Intensive Media: Aversive Affect and Visual Culture

194 Pages·2013·0.96 MB·English

by  Anthony McCosker

Intensive Media
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Intensive Media
Aversive Affect and Visual Culture
Anthony McCosker
SwinburneUniversity,Australia
©AnthonyMcCosker2013
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Firstpublished2013by
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For Leila, Lewis and Edith, whose patience, love and light
have made all the difference
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1 Pain:AversiveAffectsandMicropolitics 1
2 War:VisualBrutalityandAffectiveVectors 26
3 Torture:ObscenityandComplicity 48
4 Disaster:IntensiveEncounters 70
5 Masochism:PainfulPleasures 90
6 Salvation:MedievalVision,AffectiveCommunity 109
7 Illness:PuttingItAllOnline 130
Epilogue 152
Notes 156
References 160
Index 174
vii
Acknowledgements
A book is a composition of influences. While it is not possible to
acknowledge them all, I would like to thank colleagues, friends and
familywhohavehelpedalongtheway.
Therese Davis and Raymond Donovan provoked, guided and
offered generous mentorship in equal measure. Special thanks to
Rowan Wilken, whose encouragement, advice and feedback were
instrumentalingettingthisbooktoprint.IamgratefulalsotoRaya
Darcy, who collaborated on a previous version of Chapter 7. I have
benefited greatly from the incisive feedback of Anna Munster and
the thoughtful comments of Melissa Gregg. Thanks also to Ramon
Lobato, for his helpful feedback on parts of the book and sources
sentalongtheway,andtoSuneelJethani,forhisresearchassistance.
There are many colleagues and friends whose intellectual engage-
ment and support, both direct and indirect, brought aspects of the
bookintobeing.InparticularIwouldliketothankTrevorBarr,Tom
Byrne, Steven Conway, Karen Farquharson, Lisa Gye, Tony Hayek,
Chris Healy, Marcus Howlett, Minae Inahara, Amelia Johns, Dean
Keep, Tim Kendal, Wendy Larcombe, Ian Malkin, Esther Milne, Lisa
Milne, Peter Otto, Malcolm Roberts-Palmer, Peter Robinson, Darren
Tofts,StephanieTrigg,EmilyvanderNagelandAudreyYue.
Fortheirlove,supportandwillingnesstoproofreadIthankmypar-
ents,RickandMerylMcCosker,andalsomybrotherPeterMcCosker
andmysisterJaneAyerst.ThankstoKathyandPeterByrnefortheir
generous help in managing the day-to-day. Finally, my most heart-
felt thanks to Leila Byrne for helping to make space for work that
is always in-excess, for thoughtful editorial advice, but more impor-
tantly for putting up with so much and contributing so greatly to
makingthisbookhappen.
Earlier versions of parts of this book have been published else-
where, and I thank the editors and publishers of the journals
Sexualities, Continuum, Scope, Information, Communication and Soci-
ety, Transformations and M/C Journal, and Viv Burr and Jeff Hearn
as editors of the collection Sex, Violence and the Body: The Erotics of
Wounding,publishedbyPalgraveMacmillan.
viii
1
Pain: Aversive Affects and
Micropolitics
Everythingissimplyanencounterintheuniverse,agoodor
badencounter.
DeleuzeandParnet,2002,p.45.
There is something unsettling, but also powerful, in the encounter
with individual and collective experiences of human suffering.
This book explores the discomfort and fascination such experi-
ences provoke, their aversive affects, as they trouble but also vitalise
contemporarymediaenvironments.Aversionentailsimpulsiverecoil
or even revulsion, but also attracts and initiates the modification of
bodiesastheyarebroughtintoconjunctionandaffectoneanother.
Likewise,paindesignatesoneofthosecomplexaspectsofindividual
andcollectiveexperiencethatsetsinmotionadynamicfieldofaver-
siveaffects.Itwillbecomeclear,however,thatasobjectsofattention
bothpainandaversionquicklyunravel.Asadriverofaversiveaffect,
painemergesandvanishesintheformofintensity.Andasintensity,
theaversiveaffectsofpainarevolatileandcontingent.
Inthecontextsofcrisis,conflictandsufferingexploredthroughout
thisbook,aversiveaffectoperatesmicropoliticallytomakeexplicitor
hidethematerialconditionsthatsurroundinstancesofpaininallits
specificity.Thatis,insomanyscenarios,personal,socialandpolitical
stakes are set around the thresholds of intensity that give rise to a
‘sense’ofpainandtheunpredictablevalencesofitsaversiveaffects.
AnditisinthissensethatIntensiveMedia,andeachofitscasestudies
developoutwardsfromthemiddleofwhathasbeenreferredtoas‘the
problem of pain’, a problem that traverses media, communication,
1