1(1) 2015: Digital Materialism

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Signs o‘ the Times. The Software of Philology and a Philology of Software
Hiller, Moritz (2015) , S. 151-163
This paper addresses the question of software preservation by approaching this field from a philologic perspective. Philology here is not understood as hermeneutic operation of interpretation, but rather as practice of preserving material objects: critically providing them as basis for future investigation. Software’s status as a material object could not be more uncertain, since it merges – as a source code – a textual dimension and – as a programme – a processual dimension. It is only within the logic of this operativity that software as an object of digital materiality becomes fully conceivable. Since a philology of software would have to consider the phenomenon’s dual mode of existence as static text and/or time-critical process to enable research within both dimensions, old questions about what to preserve and how to preserve it rise anew. The paper will therefore take up a few basic notions of traditional scholarly editing, the software of philology. It explores to what extent they can be applied to objects of digital materiality in order to outline an initial idea of a philology of software.
Introduction. Digital Materialism
Reichert, Ramón; Richterich, Annika (2015) , S. 5-17
Interpreting an Improper Materialism. On Aesthesis, Synesthesia and the Digital
Scarlett, Ashley (2015) , S. 111-129
This paper explores catachrestic synesthesia as a key interpretive strategy that contemporary media artists are drawing upon in an effort to conceptualize and grapple with ‘digital materiality.’ I argue that these synesthetic gestures are not merely poetic flourishes. Instead they test the limits of representation, identifying gaps in language while employing the body in order to triangulate modes of computational materiality that are proving conceptually and phenomenologically evasive. Grounded within a series of materialdriven interviews that I conducted with thirty-five digital media artists, this analysis will be advanced through the following means: (1) a review of media phenomena and scholarly work that inform current debates regarding digital materiality with particular attention paid to the potential contribution of contemporary media art within this field of study; (2) an analysis of occasions where artists conjured the senses synesthetically as a disoriented means of grasping at the material attributes of their digital works; and (3) a theorization of “catachrestic synesthesia” as an interpretive strategy with broader implications for how digital materiality ‘as such’ might be better understood.
From HER (2013) to Viv the Global Brain. Becoming Material, Unfolding Experience through Radical Empiricism and Process Philosophy
Wan, Evelyn (2015) , S. 165-185
This paper reflects upon the methodological questions entailed by what digital media materiality could be, and how one could analytically approach it via theories of experience such as radical empiricism and process philosophy. I argue that for digital media, becoming material means to ‘enter into experience’. However, this notion of ‘experience’ is not defined in relation to the phenomenological, distinctly-human subject. I offer instead an expanded notion of experience that resides in non-human objects, networks and other physical entities like mobile phones and computers. Operating system (OS) and intelligent assistants such as Samantha in Spike Jonze’s HER (2013) and the next-generation Siri in development, Viv the Global Brain, can be seen as representations of what such a non-human experience could be like, as digital objects communicate with one another. William James, father of radical empiricism, argues that the definition of matter as something that lies behind physical phenomena is merely a postulate of thought. In his philosophy, the world is made up of only one primal material – that of experience. While James could not have anticipated our era of digital technologies at the time of writing in 1890, radical empiricism offers an interesting angle in approaching what digital materiality could be. Mark Hansen’s latest monograph, Feed Forward: On the Future of Twenty-First-Century Media (2015), turns to Alfred North Whitehead in an attempt to understand how 21st-century media operations feature in a world of objects where humans are implicated in, but not central to digital networks. Referring to Whitehead, he analyses how media operations (like those superalgorithms computing in OS systems) reconfigure the notion of perception in experience. In a similar theoretical move, I turn to William James’s radical empiricism to analyse how the digital may be material/ised in a world of beyond-human experience.
Reciprocal Materiality and the Body of Code. A Close Reading of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
Heilmann, Till A. (2015) , S. 39-52
Materiality has often been a neglected factor in discussions of digitally encoded information. While a lot of early works in media studies suffered from this shortcoming, questions regarding the materiality of digital technology and artefacts have slowly gained prominence in recent debates. Matthew Kirschenbaum’s concept of “forensic” and “formal” materiality has proven particularly useful to the study of digital artefacts, differentiating the (routinely over-looked) physical existence of digital data from their (commonly discussed) logical character. However, analyses concerning the materiality of digital artefacts are often one-sided, focussing on the physicality of the medium in which digital data are inscribed. To counter this bias, I present the concept of a ‘reciprocal materiality’ of digital data: It is not only that digital data are always inscribed in some material substrate (Kirschenbaum’s ‘forensic’ dimension of data); conversely, the materiality of the medium inscribes itself into the structure of digital data (its ‘formal’ level). The ‘body of code’ is shaped by the material framework it inhabits. I will illustrate this using as an example one of the most important encoding schemes in the history of digital technology: the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). A ‘close reading’ of the technical specifications of ASCII – a standard designed in the early 1960s to work across multiple technological platforms – will reveal the extent to which this code incorporates the materiality of media such as punched tape and teletype terminals.
