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d iS Eric SnodgraSS S E r t a ExEcutionS t i o n : n E Power and Expression in networked and computational Media w M E d i a , P u b l i c S P h E r E S , a n d f o r M S o f E x P r E S S i o n MalMÖ uniVErSitY1 E xEc u t i o n s 3 Doctoral Dissertation in Media and Communication Studies Dissertation Series: New Media, Public Spheres and Forms of Expression Faculty: Culture and Society Department: School of Arts and Communication, K3 Malmö University Information about time and place of public defence, and electronic version of dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/2043/22834 CC* Eric Snodgrass, 2017 Designed by Sarah Garcin & Bruno Vanderaert Printed by Service Point Holmbergs, Malmö 2017 Supported by grants from The National Dissertation Council and The Doctoral Foundation ISBN 978-91-7104-506-5 (print) ISBN 978-91-7104-507-2 (pdf) * This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. 4 Eric snodgrass ExEcutions Power and Expression in Networked and Computational Media Malmö University 2017 5 contE nts 9 ACKNowlEDGEMENTS 11 1 INTroDUCTIoN 23 2 APProACHES 23 Compositional affordances 31 Genealogies of media and technology 38 Multi-sited, intersecting relations of power 47 Choice of cases Compositional questions of exeCution 53 3 SITES oF ExECUTIoN 54 Instruction pointer 55 Protection and provocation 60 (…skins, bodies, tapes, hands…) 66 The relational and actualising cut of execution 71 Cut Piece 79 4 ProCESSING PowEr 80 Techniques of coercion and efficiency 85 Automation (habituating coercion) 88 Invisible hands (habituating efficiency) 99 5 wHAT IS ExECUTING HErE? 99 Interpreters 108 open machines, open questions 113 Section summary platform and projeCtion 119 6 oNE / EASy / ClICK: FACEBooK’S lIKE BUTToN 120 Interface as relational threshold 123 Units of expression: clicks and counters 128 Propagation 130 Prototyping likes 134 Collective processing 7 141 7 ENGINEErING rElATIoNS: APIS AND THE STrUCTUrING oF NETworKED FlowS AND CoNNECTIoN 141 Executable structures for exchange: Protocols and web APIs 143 Multipliers: feeding a social graph via Social Plugins, HTTP cookies and more 151 Social graph 153 Friction-less flow: executions in the background 164 real abstractions 168 leaky abstractions: “fake news,” voter microtargeting and the long tails of web 2.0 and user profiling 178 Platformisation and “social infrastructure” 187 8 DIAMoND rEyNolDS wAS lIVE 190 “Police” 195 oppositional gazing 202 Intersecting, interactive relations of power 219 oppositional coding 227 Section summary eCologies of the exeCutable 233 9 EUroPEAN orIENTATIoNS AND INFrASTrUCTUrES oF VIolENCE AT SEA 235 Violence in the electromagnetic frontier 241 orientations and vectors 246 Boats as material discursive agents of movement 250 Visual politics of boat migration 258 orientating the sea 284 orientating otherwise and anew 287 10 wATCHING THE MED: ACTIVE AND oPPoSITIoNAl INFrASTrUCTUrES For INTErVENTIoN AND rESISTANCE AT SEA 289 Infrastructures for intervention 294 oppositional infrastructures 300 Section summary 303 11 FINAl rEMArKS 309 rEFErENCES 8