Software, Infrastructure, Labor: A Media Theory Of Logistical Nightmares
by Ned Rossiter /
2016 / English / PDF
1.9 MB Download
Infrastructure makes worlds. Software coordinates labor.
Logistics governs movement. These pillars of contemporary
capitalism correspond with the materiality of digital
communication systems on a planetary scale. Ned Rossiter
theorizes the force of logistical media to discern how
subjectivity and labor, economy and society are tied to the
logistical imaginary of seamless interoperability. Contingency
haunts logistical power. Technologies of capture are prone to
infrastructural breakdown, sabotage, and failure. Strategies of
evasion, anonymity, and disruption unsettle regimes of
calculation and containment.
Infrastructure makes worlds. Software coordinates labor.
Logistics governs movement. These pillars of contemporary
capitalism correspond with the materiality of digital
communication systems on a planetary scale. Ned Rossiter
theorizes the force of logistical media to discern how
subjectivity and labor, economy and society are tied to the
logistical imaginary of seamless interoperability. Contingency
haunts logistical power. Technologies of capture are prone to
infrastructural breakdown, sabotage, and failure. Strategies of
evasion, anonymity, and disruption unsettle regimes of
calculation and containment.
We live in a computational age where media, again, disappear into
the background as infrastructure.
We live in a computational age where media, again, disappear into
the background as infrastructure.Software, Infrastructure,
Labor
Software, Infrastructure,
Labor intercuts transdisciplinary theoretical reflection
with empirical encounters ranging from the Cold War legacy of
cybernetics, shipping ports in China and Greece, the
territoriality of data centers, video game design, and scrap
metal economies in the e-waste industry. Rossiter argues that
infrastructural ruins serve as resources for the collective
design of blueprints and prototypes demanded of radical politics
today.
intercuts transdisciplinary theoretical reflection
with empirical encounters ranging from the Cold War legacy of
cybernetics, shipping ports in China and Greece, the
territoriality of data centers, video game design, and scrap
metal economies in the e-waste industry. Rossiter argues that
infrastructural ruins serve as resources for the collective
design of blueprints and prototypes demanded of radical politics
today.