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Digital Environmental Metabolisms: An Ecocritical Project of the Digital Environmental Humanities by Amanda Starling Gould Department of Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Katherine Hayles, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ David Bell ___________________________ Michael Hardt Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 i v ABSTRACT Digital Environmental Metabolisms: An Ecocritical Project of the Digital Environmental Humanities by Amanda Starling Gould Department of Literature Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Katherine Hayles, Supervisor ___________________________ Mark Hansen ___________________________ David Bell ___________________________ Michael Hardt An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Literature in the Graduate School of Duke University 2017 Copyright by Amanda Starling Gould 2017 Abstract By combining literary, ecocritical, and media techniques with a mindfulness of the environment, “Digital Environmental Metabolisms: An Ecocritical Project of the Digital Environmental Humanities” contributes to the urgent task of re-orienting media theory toward environmental concerns. It is informed by the premise that, in our present Anthropocenic age defined by humans acting as a geophysical force, human bodies, cultural technologies, and the earth are intersecting material practices. I argue this intersectionality is neither cyborgian nor posthuman, as some media scholars insist, but is something far more natural: it is a metabolic relationship wherein each system is inherently implicated in the perpetuation of the others. Through a series of chapters that dispense with standard maps of cyberspace and the social network replacing them with a digital geography of wires, workers, warehouses, and waste, this project shifts the media theoretical focus from one grounded in computation to one fully rooted in the earth. Unlike others, like those mentioned here within, who are contributing to what may be called an emerging environmental media studies, I offer several practical and theoretical interventions, including Permaculture and Ecocritical Digital Humanities, that are capable of moving us toward more sustainable digital practice and a more robust Anthropocene Humanities. iv Dedication “The plain fact is that the planet…desperately need[s] more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane.” David Orr Dedicated to those who work to heal the earth. v Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Contents ......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... xi Chapter One: Digital Environmental Metabolism ................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 The Technosphere .................................................................................................................. 3 Greening Media Studies ........................................................................................................ 5 Digital Metabolism ................................................................................................................. 9 Metabolisms .......................................................................................................................... 10 Digital Metabolism: Information, Energy, Transformation, Matter .............................. 15 Metabolism as Ecological .................................................................................................... 18 An Ecocritical Reading of Digital Theory ......................................................................... 20 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 30 Chapter Two: Restor(y)ing the Ground with Digital Environmental Media Studies ....... 38 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 38 Elemental Media ................................................................................................................... 46 Digital Mineralities/Mineral-ties ...................................................................................... 46 Digital Ecological Rucksack .............................................................................................. 48 Atmospheric Media ............................................................................................................ 50 vi The Cyborg .......................................................................................................................... 53 Re-narrating Digital Labor ................................................................................................ 56 Locative Media ...................................................................................................................... 69 Media Located: Wires, Warehouses, and Infrastructure .............................................. 69 Warehouses: There is No Cloud ....................................................................................... 73 Powering the Cloud ........................................................................................................... 76 Digital Memory ..................................................................................................................... 79 Conclusion: Digital Sustainability .................................................................................... 87 Chapter Three: An Ecosystem of Excess .................................................................................. 89 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 89 Digital Environmental Art .................................................................................................. 94 Mineral Visions ..................................................................................................................... 98 Mother Earth, Mother Board ............................................................................................. 101 Another Ecosystem of Excess ........................................................................................... 104 Digital Mineral Labels........................................................................................................ 113 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 122 Chapter Four: Sustainable Digital Scholarship through Permaculture and Ecocritical Digital Humanities .................................................................................................................... 124 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 124 Activating Digital Environmental Metabolism .............................................................. 125 What is Permaculture? ....................................................................................................... 128 Permaculture as Sustainable Digital Practice ................................................................. 132 vii Deep Digital Ecological Thinking: Everything is Connected ..................................... 132 Making the Case for Care: Earth Care is People Care ................................................. 137 Permaculture Manual for the Digital: Appropriate Technology, Sustainability, Maintenance, and Repair ................................................................................................... 143 Appropriate technology .................................................................................................. 143 Sustainable Maintenance ................................................................................................. 144 Care-full Digital Use .................................................................................................... 148 Repair ............................................................................................................................. 154 Everything Gardens: Using Ecocritical DH to Obtain a Yield ..................................... 162 Ecocritical Digital Engagement ...................................................................................... 162 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................