Starosielski, N. (2015) The Undersea Network. Durham: Duke University Press
Journal Title: Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 2
Abstract
Rarely did a book on my desk get as much attention of colleagues passing by as this one, thanks to its cover showing two massive, concrete-coated cables which mysteriously emanate from the water somewhere in Guam, at a sandy shore of the Pacific Ocean. Withered and overcome with rust, these cables could be the relicts of a bygone era; they are, in fact, part of today's network infrastructure that directs the largest part of data traffic between North America, Asia, and Australia and keeps many digital lives working the way they do. Given that undersea cables are absent from daily experience and remain invisible for most of its users, it might come as a surprise that such hefty material is still needed for running the Internet. More and more ordinary activities - both professional and profane - require a network connection and (ever larger) amounts of data, but the cable infrastructure behind these activities is hardly taken into account when the vices and virtues of living within digital technologies are discussed. “Although contemporary networking continues to depend on wired infrastructure, we lack a language - beyond terms like 'a series of tubes' - to describe just how grounded these systems remain” (p. 9), states Nicole Starosielski and experiments with constructing that very language in her debut monograph which explores the transpacific cable network historically and ethnographically. By following the network's route, the author reconstructs some of the immense efforts mobilized for the construction of this infrastructure as well as the numerous frictions - technical, environmental, economic, political - that occurred during that process, rebuking the notion of the Internet as a seemingly free-floating and delocalized entity and turning it into a place-bound and fragile matter in need of incessant “repair and maintenance” (Graham & Thrift 2007).
Authors and Affiliations
Kris Decker
Keywords
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