Heteroglossias, Heterotopias and the Space Between

Heteroglossias, Heterotopias and the Space between

I apologize for now contributing more in class, I will make more of a point in doing more so…

I had a thought or train of thoughts from our last class discussion. I am quite new to this mode of discourse surrounding techno-cultures, and chiming in with Alex’s comment on “Feeling like an old person” in our recent lab, I can definitely identify with this statement.

I feel that my attempt(s) to engage with this material are very much centering around the “representational”; however, I need to start somewhere in order to move within and out of this framework- perhaps this is my gateway into thinking more critically about the development of digital-techno cultures, especially considering the notion of space and place in understanding the Drucker’s article on digital humanities and speculative learning cultures. After reading Drucker’s article on “Speculative Computing,” and Alexander Galloway’s Chapters 1 + 2 from Protocol- I am reminded of Drucker’s discussion surrounding heteroglossias and this notion of a charged “social and political” mobility in thinking about a new way of decentered learning (pg. 29). Perhaps I am also reminded of Foucault’s discussion on Heterotopias, and this language of space and spatial mobility/geography in paving the way for a medium of exchange and social interaction.

Foucault writes about Heterotopias as places that we live in that are in constant connection and communication with other spaces, people and environments. Heterotopias are not so much about the placeless place, but rather, this opening of societal frameworks in rearticulating and understanding lived (non-lived) spaces. I realize I might be reducing the concept surrounding “Speculative learning” to a particular set of objects; however, there is a strong spatial component and language in describing speculative learning, which I hope is not completely reductive in linking this notion of space to environmental design. I think there are a number of spaces to be explored within this notion of Heterotopias- one of the most interesting (and I think pertains to our class discussion) surrounds this notion of the archive and library. Foucault writes about Western society’s conception of the library and museum as “indefinitely accumulating” time (“Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias”).  His approach is more linked with time and process of general collection more associated with libraries of the 19^th century- the collecting of knowledge and artifacts, which links more directly with the idea and developments surrounding the digital humanities. However, I think this concept of a “slice of time” and this more general principle of relational space that Foucault is describing translates to a larger framework in not so much the collective nature of the library database, but to a larger degree- this space that has transformed the notions of an immobile holding site, to an inter-connected way of expanding geographical and cultural learning through this struggle between institutional and more anonymous modes of discourse.

In reflecting upon this term Heterotopias and relating it to Galloway’s article, there is a strong correlation between protocol and its structure as part of an algorithm “whose form of appearance many be any number of different diagrams or shapes” (pg. 30). In looking at Internet protocols as a type decentralized framework of the modern age, the connection to Internet spatial relationships and current networks of operation are strongly tied to a sense of transporting technologies and terminologies. Galloway offers two very concrete examples in the way of the airline and highway systems as part of this make up of decentralized spaces in thinking about the development and movement in digital technologies. Foucault discusses this fundamental notion of the space between sites. It is this idea of “between” that suggests and perhaps opens up the framework in thinking about the Internet and digital technologies as part of distributed network in information sharing. In Foucault’s last principle surrounding Heterotopias, he discusses the boat as a “floating piece of space.” In the speculative learning and Internet protocol context, I again see a correlation between this idea of a “place without a place.” In other words, this framework that is part of developing cultural collective of space and (in the internet’s case) a site for opening up this social imagination in sharing and passing information- isolated as well as mobile in its travel between ports- this physical passage between spaces.

 

Here is the link to Foucault’s article (my quotes come from this page) http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html