[iDC] Introduction

[Mark Andrejevic]

Hi Folks,
I'm also introducing myself to the list -- it looks like a wonderfully
interesting group of people. For the past several years I've been writing
about the de-differentation of the realms of production, consumption,
leisure, and domesticitiy in the interactive era. My interest in the uses of
interactivity started with an examination of collaborative forms of artwork
enabled by digital media and the internet. From there I considered the
uptake of the "promise" of interactivity (as democratizing, empowering,
etc.) in the realms of commerce and popular culture. My book, Reality TV:
The Work of Being Watched situates the reality TV boom of the new millenium
within the context of the mobilization of the promise of interactivity as a
form of participation and attendant forms of willing submission to
productive forms of monitoring. I take this thread up and generalize it to
an exploration of the uses of interactivity in the realms of politics,
national security, commerce, and the mass media in my second book: iSpy:
Surveillance adn Power in the Interactive Era. The second book traces the
continuity of digitally enhanced mass customization with turn of the
(previous century) forms of monitoring based rationalization of the realms
of consumption and production. My current work focuses on the development of
a theory of exploitation appropriate to the mobilization of so-called  "free
labor" and on collective strategies for delimiting commercial forms of
monitoring and data mining.  I am currently a research fellow at the Centre
for Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Queensland in
Brisbane, Australia and am on leave from my position as an Associate
Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of
Iowa.
I look forward to continuing the conversation!
all the best,
Mark
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