Sounds has been argued to be a more immediate mode of perception, and that it affords a methodolo... more Sounds has been argued to be a more immediate mode of perception, and that it affords a methodology of understanding distinct from that which has been shaped and cultivated by visuality, the latter often linked with the totalizing and objectifying tendencies of the Western rational subject and knowledge. It might be framed as more embodied, affective, and experiential. But what about some of the other qualities of sound, such as the way it eludes the linguistic register and operates on the peripheral? Given the claim of the sonic to immediacy and immersion, how does it figure as a ‘medium,’ especially within the scholarship on mediation and technology? How might sound be utilized in the age governed by the disciplinary logic of information and communication technology (ICT), a field and way of thinking that perhaps links the objectification of the visual with the tacit operations of the sonic? This paper seeks to explore digital media polemics in relation to the usage of sound in ‘algorithmic culture’ and to examine sound’s relationship to immediacy and mediation, via scholarly writings from the fields of sound, digital media, technology, and art, concluding by looking at the author’s most recent sound installations.
Art historian Julian Stallabrass notes two seemingly dominant trends in relation to temporality o... more Art historian Julian Stallabrass notes two seemingly dominant trends in relation to temporality on the Internet and the paradox they create when he says, 'at once robust and delicate, data on the Net is in principle eternal and in practice usually ephemeral.' The ability of the Internet to archive data and the simultaneous penchant for constant renewal and flux seem contradictory. How do these dual traits of the digital world configure and shape our memories and our relations to them? This paper focuses on the notions of ephemerality and eternality. The investigation begins by borrowing from literary theory to analyse temporality and memories as they are experienced and formed in cyberspace, by using a comparative and theoretical study of metaphors and metonymies. Parallels are drawn between eternality and metaphors, and between ephemerality and metonymies. The link between these parallels is examined using Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic notion of the 'death drive' as explored by the narrative theory of Peter Brooks. Questions of time flow, memory/schema production, reiteration and dissemination as mediated by the Internet, and their relations to the cognitive experience of contemporary subjects, are explored through the conflicting desires to seek and evade death as exemplified by the relations between metaphors and metonymies. Does the contemporary subject strive to remember everything digitally or to discard everything in favour of the constant renewal of the next link? Finally, a conclusion is reached regarding memories and temporality as they are configured on the Internet, their roles in shaping the contemporary digital experience, their parallel relations to the metaphor/metonymy dichotomy, and how, with the aid of writings from philosophers and theorists such as Jonathan Cullers and Walter Benjamin, these issues have been and might be explored through various artistic projects.
If one agrees with the argument that the first information revolution began with the invention of... more If one agrees with the argument that the first information revolution began with the invention of the Gutenberg press in the sixteenth century, then it follows that printing entailed the first form of regulated information control. Formally, this appeared as an emerging format consisting of elements such as pagination and paragraphing to facilitate indexing; socially, it was observable through a marked increase in the number of schools (Postman 62). Information that was available to the masses grew to a previously unthinkable volume, a phenomenon that Neil
As I'm writing this, a close friend just gave me a re-mastered version of the seminal game LOZ: O... more As I'm writing this, a close friend just gave me a re-mastered version of the seminal game LOZ: Ocarina of Time, which many still argue is the best exemplar in mainstream video gaming. Placed in the history of gaming, in the context of digital culture, and specifically game art, I thought, why has this game captivated an entire generation of gamers including myself? What does the fact that, the trend of linear adventure games with singular narratives like this has given way to open sandbox games where users generate narratives and content, reveal about post-Fordist capitalist strategies and digital sovereignty?
Sounds has been argued to be a more immediate mode of perception, and that it affords a methodolo... more Sounds has been argued to be a more immediate mode of perception, and that it affords a methodology of understanding distinct from that which has been shaped and cultivated by visuality, the latter often linked with the totalizing and objectifying tendencies of the Western rational subject and knowledge. It might be framed as more embodied, affective, and experiential. But what about some of the other qualities of sound, such as the way it eludes the linguistic register and operates on the peripheral? Given the claim of the sonic to immediacy and immersion, how does it figure as a ‘medium,’ especially within the scholarship on mediation and technology? How might sound be utilized in the age governed by the disciplinary logic of information and communication technology (ICT), a field and way of thinking that perhaps links the objectification of the visual with the tacit operations of the sonic? This paper seeks to explore digital media polemics in relation to the usage of sound in ‘algorithmic culture’ and to examine sound’s relationship to immediacy and mediation, via scholarly writings from the fields of sound, digital media, technology, and art, concluding by looking at the author’s most recent sound installations.
Art historian Julian Stallabrass notes two seemingly dominant trends in relation to temporality o... more Art historian Julian Stallabrass notes two seemingly dominant trends in relation to temporality on the Internet and the paradox they create when he says, 'at once robust and delicate, data on the Net is in principle eternal and in practice usually ephemeral.' The ability of the Internet to archive data and the simultaneous penchant for constant renewal and flux seem contradictory. How do these dual traits of the digital world configure and shape our memories and our relations to them? This paper focuses on the notions of ephemerality and eternality. The investigation begins by borrowing from literary theory to analyse temporality and memories as they are experienced and formed in cyberspace, by using a comparative and theoretical study of metaphors and metonymies. Parallels are drawn between eternality and metaphors, and between ephemerality and metonymies. The link between these parallels is examined using Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic notion of the 'death drive' as explored by the narrative theory of Peter Brooks. Questions of time flow, memory/schema production, reiteration and dissemination as mediated by the Internet, and their relations to the cognitive experience of contemporary subjects, are explored through the conflicting desires to seek and evade death as exemplified by the relations between metaphors and metonymies. Does the contemporary subject strive to remember everything digitally or to discard everything in favour of the constant renewal of the next link? Finally, a conclusion is reached regarding memories and temporality as they are configured on the Internet, their roles in shaping the contemporary digital experience, their parallel relations to the metaphor/metonymy dichotomy, and how, with the aid of writings from philosophers and theorists such as Jonathan Cullers and Walter Benjamin, these issues have been and might be explored through various artistic projects.
If one agrees with the argument that the first information revolution began with the invention of... more If one agrees with the argument that the first information revolution began with the invention of the Gutenberg press in the sixteenth century, then it follows that printing entailed the first form of regulated information control. Formally, this appeared as an emerging format consisting of elements such as pagination and paragraphing to facilitate indexing; socially, it was observable through a marked increase in the number of schools (Postman 62). Information that was available to the masses grew to a previously unthinkable volume, a phenomenon that Neil
As I'm writing this, a close friend just gave me a re-mastered version of the seminal game LOZ: O... more As I'm writing this, a close friend just gave me a re-mastered version of the seminal game LOZ: Ocarina of Time, which many still argue is the best exemplar in mainstream video gaming. Placed in the history of gaming, in the context of digital culture, and specifically game art, I thought, why has this game captivated an entire generation of gamers including myself? What does the fact that, the trend of linear adventure games with singular narratives like this has given way to open sandbox games where users generate narratives and content, reveal about post-Fordist capitalist strategies and digital sovereignty?
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