Logistical media and black box politics

Research output: Other contribution

Abstract

Logistical media determine our situation. While the missing flight MH370 is yet to be found, for the rest of us there is nowhere left to hide. The horror of cybernetic extension into the vicissitudes of daily life is now well and truly a reality. CCTV cameras, motion capture technologies, RFID chips, smart phones and locational media, GPS devices, biometric monitoring of people and ecological systems – these are just some of the more familiar technologies that generate data and modulate movement and consumption within the logistical city, or what Friedrich Kittler terms “the city as medium.” The logistical city marks a departure from both the global city of finance capital and the industrial city of factories. The logistical city is elastic, its borders are flexible and determined by the everchanging coordinates of supply chain capitalism. Populated by warehouses, ports, inter-modal terminals, container yards and data centres, the logistical city is spatially defined by zones, corridors and concessions. It is a city that subtracts the time of dreams to maintain the demands of 24/7 capitalism (Crary).
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Publication series

Name4
Volume4

Keywords

  • computers
  • social aspects
  • culture

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