"This insightful book is replete with illuminating examples and case studies, with subtle arguments that will likely prove prescient in years to come." - Niall Flynn (LSE Review of Books) "Filled with cases of environment changes of contemporary age, Cubitt approaches the topic with journalistic clarity and deep comparative activist source-data, uncovering various types of criminal activities that he grounds with many background theories. . . . Similar to previous books, <i>Finite Media</i> is a rather short (and concentrated) reading, with an even lighter style that makes reading a very pleasurable experience." - Ana Peraica (Leonardo Reviews) "Sean Cubitt’s <i>Finite Media</i> is so much more than the title suggests: it is a meticulously researched and thoughtful intervention into the linkages between digital media and environmental degradation." - Sandra Robinson (Theory, Culture & Society)

While digital media give us the ability to communicate with and know the world, their use comes at the expense of an immense ecological footprint and environmental degradation. In Finite Media Sean Cubitt offers a large-scale rethinking of theories of mediation by examining the environmental and human toll exacted by mining and the manufacture, use, and disposal of millions of phones, computers, and other devices. The way out is through an eco-political media aesthetics, in which people use media to shift their relationship to the environment and where public goods and spaces are available to all. Cubitt demonstrates this through case studies ranging from the 1906 film The Story of the Kelly Gang to an image of Saturn taken during NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission, suggesting that affective responses to images may generate a populist environmental politics that demands better ways of living and being. Only by reorienting our use of media, Cubitt contends, can we overcome the failures of political elites and the ravages of capital.
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Sean Cubitt offers a large scale rethinking of theories of mediation by describing the ecological footprint of media. He investigates the energy, material, and space needed to create, operate, and dispose of electronic devices, and shows how changing how we use media is the only solution to planetary devastation.
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Acknowledgments  vii

Introduction. Eco-mediation  1

1. Energy  13

2. Matter  63

3. Eco-political Aesthetics  151

4. Ecological Communication as Politics  169

Coda on Saturn  193

References  201

Index  237
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780822362814
Publisert
2017-01-03
Utgiver
Vendor
Duke University Press
Vekt
476 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
277

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Sean Cubitt is Professor of Film and Television, Goldsmiths, University of London, and the author of several books, most recently, The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technologies from Prints to Pixels.