Uncoding the Digital: Technology, Subjectivity and Action in the Control Society

252 Pages·2013·1.398 MB·English

by  David Savat (auth.)

Uncoding the Digital
AlsobyDavidSavat
DELEUZEANDNEWTECHNOLOGY(co-editedwithMarkPoster)
Uncoding the Digital
Technology, Subjectivity and Action
in the Control Society
David Savat
TheUniversityofWesternAustralia,Australia
©DavidSavat
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-27815-8
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ISBN 978-1-349-32601-3 ISBN 978-1-137-02501-2 (eBook)
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Savat,David.
Theuncodingthedigital:technology,subjectivityandactionin
thecontrolsociety/DavidSavat.
p. cm.
Summary:“Examiningtheimpactofdigitalmediaonsurveillance,
powerandpeople’scapacityforaction,thisbookexploreshow
peopleact,andareactedupon,inanincreasinglyconnected
world”—Providedbypublisher.
1. Technology—Socialaspects. 2. Humanbehavior.
3. Socialcontrol. I. Title.
T14.5.S282012
303.48(cid:2)3—dc23 2012022280
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13
To Katinka, for all the joy
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Contents
ListofTablesandFigures viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Part I TheDatabase
1 TheEmergenceofModulation 13
2 Dividuality 38
Part II TheInterface
3 TheHuman-MachineAssemblage 63
4 MechanicalBeing 83
5 DigitalBeing 107
Part III TheNetwork
6 SolidPolitics 151
7 FluidPolitics 170
8 TheBoundaryLayer 193
Conclusion 210
Notes 215
Bibliography 226
Index 238
vii
Tables and Figures
Table
2.1 Characteristicsofdisciplineandmodulation 43
Figures
3.1 Ahuman-machineassemblage(artistunknown,in
Strandh1979,196) 63
4.1 Theindividual 97
5.1 Thesuperject 133
5.2 Dividuality 134
6.1 Leviathan(Hobbes1651) 162
viii
Acknowledgements
This book has been a long time coming. There are numerous people
whom I would like to thank in that process. In the first instance
those whose conversations and questions enabled me to think dif-
ferently about a problem deserve the most thanks. Conversations
with students and colleagues over the past couple of years have been
especially helpful in that respect, as have conversations with many
friends.
The person who features high on the list is Ian Cook, whose ques-
tioning and challenging was always productive as was that of Horst
Ruthrof in the earlier stages of the research. Conversations with Tauel
Harper were also useful at key moments in the research. Friends and
family members, including those who provided fruitful distraction, as
well as Stewart Woods, Helen Merrick, and all those who continue to
enable me to recognize the value of play, need to be thanked. In addi-
tion many friends and colleagues are thanked for their patience and
supportovertheyears,mostnotablystaffinCommunicationandMedia
Studies at the University of Western Australia, Australia, including Ian
Saunders,Larissa-Sexton-Finck,LindaCresswell,InesBortolini,andHui
ChuinPoa,aswellasmyparentsMargaandJaak.
A special thank-you for patience and understanding should go
to Felicity Plester and Catherine Mitchell at Palgrave Macmillan –
I suspect my repeated delays could only be read as recalcitrant in
nature.
Elements of Chapter 4 appeared in ‘Introduction: Deleuze and New
Technology’, in Deleuze and New Technology (2009, ed. Mark Poster
and David Savat, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press). Aspects of
the argument presented in Part I appeared in ‘Deleuze’s Objectile:
From Discipline to Modulation’, in Deleuze and New Technology (2009,
ed. Mark Poster and David Savat, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press). Aspects of the argument presented in Part II appeared in
‘(Dis)Connected: Deleuze’s Superject and the Internet’, in The Interna-
tionalHandbookofInternetResearch(2010,ed.JeremyHunsinger,Lisbeth
Klastrup,andMatthewAllen,usedwithkindpermissionfromSpringer
Science+BusinessMediaB.V.).
ix