Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices

247 Pages·2011·1.48 MB·English

by  A. Aneesh

d
nglobalization
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y
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Making new worlds Media, art, social Practices
in and
edited by a. aneesh, lane hall, and Patrice Petro
Beyond
Globalization
new directions in international studies
patrice petro, series editor
The New Directions in International Studies series focuses on transculturalism,
technology, media, and representation, and features the innovative work of schol-
ars who explore various components and consequences of globalization, such as
the increasing flow of peoples, ideas, images, information, and capital across bor-
ders. Under the direction of Patrice Petro, the series is sponsored by the Center for
International Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The Center
seeks to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research that probes the politi-
cal, economic, artistic, and social processes and practices of our time.
a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro,
eds.
Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices
mark philip bradley and patrice petro,
eds.
Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights
melissa a. fitch
Side Dishes: Latin/o American Women, Sex, and Cultural Production
elizabeth swanson goldberg
Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights
linda krause and patrice petro,
eds.
Global Cities: Cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Digital Age
andrew martin and patrice petro,
eds.
Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the “War on Terror”
tasha g. oren and patrice petro,
eds.
Global Currents: Media and Technology Now
peter paik and marcus bullock,
eds.
Aftermaths: Exile, Migration, and Diaspora Reconsidered
freya schiwy
Indianizing Film: Decolonization, the Andes, and the Question of Technology
cristina venegas
Digital Dilemmas: The State, the Individual, and Digital Media in Cuba
j
Beyond
Globalization
Making New Worlds
in Media, Art,
and Social Practices
edited by
a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beyond globalization : making new worlds in media, art, and social practices / edited by
A. Aneesh, Lane Hall, and Patrice Petro.
p. cm. — (New directions in international studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8135-5153-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8135-5154-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Mass media and culture. 2. Mass media and globalization. 3. Mass media—Social
aspects. 4. Mass media—Political aspects. 5. Mass media and art. 6. Globalization—
Social aspects. 7. Identity (Psychology) and mass media. I. Aneesh, A. (Aneesh),
1964– II. Hall, Lane, 1955– III. Petro, Patrice, 1957–
P94.6.B482011
302.23—dc22
2011010853
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
This collection copyright © 2012by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Individual chapters copyright © 2012in the names of their authors, unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved
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Manufactured in the United States of America
contents
j
Introduction: The Making of Worlds — 1
A. Aneesh, Lane Hall, and Patrice Petro
1 Global Media and Culture — 15
Mark Poster
2 Burning Man at Google: A Cultural Infrastructure
for New Media Production — 30
Fred Turner
3 Apocalypse by Subtraction: Late Capitalism
and the Trauma of Scarcity — 49
Peter Y. Paik
4 These Great Urbanist Games: New Babylon
and Second Life — 72
Thomas M. Malaby
5 Format Television and Israeli Telediplomacy — 86
Tasha G. Oren
6 Mediating “Neutrality”: Latino Diasporic Films — 103
Yeidy M. Rivero
7 Killing Me Softly: Brazilian Film and Bare Life — 121
Amy Villarejo
8 The Man, the Corpse, and the Icon in
MMoottoorrccyyccllee DDiiaarriieess:: Utopia, Pleasure,
and a New Revolutionary Imagination — 138
Cristina Venegas
9 Saudades on the Amazon: Toward a
Soft Sweet Name for Involution — 162
Craig Saper
contents
vi
10 States of Distraction: Media Art Strategies
Within Public Conditions — 178
Mat Rappaport
11 Bio Art — 189
Eduardo Kac
Notes — 207
About the Contributors — 229
Index — 233
Beyond
Globalization

Introduction
The Making of Worlds
j
a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro
Contemporary accounts of an emerging “Global Village” or “One World” sys-
tem—whether in relation to economics, culture, communication, or lan-
guage—may seem naïve descriptions of global integration. But discourses
on globalization are perhaps not all rhetoric. To take but one example:
worlds studied by anthropologists are no longer protected by geography and
distance; in fact, they continue to disappear. Obstinate languages, values,
norms, and practices have been either exterminated or brought out of
seclusion, full of wonder and spectacle via research, representation, and
multiple mediated views. Two decades ago, linguists rushed to a Turkish
farming village in order to record the Ubykh language, once spoken in the
northwestern Caucasus, from its last known speaker, a frail farmer whose
death in 1992also marked the death of the Ubykh language. Indeed, 90per-
cent of the world’s languages are expected to disappear in the next one
hundred years.1 It is not surprising, then, that the unprecedented integra-
tion of the world through money, media, and communication is often expe-
rienced as disturbingly threatening and altogether “real.” After all, satellites
never set on the empire.
And yet, the nature of integration, captured by the term “globalization,”
is often poorly understood, resulting in misplaced battles over homogeneity
versus heterogeneity, as if the functional expansion of markets and media
could turn the world into irremediable cultural sameness.2 Responses to an
imaginary threat of homogeneity quickly lead to demonstrations of cultural
distinction, such as in claims that the English spoken by Americans, Britons,
Indians, and Australians (and all others) varies in each instance. One rushes
to show how new diversities and cultural hybrids emerge through such