The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique

How can we think technology in its material specificity? Contemporary critical theory treats technology as a trope or representation rather than a physical reality in the world. The "machine" is not just a metaphor for a particular technology, but for technology itself. And at a deeper lev...

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Main Author: Belinda Barnet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Open Humanities Press 2003-01-01
Series:Fibreculture Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://one.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-005-the-erasure-of-technology-in-cultural-critique
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spelling doaj-900ff0d60f98416ba8ca99c37df484232020-11-24T22:30:27ZengOpen Humanities PressFibreculture Journal1449-14432003-01-011The Erasure of Technology in Cultural CritiqueBelinda BarnetHow can we think technology in its material specificity? Contemporary critical theory treats technology as a trope or representation rather than a physical reality in the world. The "machine" is not just a metaphor for a particular technology, but for technology itself. And at a deeper level, this metaphor enframes technology within a semiotically constituted field. US critic Mark Hansen argues that this perspective gives us no access to the materiality of technology itself, to its impact on our embodied lives. We should abandon the systemic-semiotic approach, or at least find an alternative. In this essay I explore Hansens argument and claim that it constructs this as a choice we either approach technology through the body, or we approach it through language. I argue for a different reading: a reading which does not create a choice between text and materiality, text and technology but at the same time, a reading which does not depend entirely on cognition and representation, which does not dissolve materiality into thought. I want to think technology as at once material opacity and as representation. And I believe that the elements for this can actually be found in the work of Bernard Stiegler and Jacques Derrida. I want to extricate a politics of technology that sacrifices neither side of the equation, that addresses the specificities of new media technology through the concept of the archive.http://one.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-005-the-erasure-of-technology-in-cultural-critiquephilosophy of technology
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Belinda Barnet
spellingShingle Belinda Barnet
The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
Fibreculture Journal
philosophy of technology
author_facet Belinda Barnet
author_sort Belinda Barnet
title The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
title_short The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
title_full The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
title_fullStr The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
title_full_unstemmed The Erasure of Technology in Cultural Critique
title_sort erasure of technology in cultural critique
publisher Open Humanities Press
series Fibreculture Journal
issn 1449-1443
publishDate 2003-01-01
description How can we think technology in its material specificity? Contemporary critical theory treats technology as a trope or representation rather than a physical reality in the world. The "machine" is not just a metaphor for a particular technology, but for technology itself. And at a deeper level, this metaphor enframes technology within a semiotically constituted field. US critic Mark Hansen argues that this perspective gives us no access to the materiality of technology itself, to its impact on our embodied lives. We should abandon the systemic-semiotic approach, or at least find an alternative. In this essay I explore Hansens argument and claim that it constructs this as a choice we either approach technology through the body, or we approach it through language. I argue for a different reading: a reading which does not create a choice between text and materiality, text and technology but at the same time, a reading which does not depend entirely on cognition and representation, which does not dissolve materiality into thought. I want to think technology as at once material opacity and as representation. And I believe that the elements for this can actually be found in the work of Bernard Stiegler and Jacques Derrida. I want to extricate a politics of technology that sacrifices neither side of the equation, that addresses the specificities of new media technology through the concept of the archive.
topic philosophy of technology
url http://one.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-005-the-erasure-of-technology-in-cultural-critique
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