Symmetrifying Smart Home
Topological Power and the New Governmentality of the Internet of Things
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22185956 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sungyong Ahn (0000-0002-5072-6542, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 89-114 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2557-826X • E-ISSN: 2557-826X |
| Publisher | Trent University Library & Archives (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.70064/mt.v5i1.911 |
| OpenAlex | W3202793303 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
This paper investigates how the current domestic application of the Internet of Things (IoT), called “smart home,” changes the socio-phenomenological meaning of place-making. It describes a smart home as a topological continuum that could unfold lots of functional spaces—those optimized for a variety of predictable user behaviors and intentions, such as going to bed, working out, and energy-saving—according to how software applications redeploy its embedded sensors and actuators into certain algorithmic orders. This continuum once buried under people’s daily routines is constantly re-excavated in a smart home and re-differentiated into the new service domains of the IoT. This paper develops a topological framework to analyze the new form of media power behind this perpetual place-binding of smart spaces, which I term topological power. For this goal, it borrows Bernhard Riemann and Henri Poincaré’s mathematical thinking of manifold, or multiplicity, beneath the geometric structure of space
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |