MARIANNE VAN DEN BOOMEN TRANS CODING THE DIGITAL HOW METAPHORS MATTER IN NEW MEDIA A SERIES OF READERS PUBLISHED BY THE INSTITUTE OF NETWORK CULTURES ISSUE NO.: 14 MARIANNE VAN DEN BOOMEN TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL HOW METAPHORS MATTER IN NEW MEDIA Theory on Demand #14 Transcoding the Digital: How Metaphors Matter in New Media Author: Marianne van den Boomen Editorial support: Miriam Rasch Design and DTP: Katja van Stiphout Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2014 Printer: ‘Print on Demand’ First 200 copies printed at Drukkerij Steenman, Enkhuizen ISBN: 978-90-818575-7-4 Earlier and different versions of Chapter 2 has been published in 2008 as ‘Interfacing by Iconic Metaphors’, in Configurations 16 (1): 33-55, and in 2009 as ‘Interfacing by Material Metaphors: How Your Mailbox May Fool You’, in Digital Material: Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology, edited by Marianne van den Boomen, Sybille Lammes, Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Joost Raessens, and Mirko Tobias Schäfer. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, p. 253-266. An earlier and different version of Chapter 6 has been published in 2006 as ‘Transcoding Metaphors after the Mediatic Turn’, in SPIEL 25 (h.1): 47-58. Contact Institute of Network Cultures Phone: +31 20 5951865 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.networkcultures.org This publication is available through various print on demand services. For more information, and a freely downloadable PDF: http://networkcultures.org/publications This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL 3 TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL HOW METAPHORS MATTER IN NEW MEDIA De transcodering van het digitale Hoe metaforen ertoe doen in nieuwe media (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op woensdag 12 februari 2014 des middags te 12.45 uur door Marianne Veronica Theresia van den Boomen geboren op 28 november 1955 te Den Haag 4 THEORY ON DEMAND Promotoren: Prof.dr. J.F.F. Raessens Prof.dr. J. de Mul Prof.dr. C.M. Slade Copromotor: Dr. S. Lammes TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL 5 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 9 It takes a network INTRODUCTION 12 Metaphor, meaning, and code 1 — Where is my mail? 13 2 — The riddle of digital praxis 17 Transcoding the digital Translations in actor-networks Material semiotics 3 — Metaphors we compute by 23 Overview of the chapters CHAPTER 1: INTERFACING BY INDEXICAL ICONS 27 How your mailbox may fool you 1 — Interfaces, machines, and digits 28 A computer is not a coffee machine A computer is not a pianola The screen sucks Iconic condensation 2 — Between iconicity and indexicality 37 Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness Indexical symbols with virtual objects Tools ready-to-hand and present-at-hand 3 — Conceptual metaphor 43 Sources, targets, and black boxes CHAPTER 2: MATERIAL METAPHORS 48 How objects turn into social organizers 1 — Levels of materiality 48 2 — Material metaphor 50 Travels, roads, and maps Media-Specific Analysis Material-metaphorical networks Metaphor and indexicality revisited 3 — Metaphorical objects in anthropology 58 Knives, pots, and villages Material metaphors as social organizers 4 — Contemporary scripted objects 62 Doors, keys, and shavers Scripted objects versus material metaphors Disciplining artifacts and informational objects 5 — Digital-material metaphors 67 6 THEORY ON DEMAND Files, forums, and tweets Material metaphor analysis CHAPTER 3: MEDIATION BY METONYMY AND METAPHOR 72 How media multiply and dissolve 1— What do we call a medium? 73 Media metonyms Discourse metaphors of media 2 — Metaphors of processing 79 Media as membrane Media as master Spaces of media Media ecology 3 — Metaphors of transmission 89 Media as channel The conduit discourse The toolmakers paradigm 4 — Metaphors of storage 96 Media as container The inscription discourse CHAPTER 4: IMMEDIACY BY METAPHOR 103 How mediation becomes invisible 1 — The desire for immediacy 103 Closing the gap Transparent immediacy 2 — Windows, mirrors, and tools 10 8 Virtual windows Multiple digital windows Windows and mirrors Mirrors or tools 3 — Remediating immediacy 115 No remediation without demediation Aggressive remediation 4 — Remediation revisited 120 Remediation produces media Transmediation beyond media Trajectories of digital transmediation CHAPTER 5: CODE RULES 128 How software matters and metaphorizes 1 — The political history of software 128 Commanding girls or computers Software as (forgotten) labor Software as ideology Software politics 2 — Coding digits, objects, and concepts 13 6 Software as numbers Software as language TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL 7 Software as objects Software as prescription Software as battlefield Software as translator 3 — Digital-material coding and transcoding 150 The materiality of software Inside the machine Outside the machine 4 — Repositioning materiality 