorithm always produces this calculation. or First to Second. Peirce says. the computer. As Tor Nørretranders points out. The semiotic process is one of constant mediation. and their suffering reminds us not to romanticize precognitive states. But a sense of the flow from feeling to action. newspaper headlines. When people worry that information culture is creating a population of disembodied subjects. What we receive from our computers. This sign in turn becomes a representamen for a more sophisticated sign. distinguished.) Research in perceptual psychology suggests that our senses receive about one million times as much ‘information’ as our consciousness processes. boundaryless pain briefly overwhelms me. and an interpretant: the convention that 0 always indicates off. (People who live with chronic pain hover closer to the First end of the continuum. Innocent enough exertions of control.6 (More puzzlingly.5 In other words. Thus at a higher degree of complexity exist signs whose representamen is an algorithm. There its signs consist. it is distinguished from other things and ceases to exist for us in itself. before I identify it as a personalized cell phone ring. and interpreted in the semiotic process. an object. is the wellspring of human experience. traffic signals. off or on. Firstness endures only for a flash. before I can identify its source as the piece of broken glass I stepped on. It is here that a sharp. The computer’s Secondness begins at the digital level. making calculations unreliable. begins life at Secondness.’)7 I have referred to the ‘movement between First and Second’ because we cannot grasp the fleetingness of Firstness in itself: as soon as we perceive something. 1 on. it is in this movement of Firstness that joy transports us before we identify its source. they are reacting to the appearance that signs appear ready-made and do not need to be felt. what takes place First is the property of our sense impressions. is not as rich in Firstness as what we receive from exploring olive groves or stepping on glass. Marks that a metallic jingle jolts me. their object a calculation. to use Peircean terminology. is already a predicate: ‘This is delicious. which is only very occasionally accessible to our conscious selves. Thus the same form of cognitive. Indeed. measured in fractions of a second by Wilhelm Wundt at the world’s first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879. It meant narrowing the field of perception adequately to concentrate on a given object. Crary argues. are not properties of computers themselves but reflect the interests of their builders and investors. quantified. identify certain calculations as meaningful and have no tools for others. These decisions. with applied psychology to the nineteenth-century fascination with attention. but not so much as to become rapt in it. concomitantly. we feel the cramp of no-Firstness. cognitive science. became a central category for philosophy and the new field of psychology in the latter quarter of that century. Thomas Edison saw his Kinetoscope not as a medium of entertainment so much as a machine for the distribution of quantified and commodified information. reactive information processing came to dominate both work and leisure in the twentieth century. insofar as it retroactively models consciousness on information processing. and thus can be monitored. The currently dominant branch of psychology. according to Jonathan Crary. of course.10 was. enjoin certain actions and not others. a skill newly required for the repetitive work of the assembly line.9 The reason cognitive science is hegemonic in academic and corporate research now is that it offers a model of a human subject that can act on quantified information. and click those damned pop-up windows because corporations consult with cognitive scientists whose computer-derived psychological model. delivers results. and directed as a computer can. of course. the telegraph-stock ticker. tends to construct a model of human experience without Firstness.11 . We slam on the brakes. We can trace the current fixation with information processing and. which. Although it was cultivated by industrialized labour.Immigrant Semiosis 289 level of complexity still that the pre-emption of Firstness in computerbased experience starts to feel coercive. along the lines of his earlier invention. salivate on command. Crary points out. Attention. When computer programs prescribe specific choices and make others inadmissible. if insulting to the delicate infinity we’d like to imagine is the human being. as a computer does. attention became the privileged form of spectatorship for the new mass art of cinema. So the reason we in postindustrial societies are acting more like computers is not just due to some general ‘alienation’ but because the corporate interests that want to understand and influence human behaviour are applying a powerful model of human psychology based on information processing. This is actually a condensed Thirdness. the narrow band of our semiotic process that is attentive consciousness is hyper-stimulated. This divisive perceptual practice extends to less mediated activities. ‘Adrenaline is not an emotion!’13 but I think he protests too much. monitoring aircraft paths.’15 The best way for us to experience our bodies’ stubbornness might be to fall asleep and dream. We have become very good at paying attention to numerous parallel sources of information.290 Laura U. contemporary media reintroduce processed information that arrives to our experience as a First. The moment of affect.12 This kind of affection image leads resolutely to action. They operate in the relatively impoverished realm of pre-processed. leisure is just practice for work. telemarketing. A language that speaks our bodies from without. As Deleuze writes. A century of practice has moulded our perceptual processes to privilege Secondness. These conventions appeal to our conscious attention. it forces us to think. and forces us to think what is concealed from thought. at least among us in the first world. ‘Not that the body thinks. pre-thought images. of wonderment in the sensory brush with the world. and we respond to them as we do to symbols. of latency – of Firstness – is elided. but. are vivid. Burger King ads entice with the glistening beads of grease on a hamburger. A first way is by incorporating affect into instrumental goals. when our bodies are . Violent computer games employ the conventions of splashing blood and the cries of the vanquished. Epic-action movie director James Cameron insists. Harnessed affection images arouse bodily responses that lead not inward but onward.14 A more promising route back to First is through those media that speak directly to our bodies without harnessing affect to an instrumental chain. faux-affect is a powerful tool of colonization. conscious perception. or listening to music on an iPod.’ In all these activities. walking. the sound loop of ecstatic moaning. and drinking coffee. sending text messages. which harness the embodied response to the affection image. Commercial media tend to introduce symbols of affect. life. Yet information culture also introduces a new kind of Firstness into experience. they only look like they are embodied. for there. and attention. What I might call Information-Firstness occurs in several ways. This Firstness is not an end in itself but a beginning. obstinate and stubborn. like the commodified experience of ‘quality time. In terms of perceptual processes. Commercial porn employs conventions for arousal – the well-lit genital close-up. whether working on computers. Marks The implications of this history for early twenty-first-century perception. speedy movies that flood our bodies with adrenaline but do not tell us how to interpret this feeling – sublime movies – also facilitate our embodied process of meaning-making. Beauty. announcing our ignorance and hinting at the possibility of knowledge. So with information media. Briefly. Even as I engage with it sensuously.18 It is Experience (1) : Information/ Capital (2) : Image (3). they speak to our bodies. What was Third for someone – for example a concept. The elision of Firstness characteristic of the information age is not a reason to reject all media and go live in the olive grove. declining to force these dreams along the path of instrumental meaning. as First. The third way our information media reintroduce Firstness is the most important if we are to appreciate the potential of information culture. Peirce’s concept of the Real. let me return to Peirce’s category of Firstness. in information capitalism. To describe a third way that information media arrives back to us as First. I argue that. our bodies are perhaps most engaged by movies in which nothing much happens: lacking the usual demands upon our attention. the waves of Firstness wash over our unconscious perception.17 allow me to perceive more and learn more from the olive tree than if I did not possess them. as can a mediated image.Immigrant Semiosis 291 incapable of acting. horror. The new kinds of experience afforded by hypermediation afford their own pleasure and intellectual richness. perhaps we daydream. my initial approach is informed by prior analysis and belief. or a seductive caress – returns to someone else as primary material. Similarly. what strikes us as primary experience. an idea can be primary material.16 Bypassing cognition. is not only what is material and sensuous. And then. Often what we receive as Firstness is already a condensed Third. absurdity seem to lie on the surface of the work for their own sake. This process yields Images (not just visual but perceptible in general) that are not direct translations of Experience but selective crystallizations of Information and Capital. of Mediterranean weather. An example of such an Image is a char- . In his flexible semiotics. Some media objects daydream for us. These prior knowledges. a video image. The olive tree arrives to me already encoded in my notions of agriculture. of life. I have developed a Peircean triad to describe the status of the image in information-capitalist society. experience which comes First is selectively taken up by corporate and state interests according to what is useful as Information or as Capital (a brief consideration will reveal that they are practically the same thing). like memory for Bergson. or better. of velvety texture and sharp odour. and a Third as she or he draws it. From the experience of both game developers and children (First). So the character Pikachu is not a visual image but an argument that this image will extract money from children (and their parents). Nintendo’s canny investment and market research (Second) developed the intricate game with its characters so attractive to children (Third). and each time differently. as Bergson describes it.19 Are you not convinced that the Firstness of Pikachu is not as rich as the Firstness of digging your toes in the soil under an olive tree? Bergson can help think through the relative wealth and poverty of these two experiences. the danger posed by the new mass media was that the circuit between perception and memory. still returns as a First. each crayon scrawl a considered judgment. going strong since 1996. with the seasoning of memory. So the Image. Luckily. with the dishes of perception. Every Third returns as a First. and on the other. the richness of Peircean semiosis is that Thirds become. Bergson was anxious about photography and other ‘readymade’ replacements for memory images. The Pokémon phenomenon drove crazy parents and aunties (like me) who feared that their children were subsisting bug-eyed in a predigested world composed on information gleaned by the corporation precisely in order to keep kids in thrall.21 (Or. Firsts of a new and never-ending semiotic spiral. in turn. to employ a rather disgusting image. though it condenses within it information and experience that may never be unpacked. ever so carefully. the world about to arise to perception. and a series of Seconds. crucial to the enrichment of each. as raw material of experience. was closing. though. What about the memory buffet table: are our very memories also becoming more homogeneous? In some . although these are special condensations developed with revenue in mind. first-world societies is constantly being demonstrated with more or less cogency.20 Attentive recollection. memory is the dish and perception is the spice: maybe it depends on how old you are. which in turn is dense with experience. as the child selectively perceives the little figure.) But what if.292 Laura U. each of these tempting arrays is already predigested? For the philosopher of Matter and Memory. But have you ever watched a child draw Pikachu or another Pokémon character? There you witness the translation of an image that is entirely Third into a First. That the objects of perception are becoming ever more homogeneous for us in postindustrial. The sign Pikachu is dense with information. is like twinned buffet tables between which we bound until deliciously surfeited. Marks acter from the Pokémon game craze. on one side. But for Bergson this was a graciously privileged individual in a somewhat depopulated world. Thus much of what comes to us as Firstness in information media is filtered according to information-capitalist notions of what is meaningful. To summarize on an optimistic note: It does seem that we are still capable of having our own experience in the information age. democratic notions of value. three-year-olds play with ‘educational’ DVDs. the world is still rich with Firstness. Children still play with their excreta and fall into instructive mishaps in even the most antibacterial home. But. The world is rich with primary stuff that exceeds our grasp of it and our need to grasp it. to keep you reading. information capital selectively adopts those aspects of experience that it deems useful. we will still be capable of unique experience. like leaves in a gutter. . to that second semiotic bottleneck. quasi-hermeneutic circuit in which perception calls up memory and memory enriches and refines perception. including the return to a First state of information itself. Parents show alphabetic flash cards to babes in the cradle. It is a beautiful process. that do not seem generative of information or money. nor by communitarian. It requires a subject with the leisure to discern and to remember. It bypasses ‘useless’ Firstness. let me introduce a gloomy note.Immigrant Semiosis 293 ways. which I experience occasionally and you probably do too. This problem forces us along. But in the hypermediated age. To the extent that we still have bodies. Recall that in the model I’ve introduced. what comes Third in experience. those aspects of experience. Thirdness Both Bergson and Peirce modelled a process of embodied thinking on a fluid relation between the individual and the world. in order gradually to develop knowledge about the world. such as wiggling your toes in the soil. It would seem that to the extent that the experiences that form our memories are homogeneous. Meaning is not determined individually. Increasingly encoded though it is. even in our interactions with densely encoded media objects. our memories will come to resemble each other. And where is the subject then? Yet I doubt that a heavily symbolic and logocentric early life deprives people of rich experiences of Firstness. Bergson’s model of embodied perception is an ever-widening. The example of Pokémon and other heavily scripted games is only one of the ways children and even infants come up having experiences that are not theirs alone. yes. Are Pokémon. spreads and moves among the peoples. Bach. ‘The durée from which death has been eliminated has the miserable endlessness of a scroll. Corporate signs are certainly taken up with great enthusiasm.. to communicate. We observe the world.’24 The value of a sign. Lukács criticized Bergson for ignoring how capitalism distorts the experience of time into a degrading. This practice. But unlike Bergson. Marks who’s got the time? Bergson’s Marxist critics. its meaning grows. depersonalized passage. As Peirce writes. once in being.. the time of perception and memory. memory can only helplessly hold up its hands (and halt. and Fox transformed in their collective use? In the first place. like a clock whose hands are seized). In use and in experience. and test these statements. ‘a symbol. then. no. It provides a beautiful sanctuary in which to reflect and recreate. estranged from history. Tradition has been excluded from it. he argues. about which Peirce’s semiotics are optimistic. conventions. It is the community that guarantees that the signs that circulate within it – words. a philosopherscientist who tests all his or her ideas in a rigorous and ongoing interaction with the world. through abstraction produce statements about it. is a time devoid of community and hence of history. To the extent that the corporate meanings are taken up and circulated. This is the argument of studies of fan culture. These barriers certainly impede the flow of living meaning. argued that the time so precious to Bergson. including copyright law and the application of anti-defamation laws. to germinate. ‘Bergson in his conception of the durée has become .’22 Similarly. collective action by individuals on corporate signs constitutes a community. occurs not in the individual alone.23 Memory without history.294 Laura U. But it is . Georg Lukács and the more sympathetic Walter Benjamin. Peirce too had in mind an ideal subject of perception. Sociality is the source of meaning and the basis of the value of thought. which for the Frankfurt School critics meant social history. laws – are grounded in a democratic and scientific agreement as to their meaning (this is Thirdness) in relation to real objects. which emphasize the point in the semiotic flow whereby corporate Thirds return as collective Firsts. he was adamant that meaning is produced in an ongoing process of social human interaction with the world. is its ability to be taken up. is depopulated. The fact that they are taken up differently each time gives these signs a certain vitality. their signs cannot be freely taken up.’ Benjamin wrote. but when power intervenes in the very experience of time. Insofar as our societies have erected practical barriers to the transformation of their signs. is to lead to ‘habits of action’: ‘what a thing means is simply what habits it involves. Their modest. as Bergson would say. by every listener. science would uncover objective truths. infuriating though it may be to Bach aficionados. allowing it to summon them to duty or distraction on mobile phones around the world. What knowledges.’ as Peirce would say. A mobile phone’s tinny electronic riff on The Goldberg Variations.Immigrant Semiosis 295 not the main cause of the bottleneck. Peirce argued. He placed his dearest hope in the cooperative action of a ‘community of students’ to ensure the gradual emergence of reliable knowledge. We the students .26 What knowledge do these scholars produce? Not abstractions alone. In the gradual. as Navajo elder Sam Yazzie asked. not art. Is it a fox or a Fox? (Or.) What if the cable conglomerate aired a documentary on foxes (more likely on the Discovery Channel)? Certainly here would be a wealth of signs for the community of students to go and test. and collective process he describes with loving minuteness.’28 So the more important questions are. disinterested labour would generate ideas testable in the real world and describing real outcomes. its meaning as a symbol grows and changes. should we go back to watching TV. Peirce did not have much luck with fan clubs. ‘Will making movies harm the sheep?’)29 Live people seeing real foxes are transforming that sign according to their memory. as lively bootleg cultures attest. and building a new communal understanding of the sign ‘fox. this is a sort of taking up of a corporate sign that generates new meaning. makes that piece of music a new object: every return. what habits can the community of students develop from seeing a fox in light of the Fox Channel? Should we shoot it? Feed it lettuce? Sit it in front of the TV with a nice cold arak? Smug with our superior knowledge (we’ve seen a real fox). fallible. certainly not money. on an individual level.27 The purpose of thought. But such transformations of corporate signs are not enough to guarantee that experience is meaningful. If we return to my example of the child drawing the Pokémon character. but ‘resistantly’? (The latter is a term Peirce would surely have disliked. slightly transforms it.25 If many people take up The Goldberg Variations in similar ways. for the purpose of communication is not to block meaning but to make useful meaning. what meaning do we produce in the ongoing transformation of corporate signs? What habits of action result from this process? And (this is a difficult one for all but the most hard-core Peircean) can they lead to objective truths? Let us look for the meaning in the experience with which I began. recognized that institutions of power occupy people’s mental space for . If meaning is a collective. and so forth. Yes. The Semiotic Agent Bergson and Peirce.’ In terms of meaning production. We may have rich individual experience of mass phenomena.) Locked in a circuit of untestable claims. for it is here that corporate interests have managed to hijack meaning. But most first-worlders see more TV than foxes. The sociality and communicability fundamental to Peirce’s philosophy are at the same time its weak points. and the other corporate objects I have been toying with. time-based process. that replace scientific inquiry with forced agreement to the dominant ideas of the time. like lettuce. a closed circuit in the semiotic flow. the sheer laziness that prevented humans from coming up with clear. So the Fox Channel (and actually. (Similar arguments could be made for Pikachu. at both personal and impersonal levels. Peirce did acknowledge that power corrupts the making of meaning. But nagging alone will not produce good students. the Bach jingle.31 He also criticized. we are assailed by the undemocratic nature of media knowledge. We have no way to determine whether its information is true. his disdain for the muddy thinking of contemporary philosophers seems bound up with a critique of their kowtowing to a system of academic privilege. collective efforts of the ‘community of students. that are untestable for most people.’ They produce a closed circuit that would rather not be tested in collective experience. with a teacherly disapproval one can hear in his words. Information media allow us to live a rich mesh of experience. our experience is not very meaningful. He condemned social organizations. the Discovery Channel and other forms of virtual tourism that can act as replacements for interaction with the less-mediated world) is free to make claims about foxes. Peirce’s anxiety reflects the pressure of powerful institutions on the modest. then. such as religious hierarchies. Marks could put its signs into action and thereby learn for ourselves whether foxes should be shot. that is.30 Similarly. Information media in capitalism are not interested in identifying collectives. but the social dimension atrophies. at the dawn of the information media age. or other things in the world. we can have our own experience in the information age. both actual and virtual. more ominously. But not social. useful ideas. substantial. they are interested in ‘targeting’ ‘markets. produces belief that leads to habits of action. corporate signs introduce a deadening.296 Laura U. hypermediated world. the people and the media. The new acephalic. But the collective automaton might be capable of new forms of creativity and new forms of life. Is there any collective who is capable of taking back the semiotic flow? This was the urgent question of Deleuze. but it is hard to have meaningful experience. Deleuze discovered a double absence. often there’s little incentive. ‘how can we survive?’ he turned away from these two and toward the radical thought of Nietzsche and Artaud. But. At best. between which memory is a membrane. They worried that corporate symbolization replaces agreement with rhetoric.Immigrant Semiosis 297 perceiving. when the question became not. Each imagined a subject of knowledge – Bergson’s ‘centre of indetermination. thinking. like a magnet. and frankly. there is the possibility of annihilation or of profound creativity but no simple muddling along. However. plural subject. Where there might have been an agent. the ‘collective automaton. Deleuze was more interested in the way powerlessness forces us to believe in life. Yet collectively we cannot agree on truths as quickly as truths are foisted upon us. The era of luxurious. who drew fruitfully upon Bergson and Peirce to describe cinematic thought. at least to believe in the body – the First that makes possible a new Third – than in searching for an agent of change. individual contemplation is over.’33 Yet in this double absence there is also an agent precisely because it cannot work alone yet does not form part of . We in postindustrial. ‘how do we perceive?’ but. He understood that both twentyfirst-century media and the people to whom it addressed itself were objects without a centre.32 Between us. and creating. at least in the postindustrial. if we are to survive as more than slaves. the kind of person Bergson and Peirce were describing had already ceased to exist. Individually we are just not strong enough to rebuild it ourselves: we can have experience. It must be. The emerging subject of attention described by nineteeth-century psychology was indeed a ‘centre of indetermination’ but. retrospective as such formulations usually are.’ has succeeded the individual. first-world societies are especially subject to the strangulation of the process of meaning. it persisted only in the leisured classes. It is hard to find a way out of corporate media’s short circuit. The automatic movement of the cinema produces in us a ‘spiritual automaton’ that can either be subjugated by the new images or mutually transformed with them.’ Peirce’s community of students – who could continue the project of meaningful experience. ‘the people who are missing and the I who is absent. capitalist culture had come along to overdetermine it from the outside. 298 Laura U. Unable to buy and benefit from the closed-circuit ‘services’ corporations provide (with the exception.34 Now I ask: ‘Who is in a position to bypass the corporate hijacking of the semiotic process?’ The answer is: people it is not made for. the First and Second of the semiotic process. A particularly acute semiotic agency is called for from immigrants. Their perceptual awareness and ability to make fine distinctions. If the truth of information must be evaluated according to the habits of action it produces. It is the very ‘people who are missing. samaritans and con artists. for whom independent perception and thought is not a luxury but a necessity. Departing from a critique of religious regimes from Europe to Siam. say.’ citizens of nowhere. The process is nothing if not social. At the same time. Immigrants arrive in unfamiliar circumstances.35 Immigrants cannot rely on prefabricated ‘truths. freedom from persecution. of telephone cards and wire transfer companies like Western Union. he notes that even in the most oppressive society people exist who ‘possess a wider sort of social feeling’ and are able to compare their beliefs with those of other cultures. whether through their lack of access to corporate information or through the bricolage of information from different sources that demands a testing and winnowing process. which in any given city advertise in the languages most widely spoken by immigrants there). engage acutely in smelling an edible meal or ‘smelling’ a bad deal. People in third world countries where corporate semiosis is slower. for every gleaning of information spreads by word of mouth. they are relatively free from the enchaining of meaning so compelling for people who are corporations’ target markets. Much of the knowledge they possessed becomes suddenly useless. Interestingly. gainful employment. Peirce recognized the agency of intercultural exchange in knowledge. often literally unable to read the signs. and these ‘habits’ are such grave things as legal residence.’ Their hypotheses are testable in life-or-death (or expulsion) circumstances. Unemployed people with time to observe the world for themselves. Marks an identifiable collective. differentiating taxis and cop cars. colonized people who arrive in the land of the colonizer. In another writing I have described in detail how the cinema of colonized people derives fabulous new forms of life from the very untenability of their present situation. and outwitting those who prey on the powerless – and all this is urgently tested against the experiences of others – then immigrants are the most accomplished ‘community of . they are to some degree immune to the corporate semiotic process that seizes others. But indeed any medium. is a basic principle for immigrants. the estrangement of fresh perception can urge us backward to the social. But the new two-way. is transformed by immigrant semiosis.’ provide ideal communications for illegal immigrants. employers. I note that mobile phone–wielding youths are not only growing bigger thumbs. they can disappear from the reaches of all those who seek contact – creditors. for migrant workers. and can be quickly dismantled. But. only if we agree that there is more meaning than information media hand down to us. and untraceable ‘off the grid. for example. or children. or people with disabilities. The beauty of a numeric. They are taking back the semiotic flow. making meaning that matters. From the velvety olive to the sleek Fox. placeless address is that the users are accessible as long as they are in a satellite footprint or near an Internet café – if they want to be. Similar arguments could be made on behalf of other socially marginal groups. But Nokia encourages them to do just that. I hesitate to name women. Anybody can cultivate their own immigrant semiosis in order to see the world anew. So I maintain that immigrants.Immigrant Semiosis 299 students’ of our time. Immigrants also bend unilateral communications media so they become almost interactive: low-watt radio establishes a local community. What are the media of these democratic fora. even family – merely by cancelling the account. Though both need to engage sensory. in a given culture. electronic word of mouth. That slowing-down that first-worlders must work at. marginal to the power structures of both corporation and state and possessing subterranean communication networks. to seek a community of interlocutors with whom we can debate their meaning. embodied awareness in order to read between the signs of unfamiliar or oppressive situations. as immigrants avidly cultivate knowledge about the country they left. both are well-established targets of corporate semiotics. e-mail. of true Thirdness? Twoway media: cellular telephones. they are also developing new forms of sociality and new languages adapted to the economical format of text messaging. seem best to embody Peirce’s criteria of autonomy and democracy. computer-based communications. such as poor people. as the agents of this process. in order to taste the freshness of Firstness. decentred. including Fox TV. The questions – what actions will result from these new perceptions? what meaning might arise . And by the same token. pirated cable television from back home functions as a quasi-interactive medium. accessible from (almost) anywhere. passing human beings.’ Peirce writes. A last note of modesty and caution. So it is not the community but the thought that outlasts the community. ‘Individual man. pace Peirce. . based on their rigorous testing. The surprising sentence ‘Matter is effete mind. whether in communication between people or in the succession of an individual’s thought. that is ultimately valuable. NOTES I am deeply indebted to Ali Ferdi Ahmani. ‘is only a negation’ to the process of meaning-making. Put otherwise. I am also grateful to Martin Lefebvre.37 This cold faith in future knowledge might seem at odds with the warm hope I place in immigrant knowledge. even at the expense of the communities that produced it. for his generously thoughtful comments. produces solid quasiobjective truth because it is interested. richly democratic. inveterate habits becoming physical laws’36 is another way of saying that the value of thought is in its connection to other thoughts. like that of others with little power. The germ of this writing was my catalogue essay ‘Slow Down! Affect in the Information Age. including individual. a much more exacting Peircean than am I. For such future when the community of students might come (back?) into being. But immigrant semiosis breaks the circuit of faux corporate meaning with a vigour that a disinterested community of scientists lacks. Marks from these actions? – introduces social life back into the very First of experience. The habits of action immigrants come up with.’ for the program ‘Out of Time’ at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival (2001). 