Network materiality and temporality: Things flow 'non-continuously' in network culture @ HKU. 5. Nov. 2015

1. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
NETWORK MATERIALITY AND TEMPORALITY:
THINGS FLOW “NON-CONTINUOUSLY” IN
NETWORK CULTURE
5 NOV, 2015 @ THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

2. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
​www.siusoon.net
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

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UNIVERSITETAU
What is material?

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UNIVERSITETAU
Computing as Material Practice

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UNIVERSITETAU
[materialist approaches] embrace both the material substrates and
abstract of programming languages required for data storage,
processing and exchange: code, hardware devices, operating
systems, software, applications, platforms, interfaces, documents,
file formats as well as networking protocols and infrastructure.
(Casemajor, 2015, p. 5)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

6. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
ABOUT ME
​www.siusoon.net/nonsense/
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT
Nonsense (2015)

7. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
MATERIALIST FRAMEWORK
​Actor Network Theory (Latour, 1987, 1992, 1999, 2005; Callon, 1991; Law, 1992)
​”Things-in-phenomena” (Barad, 2007)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

8. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
If we limit critical discussions of digital culture to the notions of
“open access”, “cyber”, “digital”, “Internet,” “networks,” “new
media”, or “social media,” we will never be able to get to what is
behind new representational and communication media and to
understand what it really is and what it does. If we don’t address
software itself, we are in danger of always dealing only with its
effects rather than the causes: the output that appears on a
computer screen rather than the programs and social cultures that
produce these outputs.
(Manovich, 2011)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

9. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

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UNIVERSITETAU
CONTINUITY / FLOW / STREAM
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

11. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
Raymond Williams invokes the concept of 'flow' as a way of
explaining the effect of immediacy and presence the experience of
television gives. The defining characteristic of broadcasting, both as
technology and as cultural form, Williams argues, is one of sequence
or flow.
(Feuer, p. 15, 1983)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

12. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
I want to suggest that in social media, as it developed until now
(2004-2012), database no longer rules. Instead, social media brings
forward a new form: a data stream. Instead of browsing or searching
a collection of objects, a user experiences the continuous flow of
events.
(Manovich, n.p, 2012)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

13. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
In network time, things flow non-continuously. The NOW constantly
punctures time, as the new quickly becomes old, and the old
becomes forwarded once more as new(ish).
(Chun, forthcoming)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

14. ​http://siusoon.net/home/?p=1155
How to get the Mao experience through Internet… (2014)

15. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
THROBBER
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

16. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
PROGRESS BAR
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

17. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
DATA PACKET
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

18. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
TEMPORAL THINGS
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT
temporal things (2015)
​http://networkedthing.orgfree.com/

19. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
The network structure of today’s communication channels and of
their information stream is often understood as providing a direct
connection between users and services or between two
communication partners, even though there cannot be any direct
connections on digital networks. The metaphor of the flow conceals
the fact that, technically, what is taking place is quite the opposite.
There is no stream in digital networks.
(Sprenger, 2015, pp. 88-89, my emphasis)
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

20. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
DISCONTINUOUS TEMPORALITY
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT

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UNIVERSITETAU

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UNIVERSITETAU
The Pirate Cinema by Nico
​http://thepiratecinema.com/

23. AARHUS
UNIVERSITETAU
Winnie SOON | Ph.D Fellow | www.siusoon.net
School of Communication and Culture
The Center for Participatory IT
Thank You