The Dilution of Avant-garde Subcultural Boundaries in Network Society

1:00pm - 1:30pm, December 10, 2014
TSRB 125 (85 5th ST NE Room 113, Atlanta, GA 30308)

Committee:
Carl DiSalvo, Chair
School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Janet Murray
School of Literature, Media, and Communication 

Ian Bogost

School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Eugene Thacker
School of Media Studies
The New School

Sarah Cook
College of Art and Design

University of Dundee

ABSTRACT
The social and spatial boundaries that historically have enabled avant-garde subcultures to incubate novel cultural forms and concepts have become diluted in network society.  While the field of digital media has benefited from both the theories and practices of the avant-garde, digital media technologies are responsible for this dilution of boundaries.  For this reason, digital media theory can provide analysis of the problem, and assist in conception of new boundaries that account for the effects of network society in their design. 

This dissertation identifies four properties of network society that dilute avant-garde subcultural boundaries: Realized Abstractions (Lefebvre) where digital media alters our perceptions of agency; Access (Virilio, Turkle) where the degree of networked connectivity informs our relationship with society; Absent Presence (Gergen) where our sense of self is split between onlineand physical spaces; and the Homogenization of Space (Castells) where the overall variations between global cultures decreases.  Examples from contemporary avant-garde practice are used to explain the effects from each of these properties.   Finally, methods for producing new boundaries which have proven successful in other thought communities, specifically startups, are presented as potential opportunities for avant-garde subcultures to consider.