1 Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (formerly Bill C-11). In his later writings Peirce increasingly emphasized that thought is more powerful and more vital than the material world. insofar as he or she is separate from the community and the future. keep learning how to communicate. future community is the guarantee of present meaning.300 Laura U. for showing me how humans can build meaning with senses alert and communications. immigrant semiosis guards a triadic toolbox: remember your body. even from jingling mobile phones. may not be true for all time. Meaning is destined for the future. not disinterested. a master of immigrant semiosis. Peirce’s grail was objectivity. Immigrant semiosis. remember how to think. 1955). 1995). 238. Peirce privileged the element of choice in perception. The categories preconscious and conscious do not overlap precisely with First and Second. Suspensions of Perception: Attention. Tor Nørretranders. Reclaiming Cognition: The Primacy of Action. and the Feeling Brain (Orlando: Harcourt. Looking for Spinoza: Joy.. 2003).S. Antonio Damasio.’ in Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. Floyd Merrell. Sorrow. In 2000 Germany ‘welcomed’ the ten thousand desperately needed foreign information-technology workers. a popular science writer. trans. Peirce’s Approach to the Self: A Semiotic Perspective on Human Subjectivity (Albany: SUNY Press. and Emotion (Exeter. 161–75. When Deleuze first criticized the unfreedom of movement-image cinema. Vincent M. Thus much of the decision making that Peirce designated as Second still takes place below the threshold of consciousness. 29. UK: Imprint Academic. Rafael Nunez and Walter J. 2002). MA: MIT Press. eds. work on embodied cognition offers a much more nuanced model of human consciousness. 1989). a view negated by recent findings in cognitive science. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. 2000). 1991). Within cognitive science. Peirce’s Semiotics Now: A Primer (Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.Immigrant Semiosis 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 301 passed December 2001. ‘Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. ed.gc. Like other pragmatic philosophers. emphasizes marketable skills while ‘closing the back door to criminals. Justus Buchler (New York: Dover. Colapietro. but only for a five-year stint before it booted them back to their homes in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. Ibid.ca/english/irpa/c11-overview. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (Cambridge.’ Citizenship and Immigration Canada. see my essay ‘How Electrons Remember. Evan Thompson. For a manifesto for the free movement of electrons. C. the skin receives one million bits of information per second. Freeman. http:// www. Varela. Nørretranders.’ in Philosophical Writings of Peirce. The method of quantification sounds a bit fishy to me. 143. . Crary.html (no longer online). Spectacle. 1998). Intention. See for example Francisco J. Suspensions of Perception. gives these examples: eyes receive ten million bits per second. while the conscious bandwidth of vision is forty bits per second. 2000). 70. Peirce.cic. Jonathan Sydenham (New York: Penguin. while the conscious bandwidth of touch is one bit per second. and Modern Culture (Boston: MIT Press. See Jonathan Crary. 32–3. but the results are compelling nonetheless. and Eleanor Rosch. has a strong affective relationship to precise.’ in Illuminations. 326. Scott Palmer (New York: Zone. 1989). Walter Benjamin. ed. 185. Crary. spatiotemporal memories. trans.’ Crary. ‘Enfolding and Unfolding. Nancy Margaret Paul and W. and spectacle call attention to the film as a constructed object.302 Laura U. ed. Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken. Suspensions of Perception. 327n107. Justus Buchler (New York: Dover. shock. 115. reflexivity. 189. such as The Terminator and Titanic. Cameron said this in a discussion with students following his receipt of an honorary doctorate at Carleton University in May 1997. trans. Cinema 2: The Time Image. Gilles Deleuze. With the exception that these prior analyses are not mine alone. Peirce. In commercial movies. This process is illustrated in the example ‘a child’s drawing’ in Marks. http://www. 2003). and music television. . Now something different is going on in popular media. See Laura U. Caldwell (New York: Routledge. 1955). Neither is natural – there is some social consensus that a sunset is glorious – but the sunset is not trying to compel us to its ends. but social. 1988). which. advertising. I believe this is especially true of music.org/issues/04_issue/ unfoldingenfolding. arouse more complex responses than the mere production of adrenaline. Is the collective awe people feel on viewing a glorious sunset different from the collective awe produced by a Steven Spielberg movie or a Céline Dion recording? I think so. Anna Everett and John T.vectorsjournal. He argued that his films.’ in New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality. ‘On Some Motifs in Baudelaire. Such films are the subject of Martine Beugnet’s book Cinema and Sensation: Contemporary French Film and the Art of Transgression (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. as memory is for Bergson.’ in Philosophical Writings of Peirce. Marks 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 he described the pull into action that is the underlying principle of continuity editing. 1968). ‘Invisible Media. like smell. Matter and Memory. trans. continuity is a thing of the past. 105. 2007). Suspensions of Perception.’ Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular 4 (spring 2007). Jump cuts. But there is nothing subversive about these films’ anti-illusionism. Marks. Henri Bergson. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. and ‘Enfolding and Unfolding: An Aesthetics for the Information Age. as the powers behind Spielberg and Dion are. individual. computer games. ‘Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs. ed. ‘Logic as Semiotic. MA: Harvard University Press.’ 250. androcentric. When the elder had confirmed that filming would neither harm nor help the sheep. ‘The Fixation of Belief. 221. owed nothing. 37 Peirce.Immigrant Semiosis 303 26 Peirce. 24. 35 Peirce. 34 In The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema. chap. 2000).’ in Philosophical Writings of Peirce. 1955).’ in Collected Papers. 1. 1998). 27 It is difficult to share Peirce’s faith in science. Peirce. . Yet the fluid exchange between materialism and idealism in his semiotic process gives me hope that at least some truths in our world are Peircean truths. Cinema 2. ed. 1955)..’ 14. especially chap. 36 C. 29 Ethnographic filmmakers Sol Worth and John Adair wanted to train Navajo people to film so that they could capture their own perceptions of the world and. ‘The Fixation of Belief.’ Philosophical Writings of Peirce. for a summary of various sciences’ colonial. ‘Then why make movies?’ Sol Worth and John Adair. Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialisms. institutions of power. 13–14. 28 Peirce. he asked. 31 To this system Peirce. 157. 33 Ibid. and Epistemologies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. it was hoped. 20. Feminisms. 32 Deleuze. given how science is embedded in. 30. 1972). Justus Buchler (New York: Dover. a philosopher whose massive oeuvre remained largely unpublished and who was never offered a tenured post by the university. vol. its very questions and methodologies determined by. racial. and the Senses (Durham. See Sandra Harding. capitalist. ed. ‘How to Make Our Ideas Clear. Embodiment. and other investments of power.S. ‘Tychism. Through Navajo Eyes: An Exploration in Film Communication and Anthropology (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.’ 99. 30 Peirce. But the Peircean mode suggests that making movies does have an effect on the sheep. Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (Cambridge. ‘Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. their own perceptual processes. NC: Duke University Press. 1935). 6: Scientific Metaphysics. Justus Buchler (New York: Dover. 1 The dream of a universal language of symbols dates back to Ramon Lull and. perhaps. and. There- .’ Walter Benjamin offers a metaphor that seems as apposite to the transitions between analogue and digital as it is to both the problem of translation and the ethics of interpretation: Fragments of a vessel that are to be glued together must match one another in the smallest details. just as fragments are part of a larger vessel. nor yet as noise and interference. neither invisibly nor inaudibly. but beyond its actuality there lies the potential for a universe in which human and natural might converse. must lovingly and in detail incorporate the original’s way of meaning. although they need not be like one another. instead of imitating the sense of the original. stretches into the mathematicization of science and to George Boole’s construction of a universal logic calculus. an actual or a lost treasure: it is a virtual language. Nonetheless. Yet Benjamin’s universal language is not. as virtual. can never exist. Science is an activity of translating from the physical to the symbolic. in a trajectory through Leibnizian calculus and Condorcet. thus making both the original and the translation recognizable as fragments of a greater language. the technologies and techniques that mediate. as the impossibility of translation makes clear. In the same way a translation. Such conversation has as its third term the media through which it is conducted. a tongue which does not or not yet.16 Precepts for Digital Artwork sean cubi tt In his essay ‘The Task of the Translator. it is an immanent and pervasive creative force whose task is the (re)making of a communicative universe. the heart of digital computing. but as active participants in the dialogue. has failed to free itself from the ideologies of industrial dominance and the sovereign human consciousness. It is precisely montage that is to be criticized for possessing the remains of a complaisant irrationalism. Modernist montage. montage abstracts elements – shots – from their place in order to subordinate them to an artistic plan.. sounds. Not surprisingly. the principle of montage therefore became that of construction. Here is how Adorno expresses it: Montage disposes over the elements that make up the reality of an unchallenged common sense. unlikely to produce what it seeks as its fulfillment.. the result is fragmentation. and a translation of one mode of consciousness into another. a fragmentation in which the key interest is not the fragments themselves – songs. however. are not void. harmonistic. at best. It is powerless. the transparent or opaque screens that not so much transfer or block communication as vibrate in sympathy with it and with their own internal dynamics. . words – but the gaps between them. when we come to speak of the tasks of translation between people. these aporias. whether it is contingent on the material world or a function of technique. much worse.2 In Adorno’s complex dialectical account. a quality of pure logicality is conjured up that seeks to establish itself as ideology. however. montage. for adaptation to material that is delivered ready-made from outside the work . with enormous implications for the phenomenon and the meaning of the translated. There is no denying that even in the principle of construction. It is the fatality of all contemporary art that it is contaminated by the untruth of the ruling totality. to awaken their latent language. once again something smooth. or between people and their environments. either to transform their intention or. The translation between analogue and digital is then not just a matter of digitizing. These gaps. in so far as it is unable to explode the individual elements. to abrogate a special status to human consciousness in the construction of a universal language is arrogant and. It is at one and the same time a translation from one mode of being to another. attempted taxonomies. in the dissolution of materials and their subordination to an imposed unity. we must also turn to the translators themselves. however: they are the virtual space in which the potentiality of universal language bubbles through. a perpetually self-constructing latticework of connections.Precepts for Digital Artwork 305 fore. pictures. relations. Whether consciousness is uniquely human or not. focused on the intensely local hub of manufacture: the factory. No indexical account. Worse still. including technology and the labour force. are sites of oppression. albeit as a counter-aesthetic. Montage’s failure to analyse and expose the elements allows them to bring with them their existing ideological associations. Industrial capital created a culture of materials. The primary task of contemporary media is then not to represent an object world to a subject supposed to have a monopoly on consciousness. Responsibility today derives not from empathy. who include every user of the computers she builds when not supplementing her non-union subsistence wages with sex labour in the tourist . the drive to totality which characterizes dominance.306 Sean Cubitt In doing so it at once deprives them of their rational place in the world and simultaneously supplants that with its own rationalism. define. the nodes are functions of their networks. and certainly not from metropolitan prurience. Industrial networks were a function of their nodes. The task of an iconic art is no longer to depict but to articulate the symbolic regimes that describe. but from understanding the networks that force her into this double economic and sexual oppression. in emulating. The global today is necessarily prior to the local. would be sufficient to understand the forces acting on her. That task belonged to a historical epoch when the emergent and then triumphant industrial bourgeoisie required an artistic and scientific culture to promote the philosophy of willed domination over an alienated nature and an objectified and. also alienated industrial class structure. that required the formgiving principles of an industrial aesthetic. anchored in the preeminence of the local in industrial culture.4 A photograph would only stir the sentimentality defined a hundred years ago by the novelist Meredith: pleasure without responsibility. to that extent.3 The reality of a woman forced into prostitution by the strategic requirements of the global economy cannot be photographed. In the information economy. especially those localities that. reordered and restructured but unquestioned. an obverse of the instrumental rationalism of which it is attempting to be the negation. now freed of the complexities of their existence outside the constructed artwork. montage resituates human consciousness at the summit of creation and condemns its unanalysed objects. like the border-free trade zones of Tijuana studied by Coco Fusco. and give meaning both to her experience and to that of her oppressors. the prerequisites of their enslavement to the commodity form. to silence and obedience. it both objectifies that object and presents itself as another object standing over against the depicted. the contemporary artwork must construct its own locale. But in the information economy. Instead. As Margaret Morse argues of digital installation art.5 The embodiment that concerns it is not the depicted body abstracted into a type that can be identified as the body. not presume it. the intrinsically relational symbol takes priority. Rather. and the formation of alternative networks is a critical function of them. objectality is a secondary effect of primary flows. After the scientific revolutions of the twentieth century. since there is no object toward which it can stand in any relation. expression. The digital artwork must be networked. The digital artwork must be material. To describe the digital artwork as material then has as its corollary a second quality: the digital artwork is processual. but a specific body constructed as local in the locality of the installation itself. the principle of indexicality itself demands abandoning the index as primary resource. even form are secondary to this materiality. Digital materials are no exception. If the digital artwork is to be adequate to this relational world. and its materiality incorporates the bodies that come into contact with it and the local space and present time of their coexistence. we have also known that information and entropy are integral to the physical universe. including the NAFTA sweatshops. In this way the digital index points not towards the recorded past of representation but to the materiality of the present as a concrete node of a networked society. on the contrary. an argument made as forcefully by urbanists like Saskia Sassen6 and Manuel Castells7 as it is by Deleuze and Guattari. and that time and space are of one substance. An artwork is material. it . since Einstein we have known that matter and energy are modes of the same physical reality. Since Shannon and Weaver. digital indexicality presents its own materiality as what it is – a concrete node constituted in the networks of social relationships. a unique body which there confronts the imbrication of embodiment in the global networks that are brought to bear in the devices that surround it. When the index depicts its object.8 In the process of imaging flow. Information flows are relational first: content. We can no longer refer to materiality as the mark of permanence. we need to pause over the word ‘material.’ No longer merely a matter of matter.Precepts for Digital Artwork 307 economy. What is vital in the indexical quality of media arts is not that they point away from themselves towards a recorded past to which is ascribed a reality they deny themselves. and an artwork that fails to take account of its materiality fails to that extent. to build up an electron scan on a video monitor. instead the terminal points are defined by the activity of the line.308 Sean Cubitt must itself prioritize relations. but by the physical limits to the speed of electromagnetic wave forms. As process. to that extent. it is a dialogue with the dead. Discourse that surrenders to the ideology of light-speed communication presents as normative the proposition that the present is always already documented – represented. which I tend to call mediation. consumed. We can no longer deploy machines as fixed capital without submitting ourselves to the anonymous and. distributed. is the core task of digital art today. Communication is that relationship which precedes its terms – from the same standpoint. a line is no longer the shortest distance between two points. perhaps. they fall into an ideological trap laid precisely by the administration. It should also be emphasized here that the processes of mediation are not necessarily exclusively human.9 not only do they deny the materiality of mediation. not object. The remarkable archiving of Web . In the digital art field. not vice versa. and past. as partners in the dialogue. the technologies employed in it. autonomous dead labour of the machine in pursuit of that anonymity and autonomy that post-subjectivity seeks in mirroring the dissolution of the object in information flows. very fast is still not instantaneous. The technological fact is that transmission is delayed not only by the institutional processing which administration demands. The digital artwork must mediate and. for example. The active principle of communication defines senders and receivers. The acceleration of modernity in contemporary societies has reached a point at which the pseudo-instantaneous management of data flows has resulted in what at first glance appears as a total administration of the present. The material process of establishing relationships. offer itself to the task of vindicating the generations whose lost lives are congealed into the shape of our devices. and the present should never be mistaken for its occupation by images of even the most recent past – the one twenty-fifth of a second required. The immediate result of this habitation of the present is that the digital artwork is by nature ephemeral. must – engage the technological relation actualizing the physicality of mediation. they also can – and. When cultural critics as alert as Paul Virilio describe communication as instantaneous. Digital art is not just continuous with the past. Very. the digital artwork must inhabit the present as a moment of becoming. a moment whose reception is therefore always deferred into a future which has not yet become. in submitting to the mediation of technology. ) The important task of archiving does not deny ephemerality: on the contrary. is a self-mapping device. some of the content can be accessed via the Way Back Machine. The mimetic persists. and why Photoshop images are so aesthetically moribund: what has been aesthetic in them is the process of making – once that process is terminated. its ephemerality dependent on the deferral of all goals to a time which cannot be achieved in the artwork but toward which it aspires. Moreover. its cartography is itself effervescent – a simulation that is no sooner recorded than it becomes defunct. but the significant framing is no longer available – further evidence of the ephemerality of media arts in general and Net art in particular. Many of the most significant works – Jodi’s are the most obvious – are dependent on the disruption of the normative efficiency which has been inscribed into computer design as an ideology if not a reality. the digital artwork is obliged to be incomplete. Instead. (The Walker’s Net art archive was discontinued in 2001. and as such is excluded from the aesthetics of digital artworks. In this sense. In the same way. as auto-surveillant traffic in documents. unlike the blockbuster. and what is presented to the public is only its discarded archival image. and in whose direction it gestures. the invention of the computer is also of necessity the invention of the computer crash. To this extent. a body that is already past. In the Net artwork . and the design of the frame that surrounded the documented sites ensured that any visitor should be too. If the Web. Dietz was clear as curator. but as a raw material for further processes. it does not suffer from the patina of the out-of-date that so rapidly scratches the emulsion of films that have passed their sell-by. As Virilio would say. the art is over. that passage into the archive ensures both that the code enabling the work becomes a resource for other artists (‘an author who teaches writers nothing teaches no one’)10 at the same time that it ceases to function as an occupant of the present. Like the special effects blockbuster. the digital artwork is condemned to be cutting-edge. that what was archived there is not art but documentation. the ephemerality of the digital is an integral element of its formal properties.Precepts for Digital Artwork 309 and Net art undertaken by Steve Dietz at the Walker Art Gallery is a case in point. whatever is mimetic in the digital is a mimesis of a task already accomplished. This is why the effects movie is never an artwork. but. it affirms the gap between archive and art and asserts if anything the necessity of the distinction. in which the process is as yet unfinished. the instruction set that generates a digital artwork is over as soon as it has completed its run. writing in a text note to the piece: In analog media. . once again. in the digital there is no pre-existing surface. however. Erasure is a making of traces in the form of what has been erased. zero resembles infinity more than it does unity and can only be approached by infinitesimal subdivisions of the existing. the digital artwork must be imperfect.11 If drawing is a practice in which artists subordinate themselves to the activity of the line as to a machine designed to generate a non-volitional autonomy from selfhood. At the same time. the erasure is never complete. Traces remain from which skilled operators can retrieve even the most shredded data as. To this extent then.310 Sean Cubitt ‘Lapses and Erasures. The greatest benefit of this discovery is that the imperative towards harmony need not be heeded. I make drawing interfaces to draw upon the erasure of erasure in the realm of the digital. and the digital is thus freed of the necessity of harmonizing formally a world that is. it is often possible to sense the mark left by erasure. so that what erasure produces is the evidence of a surface that never existed prior to the erasure. the digital are endowed or cursed with an inability to deal in absolutes. It is a wiping clean which puts forth an order with the possibility of decipherment .. but approaches asymptotically to the mystical point of zero existence. The proof is that it is almost impossible to erase a file accidentally. it is writing or drawing. its amnemotechnics. Here. as in the attempt to make a total artwork. The digital is profoundly incapable of that perfected harmony in which the ideological tasks of societies are achieved under the guise of the autonomous artwork. Thus Rauschenberg was able to present his ‘Erased de Kooning’ drawing as his own (ironically). since it can never achieve either absolute existence or absolute absence. in all its relations.’ Sawad Brooks undertakes a related task. Where analogue media had the power to work in the binary opposition of presence and absence.. when something is erased. the Microsoft trial researchers proved in their fossicking among the deadletter offices of internal e-mails. so profoundly inharmonious. as it is in the work of David Connearn. becomes a resource for the construction of the future as the erased erasure of the past. but where in analogue media what is revealed is the surface which the erased drawing itself erased. Erasure leaves its own traces. subordination to the technologies of computer memory offers a further tool: the double negation of the erasure that the computer also enables. only the space created by the act of recording. but now as the anonymous product of autonomous networks. although it remains true that contemporary capital is ever more dependent on the hyperindividuated narcissism of the competitive corporate playpen. abandoned first by mathematics in the mid-nineteenth century. for example. only the transitory sublime of annihilation as special effect. The result is a performance. typical of idealist metaphysics. in a dislocated place. for example. That need can no longer be formed as expression. as absence. It fails not so much because of this stasis. in the sense that it cannot achieve the absolute completion and perfection of pure presence. now haunts. Expression remains. operational grace. in the sense intended by David Gelernter: its clarity. The tendency of capital is toward . the abjection of the subject. which simulates the aesthetic dialectic in the static play of a rational/ irrational binary that merely enacts modernity’s logic of efficiency and degradation. and an art that pretends to bypass that lens of subjectivity thereby fails to respond to the necessity of individuation as a passage through which a work moves. nor because of its misreading of the present as ‘what is the case. It is rather the case that the characteristic emotions of digital artworks – the movement through disorientation to new orientation. though practice has all but abandoned it. In aesthetic terms. In fact that metaphysics of presence. in a word. the sublime still haunts contemporary aesthetics from Adorno to Danto as both the Kantian marvelling at domination and its negation. They are.Precepts for Digital Artwork 311 The processual nature of digital art makes it incomplete and imperfect. however. On the contrary: the hall of binary mirrors that traps essentialist art produces that affectless manipulation of tear ducts. as visible in the new cult of Bataille as it is in the neo-Kantianism of Lyotard’s late writings. here rigor mortis masquerades as danse macabre. economy of means. Nonetheless.’ but because it takes reason and unreason as essential terms in an epoch in which essences no longer pertain. erections. the complex humour of. Aesthetic necessity arises at once from the fact of flow. its mediations and the temporalities they engender. the First International Competition of Form Art – are more subtly and actively conformed to the changed character of accelerated modernity. This unappetizing metaphysical binary suits the times. and fight-orflight adrenal secretions in sedentary and stultified consumers. The digital artwork must be necessary: its elegance is a function of the need for the work.12 This is not to say that digital artworks are passionless and formalist. the gasp at beauty realized on the wing. What distinguishes the digital artwork is its elegance. necessary. by definition in process and incomplete. As the active relationality of networks. that consciousness is now not individual or even merely social. political. it is essential for the administration of global data flows that the future be isolated from the present so that the promised completion on the deals which are the dominant mode of communication today need never arise. that of its flows toward domination. But. Neither the consciousness under construction nor the need to which art responds is then entirely or purely human. as the digital aesthetic arises from the relationality of global networks inclusive of human and machine components. and ecological present. But it is precisely in computer modelling that the problem of turbulence is posed most categorically: not only definitionally. mediation. That difference. By dint of its pseudo-theological position in the regime of global data flows and their perpetually deferred promise of perpetually deferred payment. But the deferral on which that wholeness rests denies that wholeness to it. while the function is shifted into the unforeseeable future. This contradiction in turn generates the digital aesthetic as its necessary outcome: the materiality is restored to the present. and discursive formation of corporations as actually existing cyborgs by building an alternative consciousness in which the mechanical is no longer the object of domination but integral partner in the production of culture. but technically. since it cannot be eradicated systemically without destroying the flows themselves. when the future is evoked as the basis of global stability. But this goal is realizable only in the eradication of difference.312 Sean Cubitt monopoly. but. is thus forced to pretend to a completion that it cannot attain. Hegel’s concept of art as the consciousness of need is the inspiration for this insight. future modelling depends on ever more refined data sets and ever more rigorous algorithms for their projection. Its materiality is deferred into the not-yet as the price of its present functioning (a state of affairs that generates the illusion of static binary oppositions). the future resists modelling. that difference which produces flow from one place to another. Here a specifically temporal contradiction arises: the difference . most directly in the simulation of future markets. but cyborg. the future is held to vindicate the claims of the present to wholeness and completion. As ideology. In order for the future to be held up as the settling of accounts on the promissory notes of the economic. economic. The digital artwork is cyborg: it responds to the institutional. capital faces a crisis of unpredictability. is now displaced into the managed future of corporate planning. Control over financial flows in particular is the goal of transnational capital. the reciprocal functioning of index and identity resulting from industrial modes of communication. and so for interpretation and systemic innovation.N. It is this fault line of difference between present and future that requires the digital as its necessary outcome: its elegance derives in part from its determination as the inhabitance of the present as difference. as D. depth. a process which I believe is synonymous with history: hastening the globalization of the mediating infrastructure while driving forward those internal contradictions that make the global and deferred information economy unthinkably neither present nor future. Communication’s own need. In this perspective. The digital is then communicative rather than representational. the digital artwork can be assessed according to the breadth. and specifically how they become other than they now are. Like Ed Dorn’s railway wagon. Instead. bred in the interface of combined human and technological networks. is defined by its tendency towards inclusiveness and its capacity for translation. The necessity of the digital artwork is then not organic in the sense propounded by Romantic aesthetic philosophy. Deleuze argues that ‘what philos- . however. promoting the substitutability of everything for anything. but it is a difference intrinsic to communication which. it asserts the primacy of mediation. misunderstanding. is that of a newly cyborg communicative species for inclusion and autonomy. viewed outside the confining determinations of the actually existing historical conditions. the digital works at the level of mediation as the unhappy conscience of dominant communication. they must never be allowed to be paid). aesthetic difference is not an absolute horizon external to all