Wirelessness as Experience of Transition
The paper analyses wireless networks in terms of a concept of experience drawn from the work of William James. James' account of experience focuses closely on the effects of ongoing change, and this is particularly useful in thinking about media change. The specific experience in question here...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Open Humanities Press
2008-01-01
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| Series: | Fibreculture Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://thirteen.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-085-wirelessness-as-experience-of-transition/ |
| _version_ | 1819145145329647616 |
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| author | Adrian Mackenzie |
| author_facet | Adrian Mackenzie |
| author_sort | Adrian Mackenzie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper analyses wireless networks in terms of a concept of experience drawn from the work of William James. James' account of experience focuses closely on the effects of ongoing change, and this is particularly useful in thinking about media change. The specific experience in question here is 'wirelessness,' an experience that envelops many media, infrastructures, practices, and processes today. The paper argues that a concept of wirelessness uniquely connects together a set of perceptions, representation, materials, problems and events associated with ongoing change in contemporary media and information cultures. In analysing wirelessness as form of experience, the article examines how those feelings of ongoing change shape and inform experiences of self, otherness, place and sociality in technological-informatic environments. In describing different infrastructural and commercial dimensions of wirelessness, it pays close attention to how ‘conjunctive relations’ (James’ term) such as ‘with’, ‘between’, ‘near’, and ‘inside’ arise in wireless networks, and how different kinds of intimacy and distance stem from conjunctive relations. The paper explores how wirelessness embodies and organises networked places. In this respect, the paper inverts conventional understandings of the network as ground or platform. It treats the under-represented yet highly significant embodied experiences of relations as generative of information infrastructures. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:53:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bd91c59904e14ae9994340ae78e4fd9a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1449-1443 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T12:53:22Z |
| publishDate | 2008-01-01 |
| publisher | Open Humanities Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Fibreculture Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-bd91c59904e14ae9994340ae78e4fd9a2022-12-21T18:25:11ZengOpen Humanities PressFibreculture Journal1449-14432008-01-0113Wirelessness as Experience of TransitionAdrian MackenzieThe paper analyses wireless networks in terms of a concept of experience drawn from the work of William James. James' account of experience focuses closely on the effects of ongoing change, and this is particularly useful in thinking about media change. The specific experience in question here is 'wirelessness,' an experience that envelops many media, infrastructures, practices, and processes today. The paper argues that a concept of wirelessness uniquely connects together a set of perceptions, representation, materials, problems and events associated with ongoing change in contemporary media and information cultures. In analysing wirelessness as form of experience, the article examines how those feelings of ongoing change shape and inform experiences of self, otherness, place and sociality in technological-informatic environments. In describing different infrastructural and commercial dimensions of wirelessness, it pays close attention to how ‘conjunctive relations’ (James’ term) such as ‘with’, ‘between’, ‘near’, and ‘inside’ arise in wireless networks, and how different kinds of intimacy and distance stem from conjunctive relations. The paper explores how wirelessness embodies and organises networked places. In this respect, the paper inverts conventional understandings of the network as ground or platform. It treats the under-represented yet highly significant embodied experiences of relations as generative of information infrastructures.http://thirteen.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-085-wirelessness-as-experience-of-transition/wireless networksradical empiricismWilliam James |
| spellingShingle | Adrian Mackenzie Wirelessness as Experience of Transition Fibreculture Journal wireless networks radical empiricism William James |
| title | Wirelessness as Experience of Transition |
| title_full | Wirelessness as Experience of Transition |
| title_fullStr | Wirelessness as Experience of Transition |
| title_full_unstemmed | Wirelessness as Experience of Transition |
| title_short | Wirelessness as Experience of Transition |
| title_sort | wirelessness as experience of transition |
| topic | wireless networks radical empiricism William James |
| url | http://thirteen.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-085-wirelessness-as-experience-of-transition/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT adrianmackenzie wirelessnessasexperienceoftransition |