Wendy Chun: "Imagined Networks" | The Nonhuman Turn Conference, May 5, 2012
Channel: Center for 21st Century Studies
Date: 2012-08-21

Wendy Chun (Media and Modern Culture, Brown) delivers their talk, "Imagined Networks," at the Center for 21st Century Studies' (UW-Milwaukee) on May 05, 2012, during The Nonhuman Turn Conference.

Introduction by Anne Wysocki  (0:00)
Lecture (1:40)
Q&A (56:40)

Abstract: “Networks” has become a defining concept of our epoch. From
high-speed financial networks that erode national sovereignty to
networking sites like facebook.com that transform the meaning of
the word “friend,” networks allegedly encapsulate the “new.” Much theoretical work in the
humanities and social sciences has claimed that networks are the diagram for our current
institutions: from Jean François Lyotard’s description of the postmodern self as a “nodal
point” to Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s examination of U.S. sovereignty as a form of
“network power.” This paper asks: why? That is, rather than debating whether or not
networks really are new and overpowering, it asks why have they become so privileged?
What is explanatory power of networks? And why have they become the central theoretical
tool for disciplines as diverse as systems biology and media theory?

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