Towards a Relational Materialism. A Reflection on Language, Relations and the Digital
Hui, Yuk (2015) , S. 131-147
This article takes off from what Lyotard calls ‘the immaterial’, demonstrated in the exhibition Les Immatériaux that he curated at the Centre Pompidou in 1985. It aims at outlining a concept of ‘relational materiality’. According to Lyotard, ‘the immaterial’ is not contrary to material: instead, it is a new industrial material brought about by telecommunication technologies, exemplified by Minitel computers, and serves as basis to describe the postmodern condition. Today this materiality is often referred to as ‘the digital’. In order to enter into a dialogue with Lytoard, and to render his notion of ‘immaterial materials’ contemporary, this article contrasts the concept of relational materiality with some current discourses on digital physics (Edward Fredkin, Gregory Chaitin) and digital textuality (Matthew Kirschenbaum). Against the conventional conception that relations are immaterial (neither being a res nor even having a real esse), and also contrary to a substantialist analysis of materiality, this article suggests that a relational materiality is made visible and explicit under digital conditions. It suggests a reconsideration of the ‘relational turn’ in the early 20th century and the concept of concretisation proposed by Gilbert Simondon. The article concludes by returning to Lyotard’s notion of materialism and his vision of a new metaphysics coming out of this ‘immaterial material’, and offers ‘relational materialism’ as a contemporary response.
Information Politics. Tim Jordan in Conversation with Karin Wenz
Jordan, Tim; Wenz, Karin (2015) , S. 227-237
The following interview took place in May 2015 in London during a meeting of Tim Jordan with Karin Wenz. In contrast to the first interview in this volume, the interview had been done in a face-to-face setting, which is reflected in its less formal style. Tim Jordan is Head of School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. Tim has published on social movements and internet culture and is well-known for his analyses of digital cultures and hacking cultures since the 1990s. This interview focuses on his recent publication Information Politics. Liberation and Exploitation in the Digital Society (2015). Tim’s research is situated in the field of social sciences and digital cultures. His search for communities of practices related to recent technological developments and power relations is a red thread throughout his publications. Case studies Tim investigated are rave culture, hacking communities, gaming but also recent technological developments such as mobile technology with a focus on tablets and the use of clouds, social media and search engines.
A Geology of Media and a New Materialism. Jussi Parikka in Conversation with Annika Richterich.
Parikka, Jussi; Richterich, Annika (2015) , S. 213-226
Jussi Parikka’s research focuses on interrelations between technological culture, ecology and media aesthetics. He has published widely on media archaeology and material media cultures. In 2015, he published A Geology of Media which explores media studies as study of material (metallic, mineral, chemical) components. Bridging between the natural sciences, arts and environmental ethics, the media theorist explores analytic approaches which show how natural resources enable media and how media impact the earth’s ecosystem. His latest publication highlights the relevance and agency of the nonorganic as element in contemporary art, media studies and humanities. At the same time, it initiates a debate on the geophysical affordances of digital media. The email conversation with Jussi addresses core concepts and approaches suggested in A Geology of Media, and their implications for media studies and the humanities.
Material Agency in User-Centred Design Practices. High School Students Improvising (with) Smart Sensor Prototypes
Sauer, Sabrina (2015) , S. 187-209
This paper investigates (digital) materiality through an analysis of the “sociomaterial configuration” (Orlikowski 2009) of the participatory design project SensorLab (2010). In SensorLab, users were enrolled as designers: a group of high school students developed and tested smart pollution-sensing prototypes in a public park in Amsterdam. Concepts from science and technology studies, specifically the notion of the “dance of agency” (Pickering 1995), are used to trace how ‘smartness’ materialises in the form of the SensorLab’s prototypes. The exploratory case study draws conclusions about (1) how materiality performs its agency and invites improvisations during prototype design and (2) how the student-designers use their tacit knowledge as situated expertise to improvise with construction materials and technology. The deconstruction of the assemblage of human/material agency suggests that while the student-designers are readily accommodated to develop prototypes, the material agency of the sensor technology resists improvisation as compared with the other available materials. The extent to which the black-boxed sensor technology allows the student-designers to become ‘smart’ is therefore debatable.
Towards an Integrated Theory of the Cyber-Urban. Digital Materiality and Networked Media at Multiple Scales
Forlano, Laura (2015) , S. 73-91
Over the past decade, scholars have worked to develop a new lexicon of the cyber-urban in order to express, in a more nuanced and careful way, the hybrid nature of everyday life in cities of the 21st century. Yet, for the most part, our current verbal and visual metaphors and imagined futures along with our theoretical and analytical frames, to a large degree, continue to emphasize the separation of the physical and the digital into discrete and hierarchical layers and ‘stacks.’ Given our limited metaphors, it should come as no surprise that we are unable to traverse socio-economic barriers and build more equitable and pluralistic cities. This paper will discuss the need to move beyond hybrid language and towards a truly integrated theory of digital materiality and the cyber-urban using examples from debates about big data, Smart Cities, the ‘internet of things’ and the quantified self.
