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Algorithmic recommendation is not simply a higher-resolution representation of a market — a more precise picture of atomistic individuals that does away with the need for larger-scale approximations like market segments. Rather, it is another mode of the synaptic function — another technique for making and interpreting correspondences between persons and things, another way of organizing collective forms. Collaborative filters algorithmically rearticulate the relationship between individual and aggregate traits, suggesting the need for social scientific theories that eschew the classic break between groups and their members (for a preliminary attempt at such an approach, see Latour et al., forthcoming).

The work of recommendation, like the work of demographic marketing, relies on the idea that there are meaningful similarities among consumers and that these similarities correspond with similarities in objects. However, in algorithmic form, these correspondences take on new forms and meanings, blending preference, identity, and similarity. As these theories are built into online infrastructures, shaping the relations between persons and things and articulating new collective forms, they demand attention, not only as material for analysis, but as new modes of analysis itself.

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from “Algorithmic Recommendations and Synaptic Functions”


Via Limn

“Conversation in a full elevator encroaches on the personal space of other riders, which is already greatly reduced. The closed space imparts a sense of intimacy, and the riders who aren’t participants in the discussion are left feeling like eavesdroppers. That’s not to say that no conversation occurs, but that conversations with strangers are kept to a minimum. Conversations themselves are somewhat awkward things - you never know how they’ll go with the other person if this is a first meeting, and in the close quarters of an elevator cab it can feel as though you’re under close scrutiny.”

From The Anthropology of Elevators

This is the sort of thing that makes contemporary anthropology so interesting but open to ridicule. Either way, the post is interesting and worth a read. 

Web 2.0, Prosumption, and Surveillance

Abstract: “Web 2.0” platforms such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter that focus on data sharing, communication, community, and co-production have become very popular. It is therefore important to understand the economic organization of these platforms. The discussion of surveillance in web 2.0 is important because such platforms collect huge amounts of personal data in order to work. In this paper, first the example of Google Buzz is discussed. Next, a model that conceptualizes the cycle of capital accumulation and distinguishes between production and circulation of capital is introduced, after which the role of surveillance in web 2.0 is outlined based on the cycle of capital accumulation. The notions of the Internet prosumer commodity and web 2.0 surveillance are introduced in order to characterize the relationship of production, consumption, and surveillance on web 2.0

Mama has a new favorite academic journal, Surveillance and Society

“Paglia knows better. She knows that women are women, feminists are stupid, communication networks have replaced real intimacies and Madonna was ripped off. What she doesn’t seem to know is that all cultural production consists of wild combinations of the new and the old, the borrowed and the bold, the real and the fabricated. She also doesn’t seem to know that every generation must have its icons and the tired cycle of oedipal denunciations within which older people sneer at younger people’s tastes never does change anything.”

Judith Jack Halberstam on why Camile Paglia’s opinion of Lady Gaga is irrelevant and dumb.

A Few Notes:

  • Bully Bloggers is a great blog about queer theory and critical cultural studies. The writers do a great job of making theory (somewhat) accessible. 

  • I love it when intellectuals tear into one another for not ‘getting it’ or having the wrong interpretation of some cultural artifact (e.g., song, artist, film). It’s all so asinine, but funny as hell. I see your obscure theory and raise you another obscure dead Frenchman. 
  • For the record, I love Lady Gaga. Is she an artist in the elitist, classical sense of the word? Probably not. Is she entertaining? Yes. Homegirl is totally a weirdo. Who else has made mainstream music in least bit interesting? Personally, I find her whole drag queen, Warhol, old is new schtick fun and amusing. I appreciate Gaga’s attempt to make being different cool, especially for young LGBTQ kids (e.g., She brings DADT victims to the VMAs). There will be another Gaga and we’ll forget about this one, but in the meantime, can we all agree that “Pokerface” is a killer karaoke song? Because It is. Period. End of statement.