Connectivity, Legibility and the Mass Image

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Cubitt, Sean. 2018. Connectivity, Legibility and the Mass Image. In: Pepita Hesselberth; Janna Hoowen; Esther Peeren and Ruby de Vois, eds. Legibility in the Age of Signs and Machines. 33 Leiden and Boston: Brill Rodopi, pp. 166-179. ISBN 978-90-04-37548-2 [Book Section]

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Official URL: https://brill.com/abstract/title/38788

Abstract or Description

Network connectivity should surely by now have already arrived at the global village. Instead, our only universal is the commodity form. To the extent that the actually existing global formation is universal, it does not constitute a culture. But if legibility is a hallmark of culture, the implication is that global connectivity is illegible. The humanities alone are equipped to identify what is truly illegible, a task we perform precisely by reading, using every technique we have, eclectically, to find an entry into the opacity of events. This essay argues that connectivity has produced a universal mass image, and asks whether it is possible to restore legibility to it, and if so in what forms.

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