[iDC] Reply to Abe Burmeister

[nathaniel tkacz]

Abe - I wholeheartedly agree that left/right politics is not always the best
framework for thinking about contemporary politics. Distributed politics -
and I'm thinking here of the types of network protocols that Alex Galloway
and (in a very different way) Larry Lessig describe in regards to online
environments - is certainly an interesting a important alternative to older
paradigms. Both these thinkers - and again, in very different ways - point
to distributed media, or code, as a key site for the exercise of power. (And
here distribution is used in a very literal and technical manner.) Lessig
famously remarks that (computer) 'code is law' and Galloway borrows from
Foucault to suggest that a new 'diagram of power' is to be found on the web
(that he calls protocol).

I would like to invite you to comment further on your concluding remarks
about Latour, network theory, and distributed politics. Latour has
(humorously) remarked on the problems of ANT as name for his philosophy,
suggesting instead that something like actant-rhizome-ontology is more
appropriate. He seems to be pointing to an understanding of 'network' that
is quite broad. My understanding of Latour's use is that 'network' is 'what
there is'. Network is something like a flattened ontology, where everyone
and everything are included (or 'real'), from people, to discourse, to
objects and so on. In this sense, 'network' is a very amorphous thing;
simply an aggregate. I would like for you (or anyone else) to expand upon
the gesture you made to 'the actual advances in network theory itself' in
relation to Latour's network ontology: what can these advances illuminate?
And what is missing from Latour?

Best,

Nate Tkacz

-- 
Nate Tkacz
PhD Candidate
School of Culture and Communication
University of Melbourne

Contact:
n.tkacz at pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
nathanieltkacz at gmail.com
ph: 0438 759061
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