Book part:

Das Internet der Dinge als mediale Atmosphäre

Theories and arguments about the Internet of Things not only stem from many different fields. Additionally, inspired by distinct and current media technological developments, they oftentimes project possible futures via idealized outlooks, hopes, dystopian worries or other extrapolations. Many of these perspectives tend to conceptualize the relation of human and object present in their understanding of the Internet of Things mainly regarding possible consequences for human agency, a change in the status of the subject or concerning heightened or diminished potentials of human interactivity. This paper seeks to broaden this view and expand it towards concepts of embodiment, affect and a more general understanding of sensing. To this end, the Internet of Things is seen as an atmosphere, not just in the sense of humans being spatially enveloped by a media-enriched environment, but as non-subjective, non-anthropocentric and preceding subject and object – and thus productive of new subjectivities and new objectivities.