The Active Form of Security

Technology and the Material-aesthetic Script

Bibliographic Data

ID5338330
AuthorsJ L Austin (0000-0001-8045-2143, Department of Political Science, The University of Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark, corresponding author), A Leander (0000-0002-0237-9507, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland)
Year2024
Volume49
Issue4
Pages872-897
Publication date2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/01622439241246183
OpenAlexW4396661277
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

How are socially and politically controversial security practices materially-technologically scripted into our lives in ever-deeper ways? This essay proposes that acts of aesthetic design are at the heart of that process and are being deployed by technology corporations to "smooth" the diffusion of security practices, discourses, and politics across global space. To substantiate that claim, we make three moves. First, we propose an understanding of the "script" that returns to the roots of the concept in theater and the arts. That understanding stresses that our material-technological enmeshing is governed strongly by aesthetic and affective factors that operate through forms of resonance (rather that reason). In consequence-we argue-much of the power of technology conglomerates is linked to their capacity to harness these aesthetico-affective resonances. Second, we demonstrate this through a case study focused on the material-aesthetic design activities of Google, teasing out how it deploys aesthetic practices to extend its sociopolitical power. Third, we speculatively conclude by introducing the architect Keller Easterling's concept of "active form" to show how conceptualizing scripts in aesthetic terms also provides insights into how security practices are diffused across global contexts, irrelevant contextual sociopolitical differences, and seemingly without any limit

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Scripting language · Sociology · The arts · Computer Science · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Law

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