154 Software as material metaphor CHAPTER 6: TRANSCODING THE SOCIAL INTO NETWORKS 158 How the digital gets socialized 1 — The virtual community metaphor 158 Community as village Community discourse 2 — The Web 2.0 metaphor 162 Web 2.0 as software upgrade Web 2.0 as sharing and linking Web 2.0 as harnessing and harvesting 3 — Recounting the web 16 5 Web 1.1: Scripting the web Web 1.2: Extending the hyperlink Decentered spaces and socialities 4 — Network metaphors 170 The telegraph and the nervous system Electronic highway Cyberspace imagery The network graph 5 — This is not a network 18 0 Net-works, work-nets, and mobility Control by protocol CONCLUSIONS: A MANIFESTO FOR HACKING METAPHORS 18 6 How metaphors matter in digital praxis 1 – What metaphors are not 187 Metaphors are never just metaphorical 2 — Tracing digital-material metaphors 18 8 Go beyond conceptual metaphors Material metaphors transfer, translate, and transform 3 — Hacking digital matters of fact 19 0 Hack the icontology of interfacial immediacy Hack software ideology and its metaphors References 195 Samenvatting 211 Curriculum Vitae 220 8 THEORY ON DEMAND TRANSCODING THE DIGITAL 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IT TAKES A NETWORK It takes a network to raise a PhD thesis, as everyone who ever did so, knows. During the years it took me to put this thing together, many people, from many different angles, clubs, and gather- ings, on many different occasions, chipped in, sometimes without even knowing it. Let me start with those who did know what this was supposed to be, even before I knew it my- self. I am deeply indebted to the people at the Faculty of the Humanities, at the Institute for Cul- tural Inquiry (ICON), and at the Department for Media and Culture Studies (MCW) for creating the best job in the world. Thank you for hiring me as a so-called 50/50 teacher-researcher in the New Media and Digital Culture (NMDC) program, for your patience, and for your generous sup- port that enabled me to visit several international conferences and to publish finally this book. The best job in the world would be nothing without inspiring co-workers. In the NMDC staff I also found the best colleagues in the world. Thank you for being such a lovely, supporting, smart, critical, hard working, and life-enjoying bunch of people: Marinka Copier, Isabella van Elferen, Karin van Es, René Glas, Cris van der Hoek, Selene Kolman, Erna Kotkamp, Michiel de Lange, Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Johannes Paßmann, Thomas Poell, Joost Raessens, Indira Reynaert, Martina Roepke, and Tom van de Wetering. Special and warm kudos should go to my 50/50 fellows who soon became true friends, Mirko Tobias Schäfer and Imar de Vries. Our revels were fabulous and I deeply enjoyed our debates, drinks, dinners, seminars, travels, gossip, and jokes. You rock ! The MCW network is larger than new media studies. I learned a lot from my colleagues at gender studies, at seminars on posthumanism and new materialism, and while developing interdisci- plinary courses: Cecilia Åsberg, Rosi Braidotti, Rosemarie Buikema, Sanne Koevoets, Kathrin Thiele, Iris van der Tuin, Berteke Waaldijk, and Doro Wiese. The same holds for the MCW media seminars, where I argued with inspiring colleagues from film and television studies about what a medium actually is and why the screen sucks: Rick Dolphijn, Chiel Kattenbelt, Frank Kessler, Eggo Müller, and Nanna Verhoeff. The 50/50 position implied a lot of teaching, which has been a challenge as well as a great pleasure. I have met many great students that baffled me with their insights, ideas, and questions, of whom I can only mention a few: Koen Leurs, Elize de Mul, Shirley Niemans, Levien Nordeman, Tijmen Schep, and Tom van de Wetering. At the Philosophy department In Rotterdam I found a hospitable academic home when I was still a nomadic PhD wannabee. At seminars and staff meetings there I had the honor to witness and partake in the wildest debates masterminded by this remarkable crowd of philosophers: Wim van Binsbergen, Bibi van den Berg, Ger Groot, Niels Helsloot, Jeroen van den Hoven, Jos de Mul, André Nusselder, Elke Müller, Henk Oosterling, and Awee Prins. There, I also found my supervisor Jos de Mul, who believed in me right from the start, and whose never ending warm support and wise comments kept me on the right track. 10 THEORY ON DEMAND I am also much indebted to my supervisors in Utrecht. Christina Slade, with her amazing ability to pair the strictest analytical philosophy with wild creative thinking, guided me through the develop- ment of my argument. Joost Raessens, with his equally amazing ability to combine pragmatism with playfulness and Deleuzian philosophy, was extremely helpful in the last phase, and sharp- ened my thoughts on what my research was actually about. Sybille Lammes, my co-promotor, has been a generous sparring partner during all those years and taught me a lot about the finesses of actor-network theory and digital cartography.