d nglobalization o y e b Making new worlds Media, art, social Practices in and edited by a. aneesh, lane hall, and Patrice Petro Beyond Globalization new directions in international studies patrice petro, series editor The New Directions in International Studies series focuses on transculturalism, technology, media, and representation, and features the innovative work of schol- ars who explore various components and consequences of globalization, such as the increasing flow of peoples, ideas, images, information, and capital across bor- ders. Under the direction of Patrice Petro, the series is sponsored by the Center for International Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The Center seeks to foster interdisciplinary and collaborative research that probes the politi- cal, economic, artistic, and social processes and practices of our time. a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro, eds. Beyond Globalization: Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices mark philip bradley and patrice petro, eds. Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights melissa a. fitch Side Dishes: Latin/o American Women, Sex, and Cultural Production elizabeth swanson goldberg Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights linda krause and patrice petro, eds. Global Cities: Cinema, Architecture, and Urbanism in a Digital Age andrew martin and patrice petro, eds. Rethinking Global Security: Media, Popular Culture, and the “War on Terror” tasha g. oren and patrice petro, eds. Global Currents: Media and Technology Now peter paik and marcus bullock, eds. Aftermaths: Exile, Migration, and Diaspora Reconsidered freya schiwy Indianizing Film: Decolonization, the Andes, and the Question of Technology cristina venegas Digital Dilemmas: The State, the Individual, and Digital Media in Cuba j Beyond Globalization Making New Worlds in Media, Art, and Social Practices edited by a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro Rutgers University Press New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beyond globalization : making new worlds in media, art, and social practices / edited by A. Aneesh, Lane Hall, and Patrice Petro. p. cm. — (New directions in international studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8135-5153-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8135-5154-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Mass media and culture. 2. Mass media and globalization. 3. Mass media—Social aspects. 4. Mass media—Political aspects. 5. Mass media and art. 6. Globalization— Social aspects. 7. Identity (Psychology) and mass media. I. Aneesh, A. (Aneesh), 1964– II. Hall, Lane, 1955– III. Petro, Patrice, 1957– P94.6.B482011 302.23—dc22 2011010853 A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. This collection copyright © 2012by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Individual chapters copyright © 2012in the names of their authors, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law. Visit our Web site: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu Manufactured in the United States of America contents j Introduction: The Making of Worlds — 1 A. Aneesh, Lane Hall, and Patrice Petro 1 Global Media and Culture — 15 Mark Poster 2 Burning Man at Google: A Cultural Infrastructure for New Media Production — 30 Fred Turner 3 Apocalypse by Subtraction: Late Capitalism and the Trauma of Scarcity — 49 Peter Y. Paik 4 These Great Urbanist Games: New Babylon and Second Life — 72 Thomas M. Malaby 5 Format Television and Israeli Telediplomacy — 86 Tasha G. Oren 6 Mediating “Neutrality”: Latino Diasporic Films — 103 Yeidy M. Rivero 7 Killing Me Softly: Brazilian Film and Bare Life — 121 Amy Villarejo 8 The Man, the Corpse, and the Icon in MMoottoorrccyyccllee DDiiaarriieess:: Utopia, Pleasure, and a New Revolutionary Imagination — 138 Cristina Venegas 9 Saudades on the Amazon: Toward a Soft Sweet Name for Involution — 162 Craig Saper contents vi 10 States of Distraction: Media Art Strategies Within Public Conditions — 178 Mat Rappaport 11 Bio Art — 189 Eduardo Kac Notes — 207 About the Contributors — 229 Index — 233 Beyond Globalization Introduction The Making of Worlds j a. aneesh, lane hall, and patrice petro Contemporary accounts of an emerging “Global Village” or “One World” sys- tem—whether in relation to economics, culture, communication, or lan- guage—may seem naïve descriptions of global integration. But discourses on globalization are perhaps not all rhetoric. To take but one example: worlds studied by anthropologists are no longer protected by geography and distance; in fact, they continue to disappear. Obstinate languages, values, norms, and practices have been either exterminated or brought out of seclusion, full of wonder and spectacle via research, representation, and multiple mediated views. Two decades ago, linguists rushed to a Turkish farming village in order to record the Ubykh language, once spoken in the northwestern Caucasus, from its last known speaker, a frail farmer whose death in 1992also marked the death of the Ubykh language. Indeed, 90per- cent of the world’s languages are expected to disappear in the next one hundred years.1 It is not surprising, then, that the unprecedented integra- tion of the world through money, media, and communication is often expe- rienced as disturbingly threatening and altogether “real.” After all, satellites never set on the empire. And yet, the nature of integration, captured by the term “globalization,” is often poorly understood, resulting in misplaced battles over homogeneity versus heterogeneity, as if the functional expansion of markets and media could turn the world into irremediable cultural sameness.2 Responses to an imaginary threat of homogeneity quickly lead to demonstrations of cultural distinction, such as in claims that the English spoken by Americans, Britons, Indians, and Australians (and all others) varies in each instance. One rushes to show how new diversities and cultural hybrids emerge through such
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