humanity and all communication. The digital artwork has no choice but to affirm the immanence of the future at the point of its emergence. everything is behind and nothing in front. Instead. The digital is the necessary next phase in this historical process. The future must be both continuous with the present (all debts depend on the concept that they can eventually be paid) and entirely divorced from it (since debt is the motor of financial flows. When.Precepts for Digital Artwork 313 between future and present is both affirmed and eradicated. since it necessarily abjures wholeness. of the material of relations. This places it in opposition to the evolution of e-cash as the supposedly immaterial universal signifier of all exchange values. Mediation is the activity through which the hybrid communicative species become. Unlike Deleuzean difference. Rodowick explains. a cyborg will to grace. Asserting aesthetic difference restores neither the individuality of objects nor the objectality of individuals. and complexity of the networks it engages or engenders. This goes against the current of the televisualization of the Web. and that it will never triumph. You can be guaranteed that philosophy will only ever resist. The implication of the theses of ephemerality and communication is that the digital has an altered relation with consumption. and money and data are electronically indistinguishable. and the community workshop and newsreel movements. It concerns rather factors such as the level of skill required of both producers and participants in digital artworks. the focus of the digital is shifting from providing objects whose contemplation exposes the emptiness of the commodity towards building encounters for participation. But now that the commodity itself is in a state of implosion. pious. Bolter and Gromala argue that such enriched design moves beyond the com- ..314 Sean Cubitt ophy resists . This has little to do with what is usually referred to by the term interaction.’13 we perceive both the binarism that hog-ties Deleuze’s philosophy for lack of a dialectic. Much electronic art owed and owes its genesis to the conceptual art of the 1970s and to the critique of the commodity that gave rise to media as varied as LeWitt’s instruction sets. for only communication is vast enough and necessary enough to endure and overcome the vicissitudes through which it is being tortured in the age in which communication is information. and against what Eco refers to as the ‘negative theology’ of philosophical nihilism from Heidegger to Baudrillard.. but ineffectual quietism. In Toshio Iwai’s Resonance of Four. Against this brave. [is] the globalization and banalization of information as a power that affirms the dominance of late capitalism. But the experience of the work as artwork demands both understanding the principle of the device as a composing machine and working in consort with three other users to create music. a vacuity both raged against and celebrated in mainstream culture from Tarantino to hip-hop.’ coloured lights and sounds. while random gestures with the track ball will produce interactive ‘rewards. information is power. there is a default state that is pretty but dull.14 the digital artwork must be communicative. and the weakness of a politics that relies on the unequal struggle of philosophy against world capitalism. and so our students demand of us programming skills more than bundled packages. where the end-user-defined HTML language is being submerged in a wave of server-defined Javascript. The digital artwork demands that audiences acquire a determinate set of skills and understandings to participate fully in the work. Artisanship is integral to the digital: so the best artists are also either engineers or groups including technologists and programmers. for example. the Situationiste Internationale’s derive. The digital artwork is work. those brought up in the expressive ideology of the art schools and. those humanist scholars who. alert to the bodies that use it.15 At the same time. on the one hand. as the televisualization of the Web insists. the success of Wiki and the blogosphere suggest a hunger for what Tim Berners-Lee described as the full interactive power of alternatives to the commercialized Web like the Linux-based Amaya browser. In place of the elite contemplation of the refined consumer. To the extent that artists relinquish control over the artwork and. to that extent. like any work. but in the workplace. since the coding is open. to the extent that the distinction begins to blur. very clearly in the collective montage projects now such an integral part of Web art. specifically. To what extent are Audio-ROM the authors of a sound piece I might make with their programs and interfaces but using my own samples and. it must be remade. Something similar is true of RTMark’s Web works. which imitate the control structures of corporate Web design but demand action if they are to be experienced not as parody but as art. the audience must . or the Zapatista Interneta’s of the Frankfurt stock exchange. Conceptualism left a legacy of anti-commodity art: its dialectical outcome is a pro-work work. the work does not exist until the user provides the input. Yet work is today a curiously liberating principle.16 The old balance cannot be restored: instead.Precepts for Digital Artwork 315 puter-specific forms of the early Web. a labour shared in the human–computer interface and. In this instance. my own coding too? This scares. the digital artwork demands the intellectual and emotional graft needed to change the work into something else. thirty years ago. founded in a social process that demands cooperation among workers and between workers and those anonymous forebears whose skills are enshrined and concretized in the dead labour of our machines. the digital requires the shared labour. as it is in interventions like The Webstalker that not only offer control but demand active participation. on the other. Digital media are grounded in work in a second sense: to return to an earlier theme. As work.’ where users not only orchestrate virtual kisses but record their own into the booth’s database. of artist and audience. This culture of the database is akin to activist post-artworks like the SOS Racisme mail-bombing of Le Pen’s National Front. moving instead towards a contextual design. but also in projects like Sera Furneaux’s ‘Kissing Booth. electronic media are grounded not in leisure. leapt at the novel focus of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies to abandon attempts to understand labour. over the audience. the only people among all the humans who have ever lived who are alive now. That is how the past becomes future. the digital must turn towards the positive construction of the present as difference. since it is no longer natural. the artwork resorts to the default state of older art: passivity and what we must now understand as the anaesthetic. In a time in which it is almost entirely identifiable with the circulations of global finance. To construct is to act historically. which depended on telerobotic users to tend the garden. or Ken Goldberg’s Telegarden. Without that assumption of responsibility. The digital artwork demands responsibility: there is no art where the audience does not take up this gauntlet and where instead it reserves for itself the sentimental position. communication must be fabricated.’ in which the survival of a small plant depended on CUSeeMe clients providing it with remote sunlight. the digital artwork’s destiny is to redeem and liberate the concretized labour embodied in our communicative machines. what comes into being in the moment as the emergence of futurity. for the sublime confronts us not as the incomprehensible but as the incommunicable. we are the future that our ancestors looked to to judge and justify them. such that our consumption of commodities even is merely a necessary moment in the circuits of capital. can no longer be presumed as an a-historical given.17 Likewise. On this fabrication depends the making of a culture that is no longer crowned by the negation of its own negativity. Change is the quality of history and of beauty – what is transient. beyond the old lie of posterity. a creation that only becomes possible in the era of a planetary communications infrastructure. human and technological. as remains the case with accelerated modernity. The digital artwork must be beautiful.316 Sean Cubitt assume the same degree of responsibility for the work that the artist has abandoned in offering it to them. Instead. that have been left so egregiously unsatisfied by the culture of the commodity itself increasingly embraced in the anaesthetic of its own sublime absence from itself. under the historical conditions of contemporary capital. a foundation (however complex). Communication. or a horizon but a job of work: making a difference. enjoyment without responsibility. This is the burden of Eduardo Kac’s ‘Teleporting an Unknown State. an absolute horizon beyond history. and we are not worthy – unless we seize the present as the becoming of their future. to embrace the interests. the digital must forswear the sublime. . After all. This is the responsibility that we take up. Under the existing circumstances difference is not a given. As construction. since even in death the labour of past centuries is still exploited. The digital is a malleable aesthetics. Artisanship is integral to the digital. The digital artwork must mediate. The digital artwork is cyborg. The digital artwork must be necessary. based on the principle that anything that can be made can be remade. The digital artwork must be material. The digital artwork is work. while language destabilizes the conditions through the introduction of formations in which the represented is destabilized. of authority. It indicates something of the conditions under which the digital is undertaken as a task. the automation of tasks as programs creates a two-tier society: those who enter data and those who interpret . The digital artwork must be beautiful. The digital artwork must inhabit the present as a moment of becoming. What distinguishes the digital artwork is its elegance. Its time is the time of becoming.Precepts for Digital Artwork 317 These explorations can be summarized in terms of a series of principles I have tried to voice here: The digital artwork must be networked. itself already reeling under the twin blows of consumer capitalism and postmodern pessimism. As work. To emphasize work is not merely to insist on the physical actuality of instruction sets and displays. The digital artwork must be communicative. The act of interpretation does not become impossible. the artwork that ceases to transform the emergence of the future ceases to be art and becomes archive. The cost is great: the loss of permanence. At the same time. The digital artwork is processual. but more necessary. of wholeness.’19 The imbalance of instruction and extra-textual formations results in a new crisis in the theory of representation. the digital seizes on the not-yet for its own domain at the moment of its emergence. The digital artwork is by nature ephemeral. presence and absence. faced with the interminable question of the truth of the representation. The digital artwork demands responsibility. Timothy Druckrey notes that ‘programming determines a set of conditions in which the represented is formed as an instruction. The digital artwork is obliged to be incomplete. The digital artwork must be imperfect.18 Where the artworks of the industrial era hover between existence and non-existence. 3 Coco Fusco. Only when that art is genuinely work can it communicate at the level of work. ed. but only for the sake of a future for which we are enjoined to take responsibility. and. the terrible onus of bringing into existence. For those who create new means for both tasks is reserved what increasingly appears to be the core of twenty-first-century wealth: intellectual property. its staggering defeats and millennia of immiseration. Adorno. we have the whole of history. Most of all. and Cyberculture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Vivian Sobchack (London: Routledge. ‘The Task of the Translator. without that guide. ed. 4 Hayden White. which once again is becoming the centre of political life.’ in The Persistence of Memory: Cinema. 1. 1996). commodity. and expropriation remain the largest challenges to any future.’ in Selected Writings. trans. to propel us into the new. 1913–1926. The Bodies That Were Not Ours and Other Writings (London: Iniva/Routledge. 1998). Television and the Modern Event. We may no longer inhabit the present for its own sake. Robert Hullot-Kentor (London: Athlone Press. 253–63.318 Sean Cubitt it. we risk the sentimental positivity of Ewoks and Tamagotchis. 56–7. Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. . Media Art. and to that extent ethical imperatives driving digital art.22 For all that Marx has fallen off the core curriculum of media and art theory. class. Jennings (Cambridge. ed. we suffer the immense burden of beauty.21 they are postmodern. Virtualities: Television.20 To the extent that IP treaties are increasingly aimed at removing the Berne Convention’s droits d’auteur. 1996). The innocence of play is denied us in a time when play has become a key strategy of the corporate management of creativity in hock to the production of new consumer goods. But. 1997). 2 Theodor W. NOTES 1 Walter Benjamin. The great negation that guided the avant-gardes of the twentieth century no longer holds in the twenty-first. they are entirely capitalist. vol. 5 Margaret Morse. as the impressionists and the Lumière brothers could. Aesthetic Theory. MA: Bellknap Press/Harvard University Press. To the extent that they are reinscribing them as tradable commodities owned by corporations. 2001). Marcus Bullock and Michael W. ‘The Modernist Event. on the positive side. 22 Christopher May. The Global City: New York.. 14 Umberto Eco. 17 Ken Goldberg. with Mark Fischetti. 7 Manuel Castells. 9 Paul Virilio. Michael W. The Rise of the Network Society (Oxford: Blackwell. 19 Timothy Druckrey. trans. 1986). Timothy Druckrey and Ars Electronica (Cambridge. and Gary Smith (Cambridge. 1997). Walter. The Aesthetics of Computing (London: Phoenix. ‘Curatorial Algorithms and Malleable Aesthetics.’ in Selected Writings. 2000).’ Millennium Film Journal 34 (1999): 82–91. MA: MIT Press. 1980). 1999). 154-9. 2002). Telephony. NJ: Princeton University Press. 2. 12 David Gelernter. Julie Rose (London: Verso. 18 Andy Deck. 1931–1934. 192. Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency (Cambridge.net/~sawad/erase/trait/text. 11 Sawad Brooks.. 21 Armand Mattelart. vol. Telesthetics. Cohen (London: Sage. vol. 1996). and Mille Plateaux. The Information Age: Economy. 2000. trans. 125–6. The Information Society: A Sceptical View (Cambridge. 16 Tim Berners-Lee. 2003). The Information Society.’ in Ars Electronica: Facing the Future. New Media: An Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jennings. Weaving the Web (London: Orion. 20 Terry Flew. Rodowick. Open Sky. . 1972. 1999). UK: Polity Press. MA: Bellknap Press/Harvard University Press. 2002). L’Anti-Oedipe. 15 Jay David Bolter and Diane Gromala. 2003).html. ed. Television. Notopos: The Fate of Reason in the Global Network: Teleology.. London. 93. MA: MIT Press.Precepts for Digital Artwork 319 6 Saskia Sassen. trans. 768–82.thing. Capitalisme et Schizophrénie (Paris: Éditions de Minuit. vol. 1. 1991). William Weaver (London: Minerva. ‘Netopos . 2. Howard Eiland. vol. http://www. MA: MIT Press. 1999). The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet (Cambridge. 1998). ed. ed. Society and Culture. Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design. ‘The Author as Producer. Telegraphy. 311. Gilles Deleuze’s Time Machine (Durham. 1997). 1. NC: Duke University Press. part 2. Susan G. 10 Benjamin. Tokyo (Princeton. Faith in Fakes: Travels in Hyperreality. 