Shaping Realities

The Internet is a hyperobject (Morton, 2013), an entity so all- encompassing and all-consuming that it is almost impossible for us, as individuals, to perceive. Nonetheless, it shapes our lives; defining the information we can access, the images we see, the things we buy, the places we go, our personal and professional communication, etc, etc. How can we become cognisant of the way in which we are produced by this omnipresent network? How can we develop a sensibility that is aware of a system that we are totally enmeshed in? In this seminar, we approach the overwhelming whole by breaking it down into a number of its constitutive elements and taking various perspective.

- Technically; what are the protocols that underpin data flows and exchange?

- Physically; what is the offline infrastructure that enables online communication?

- Politically; which powers control, direct and govern what happens in the digital realm?

- Socially; how is our way of being together, and our processes of cognition, shifting and evolving through our networked existence?

- Artistically; which aesthetics, metaphors, and analogies are formed, and how do these, in turn, manifest themselves in network technologies, infrastructures, and applications?