Intensive Media: Aversive Affect and Visual Culture PDF
Preview Intensive Media: Aversive Affect and Visual Culture
Intensive Media This page intentionally left blank Intensive Media Aversive Affect and Visual Culture Anthony McCosker SwinburneUniversity,Australia ©AnthonyMcCosker2013 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthis workinaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2013by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN978–1–137–27350–5 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. For Leila, Lewis and Edith, whose patience, love and light have made all the difference This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Pain:AversiveAffectsandMicropolitics 1 2 War:VisualBrutalityandAffectiveVectors 26 3 Torture:ObscenityandComplicity 48 4 Disaster:IntensiveEncounters 70 5 Masochism:PainfulPleasures 90 6 Salvation:MedievalVision,AffectiveCommunity 109 7 Illness:PuttingItAllOnline 130 Epilogue 152 Notes 156 References 160 Index 174 vii Acknowledgements A book is a composition of influences. While it is not possible to acknowledge them all, I would like to thank colleagues, friends and familywhohavehelpedalongtheway. Therese Davis and Raymond Donovan provoked, guided and offered generous mentorship in equal measure. Special thanks to Rowan Wilken, whose encouragement, advice and feedback were instrumentalingettingthisbooktoprint.IamgratefulalsotoRaya Darcy, who collaborated on a previous version of Chapter 7. I have benefited greatly from the incisive feedback of Anna Munster and the thoughtful comments of Melissa Gregg. Thanks also to Ramon Lobato, for his helpful feedback on parts of the book and sources sentalongtheway,andtoSuneelJethani,forhisresearchassistance. There are many colleagues and friends whose intellectual engage- ment and support, both direct and indirect, brought aspects of the bookintobeing.InparticularIwouldliketothankTrevorBarr,Tom Byrne, Steven Conway, Karen Farquharson, Lisa Gye, Tony Hayek, Chris Healy, Marcus Howlett, Minae Inahara, Amelia Johns, Dean Keep, Tim Kendal, Wendy Larcombe, Ian Malkin, Esther Milne, Lisa Milne, Peter Otto, Malcolm Roberts-Palmer, Peter Robinson, Darren Tofts,StephanieTrigg,EmilyvanderNagelandAudreyYue. Fortheirlove,supportandwillingnesstoproofreadIthankmypar- ents,RickandMerylMcCosker,andalsomybrotherPeterMcCosker andmysisterJaneAyerst.ThankstoKathyandPeterByrnefortheir generous help in managing the day-to-day. Finally, my most heart- felt thanks to Leila Byrne for helping to make space for work that is always in-excess, for thoughtful editorial advice, but more impor- tantly for putting up with so much and contributing so greatly to makingthisbookhappen. Earlier versions of parts of this book have been published else- where, and I thank the editors and publishers of the journals Sexualities, Continuum, Scope, Information, Communication and Soci- ety, Transformations and M/C Journal, and Viv Burr and Jeff Hearn as editors of the collection Sex, Violence and the Body: The Erotics of Wounding,publishedbyPalgraveMacmillan. viii 1 Pain: Aversive Affects and Micropolitics Everythingissimplyanencounterintheuniverse,agoodor badencounter. DeleuzeandParnet,2002,p.45. There is something unsettling, but also powerful, in the encounter with individual and collective experiences of human suffering. This book explores the discomfort and fascination such experi- ences provoke, their aversive affects, as they trouble but also vitalise contemporarymediaenvironments.Aversionentailsimpulsiverecoil or even revulsion, but also attracts and initiates the modification of bodiesastheyarebroughtintoconjunctionandaffectoneanother. Likewise,paindesignatesoneofthosecomplexaspectsofindividual andcollectiveexperiencethatsetsinmotionadynamicfieldofaver- siveaffects.Itwillbecomeclear,however,thatasobjectsofattention bothpainandaversionquicklyunravel.Asadriverofaversiveaffect, painemergesandvanishesintheformofintensity.Andasintensity, theaversiveaffectsofpainarevolatileandcontingent. Inthecontextsofcrisis,conflictandsufferingexploredthroughout thisbook,aversiveaffectoperatesmicropoliticallytomakeexplicitor hidethematerialconditionsthatsurroundinstancesofpaininallits specificity.Thatis,insomanyscenarios,personal,socialandpolitical stakes are set around the thresholds of intensity that give rise to a ‘sense’ofpainandtheunpredictablevalencesofitsaversiveaffects. AnditisinthissensethatIntensiveMedia,andeachofitscasestudies developoutwardsfromthemiddleofwhathasbeenreferredtoas‘the problem of pain’, a problem that traverses media, communication, 1
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