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Seeing Non-Humans: a Social Ontology of the Visual Technology Photoshop

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Seeing Non-Humans: a Social Ontology of the Visual Technology Photoshop Seeing Non-humans: A Social Ontology of the Visual Technology Photoshop Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Aaron D. Knochel Graduate Program in Art Education The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Kevin Tavin, Advisor Sydney Walker Jennifer Eisenhauer Robert Sweeny Copyleft CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Aaron D. Knochel 2011 i Abstract In an expanding technological ecology, the spaces of learning in art education require a new appraisal of the role that visual technologies serve to learners. Through intersections of actor-network theory and theories of visuality from visual culture studies, this research focuses on developing a social ontology to investigate the role that the visual technology Photoshop plays in collaborating with users within a human-technological hybrid. In a role reversal, for this research I become the instrument of research and Photoshop becomes the focus of a non-human ethnographic inquiry that utilizes an ontological framework to consider how technology performs with us and not on us. This symmetry between human and non-humans in a social ontology generates the complexity of Photoshop in a heterogeneous network formation of agencies, through more than its instrumentality, by seeing it working with me in the production of digital visual culture. ii Dedication Dedicated to my family. iii Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the many people who have helped through this process. My committee advisor Kevin Tavin has been a tireless reader of my work and mentor throughout this entire process. Committee members Sydney Walker, Jennifer Eisenhauer, and Robert Sweeny have all contributed sharp insight and important pathways for further investigation that have challenged and benefited my scholarship. In addition, other faculty have contributed important feedback including Richard Selfe, Karen Hutzel, and Deborah Smith-Shank. I am also grateful for the countless hours of discussion, reflection, laughter, and debate with fellow graduate students that has been so instrumental to my work while at Ohio State. iv Vita 1998............................................................B.A. Art & English, Augustana College 2001............................................................M.A. Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2001-2003...................................................Visual Art Teacher, Secondary School American School of Tegucigalpa, Honduras 2003-2005....................................................Computer & Art Teacher, High School Seoul International School, South Korea 2005-2007....................................................Art Department Chair, High School Seoul International School, South Korea 2008-2011....................................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Art Education, The Ohio State University 2011-present................................................Assistant Professor, Department of Art Education, State University of New York at New Paltz Fields of Study Major Field: Art Education v Table of Contents Abstract...................................................................................................................ii Dedication..............................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements................................................................................................iv Vita..........................................................................................................................v List of Tables.........................................................................................................viii List of Figures.........................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: Introduction...........................................................................................1 My Story of Teaching Art in a Computer Lab.....................................................1 Conceptualizing the Technological Ecology and Digital Chimera....................10 Students and Schools in the Technological Ecology.......................................13 Seeing a Network Being...................................................................................16 Perceptions of Technology in Art Education.....................................................23 Theoretical Basis for Understanding Human-Technology Collaborations.......31 Research Questions.........................................................................................37 Rationale for Looking at Photoshop.................................................................39 Chapter 2: Literature Review................................................................................42 User’s Guide.....................................................................................................42 Posthuman Discourse and Cybernetics...........................................................46 Decentering the Humanist Subject in Postmodernism....................................50 Cyborg Feminism.............................................................................................54 Re-assembling the Posthuman........................................................................60 Important Nodes in ANT: Actants, Translation, & Assembling.........................63 Re-assembling Visuality: Multiplicities of the Gaze.........................................74 Assembling (Dis)continuities Between ANT and Visual Culture......................86 Movement 1: On Technological Ecologies.....................................................102 Movement 2: On Digital Chimeras.................................................................105 Movement 3: On Network Being....................................................................107 Chapter 3: Methodology......................................................................................111 Introduction.....................................................................................................111 Positioning Myself as Research Instrument...................................................112 Participants & Sites........................................................................................116 Methods in Data Collection & the Data Corpus..............................................119 vi Data Analysis..................................................................................................126 Chapter 4: Data..................................................................................................130 Reassembling Photoshop..............................................................................130 NODE: A Constellations of Software: The Many Photoshops.......................141 NODE: Not Photoshop: Free and Open Source Software Alternatives.........149 ......................................................................................................................149 NODE: Down & Dirty Tricks: Photoshop and Publishing Technical Manuals 152 NODE: Spyware as Collaboration: The Adobe Product Improvement Program ........................................................................................................................157 NODE: Photoshop Disasters: Retouching and Visual Blogging....................163 NODE: Cloning Invisibility: Photoshopping Woman from History .................168 NODE: Histochemical Seeing: Photoshop and Scientific Visualization.........174 NODE: Adobe Day at Ohio State University..................................................181 NODE: 32 to 64-Bit Transition: Photoshop Future Tense .............................184 NODE: Photoshop Semiotics: Theory and Practice of Photoshop in Art Education.......................................................................................................189 Adding a Node: Looking for the Visual in the Data........................................193 Assembling the Translations..........................................................................197 Chapter 5: Data Analysis....................................................................................204 Intersections of the Photoshop Actor-network and Visuality..........................204 Movement of the Technological Ecology: Distribution of Resources, Modest Designers, and Sustainability ........................................................................211 Movement of the Digital Chimera: Data-bodies, Digital Materiality, and the Live Image..............................................................................................................227 Movement of Network Being: Scale-free Networks and Translation Hubs....246 Conclusions: Performing with Photoshop .....................................................258 Chapter 6: Reflections and Recommendations..................................................263 Reflecting on the Cut: On Investigating Social Ontologies............................263 Recommendations for the Field of Art Education..........................................270 Recommendations for Future Research........................................................278 References.........................................................................................................285 Appendix A: User's Manual................................................................................305 A Short Glossary of
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