Comments on: Noortje Marres on the materiality of publics http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/noortje-marres-on-the-materiality-of-publics/ E-Commerce Entrepreneurship Innovation Markets Technology Social Theory Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:59:19 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Peter Erdélyi http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/noortje-marres-on-the-materiality-of-publics/#comment-23 Peter Erdélyi Mon, 19 May 2008 12:29:27 +0000 http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/?p=30#comment-23 Noortje Marres's paper that served as a basis for her LSE talk is now available from the Goldsmiths website, in the form of a <a href="http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/sociology/papers/making-climate-publics.pdf" rel="nofollow">working paper</a> (PDF). A video of the talk is now also available on the <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/newsAndEvents/2008events/marres.htm" rel="nofollow">LSE website</a>. Noortje Marres’s paper that served as a basis for her LSE talk is now available from the Goldsmiths website, in the form of a working paper (PDF). A video of the talk is now also available on the LSE website.

]]> By: Peter Erdélyi http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/noortje-marres-on-the-materiality-of-publics/#comment-16 Peter Erdélyi Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:33:56 +0000 http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/?p=30#comment-16 The term "material public" may soon become a touch more material if <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7248875.stm" rel="nofollow">Ray Kurzweil</a> is right about his predictions that in 20 years humans and machines will have finally merged. I imagine Heidegger would have seen this as the fulfilment of <em>Gestell</em> (enframing) where the essence of being human is being fundamentally challenged by technology. From an ANT perspective and considering Latour's specific critique of Heidegger, this would only just mean that action and cognition would be distributed even more widely, smoothly and quickly than over existing heterogeneous assemblages. This raises some interesting questions about political action and the assembling of material publics. Dystopian visions of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)" rel="nofollow">borg</a> (Star Trek) or the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix" rel="nofollow">matrix</a> are fairly well-known. Would an optimistic scenario mean a whole new way of doing politics, where cyborgs form much better informed alliances much quicker than it was ever possible before to address the emerging issues of the day? I hesitated for a moment whether I should post this here or look for a science fiction blog somewhere instead. But since the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7248875.stm" rel="nofollow">BBC</a> broadcast this today as part of their main news bulletin, perhaps this brave new world is already much more real than we may be prepared to accept. The term “material public” may soon become a touch more material if Ray Kurzweil is right about his predictions that in 20 years humans and machines will have finally merged. I imagine Heidegger would have seen this as the fulfilment of Gestell (enframing) where the essence of being human is being fundamentally challenged by technology. From an ANT perspective and considering Latour’s specific critique of Heidegger, this would only just mean that action and cognition would be distributed even more widely, smoothly and quickly than over existing heterogeneous assemblages. This raises some interesting questions about political action and the assembling of material publics. Dystopian visions of the borg (Star Trek) or the matrix are fairly well-known. Would an optimistic scenario mean a whole new way of doing politics, where cyborgs form much better informed alliances much quicker than it was ever possible before to address the emerging issues of the day?

I hesitated for a moment whether I should post this here or look for a science fiction blog somewhere instead. But since the BBC broadcast this today as part of their main news bulletin, perhaps this brave new world is already much more real than we may be prepared to accept.

]]> By: Peter Erdélyi http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/noortje-marres-on-the-materiality-of-publics/#comment-14 Peter Erdélyi Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:01:34 +0000 http://erdelyi.wordpress.com/?p=30#comment-14 I'm not sure if this is good blogging practice but I removed one sentence from my original post as it was based on a misunderstanding that was probably misleading. The sentence said "This is perhaps why the presentation was billed as a ‘post-Foucauldian’ approach, a label that I was interested in querying further." However, as Marres's <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/informationSystems/newsAndEvents/2008events/marres.htm" rel="nofollow">abstract</a> shows, her talk itself wasn't actually 'billed' as a post-Foucauldian approach. The post-Foucauldian perspective was just one of the three theories Marres discussed in relation to the conceptualisation of the materiality of publics and eco-homes. In fact it seems to be the one that is associated with the informational approach and the privileging of mass media (if I understand it correctly). I’m not sure if this is good blogging practice but I removed one sentence from my original post as it was based on a misunderstanding that was probably misleading. The sentence said “This is perhaps why the presentation was billed as a ‘post-Foucauldian’ approach, a label that I was interested in querying further.” However, as Marres’s abstract shows, her talk itself wasn’t actually ‘billed’ as a post-Foucauldian approach. The post-Foucauldian perspective was just one of the three theories Marres discussed in relation to the conceptualisation of the materiality of publics and eco-homes. In fact it seems to be the one that is associated with the informational approach and the privileging of mass media (if I understand it correctly).

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