TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Warning
T2 - Do not dig': Negotiating the visibility of critical infrastructures
AU - Starosielski, Nicole
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this project has been provided by the University of California Pacific Rim Research Program and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. I would like to thank the many people who took time to have interviews with me, as well as Lisa Parks, Rita Raley, Janet Walker, and anonymous reviewers for their feedback and comments.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - This article highlights the visual traces of undersea cables, technologies that carry the majority of transoceanic telecommunications traffic, in order to make visible the material systems that support an 'immaterial' internet. The author documents the cultural production of these traces, recording how infrastructural visibility must be negotiated at points where cables cross through public spaces, including beaches, highways, and state parks. By examining the cultural conflicts over cables in California and O'ahu, the article shows how telecommunications companies reorganize visual space to protect the cable, using diverse media such as nautical charts and warning signs. The cultural specificity of these representations testifies to the ways in which global cable systems develop in relation to local spatial politics. The article seeks to broaden research on infrastructure's invisibility, disruption, and sensationalization to include the 'existing visibilities' of undersea cables as they are constituted in everyday life and material environments.
AB - This article highlights the visual traces of undersea cables, technologies that carry the majority of transoceanic telecommunications traffic, in order to make visible the material systems that support an 'immaterial' internet. The author documents the cultural production of these traces, recording how infrastructural visibility must be negotiated at points where cables cross through public spaces, including beaches, highways, and state parks. By examining the cultural conflicts over cables in California and O'ahu, the article shows how telecommunications companies reorganize visual space to protect the cable, using diverse media such as nautical charts and warning signs. The cultural specificity of these representations testifies to the ways in which global cable systems develop in relation to local spatial politics. The article seeks to broaden research on infrastructure's invisibility, disruption, and sensationalization to include the 'existing visibilities' of undersea cables as they are constituted in everyday life and material environments.
KW - digital networks
KW - global media
KW - infrastructure
KW - invisibility
KW - materiality
KW - undersea cables
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U2 - 10.1177/1470412911430465
DO - 10.1177/1470412911430465
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84864564514
SN - 1470-4129
VL - 11
SP - 38
EP - 57
JO - Journal of Visual Culture
JF - Journal of Visual Culture
IS - 1
ER -