8 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.N. 13 D. Taponier and James A. This page intentionally left blank . and the most threatening to hegemonic authority. we are only now beginning to feel its true power. This was a utopian image. For the majority of world citizens who restrict their knowledge of human affairs to corporate or state media. By utopian I mean that which is not permitted.S. an image of boundless solidarity and hope. and digital tools of audiovisual production. best understood as integral components of the Internet. between understanding and doing. uncontrolled conversation among the peoples of the world is the most powerful. not the one displayed in the streets. Unprecedented in human history. have come to maturity only within the last few years. I say ‘feel’ because there is a crucial difference between conceptual recognition and muscle recognition. And of all actions that are not permitted. it was a manifestation of enormous unconquerable power. plazas. imperialism. The theatre of action is the ‘place’ at the root of this word that means no place. the demonstrations were invisible. provided that one was fortunate enough to see it. We all know that it is this power. so it did not appear on the screens. Conversation is the most powerful of human . a virtual power that was also invisible – the conversation on the Internet that made the demonstrations possible. of the imperial Broadcast. But behind that cancelled image of power in the streets was another kind of power. The World Wide Web has been available to a minority of the world’s population for about eleven years. that the masters of the world fear the most. and boulevards around the world to demonstrate against neoliberal globalization and U. Thus. or in the pages. even though the Internet was greeted immediately with the expected (and appropriate) utopian discourse.Afterword: What We Must Do gene youngblo od On 15 February 2003 more than ten million people poured into streets. The power to do this is the ultimate power. to impose sanctions on websites and peremptory tariffs on e-mail. We can talk about things because we create the things we talk about by talking about them. it is exquisitely vulnerable. We are called. we understand that. . They are technologies of the self. good and bad). for example. but conversations of politically significant magnitude will be silenced and the utopian machine will no longer exist. I believe this will indeed be an important. to a scale of creativity for which we have very little past experience.) It is through conversation that we define the four basic constituents of human reality – existence (what’s real and what’s not). that we can ‘route around’ anti-democratic interventions in its dynamic architecture. like all utopian machines. Yet it must exist. with the consequence. Conversation is generative: it brings forth worlds. A minority. will route around such obstacles. for example. driven underground. Some say the most strategic use of the Internet will be one that is invisible – that secession from the imperial Broadcast. We are learning how to use the utopian machine. priorities (what’s important and what’s not). for it is the only machine through which we can begin to create on the same scale as we destroy. and relations (what’s related to what. escape from its powers of appropriation and neutralization. aspect of what we must do. but the first step must be exactly the opposite: we must confront neoliberal globalization with an audacious display of the utopian machine’s potential power. Few today believe the hacker’s delusion that the Internet is invincible. and how). possibly for our very survival. that we take to the streets in moral outrage or we do not. perhaps essential. The real machine is not the Internet’s technological apparatus but the conversations it makes possible. the machine that must not be permitted to exist. We have always faced this challenge. a machine that can potentially connect all of humanity in creative conversation is the ultimate utopian machine.322 Gene Youngblood actions because through it we construct the realities in which we live. is the necessary first step toward effective counterculture. (By ‘talk’ I mean all forms of conversation including audiovisual. values (what’s right and wrong. but the scale of actual and potential destruction today is beyond historical precedent. thus. These conversations can be swiftly closed through privatization of the apparatus and the resulting options. tools with which we construct ourselves as desiring subjects (the ultimate and universal creative act). Before 2003 I could have said ‘no past experience.’ but we have since witnessed the organizing power of the Internet on a coordinated global scale. but they were not coordinated in time. a turning point. So there must be a confrontation. The possible realization of humankind’s ultimate utopian dream – a global democratic public sphere – is in our hands. only time and timing . Millions must be spent on advertising the event in every medium and venue around the world. no matter how long it takes. At the same time we must remember that nothing sells. the coalition’s promotional campaign must begin there and must emanate outward from there into the streets. demonstrating. and celebrating that power in a manner commensurate to its importance. That we have not done this is understandable. Space has been dissolved. We fear what might happen if we let the genie out of the bottle. everything is sold. There is a sense in which something or someone does not exist without a presence on the Internet. and time is now the definitive feature of unification. But this will be inadequate without a massive and simultaneous public relations initiative in the physical world. We need to welcome the Internet as we would welcome the arrival on this planet of a benign alien species – with a unifying global ritual that marks a transformation of human reality. Five years or longer seems likely. If the Internet is potentially as powerful as we say it is – if there is no power greater than global humanity interconnected in creative conversation – then I say we have not even come close to acknowledging. To do this would be to force Empire into the light. Taking a slogan from AIDS activists. Historically they constituted a single event. an event designed to galvanize worldwide desire for countercultural deployment of the utopian machine and to foreclose any attempt to contain its power. But we have no choice. to reveal it in its nakedness.Afterword: What We Must Do 323 What is at stake must be made vivid in the world’s imagination. A global coalition of artists and activists must organize an event designed to demonstrate the organizing power of the Internet in the most dramatic way imaginable. starting years in advance. They manifested the political will of a global community. The event and the movement behind it must be advertised in the physical world. The coalition must raise millions in world currencies to fund the project. yet we are collectively ignoring the elephant that is in the room. using the same strategies of crosspromotion and cross-marketing that the imperial Broadcast uses to create and sustain global consumer culture. at this historical moment silence = death. both of necessity and as a demonstration of the Internet’s organizing power. not just in the virtual space of the Internet. The political demonstrations of 2003 were united in solidarity but were separated in time. European examples include Jack Moore’s travelling players in VW bus caravans . dramatic. The performances must be outdoors. a third to display the local performance (as in stadium music concerts or large conferences or trade shows) so the local audience can see what is happening in their space. cycling around the globe sequentially. after all. transmitters. It is. and conversation between them must be enabled and encouraged. from walking. running. The event I speak of in the singular will actually be a series of daily events in a continuous. and dancing to bicycles and motorcycles. We need to match those spectacular images of assembly in space with equally powerful images of assembly in time – images of worldwide synchronization and coordination. is important too. A fifth screen (or more if needed) must be mobile. Asynchronous coordination. cars. another for audience-to-audience conversation and spontaneous collaboration. and it must be emphasized to the greatest possible extent. in which people around the world interact with and through a common database. and unifying in a way that asynchronous conversation is not. buses and vans. At least five large screens must be in or around performance spaces – one for seeing and hearing the other end of a collaboration. and screens is archetypal in the history of media counterculture. one after another.324 Gene Youngblood circumscribe our democratic right to peaceful assembly. outside of any institutional or domestic context. wireless and mobile. from time zone to time zone twenty-four hours a day. The performances must include every kind of mobility. But global synchronization is inspiring. trains and aircraft. There must be large local audiences that see and hear each other. A fourth giant screen will continuously display webcam-style video transmissions from all participating locations. to establish and sustain a sense of real-time world community. the most common form of Internet art at this time. and it will be a significant part of the event I propose. unbroken sequence over weeks or months. The primary purpose of the event I propose must be to make visible the invisible power that was behind the political demonstrations. In the United States such vehicles were associated with early video collectives like Ant Farm and TVTV. and they must emphasize telepresence as much as possible. The image of the van or mini-bus equipped with audiovisual tools. they must experience their power to constitute a worldwide public sphere in public space. They will be of two kinds: telecollaborative multimedia performances and multimedia teleconferences. The gathered publics must not be mere spectators. must be integrated throughout the network so that locations with lesser resources can participate in the global multimedia conversation. unfettered. the telecollaborations and conferences must be broadcast on TV and radio wherever possible and streamed on the Internet. and world-collaborative solutions to environmental problems. mobile. appearing and disappearing at (public) will – is an elusive and mysterious form of power that is always already everywhere and nowhere. cultural. parks. Recent Internet-connected examples of wireless mobility were unveiled by demonstrators in the streets around the U. Republican National Convention in New York City in September 2004. various forms of disruptive guerrilla radio. Essential topics in this context are democratic globalization. mobile wireless telepresence is atopia – a place without a name. low-power FM. and unbounded. and the Casino Container built by the German design group called Pentagon for Documenta 7 in 1987. CB radio. Wireless and radio transmissions must be interfaced as much as possible with MIDI technology for dynamic telepresence. walkie-talkie. micro-radio. Even though institutions may sponsor particular telecollaborations. and other public spaces. The overarching theme of the conferences must be the challenge to create on the same scale as we destroy. in streets. from high-end to low-end. between featured speakers and audiences. .S. even if it is only metaphorical. democratic world media. They must be organized around themes that are relevant to the overall event – discussions of the sociopolitical. and wireless is a potent form of agency. Finally. and video cell phones.’ a wireless Internet-enabled bicycle was outfitted with a custom-designed printing device that printed spray-chalk messages sent from Web users around the world directly onto the streets of Manhattan. projecting their will and causing things to happen locally and globally – this is an image of collective force that transcends space and implodes time. neither here nor there. The teleconferences in this event must take place between experts and ordinary people. Individuals and groups moving through the world untethered. The full spectrum of audiovisual and computational technologies. For a protest-performance called ‘Bikes Against Bush. Telepresence that is outdoors. economic. and environmental implications of what is transpiring on the network as they speak. backpack transmitters. the events must be staged outdoors. Mobile wireless telepresence – ambient and transient. 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Bloomington: Indiana University Press.340 Bibliography Yúdice. 1995. Durham. George. and Vice-Chair of the Great Northern Way Campus. BCNet. 2005). and author of over 150 published articles and three books. member of the board of the Learning Development Institute. He also founded the Creative Arts Department at Vanier College in Montreal and helped to develop the Film and Media Department at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. 2004. Dr Burnett is chair of the Board of Knowledge Network. Williams Evans Fellow at University of Otego in New Zealand. Scatter Matrix. Educator of the Year in 2005 in Canada. Media and the Imaginary (Indiana University Press. and of the book This Is Called Moving: A Critical Poetics of Film (University of Alabama Press.eciad. including How Images Think (MIT Press. Dr Burnett’s website can be found at http://www. He is an adjunct professor at York University. 1995). Dr Burnett received his PhD from McGill University in communications and was the director of the Graduate Program in Communications at McGill for many years. and a Burda Scholar at Ben Gurion University in Israel. Mob. Abigail Child is a film and video maker whose work in montage and sound/image relations pushes the envelope of film/video with humour and ephemeral beauty. She is the author of several books of poetry including A Motive for Mayhem.ca/~rburnett. 2005) and Cultures of Vision: Images. Her recent work utilizes mixed genres and strategies for rewriting narrative.Contributors Ronald Burnett was appointed president of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1996. as well as exploring public space through memory and history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. She has taught film/video pro- . Australia. recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for service to Canada and Canadians. and From Solids. of Utopian Pedagogy: Radical Experiments against Neoliberal Globalization (University of Toronto Press. 2007). Barry King. and Hampshire College. Sarah Lawrence. and various anthologies. The Cinema Effect (MIT Press. Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture (St Martin’s Press. she is chair of Film/ Animation at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. social theory. he is the author of Timeshift: On Video Culture (Routledge. Digital Aesthetics (Sage. Stephen Crocker writes about media. Previously professor of Screen and Media Studies at the University of Waikato. and Harriet Margolis (Manchester University Press. His work has appeared in. of Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology. 2005).342 Contributors duction and history at various schools including New York University. forthcoming). and How to Study the Event Film: The Lord of the Rings with Thierry Jutel. Greig de Peuter is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. New Zealand. and EcoMedia (Rodopi. Sean Cubitt is professor and director of the Program in Media and Communications at the University of Melbourne and honorary professor of Duncan of Jordanstone College of the University of Dundee. He is co-author. culture. and co-editor. and catalogue essays on contemporary arts. chapters. 2001). Simulation and Social Theory (Sage. 1991). and professor of Media Arts at Liverpool John Moores University. 1998). He is the author of many articles. Since 2000. Boston. with Mark Coté and Richard Day. Ctheory. and philosophy. papers. Continental Philosophy Review. with Steven Kline and Nick Dyer-Witherford. courseware. 1993). He is currently researching a book on the history of techniques and technologies of light. and acts as editor in chief of the Leonardo Book Series for MIT Press and Leonardo/ISAST. and Web poetry. . Cultural Values. The Third Text Reader with Rasheed Araeen and Ziauddin Sardar (Continuum. and media. Massachusetts College of Art. The Art Institute of San Francisco. Topia. Philosophy Today. He has curated video and new media exhibitions and authored videos. 2004). He is an associate professor of sociology and assistant director of the Humanities Program at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Culture and Marketing (McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2002). among other places. He is co-editor of Aliens R Us: Postcolonial Science Fiction with Ziauddin Sardar (Pluto Press 2002). 2003). cultural criticism. as well as a manuscript called ‘Sublime Machines/Time Zones. Cuban visual culture. Her most recent publication is These Waves of Girls.’ She is completing a book on the late Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez. with Glenn Gear. cruelty. 2006).’ Janine Marchessault is associate professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts . and. Caitlin Fisher is a theorist. of Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology. and Web artist with broad interdisciplinary interests. aesthetics. and Canadian cinema. Culture and Marketing (McGill-Queen’s University Press. She has published several articles reflecting her general research interests in media and temporality. Susan Lord is associate professor in the Department of Film and Media and holds cross-appointments with the Departments of Art and Women’s Studies at Queen’s University. which won the Electronic Literature Organization’s 2001 prize for fiction. a hypermedia novella exploring memory. feminist media theory and culture. and sexuality. an electronic journal covering a wide range of intersections between theory. with Steven Kline and Greig de Peuter.Contributors 343 Nick Dyer-Witheford is associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. the anthology Killing Women: The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence (Wilfrid Laurier University Press. and Miriam Verburg. She is a founding editor of j_spot: Journal of Social and Political Thought. and social and economic justice. She is assistant professor at York University’s Department of Film and Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture. feminist theory. a special issue of Public entitled ‘Digital Poetics and Politics: The Work of the Local in the Age of Globalization. politics and political action. Dorit Naaman. With Janine Marchessault. hypermedia. 1999). augmented reality. Her research and teaching focus on the social and cultural aspects of communication technologies. creative writer. and. Recently she coedited. with Annette Burfoot. Matt Soar. He is the author of Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism (University of Illinois Press. and the political economy of the computer and video game industry. girlhoods. she is involved in a research project about artists’ collectives and citizenship practices. and digital multimedia work (she completed York’s first hypertextual dissertation in 2000). 2003). childhood play. His research interests include analysing emergent forms of counter-power against high technology and globalized capital. Laura U. 2005). focusing on the historical emergence of mechanical image technologies. theorist. and the Senses (Duke University Press.ca/~lmarks. He also is a film. She has curated programs of experimental media for festivals and art spaces worldwide. and independent media in the Arab world. 1996). 1999). Canadian Journal of Film Studies. She is the director of the Visible City Project + Archive (www. Embodiment. 2000). Joshua Oppenheimer is a filmmaker and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Westminster. 2002). Vancouver. The Independent Eye. Her website is www. He has served on the programming board of Pleasure Dome and the editorial board of Fuse and is a founding member of the experimental sound art collective Urban Refuse Group.ca). Marks is a scholar. and sound artist and collector of low-tech equipment and toys. Dr Marks is the Dena Wosk University Professor of Art and Culture Studies at Simon Fraser University. video. CineAction. She has published widely on film and media studies. 2001). Medicine and the Media (Routledge. She is at work on a book prospectively titled Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art. Fuse Magazine. She is the author of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema. and curator of independent and experimental media arts. as well as co-founder of the Future Cinema Lab. She is the editor of Mirror Machine: Video and Identity (YY2 Press. His critical writing has appeared in Lux: A Decade of Artists’ Film and Video (YYZ Books/Pleasure Dome. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media (Minnesota University Press. His current research includes the global film and television industries (in particular labour patterns) and the politics of media representation. and the idea of veracity. 2000). . and The Canadian Review of Books. Her most recent book is Marshall McLuhan: Cosmic Media (Sage. notions of intermediality. and many essays. John McCullough is an assistant professor of Film Studies at York University. and co-editor of Gendering the Nation: Canadian Women’s Cinema (University of Toronto Press.344 Contributors and Canada Research Chair in Art. and she is currently developing a book project called Liquid World. Her current research interests are relationships between classical Islamic art and new media art.sfu. He is the editor of Acting on Aids: Sex.visiblecity. Digital Media and Globalization at York University. and Wild Science: Reading Feminism. and nation in African and African diasporic cinema and new media. 2008). reconciling feminist craft theory with contemporary art practices. Her research interests include contemporary art and activism in Canada. 2001). and has a forthcoming book on African diasporic film and a forthcoming monograph on the TV series Law and Order. Jean-Luc Godard: A Retrospective (NFT/Tate Modern. 2000). Michael’s latest writings appear in Jean-Luc Godard: Documents (Pompidou Centre. Building Bridges: The Cinema of Jean Rouch (Wallflower. 2006). surveillance culture. and After the Fact (BFI Southbank. 2003). as well as the in-progress film works of Vision Machine. The Globalization Tapes (with Vision Machine. Vision Machine’s filmmaking focuses on re-enactments and dramati- . and his forthcoming book. and These Places We’ve Learned to Call Home (1996). The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1998). Kirsty Robertson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art at Queen’s University and a lecturer at the University of Toronto. She is especially interested in bridging art/cultural theory and practice. and this has led to several curated film and video exhibitions such as Identity and Consciousness: (Re)presenting the Self at Regina’s Dunlop Art Gallery and Inventions of Nation at the MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff. 2006). 2007). identity. 2006). 2007). She has written extensively on issues of cultural representation. and his films include The Decline of Industry in the Industrialized World (2007). curator. Michael is currently research fellow at Roehampton University. 1997). and member of the filmmaking collaboration Vision Machine. Sheila Petty is dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Professor of Media Studies at the University of Regina. Michael Uwemedimo is a writer. of which he is a member. She edited the book A Call to Action: The Films of Ousmane Sembene (Flicks Books. Truth or Dare (Whitechapel Gallery.Contributors 345 Drugs and Politics (Serpent’s Tail/ICA. and post-colonial theory and new media practice. She is presently working on a dissertation that examines the intersections between visual culture and protest (in particular the global justice movement) in Canada. The Interview (Manchester University Press. 1996) and co-edited Canadian Cultural Poesis (Wilfrid Laurier University Press. His recent curatorial projects include Possessing Vision: The Cinema of Jean Rouch (ICA. cyborg theory and practice. where he also holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Cultural Studies. His teaching and research have been largely in the area of cultural and post-colonial studies with an emphasis on black diaspora studies.’ He is the author of Black Like Who? Writing Black Canada (Insomniac Press. As a Fulbright Scholar. Haidee Wasson is assistant professor of Cinema. Her books include Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema (University of California Press. Montreal. Harvard University. 1997). she has been a visiting fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and New York University. 2005) and a co-edited collection (with Dr Lee Grieveson) on the history of film studies (Duke University Press.346 Contributors zations by perpetrators and survivors of political violence. literature. This new project. and working from Southeast Asia to the American desert. ‘Other Canadians and the Remaking of the Nation. Vision Machine has worked with covert operators. early home theatres. film. museums and cinema. spectrality and ghosts. but also the stories and images used to justify the routines of that violence.’ will result in the ‘Other Canadians Database: Culture Re-making the Nation. Vision Machine has staged musical numbers and gangster scenes. She has previously taught at the University of Minnesota. and the possibilities for filmmaking to intervene in economies of terror. Exploring the imbrications of memory and performance. He has published on music. and investigates relationships between genocide and genre. and killers as heroes.’ which will consist of film and video made by ‘Other Canadians. the museum gift shop. westerns and weepies as catalysts for the actors in these terrible histories to reveal the many ways in which history can imagine violence as heroic. Concordia University. as well as in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. and the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism (Insomniac Press. 2008). His most recent scholarship branches out from black studies to engage with other forms of marginalized difference in the Canadian nation-making project. documenting processes of dramatization and fictional adaptation to explore not only the performance of political violence. and the . Rinaldo Walcott is associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. and theatre. queer theory. 2000). She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on topics such as emergent technology and visual history. paramilitary death squads and their victims. and Canadian literature and of the books McLuhan. He is the author of Expanded Cinema (Dutton. which include film and media historiography. 1970). modernism. Modernist Goods: Primitivism. Gene Youngblood is an internationally known author. winner of the Gabrielle Roy Prize). and cultural. He is also widely known as a pioneering voice in the Media Democracy movement and has been teaching Media and Democracy for thirty years. culture.Contributors 347 emergence of film archives. His research interests include Canadian. He is the author of articles on film theory. and literary and critical theory. Glenn Willmott is professor of English at Queen’s University. He is currently professor of Critical Studies in the Department of Moving Image Arts at the College of Santa Fe. Think of the Earth (Brown Bear. addressing topics pertaining to her research interests. forthcoming). British. 2000). Japan. Exploring the intersection of technology. visual. Europe. and media theory. 1996). which was influential in establishing the field of media arts. comics and other modern mass culture genres. 2002. He has lectured at more than four hundred colleges and universities throughout North America. the first book about video as an art medium. the Market. or Modernism in Reverse (University of Toronto Press. and the Gift (University of Toronto Press. and his writing is published extensively around the world. and Australia. and of the scholarly edition of Bertram Brooker’s 1936 Governor General’s Award–winning novel. She has lectured internationally. and aesthetics. critic. and theorist of electronic media arts. she is currently working on a history of small-gauge film projectors and portable film screens. intermediality. . Unreal Country: Modernity and the Canadian Novel in English (McGill-Queen’s University Press. and American modernisms. This page intentionally left blank . 110 Barlet. 190 Anderson. 193 Akward. 209 Ant Farm. 120. 202–3. Jon. Hannah. 237–43 Al Qaeda. 53. 233. 14. 38 Ars Electronica Festival. 12 Avid editing system. 232. 323 Akomfrah. Olivier. 12 Arriflex. Eleanor. Arjun. 110 Barthes.Index 9/11. 96–110 Anderson. 258. Karin. Dorothy. 282 AIDS.. Bill. 80 Aquinas. 62. 258 Association of British Columbia Animation Producers. 93. 251–2. John. 311 . 311 African diaspora. 21. 253. Dede. Thomas. 208. 95 acoustic space. Benedict. 247. 324 Antin. 62 Alice in Wonderland. Theodor W. 257–9 Bach. 270 Artaud. 22. 19 Arendt. Constance. 161–2. 165–6. 305. Antonin. 269 Alpha and Bravo. Steve. 146. 267 Allen. 168. 70. 211 Baseball Hall of Fame. 232 Amika. 194–5 Adair. Michael. 249 Adorno. 247 Aristotle. 112 Bataille. 297 Arzner. 46 Barber. 115. 262 As We May Think. 12 archeological performances. 315 America’s Army. 15. 18–19. Allan. 72. 263 Allen. Saint. Georges. 197. John. 232 Al-Solaylee. 38 activism. 16. 91 Banham. 160–93 Agar. Kamal. 253 Acland. 195. Roland. Charles. 208 Appadurai. 270–82 activist media. 4 Alien. 175 Alberti (Leone Battista). 284. 73 Apple Computers. 200 Antliff. 6. Johann Sebastian. 85. Reyner. 294–6 Balides. 272–3. 269 Amaya. 157 Augustine. 58. George. 23 Bazin. 173. 245. 138 CBC-TV. Walter. Charles. 5 Bug’s Life. 85. 329 Canclini. 9–11. Marc. 6. 21. 261 Beatles. 265–6 . Jeff. Jean. 22. 294. 140. Vannevar. 63–5. 113. 251–69 Canadianization. 304. 95 Burke. 302 Camus. Dara. 170. John. Jonathan. Albert. 83 Brooks. Jody. 38 Carlyle. 268. 50. 25 Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 319 Catch-22. 11. 138–9. 5. 237. 201 Candid Eye. James. 108 Castells. John. André. 34 Canadian Film Centre (CFC). 92 Bradley. 261 Breashears. Osama. Henri. 68–9. Eric J. 197. Jimmy. Steve. Jay David. 71. 282. 201. 58–62. 318 Berners-Lee. 157 Cage. 252–3 Canadian televison. 208–9 Bikes Against Bush. 302. 18. 267. 248 Bush. 32 Blue Window Pane. 318–19 Benning. 29. 158 Bland.350 Index Baudelaire. 50 Casino Container. 271. 150 Buck-Morss. 13 Baudrillard. 95 B. James. 325 bin Laden. Zygmunt. 319 Boole. 314. 4. 213. Manuel.. 160–93 Black Audio Film Collective. 145 Camara. 175 Blair. 38. 159 brain drain. 307. 304 Bordwell. 325 Bush. 302 Berland. 14. 174 Calyx Retrospective. 199 Bergson. 319 Brownlow. 115. 4 Carter. Rosi. 257. 269 Carroll. 310. 275. 160 Bhabha. 215 Canada 67. 56. 257. Sawad. 73. 286–7. 264. Henri. 199 BET (Black Entertainment Television). Cab. 274. 291–7. 67. 143. 268 Bubbe’s Back Porch. David. Lewis. 278 Braidotti. Homi. 216 Cauris. 325 Cassidy. Edmund. 54. 315. music. 282. William S. 73. 92 Benjamin. 109 CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment). 240 Birnbaum. 268 Berne Convention. 268 Burke. George Walker. Film Commission. Kevin. 22. 148. 137 Burroughs. 85. Samuel. Michael André. 208. 205 Cartier-Bresson. Susan. 141 Böhlen. John. 64–5 Calloway. A.. 99. 38. 314 Bauman. 258–9 Bukatman. The. 155. 215 Belton. 280 Canadian film/media industries. Cathy. David. 146. 125 black: body. Serigne Mbaye. 188. 141 Bolter. Scott. 194. 48. 87. 15. 61 Beckett. The.C. 109 Cameron. Nestor Garcia. 319 Bernstein. Tim. 193 Black Skin White Mask. Kristine. 290. 58 Burston. . 248. Richard. 56. 14. 148 Chion.G. 232. Julie. 208. 145. 256 CIA. Paul. 72. Charles. 54. 209. 235. 158 Chroma-Key. 56. 297. Guy. 190–1. 73. Sammy Jr. 190–1 Cronenberg. 198. 20. 232 Delany. 319 Dement. Danae. 145 Coyne. 313–14. 316 Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the TwentyFirst Century. Mike. Sean. 116 de Antonio. 275–6. 330 Descartes. David. 231. 302. R. 129 Davis. 276 Cyborg. 109 Dakar Web. 253 Deck. 240. 212–13. 219. 140 Chaplin. Adriana. 62. 227 Cubitt. 168–9. 140 Crandall. 170 Deleuze. 312–13. 109 Dash. 206–7 Chakrabarty. 193 Data Thief. 63 de Souza e Silva. 289. 209 Danto. Samuel R. 109 . 249 Davis. 242. 206 Dean. Char. Tom. 284–6. 252 Connearn. 319 deep media. Emile. 156 Department of Defense Game Development Community. 268 Clear Channel. 54. 13 Chakar. Miles. 204 Collingwood. Arthur. 215. Raduz. 197–8. 164 Davis. 282 Diallo. 99. 83 Circle Vision. René.Index cell/mobile phone. 40 Clark. 211–12. 210. 197–9. 120. 5 CNN. Mamadou Fall. 65–6. 307. 34 ciné-écriture. Serge. 250. Michel. 64–5. 16. 317 Dabo. 33 Chicago. 161. 236. 231–2. 204–5 Cincera. James. Dipesh. 330 Davis. 19. 45 Daney. 232 Der Derian. 35. 279. 178. Linda. 108. 195 Debord. 227 351 Cunt Coloring Book. 50 Collins. 301–2 Cribb. David. 310 Cooperation of Parts. 145 CUSeeMe. 246 computer-generated image (CGI). 216. 200 Corrinne. 108 Daly. 311 Daouda. 209 Challenge for Change. Andy. Jordan. 31 City of Gold. 225. 173 Davies. 286. 252. 68– 71. 201. 15. 20. Tony. Jim. Richard. 256 coeval temporality. The. 225–6 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Howard. 202–3 Colby. 8 CHUM-CITY. 9 Cinesphere (Ontario Place). 248.. 156. Gilles. 21–2. 96. Judy. 47 Changeux. 283 Cézanne. 185–6. 226. 267 Columbine massacre. Jean-Pierre. 97. Robert. 299–300 Cell-Outs and Phonies. 270–82. Jonathan. Julie Ann. 288. 52–3. 72–3 Chiron. William. 174 Dead Weight of Quarrel Hangs. 187. 41. 295. 193. 248–9 Crary. 98–101. Moudjibath. Tee. Séa. 290. 217. 147 Cyberspace. 185. 208 Diankha. 150. 189 Dinner Party.. Yaya Karim. Pape Teigne. Marcel. Edouard. 