Topological and networked visibility: Politics of seeing in the digital age
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Authors
Publication Date
2019-11-26Journal Title
Semiotica
ISSN
0037-1998
Publisher
De Gruyter
Volume
2019
Issue
231
Pages
259-277
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Martini, M. (2019). Topological and networked visibility: Politics of seeing in the digital age. Semiotica, 2019 (231), 259-277. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2017-0139
Abstract
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. Today, the convergence of video-based Internet Communication Technologies (ICTs) is challenging centralized control over cultural topologies. Accordingly, this paper proposes a theoretical prism for the analysis of the sociopolitical impact of online audio-visual communication. More precisely, this study discusses how topological visibility (i.e. culture-based, highly centralized and spatially organized visibility structures) and networked visibility (i.e. occurrence-based, decentralized and network organized visibility structures) interact in today's digital landscape. To this aim, four examples divided into two clusters will be discussed. The first cluster (i.e. Occupy Movement and BlackBerry Riots) will describe the functioning of topological visibility, while the second cluster (i.e. NO DAPL drone activism and Aleppo residents' live-streaming) will illustrate how technology-enhanced mediability may create networked spaces of appearance. The paper concludes by arguing that networked visibility does not neutralize the relational nature of the human gaze but rather forces and expands the culturally-defined boundaries of its legitimate social existence.
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (837727)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2017-0139
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/301938
Rights
All rights reserved