From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures
What sort of image does the planet Earth possess at the opening of the 21st century? If in the 1960s, the Whole Earth, the planet as seen from space, became a cold war, proto-environmentalist icon for a fragile ocean planet, in the 2010s, Google Earth, the globe encountered as a manipulable virtual...
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| Formato: | Artigo |
| Idioma: | en_US |
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Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School University
2012
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| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72176 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 |
| _version_ | 1826189477467389952 |
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| author | Helmreich, Stefan |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Helmreich, Stefan |
| author_sort | Helmreich, Stefan |
| collection | MIT |
| description | What sort of image does the planet Earth possess at the opening of the 21st century? If in the 1960s, the Whole Earth, the planet as seen from space, became a cold war, proto-environmentalist icon for a fragile ocean planet, in the 2010s, Google Earth, the globe encountered as a manipulable virtual object on our computer screens, has become an index for multiple and socially various interpretations and interventions; its thicket of satellite images, text legends, and street level photographs can all be tagged, commented upon, modified. In this essay, I examine a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, asking what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in our digital days. Stirring up the century-old classification of signs by semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce, I argue that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian (that is to say, heterotopian) diagram of the sea - though one that floats in a media ecology that tends to occlude its infrastructural history and conditions of possibility. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:15:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/72176 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:15:21Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School University |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/721762022-09-30T08:39:05Z From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures Helmreich, Stefan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program Helmreich, Stefan Helmreich, Stefan What sort of image does the planet Earth possess at the opening of the 21st century? If in the 1960s, the Whole Earth, the planet as seen from space, became a cold war, proto-environmentalist icon for a fragile ocean planet, in the 2010s, Google Earth, the globe encountered as a manipulable virtual object on our computer screens, has become an index for multiple and socially various interpretations and interventions; its thicket of satellite images, text legends, and street level photographs can all be tagged, commented upon, modified. In this essay, I examine a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, asking what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in our digital days. Stirring up the century-old classification of signs by semiotician Charles Sanders Peirce, I argue that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian (that is to say, heterotopian) diagram of the sea - though one that floats in a media ecology that tends to occlude its infrastructural history and conditions of possibility. 2012-08-16T19:49:11Z 2012-08-16T19:49:11Z 2011-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0037-783X 1944-768X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72176 Helmreich, Stefan. "From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures." Social Research 78.4 (Winter 2011): 1211-1242. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 en_US http://socialresearch.metapress.com/link.asp?id=98628557448jtj77 Social Research Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School University Helmreich via Michelle Baildon |
| spellingShingle | Helmreich, Stefan From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title | From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title_full | From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title_fullStr | From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title_short | From Spaceship Earth to Google Ocean: Planetary Icons, Indexes, and Infrastructures |
| title_sort | from spaceship earth to google ocean planetary icons indexes and infrastructures |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72176 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0859-5881 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT helmreichstefan fromspaceshipearthtogoogleoceanplanetaryiconsindexesandinfrastructures |