M796883front.qxd 8/1/05 11:15 AM Page 1 Media Ecologies Media Ecologies Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture Matthew Fuller In Media Ecologies, Matthew Fuller asks what happens when media systems interact. Complex objects such as media systems—understood here as processes, or ele- ments in a composition as much as “things”—have become informational as much as physical, but without losing any of their fundamental materiality. Fuller looks at this multi- plicitous materiality—how it can be sensed, made use of, and how it makes other possibilities tangible. He investi- gates the ways the different qualities in media systems can be said to mix and interrelate, and, as he writes, “to produce patterns, dangers, and potentials.” Fuller draws on texts by Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, as well as writings by Friedrich Nietzsche, Marshall McLuhan, Donna Haraway, Friedrich Kittler, and others, to define and extend the idea of “media ecology.” Arguing that the only way to find out about what happens new media/technology when media systems interact is to carry out such interac- tions, Fuller traces a series of media ecologies—“taking every path in a labyrinth simultaneously,” as he describes one chapter. He looks at contemporary London-based pirate radio and its interweaving of high- and low-tech “Media Ecologies offers an exciting first map of the mutational body of media systems; the “medial will to power” illustrated by analog and digital media technologies. Fuller rethinks the generation and “the camera that ate itself”; how, as seen in a range of interaction of media by connecting the ethical and aesthetic dimensions compelling interpretations of new media works, the capac- of perception.” ities and behaviors of media objects are affected when —Luciana Parisi, Leader, MA Program in Cybernetic Culture, University of they are in “abnormal” relationships with other objects; East London and each step in a sequence of Web pages, Cctv—world wide watch, that encourages viewers to report crimes seen Media Ecologies via webcams. Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture Contributing to debates around standardization, cul- F tural evolution, cybernetic culture, and surveillance, and u inventing a politically challenging aesthetic that links l l them, Media Ecologies, with its various narrative speeds, e scales, frames of reference, and voices, does not offer the r academically traditional unifying framework; rather, Fuller says, it proposes to capture “an explosion of activity and ideas to which it hopes to add an echo.” The MIT Press Massachusetts Institute of Technology Matthew Fuller is Reader in Media Design, Piet Zwart Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 Institute, Rotterdam. He is the author of Behind the Blip: http://mitpress.mit.edu Essays on the Culture of Software. Matthew Fuller 0-262-06247-X ,!7IA2G2-agcehd!:t;K;k;K;k A Leonardo Book Media Ecologies LEONARDO Roger F. Malina, series editor The Visual Mind, edited by Michele Emmer, 1993 Leonardo Almanac, edited by Craig Harris, 1994 Designing Information Technology, Richard Coyne, 1995 Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments, edited by Mary Anne Moser with Douglas MacLeod, 1996 Technoromanticism: Digital Narrative, Holism, and the Romance of the Real, Richard Coyne, 1999 In Search of Innovation: The Xerox PARC Artist-in Residence Program, edited by Craig Harris, 1999 The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media, edited by Peter Lunenfeld, 1999 The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet, edited by Ken Goldberg, 2000 The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich, 2000 Metal and Flesh: The Evolution of Man: Technology Takes Over, Ollivier Dyens, 2001 Uncanny Networks: Dialogues with the Virtual Intelligentsia, Geert Lovink, 2002 Information Arts: A Survey of Art and Research at the Intersection of Art, Science, and Technology, Stephen Wilson, 2002 Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, Oliver Grau, 2003 Women, Art, and Technology, edited by Judy Malloy, 2003 At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet, edited by Annmarie Chandler and Norie Neumark, 2004 Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization, Alexander R. Galloway, 2004 CODE: Collaborative Ownership and the Digital Economy, edited by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, 2005 From Technological to Virtual Art, Frank Popper, 2005 The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics, and Culture, Eugene Thacker, 2005 Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture, Matthew Fuller, 2005 Media Ecologies Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture Matthew Fuller The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2005 Matthew Fuller All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected] or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., Cambridge, MA 02142. This book was set in Garamond 3 and Bell Gothic by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fuller, Matthew. Media ecologies : materialist energies in art and technoculture / Matthew Fuller. p. cm.—(Leonardo) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-06247-X (hc : alk. paper) 1. Aesthetics, Modern—20th century. 2. Digital communications. 3. Mass media—Aesthetics. 4. Telecommunication. 5. Technology and the arts. I. Title. II. Leonardo (Series) (Cambridge, Mass.). BH201.F85 2005 700¢.1¢05—dc22 2004058178 10987654321 Contents series foreword vii foreword by joel slayton ix acknowledgments xi abbreviations used xiii introduction: media ecologies 1 1 the r, the a, the d, the i, the o: the media ecology of pirate radio 13 2 the camera that ate itself 55 3 how this becomes that 85 4 seams, memes, and flecks of identity 109 inventory 167 appendix a 177 notes 179 references 231 index 257 Series Foreword The cultural convergence of art, science, and technology provides ample opportunity for artists to challenge the very notion of how art is produced and to call into question its subject matter and its function in society. The mission of the Leonardo book series, published by The MIT Press, is to publish texts by artists, scientists, researchers, and scholars that present innovative discourse on the convergence of art, science, and technology. Envisioned as a catalyst for enterprise, research, and creative and scholarly experimentation, the book series enables diverse intellectual communities to explore common grounds of expertise. The Leonardo book series provides a context for the discussion of contemporary practice, ideas, and frameworks in this rapidly evolving arena where art and science connect. To find more information about Leonardo/ISAST and to order our publi- cations, go to Leonardo Online at <http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/ Leonardo/isast/leobooks.html> or send e-mail to <leonardobooks@mitpress. mit.edu>. Joel Slayton Chair, Leonardo Book Series Book Series Advisory Committee: Annick Bureaud, Pamela Grant Ryan, Craig Harris, Margaret Morse, Michael Punt, Douglas Sery, Allen Strange. Leonardo/International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology (ISAST) Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, and the affiliated French organization Association Leonardo have two very simple goals: 1. to document and make known the work of artists, researchers, and schol- ars interested in the ways that the contemporary arts interact with science and technology, and 2. to create a forum and meeting places where artists, scientists, and engi- neers can meet, exchange ideas, and, where appropriate, collaborate. When the journal Leonardo was started some thirty-five years ago, these cre- ative disciplines existed in segregated institutional and social networks, a sit- uation dramatized at that time by the “Two Cultures” debates initiated by C. P. Snow. Today we live in a different time of cross-disciplinary ferment, col- laboration and intellectual confrontation enabled by new hybrid organizations, new funding sponsors, and the shared tools of computers and the Internet. Above all, new generations of artist-researchers and researcher-artists are now at work individually and in collaborative teams bridging the art, science, and technology disciplines. Perhaps in our lifetime we will see the emergence of “new Leonardos,” creative individuals or teams who will not only develop a meaningful art for our times but also drive new agendas in science and stim- ulate technological innovation that addresses today’s human needs. For more information on the activities of the Leonardo organizations and networks, please visit our Web site at <http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo>. Roger F. Malina Chair, Leonardo/ISAST ISAST Board of Directors: Martin Anderson, Mark Resch, Ed Payne, Sonya Rapoport, Stephen Wilson, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Joel Slayton, Penelope Finnie, Curtis Karnow, Mina Bissell, Beverly Reiser, Piero Scaruffi. Series Foreword viii Foreword Joel Slayton All programmatic structures (cultural and informational) are composed of determinates that when analyzed from a specific perspective describe their objects and processes of being. One way to discover or reveal the determinates of any complex structure is