{"id":96,"date":"2011-05-16T09:48:12","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T09:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/academic\/?p=96"},"modified":"2023-05-27T09:27:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T09:27:04","slug":"spt2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kreps.org\/academic\/spt2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual, Phenomenal, Real and Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spt\"David presented a paper at the Society for Philosophy of Technology<\/a> conference, in Denton, Texas, USA, entitled ‘Virtual, Phenomenal, Real and Mobile’\u00a0in May 2011. \u00a0The Call for Papers is archived here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong>: \u00a0The debate between \u2018realism\u2019 and \u2018social constructivism\u2019, rehearsed and ov<\/span>erviewed in Ian Hacking\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0book, \u201cThe Social Construction of What,\u201d (Hacking\u00a0<\/span>1999<\/span>) has nonetheless seen a number of attempts to find common ground, or unifying principles \/ theoretical frameworks. \u00a0Notable amongst these have been Karen Barad\u2019s feminist\/cyborgian inspired agential realism, and Wanda Orlikowski\u2019s actor-network-theory inspired sociomateriality. \u00a0 Barad links Neils Bohr\u2019s quantum mechanical reformulation of objective reality with Michel Foucault\u2019s theorising of the social and political aspects of practices and apparatuses<\/span>(Foucault 1995<\/span>a<\/span>; 1997)<\/span>, to conceive objects as material-discursive phenomena: \u2018agential realism.\u2019 \u201c<\/span>If our descriptive characterizations do not refer to properties of abstract objects or observation-independe<\/span>nt beings but rather describe a<\/span>gential reality, then what is being described by our theories is not nature itself but our participation within nature<\/span>\u201d (Barad 1999:7). \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Beyond the\u00a0<\/span>similar\u00a0<\/span>dichotomies between \u2018techno-centric\u2019 and \u2018human-centred\u2019 approaches to understanding technology, whereby either technology \u201cleverages human action\u201d or \u201c\u2018vanishes\u2019 from view in the preoccupation with the social,\u201d (<\/span>Orlikowski\u00a0<\/span>2006:461), Orlikowski proposes a third approach, citing Latour (1992; 2004), and Law (1992) among others as having provided a theoretical framework that eschews this binarism.\u00a0<\/span>Orlikowski\u2019s approach focuses on what she terms the \u201cscaffolding of knowledgeability\u201d (ibid 2006:462), characterising knowing as being scaffolded \u201cculturally (e.g., through codes, language, norms) and materially (e.g., through physical objects, biological structures, spatial contexts, and technological artifacts),\u201d (ibid 2006:462) with special emphasis upon the last.<\/span><\/p>\n

This paper offers a brief precis of the position taken by these two authors, in the context outlined by Hacking, and picks out some of the linkages between the two. It then seeks to explore how\u00a0<\/span>these<\/span>\u00a0two<\/span>attempts to\u00a0<\/span>bridge the gap between realist and social constructionist<\/span>point<\/span>s of view<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>might benefit from<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the philosophical standpoint of Henri<\/span>Bergson’s<\/span>\u00a0concept of the<\/span>\u00a0dur<\/span>\u00e9<\/span>e r<\/span>\u00e9<\/span>elle<\/span>, or real duration,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and its poststructur<\/span>a<\/span>list interpretation by Gilles Deleuze (Bergson 1944; \u00a0<\/span>Deleuze, 1991<\/span>). \u00a0Bergson maintains that<\/span>\u00a0intellection splits and categorises the past, not the<\/span>\u00a0unified<\/span>\u00a0unfolding present<\/span>, which is apprehended intuitively, rather than intellectually, in our consciousness, thus offering a reconceptualisation of time and space that allows for both realism (in our intellectual apprehension of the past) and social constructivism (in our immediate experience of the present.) \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, s<\/span>martphones have enjoyed phenomenal growth in the latter part of the first decade of this century.\u00a0<\/span>By 2012 sales of such devices are predicted to outstrip sales of PCs, and by 2015 more people will be accessing the internet with such devices than they will be with a PC. \u00a0(Meeker et al 2010) \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Key to the growth and popularity of such devices has been the convergence, not just of telecomms and photographic equipment, which helped drive mobile phone sales, and the addition of internet access, which defined the smartphone, but the addition, following the success of in-car satellite navigation devices, of GPS receivers into mobile internet devices. \u00a0The integration of GPS technology into smartphones, coupled with the consumer-led approach of Apple\u2019s iPhone, gave birth to a whole new class of location-based services for mobile internet devices, available in particular for the iPhone, but also for Android, and other devices. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With location based services becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, this paper lastly asks whether daily and intensive use of smartphones offers us\u00a0<\/span>a virtual layer to\u00a0<\/span>sociomaterial agential\u00a0<\/span>reality<\/span>\u00a0–<\/span>making\u00a0<\/span>agential\u00a0<\/span>reality media-rich<\/span>\u00a0–<\/span>\u00a0and how this\u00a0<\/span>might\u00a0<\/span>present us\u00a0<\/span>both\u00a0<\/span>with further<\/span>\u00a0Bergsonian<\/span>\u00a0intellection<\/span>\u00a0ever<\/span>\u00a0closer to the present,\u00a0<\/span>bu<\/span>t at the same time a much more ephemeral\u00a0<\/span>sense of the\u00a0<\/span>‘real.’<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Is such virtuality, the paper concludes, to be seen as any the less real than Barad\u2019s objectivity-as-phenomenon? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ref<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Kreps, D (2011) ‘Virtual, Phenomenal, Real and Mobile’. Paper delivered at\u00a0 17th Society for Philosophy and Technology\u00a0Denton, Texas, May 2011<\/p>\n