Uneven distribution : an interview with Ned Rossiter on logistics and mediated environments

This conversation with Ned Rossiter marks the second in a series of dialogues on the subject of logistics. In its simplest definition, we might say that logistics is the management of the flows and circulation of goods, ideas, and peoples "” with a typical emphasis placed on efficiency and optimization. In its everydayness, it is what determines who lives in a world of two-day deliveries, who doesn't, and what products may be shipped faster than others. All this is dependent, of course, on where things may be produced or stored, who the products are being shipped to, and what the political and economic relationship might be between one point and another. Yet, such a definition, while helpful, runs the risks of discounting how logistics mediates and produces certain forms of territories and political arrangements. As discussed in the first interview of the series, logistical media are "the means of orientation, the way in which time and space can be measured." This interview continues the previous discussion, focusing particularly on the situations and geographies mediated by logistics.