23. 269 Enthusiasm. 175–6 Duchamp. 346 Expo 67. 232. Umberto. 23. Charles. 33 Eke. 95 eXistenZ. Johannes. 157 . 229 digital artwork 15. 140 Edhie. Sergei. 154. 163–4. 126. 32 Einstein. T. President Joseph. Thomas. 200 Eisenstein. 14. 32. 219 Elsaesser. Gerald. 233 Flew. 109 Dream Is Alive. 175 Fast and the Furious. 109 Discovery Channel. 154 DJ Spooky. Germaine. 145. 233 Faye. 275–6 FlatWorld. 217–18. 277 ethnic absolutism. 267.B. 86. 319 Fordism. 210–26. 282 Diamond. 132 Fincher. 109 Dibbell. Vieux Mac. David. 3–4. 8 Dulac. 245 Fisk Jubilee Singers. 215. Gary. Terry. 140 Foucault. 195–6. 319 DuBois. 170 DNA. 202. 53 Dolinsky. 138–9. 59. 24. 289 Edwards. 282 Eshun. Ed. Frantz. Diana. 24 Engels. Fyodor. 193. 93. 310 Ericsson (telecommunications company). Friedrich. 307 Eisenberg. 170 Evans. 219–20 Fox Channel. 23. 253. 33. 11. 9. 110 Ekistics.E. 24 Eco. 32 Eliot. Rackie. 50 Everest. 277. 121 Epstein. Michel. 34. 295–6. 270. 141 dome screen. 299 Frankenstein. 33. 295–6 Disney. Julian. The. 164 flâneur. 33 Dietz. 158 Dorland. 17. 127. 31 Diba. 309 digital aesthetics. 49–51. Abbe. 20. The. 31 Don. 170. 314 Edelman. 83 Final Cut Pro.352 Index Dialtones. 3–4. 34. 317. Michael. 147 Dostoevsky. 170 Estrada. 22–3. 268 Dorn. 81.. Thomas. 304–18 digital video 17. Maureen. 284. 313 DOS. Sarwo. 190 Edison. 86. Graham. 9 Erased de Kooning. W. 231 Forsythe. The. 14–15. Margaret. Ken. Gordon.S. Albert. Jean. 131. 264–5 Fiset. 109 Diapolyecran. 83. 33–4. 156. Sara. 227 Expanded Cinema. 83 Druckrey. 227 Dickens. Daniel. 161–2. 5–9. 215 Drabo. 209 Fanon. 145– 57. 29–51 Fabian. 14. 31 Fisher-Price. Kodwo. Steve. 148 Diouf. 8 Dogme 95 manifesto. Viye. 265 Finkleman. Timothy. 109 Ferguson. 284. Michel. 325 Grant. Diane. Mia. 50 Gramsci. Frères. 171 Gerbner. 15. 75. 8. 71 Gideon. 161. François. Ken. 316– 18 Gabriel. Larry. 188. George. 171. 109 Gulf War. Paul F. 54 Gibbons. 109 Gehr. 203 global positioning system (GPS). 38 Gning. 251 Gunning. 114 Goldberg. Anne. 280 Greenfield. 155. The. Philip. 198. Ross. 105. 53 Glassman. 205 freeSTYLE. Lt. 48–9. 279. 248. 268 Gaye. 233. Coco. 97. 221–2. 140 Guattari. Paul. 190 Gasher. 33–4. Assane. 250. 267. 268 Grossman. 10. 141 Grin without a Cat. 50. 38. 168. 8. 73. 235 Full Spectrum Warrior (FSW). Kurt. 188. 267 Get Smart. 22. 109 Godel. 242. 319 Guissé.Index Frankfurt School. 262 Freedom of Information Act. 241 global village. 92 . Mark. 246. Félix. 217. 67. 110 Gance.. 57–63. 57. 155. 24. Robert. 316 Goldberg Variations. 154 Freud. 300. Sigmund. Tom. 49 Full Spectrum Commander. Buckminster. 233. 170. 21. 31 global Hollywood. 269 Gondry. Anthony. 306. 147–8. 32 Gilroy. 170 Goldman. 295 Goldie. 195 Gromala. 233. 331 Fulford. Gary. 235 Full Spectrum Leader. 175 Girard. 32. Teshome. 269 Globalisation Tapes. 65. 57. Anta Germaine. 49 Fuller. Northrop. 250 Grusin. 266 Gitlin. 50–1 Glimpses of the USA. George. Sera. 100. 235. 263. 315 Fusco. 310. 20. 254. Col. 43. 294 Freed. 253. 12. Marc. 123. Oliver. 314. 34. 312–13. 141 Green Arts Barn event. 193–7. 160. 193 Furneaux. 53 353 Gibson. 224. 191 Friedberg. 11 Grau. Andrew. 15. 174. 319 Gross. 219. Todd. 266. 92 Frye. 263–4. Siegfried. Ernie. 199 Gelernter. The. 168. 175 Gould. David. 259. 52. 108. R. 35 Gardner. 4. Antonio. 112. 311. Mike. Scott. 18. Richard. 200 Giddens. Glenn. 20. 181. 71 Graham. 179. 318 future cinema. 61. Richard. 307. 29–48 future/futurology/futurism/futurity. 236. 319 George Clinton and Parliament and their Mothership Connection. Abel. David. 231– 48 Fung. 29–48. 308. 68. Donald. 40–1. 265 Goodwin. 191. Gerald. 283 Fretwork: ReForming Me. 72 Glass. 191 Freedman. 71. 67–8. 20. 194–5. Jurgen. Graham. 253 Hornstein. 24 . 141 Horkheimer. Fredric. 126–41 Indonesian massacres. 12 Hawthorne. Susan. 149–50. 149. 284–300 imograph. 5–6. 24 Habitat. 219–21 Havelock. 146–7. 208 Habermas. 34 Hansen. 25 Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). Dick. Shelley. 31. 177. 65 Hutcheon. 166–9. 140 Hiroshima Mon Amour. Linda. 202–3 Indymedia. 8 Highmore. 92. 246 Hammid. 49 Hillis. 94–5 immigrant. 147.354 Index Guyer. 158. 231. Saddam. 232. Bernard. 200 Jameson. 250 Hardwick. 198 historical excavation. 147. 268 Javascript. Donna. Steven A. 257–8. 68. 13. 150. 156 Its Name Was Penelope. David.. 60. Patricio. The. 47. 227. Michael. 61. 314 Heim. 159 Jackson Five. 276 IMAX. 181 Holmes. 312 Heidegger. 220–1. 157. 8. 99 iPod. 157– 9 Guzmán. 260 Harris. Michael. 154. 196. 165. 72. Edmund. Don. Andreas.F. 249 Hall. 159 Huyssen. Shelley. Martin. 205 Iwai. 269 Halliburton. 192. The. Ken. 249 Inter Society for Electronic Art (ISEA). 137–8 ImaHima. 195 histrionic reconstruction. 268 Hours. 24. 61 Idris. 249 holographic cinema. Werner. 17. The. Georg W. Katherine. 58. Miriam. 190 IFILM. 108 Heisenberg. 204–6. 77. Toshio. 157 Jackson. 5 Harvey. 24 Haraway. 9. 38. 172 Harry Potter. 93 Ihde.. 194–5. Luce. 53 HTML. 268 Harwood. Michael. 176 Hegel. 6 Irigaray. 22. 32. Ken. 30 Holzman. 83–91. 261 Hussein. 314 Izme Pass. 193. 247–8. Henry. 168. 152 It’s Not My Memory of It. Harold. 72–3. 181 historiography. 197 Innis. Steven. 174 Jackson. 208 IBM. 19–20. 11.. 96.org. 208 History Channel. Kemal. Stuart. 14. 314 Jenkins. 253. Alexander. 174 Jacob. 232–3. 72 Iliad Project. Gordon. 175. 154. 158 Hayles. 49 Idea of North. 314 Humewood Communications. 237 Husserl. 178–90. 16. 245–6. 47 Halbfinger. Carolyn. 149. 62. Max. 235. 197. Ben. 156 Hardt. 13. 141 Hebdige. The. David M. Eric. 54 Kleenex. 159 Lang. 108. Spike. Thomas Miller. 93 Kolko. 208 Knight. 32 Lenoir. Pierre. 40–1. 147. 101. 20 Living Tomorrow. Colin. 33 Lapses and Erasures. 131 Linux. 30. Roman. 38. Pamela. 158 Leibniz. 270 Levin. 25 Kubelka. 310 Larsen. Isaac. 335 liquid modernity. 14–15. 153–4. 176. John.. 253 355 Labyrinthe. USC. Spike. 92–3 Klubock. 261 Johnson. 158 Lasseter. Rolf. John Stuart. Henri. 109 LambdaMOO. 248. 232 Kyotopolis. 83 Labyrinth Project: Expo 67. 157. 121 Kuma Reality Games. 108 LeWitt. 30. 222–3. 20. 249 Jonze. 258 Last Angel of History. 279. Michael. Barbara. 83. 11. James. 197. 9–11. 158 Lieberman. 50–1 . 200 Linklater. 191 Landow. 96. 161 Korris. 43. 206 Kinder. Richard. 193. 266–7. 167 Kroitor. Nelly. 218 Low. Douglas. 4–5. 283 Katz. 50 Karwas. Roy E. 171 Lefebvre. 31 Kant. Arthur. Beth. 43.Index Jennings. Arthur. 233–4. 217–18. 193 Kac. 315 Kittler. 99. 155. Steven. Golan. 160–93 Lebanese wars. 269 Lord. 15. Dan. Tim. 64 Life after Wartime. 248 Klinger. Marsha. 34 Kissing Booth. 16. 152. Michel. 40–1. 12 Lefebvre. 72 Kaleidoscope. Thomas. 20. 30–2. Olia. George. 200 Lait Miraculeux. 99. Dana. 316 Kahn. Fritz. 311 Kaplan. 98. 265 Lee Scratch Perry and his Black Ark. 50 Kroker. 175 Kodak. George. 47. Fred Simon. 45. 221–2 Levin. 110 Johnson. 108–9 Lehmann. 108 Johnson-Eilola. 334 Level Five. Immanuel. 314 Lialina. 215. Sol. 205–6 Lee. 65–70 Lemoyne. 265 Joyce. James. 24 Lévy. Friedrich. 29–48. 162. 46–8. 109 Longfellow. Deena. 112 Kline. 24. 31. 50 Kraftwerk. 58. 221 Landis. 315 Lipsitz. 157 Julien. Jael. Stephen. 33. 147 Joyce. 15. Bilal. 227 Labatt’s. 20. 289 Kino-Automat. 46–7. Gottfried. 81. Susan. 40–1. 32. 208 Kinetoscope. 159 Joint Vision 2020. Peter. The. 153. Eduardo. Brenda. Siegfried. 268 Khbeiz. Ndary. 249–50 Kracauer. Johndan. 200–1 Lô. 4. Armand. 170. 187–8. 68. 152. 50 Microsoft: corporation. 109 McLuhan. Chris. Trinh T. 170–2. Louis. 192– 207. 319 Mauss. Christopher. 38. Slobodan. 249–50 Matrix. 65. 18–19. 48–51. 98. 318 Marx Brothers. 211 May. 195–6. Massamba. 8. 43. 56–63. Marshall. 227 Lynn. 159 Marx. 154. 213. 186. Derrick. 138. 272. 33 Marxist/Marxism. 310 Menand. 152. 204 Lukács. 248 Magder. 315 Montreal Film Festival. 245. 304 Lumière brothers. 20. 153 Marchessault. 176 memory. 72. 190. 68. 175 Meredith. 269. 22. 67. 62. 109 M Butterfly. William J. 221–2 Marley. Peter. 162. 20. 133. 238 Miller. 74–5. 287 Metissacana (Senegal). 197. 46–7. 76 McGovern. Juliet. Angela. Sirens and Argonauts. Ramon. Catherine. 231–3 Minh-Ha. 233 Mattelart. Brian. 143. 306 Merians. 99. 238.A. 269 Millhouse. 31. Victoria. 31–2. Ted. 125–7. 137 MIDI. Laura. The. 73. 235. 252 Ludruk (theatre). 283 Merleau-Ponty. 198. 211. 9–10. Judy. 91. 18. 319 May. 24. 93–4. Anna. 16. 135. 311 Macedonia. 246. 294 Lull. Xbox. 227. Maurice. 302. Jean-François. Karl. 318 Lunenfeld. 132. 268 Malloy. 201. 11–15. 308. 201. 147. 141 modernity. 210–11. 177–90. 237 MIMENET. The. 165. 29. 216 Massumi. 291–7. 311. 157–8 Maltby. 143. 236–7. 184.. 218 Marker. 81. 219–20. 164. 227 McCarthy. 123. Wendy. 10 Merrell. 25. 94. 172–3. The. Floyd. 253.. Toby. 99 Metropolis. 209 Lyotard. 146. 193. Kobena. 193 Mitchell. 305–6.356 Index Lucasfilm. 13. 174. 267. Michael. 46. 253 montage. 121 Man without a World. 91. Janine. 57. 269 Maynard. 4. 226 McRobbie. 15. George. 201– 2. 93 Man with a Movie Camera. 149. 223–4. 147. 6. Richard. 151. Lev. 140 Marble Springs. 198. 141 Mbaye. 175 Mayer. 162. Windows. 174 Martin. 226.H. 29 . Word. 197. 200 Man Machine. 219–20. 195 Milosevic. 72 Mercer. 235 Microworlds. 216. 33 Michener. 310. 316 Molson’s. 195–6. 233. Bob. 167 Manovich.. Patrick. Andre. 325 Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT). 222. 23. 208. Marcel. Georg. 226. 20. 294 M.S. 177. 34–5. Marv. 278 Murray. 30. 121 Moore. 256 . 140 My Body: A Wunderkammer. 202–4 Ortiz. The. Toni. Jack. 227 Mother Millennia. 153 Mydans. Margaret. 50–1. William. 68. 160 MUD. 251–2 Newman. 200 Ophüls. Lisa. 161 Napoleon. 52 MTV. 265 MSN Messenger. 237 Ng. 43 Multitude. Georgia. Peter. 277 Morris. Seth. The. 145 Okpewho. 112. Joshua. 98–9. 45. 265 New York Police Department (NYPD). 83 My Neck Is Thinner than a Hair. 160 MuchMusic. 127. 268 Newland. Unit B. 43. Carol. Matt. 247. 100. 266. The. Friedrich. 242. Daniel David. 190 Newsroom. 187–88 Oppenheimer. 24. 233 NAFTA. 307. Hamid. 227. 9 Murch. Stuart. 301 Nowhere to Hide. 110 Mullican. 267 Mr Bungle. 267 Morris. 215. 210. 292 Nokia. 248. 190 Myers. 282 Moulthrop. 154. 30–1 Ndiaye Diadji. 216 Morse. 281 NASDAQ. 157 Pause. 47. 158 O’Keeffe. 140. Fatou Sow. 38–9. Jaishree. 245 Patchwork Girl or A Modern Monster by Mary/Shelley and Herself. 72 murmur project. 60. 15. 250 Nelson. 86 Pandemic Studios. Adam. 116 multiscreen (projections). 245–6 Paquette. 189 NASA. 307 Nakamura. 282. 31. 217–19. 121 Odin. 249 New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). 113 Nietzsche.com. Tor. Antonio. 35 narrative geography. 221 Mr X. 21. 151. Joyce. 20. 224–5. 154. Iba.Index 357 Monument for the Old World (Denkmal fur die alte Welt). 215–18 Muir. George. 109 New Rulers of the World. 220–1. 288. 158 Motorola. 231. James. 9. Andrew. 206 National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Janet. 159 Moviola. 324 Moport. 20. 132 Mowlana. 318 Moses. 297 Nintendo. 299 Nørretranders. 109–10 Ndiaye. Isidore. 147 My Boyfriend Came Back from the War. Marcel. Walter. 201 Orwell. 110 O’Neill. 235. 64. 222–3. Fernando. 109 Negri. 248 Muller. Pat. 194. Mary. 235. screens. Alex. 45 Rauschenberg. The. 282 Samphan. 47 Persaud. Jeremy. John. Miriam. 92 race memory. Sadie. Joe. 136. 204. 198 Resonance of Four. 193 Sassen. 35. Luigi. 193. 77. Jay. 281 Rouvelle. 266–7 Reed. 47 Sale Away. 170. Alain. 315 Ruby. 291–7. 246 performance. 307. 147. 337 Pentagon. 310 Recombinant History Project. 312 QuickTime. 191 Rodowick. 253. 5. Sarah. 268. 276 Plato. D. 125 Pilger. Marie-Laure. 159. Eldon. 22. 199. 212. 154 Schiller. 99. 94 Polar Life. Robert. 206. 19. 293–5 Polar Express. Moshe. 291–2. Irit. 314 Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Robin. 332 Russolo. 141 phantasmagoria. 207 Rabinovitz. 94. Pipilotti. 154 Sankofa Collective.. 219–20. Nalini. Martha. Angel. 279. Saskia. A. 177–8 Rehearsal of Memory. 232–3. 56. 252. 309 Piaget. 221. Carolee. 195. 200 Rigsby. 170 Regan.N. 302–3 Pendakur. 157. 125 Rist. 278 RTMark. 14. 9–10. 267 Pokémon. 93. Jean. 225. 123. Stanley Kim. Pierre. Kate. 78. 109 Petry. 264.. 34 Polyvision. 99. 46. 161. 133. Charles Sanders. 31 postmodern. 286–8. Manjunath. 190 Prince (the artist now known again as). Lauren. 61 Pixar. 15 Quintas. 157 Petterd. 8 science fiction. 90. 135. 283 Renault. 59. 205.. 234 Richards. 190 Pink Floyd. 268. 20. P. 32. 313. Herbert I. Walid. 278. 54 Photoshop. 226 Rochijat. 80–8. 68. 41 Resnais. 174 Rama. James. 109 Raad. 317–18 Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State. 208 Petit Pagne. 319 Rogoff. 171. 277. 200 Red Violin. 267 Schmidt. 147. 111. 174 projection. 267–9 Schneeman. 31. 170. 8. 268 Plant.358 Index Peirce. 214. Ishmael. 83. Ronald. 201 Rathburn. 141 Safdie. 65 Schapiro. 72 Ryan. 299–300. 205. 38. 86 Robinson. Eva. 319 Schaffer. 170 . 16. 163. 177–8 Samplers: Nine Vicious Little Hypertexts. Khieu. 222 Reinsel. 226. 20. 114. 55 Poch-Goldin. 203–4 Snow. 205 Talibés. 117. 147 Straw. 30–1. Nick T. Susan. 77. 199–200. 307 Shatnoff. Arnold. 208 Simpsons. 232 Signal – Germany in the Air. Vivian. Anthony. 95 Stockwell. 16. 39. 74–80. 152. 171 Super Smart. 61. 170. 235. 280–1. Michael. Susan.Index Scott. 192 Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Alpha. 131–2. 218. The. Andrea. Will. Agueda. 69–73 Shakar. Peter Dale. 199. 99. 109 Space-Frame Fair. 94 Soja.. 137 Simpson Fletcher. the. 30. 209 Slane. Djibril. Wallace. 62 Stack. Steven. 109 Synchronicité. Greg. 33–5. 86. 136. 158 slaves/slavery. Judith. 40–1. 232 Spark. 5. 53 Shannon and Weaver. 82–4. 73 Smith. 50 Stewart. 91 subaltern. 31. 258 Star Trek. 116 Star Wars. 283 Sembène. 109 Tarantino. Ben. 152 Tajiri. 137 Shock and Awe. 316 Terminal Time. Charlie. 32 Shive. Michael Peter. 49 Shaw. Dawn. 193. 245 Telegarden. 75 Skoller. 314 SKG. 112. 248 Stoppiello. 170 Taxpayers for Common Sense. 15. 18. 154 Sputnik. 316 Teleporting an Unknown State. Madické. 54–6. 65. 93 Siskind. 268 Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification. Adam. 201. 173. 158 Talbott. 245–6 Sorrow Songs. 170 359 Sow. Andrew. 90–1. 43–8. Rea. 200. Pamela. 170. 148. Jacob. 94 Steenbeck. 137 Stevens. 49 situationists. 93–5. 7. 199. 108. 83 Spacewar. Stephen. Michel. 279 Sy. 216. 193 Takayoshi. Yael. 110 Sensory Environments Evaluation program (SEE). 98. Jeffrey. 339 Seck. 253. Ousmane. 324. 180–3. 321. 12 Sontag. 260 Singer. 226 Stanton. 51. 73 Sony. 17. 58 Sobchack. 263 screens. 24 Snake River. 91–2. Michael. 190–1 Scott. 297 Smith. Gregory. Daniel W. 151. George Bernard.. 109 SEED Collective. 314 Tate. 195. 233 Serres. 132 Stein. 138. 19. 158 Storyspace. 31 SpaceStation 3D. 199 Simó. 204–5 Spielberg. 212–13. 19. 305. 110 Shine. 87–9. 163–4. 33 Shepperson. 35. Quentin. Edward. 232. Jared. 16. Ridley. 202–3 Third Generation: A Website Project on Family Photographs and the Rhetoric . 132. 176 Thomson. 252 Village Voice. 109 Universe. 168. Douglass H. 152 Thompson. 211 Washington Post. 108 To Be Alive. 227 Thompson. 183. 72 Waking Life. 110. Pierre. Jacqueline. Mitchell. 32 Vanlint. 220 Ukadike. Lee. 61 . 53 Vukov. Moussa. 258–9. David. 32 Ugo Ugo Lhuga. 158 Tsing. 59. 138. 148. 98. 245–6 Tiananmen Square. 153–4. W. 7 Venturi. 197–98. 193. Francis. 250 Wagmister. Edward. 60. Bill. 264 Tracing the Decay of Fiction. 141 TVTV. 248. 16. Harry. 24 Tufte. 158 THQ Inc. 49 White. 29. Robert Farris. 232. Richard. Quincy. 109 UNESCO. 75 video games. 199 Uwemedimo. Fabrian. 7.. 202–4 Valery. 34 Webstalker. 283 Utopia. Andy. 250. 48 Wilson. Paul.360 Index of Memories of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. 108. 47 Trudel. 32 Total Recall. Keyan. The. Brian. 319 virtual reality (VR). 235. 100. 31 Way Back Machine. 318 WiFi. 162 Toronto Explorations Group. 120–1 Viacom. Anna. 152. 227. 125 Vertov. 268 Urban Peasants. Woody. 128. Linda. 202–4 Vivendi-Universal. 115 Time Warner. The. 309 Wallace. 158 Troupe. Molly Abel. 215 Viola. Dziga. 260–1 Thompson. 214–23. Kristen. 325 Wiki. 233 Vision Machine. 201 trauma. Lars. 203–4. Dean. 64. Raymond. 315 Weibel. 309 We Are Young. 205 water screen. 61 Vandelman. 158 Williams. Derek. Faith. 200 URBANtells. 315 Wilding. 138. 123. 175 Trudeau. Nwachukwu Frank. 141 Wagner. 97. Tamara. 191. 174. 233 transculturation. 246.. 137 Virilio. 243 Travis. 278. 48 Walker Art Gallery. M. 131–2 Waldrop. 112. 140 Walker. 147 Von Trier. 105. Michael. 263–4 Vasulka. 194. 20. 34 Thompson. 5 Tine. Clive. Hayden. 233 Toy Story. 208. 75 VNS Matrix. 200 Training Day. 40 Unkrich. Peter. 308–9. 209 Warhol. 324 Tyrwhitt. 200–1. 34 Tomaselli. Robert. Paul. Pascal. 110 Toop. 49 Young. 63. Stacey. Jeffrey. 151. 33. 208 Winters. 11. 46–7. 7–8. 35. 195. See also Microsoft Xerox. A. 49–51 Zimmerman. Wyndham. 190 Wise. 193. 93 . 154 WNBC. 118. Gene. 119 WOE. 208 Woolf.Index Wilson-Goldie. or a Memory of What Will Be. 169 Xbox. 289 361 Wynter. 134 Yale. 72–3 World Lesbian Biography. 50–1 Witch’s Work Is Never Done. 53. 158 Wundt. 283 Youngblood. Patricia. Kaelen. 235. 147 Women’s Labour History Project. Joel. Wilhelm. Virginia. 65–70. Sylvia.