Technological Materiality and Assumptions About 'Active' Human Agency
Bollmer, Grant (2015) , S. 95-110
One of the most notable challenges to emerge from the materialist turn in media studies is the rejection of the ‘active audience’ paradigm of British cultural studies. And yet, in spite of the increasing attention to materiality, many of the problems associated with the split between German media studies traditions and those derived from cultural studies persist today. While no longer concerned with representation, privilege is nonetheless often granted to the material agency of ‘real people’ as that which shapes and determines the materiality of technology. This article is primarily a theoretical and methodological reflection on how materiality challenges – but sometimes relies on – long standing and often veiled traditions from cultural studies, especially as they move out of academic discussion and into the popular imaginary of social media and its ‘usergenerated content.’ I focus on some deliberate attempts at excluding materiality found in cultural studies’ history, arguing that an emphasis on the agency of ‘real people’ can only happen through the deliberate erasure of the materiality of technology. Drawing on Ien Ang’s DESPERATELY SEEKING THE AUDIENCE (1991), which argued that television ‘audiences’ must themselves be understood as produced in relation to the demands and interests of broadcasting institutions, I suggest that digital media ‘audiences’ are produced in relationship to the infrastructural power of servers, algorithms, and software. This demonstrates that any attempt to identify ‘human agency’ must also look at how this agency is co-produced with and by technological materiality.
Swipe to Unlock. How the Materiality of the Touchscreen Frames Media Use and Corresponding Perceptions of Media Content
Werning, Stefan (2015) , S. 55-71
Since the release of iconic devices like the Nintendo DS (2004) and particularly the first iPhone (2007), touchscreen interfaces have become almost omnipresent and arguably shaped a “touch-screen generation”. But how do touchscreen experiences operate as complex assemblages of material contingencies, electronics, algorithms and user interaction? And how do they function in actual software applications? In order to address these questions, the paper outlines a comparative software studies perspective, which com-prises four consecutive steps. The introduction draws on cultural studies research on touchscreen interfaces to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the shifting epistemic status of the screen and the complex relationship between technical affordances and cognitive processes. Second, the paper explores aesthetic implications of the materiality of touchscreens, including the shift from vertical to horizontal navigational logic and the focus on physical contiguity in user experience design. Third, a series of short, interconnected case studies serves to illustrate the more specific implications on practices of media use and cultural production in a variety of applications. For example, apps like Vine evoke the ‘tangibility’ of digital material by allowing users to start and stop record-ing video by touching and releasing the screen respectively. Other, even more iconic examples include the swipe mechanic employed in Tinder and particularly the ‘swipe to unlock’ gesture used in the Android operating system. Finally, the previous findings are contextualised by briefly investigating the cultural imaginary of the touchscreen, which manifests itself in the form of haptic feedback as well as curved and even wearable touch-sensitive surfaces.
Unearthing Techno-Ecology. On the Possibility of a Technical Media Philosophy of Ecology
Barker, Tim; McKeown, Conor (2015) , S. 21-37
Studies of media and ecology are often reduced to questions of representation: understanding the cultural mediation of nature means looking to screen based content. However, given recent work in materialist media studies from Doug Kahn, Lisa Parks and Eugene Thacker in particular, a new possibility comes into view. We now know that before nature is mediated through culture, it is often passed through layers of technology. With that in mind, this paper offers a radical rethinking of the technological media-tion of the ecological. Through a study of the technical apparatus as an active system of knowledge, two different sections of the paper will illustrate the ‘tool-kit’ that makes possible a technical study of ecology. The first looks to historical developments of hardware such as the telegraph, radio, and satellites to pinpoint examples where media technology has been used to pick up signals from the natural world. Framed by the philosophy of Peter Sloterdijk, it explores the way nature has been given form through its transduction into communication systems. The second section of this paper, address-ing ecology on a different register, looks past the surface of digital media to the manner in which ecologies are mediated via computer code. In this section, by conducting a reverse-engineering of the soft-ware based eco-media videogame MOUNTAIN (O’Reilly, 2014), we encounter the ecological structure of code systems which could be applied to other data visualisation systems. These two methods of analysis suggest the possibilities of a technologically focused study of eco-media: in coming to grips with both global and internal ecolo-gies through what Sloterdijk terms ‘air conditioning’ systems – the material processes that provide the atmosphere of everyday life – we investigate the possibilities for innovative, post-human, approaches to a natural world entwined with media and technology.

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