Always connect—that is the imperative of today’s media. But what about those moments when media cease to function properly, when messages go beyond the sender and receiver to become excluded from the world of communication itself—those messages that state: “There will be no more messages”? In this book, Alexander R. Galloway, Eugene Thacker, and McKenzie Wark turn our usual understanding of media and mediation on its head by arguing that these moments reveal the ways the impossibility of communication is integral to communication itself—instances they call excommunication.
In three linked essays, Excommunication pursues this elusive topic by looking at mediation in the face of banishment, exclusion, and heresy, and by contemplating the possibilities of communication with the great beyond. First, Galloway proposes an original theory of mediation based on classical literature and philosophy, using Hermes, Iris, and the Furies to map out three of the most prevalent modes of mediation today—mediation as exchange, as illumination, and as network. Then, Thacker goes boldly beyond Galloway’s classification scheme by examining the concept of excommunication through the secret link between the modern horror genre and medieval mysticism. Charting a trajectory of examples from H. P. Lovecraft to Meister Eckhart, Thacker explores those instances when one communicates or connects with the inaccessible, dubbing such modes of mediation “haunted” or “weird” to underscore their inaccessibility. Finally, Wark evokes the poetics of the infuriated swarm as a queer politics of heresy that deviates from both media theory and the traditional left. He posits a critical theory that celebrates heresy and that is distinct from those that now venerate Saint Paul.
Reexamining commonplace definitions of media, mediation, and communication, Excommunication offers a glimpse into the realm of the nonhuman to find a theory of mediation adequate to our present condition.
4 有用 车百万 2021-12-20 01:44:47
读了微信中译本:野心之作,以galloway为首的美国当代媒介理论大佬试图扬弃从苏格拉底到基特勒的西方媒介思想史,提出一种作为excommuniction(非传播/绝罚)的媒介化理论,简言之,媒介不存在,或者说从媒介理论转向“非媒介”理论
0 有用 xxx 2023-06-15 12:37:47 美国
读了Thacker的dark media 对研究horror很有帮助
0 有用 R 2024-02-23 04:17:52 美国
巴门尼德。由于对沃克毫无指望,反而读她的部分时有惊喜。
1 有用 𝑾𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒌𝒆𝒊𝒕 2022-08-01 15:38:22
启迪。“绝罚”(ex-communication)不是“反–交流”(anti-),而是“非–交流”(non-)。绝罚所发出的信息宣称:“再也不会有信息了。”绝罚是“不再交流”的交流,是“⽆话可说”的沉默。但绝罚绝非某种例外的事件。相反,绝罚始终潜伏于交流的核心处,甚至先于交流(ex-)而存在,迫使交流触及不可能性的边界(奥古斯丁/伪狄奥尼修斯)。同理,“非–媒介”始终暗藏于媒介的界域之内。任何媒介... 启迪。“绝罚”(ex-communication)不是“反–交流”(anti-),而是“非–交流”(non-)。绝罚所发出的信息宣称:“再也不会有信息了。”绝罚是“不再交流”的交流,是“⽆话可说”的沉默。但绝罚绝非某种例外的事件。相反,绝罚始终潜伏于交流的核心处,甚至先于交流(ex-)而存在,迫使交流触及不可能性的边界(奥古斯丁/伪狄奥尼修斯)。同理,“非–媒介”始终暗藏于媒介的界域之内。任何媒介化的核心处都存在着不可媒介化的“盲点”,因此最成功的媒介化同时又是最失败的媒介化。尤金·萨克所说的“黑暗媒介”是对不可媒介化之物的媒介化。黑暗媒介并非媒介化得不够好(not so well),而是媒介化得太好了(too well),以至于它的媒介化超出了人类所理解的媒介化的范畴。 (展开)
1 有用 木纹 2023-09-14 22:10:51 北京
八月投稿参考文献/以第二章尤金·萨克的黑暗媒介为主。
0 有用 Ιάννης Ξενάκης 2024-05-13 14:55:38 广东
竟然不是脑残书,虽然新意不多
0 有用 周游多吃点儿 2024-04-09 13:40:05 新加坡
中译导言
0 有用 R 2024-02-23 04:17:52 美国
巴门尼德。由于对沃克毫无指望,反而读她的部分时有惊喜。
0 有用 Turnsole 2024-02-20 10:39:30 上海
文学、电影想象路径构建媒媒介-非媒介关系,新意倒不多。不过倒是能为解读怪诞小说、灵异、恐怖电影提供一些思路。(石头与无线中,解读义和团运动各种媒介的竞争关系,加入黑暗媒介的维度,可能还有些意思)
0 有用 远颂 2023-11-13 23:24:18 重庆
媒介与非媒介