[Air-l] A paper on Networks, Fluids and Chaos

mboudour at upatras.gr mboudour at upatras.gr
Mon Oct 1 10:43:50 PDT 2001


Dear all,

Those interested might find at the URL:

	http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/articles/nfc.pdf

a first draft of my paper on Networks, Fluids and Chaos that I intend to
present to the Spacing & Timing Conference to take place in Palermo
(Italy) next month.

I guess this topic is not exactly among the interests of the list but
since recently we had a discussion about ANT in here, you might find in my
paper some of the more recent developments of the Latourians (plus
Bauman).

The abstarct follows.

Cheers,

--Moses Boudourides

  http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour

Abstract:

Our aim in this essay is to talk about three forms of social spatiality:
networks, fluids and chaos. These forms are being inscribed into various
theories and are being mobilized into multiple translations (metaphors) as
states in which things exist or as processes through which things are
transformed. According to Latour, two are the essential characteristics of
processes producing what is specific to our modern scientific culture that
one has to follow if determined to avoid both 'mentalist' and
'materialist' explanations: mobility and mutability. Mobility refers to
easiness in translations, displacements and movements towards various
directions. Mutability is the degree to which something can change, be
transformed and mutate.  Combinations of mobility/mutability and their
opposites produce the following four spatialities: immutable immobiles,
immutable mobiles, mutable mobiles and mutable immobiles. We would like to
see these spatialies along what we call the 'cycle of
mobility/immutability,' which consists of the following processes:
inscription, geometric purification, description and hybridization. When
modern information and communication technologies mediate these
spatialities, the outcome emerges through processes such as digital
inscriptions, algorithmic purification, morphing, simulation. Furthermore,
we discuss certain sociological and cultural aspects of the social
spatialities of networks, fluids and chaos. 







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