Bristol University Press
Interlude: Four Practices of Making Information Matter
Abstract
Making information matter is a ‘spiral dance’ (Haraway, 1991: 181). It is an ongoing process involving many lives that make, break, and remake what matters in this world. As researchers, we are part of this dance. The central concern is thus no longer that information, tools, infrastructures, and our own selves matter, but how. This is why the next chapters provide analyses of four different practices that are maybe not all equally prevalent in societies today, but equally relevant. All of them are enacted in the larger arena of surveillance, capture, and control, which is where information matters centrally.
The first one, association, is a defining information practice in today’s societies. Often, but not always, association is practiced in digital, information-heavy environments where algorithms and other forms of analyses are used to identify connections, relationships, and patterns. In most cases, association is used for capture and control and it has potentially become the most prevalent form of governance in densely digitized environments. That is why it is all the more important to render associative practices more accessible by tracing each step, each turn at which information comes to matter. There is awareness about associative practices and how much they influence us. Their formative powers are recognized and discomfort about being subjected to them, or participating in their making is increasingly expressed. Critical voices from mainstream public discourses include those of Eli Pariser (The Filter Bubble, 2011), Yuval Harari (Homo Deus, 2017), Shoshana Zuboff (The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 2019), and Farhad Manjoo (journalist, The New York Times), to name a few. What mainstream discourses do not (yet) do sufficiently is to acknowledge alternative ways of making information matter – whether these are spectacular or everyday activities.
Abstract
Making information matter is a ‘spiral dance’ (Haraway, 1991: 181). It is an ongoing process involving many lives that make, break, and remake what matters in this world. As researchers, we are part of this dance. The central concern is thus no longer that information, tools, infrastructures, and our own selves matter, but how. This is why the next chapters provide analyses of four different practices that are maybe not all equally prevalent in societies today, but equally relevant. All of them are enacted in the larger arena of surveillance, capture, and control, which is where information matters centrally.
The first one, association, is a defining information practice in today’s societies. Often, but not always, association is practiced in digital, information-heavy environments where algorithms and other forms of analyses are used to identify connections, relationships, and patterns. In most cases, association is used for capture and control and it has potentially become the most prevalent form of governance in densely digitized environments. That is why it is all the more important to render associative practices more accessible by tracing each step, each turn at which information comes to matter. There is awareness about associative practices and how much they influence us. Their formative powers are recognized and discomfort about being subjected to them, or participating in their making is increasingly expressed. Critical voices from mainstream public discourses include those of Eli Pariser (The Filter Bubble, 2011), Yuval Harari (Homo Deus, 2017), Shoshana Zuboff (The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 2019), and Farhad Manjoo (journalist, The New York Times), to name a few. What mainstream discourses do not (yet) do sufficiently is to acknowledge alternative ways of making information matter – whether these are spectacular or everyday activities.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures vi
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- Understanding Making Information Matter Together 7
- Studying Materializations: A Methodology of Life Cycles 26
- Interlude: Four Practices of Making Information Matter 44
- Association 47
- Conversion 69
- Secrecy 87
- Speculation 106
- The Ethics of Making Information Matter 136
- Notes 148
- List of Artworks Cited 149
- References 151
- Index 172
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of Figures vi
- About the Author vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- Understanding Making Information Matter Together 7
- Studying Materializations: A Methodology of Life Cycles 26
- Interlude: Four Practices of Making Information Matter 44
- Association 47
- Conversion 69
- Secrecy 87
- Speculation 106
- The Ethics of Making Information Matter 136
- Notes 148
- List of Artworks Cited 149
- References 151
- Index 172
