thank you so much andy,<br><br>any chance to meet you at my occupy london lecture, dec 10, 10 am at the tent?<br><br>Michel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:33 AM, Andy Robinson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ldxar1@gmail.com">ldxar1@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div>Hiya,</div><div><br></div><div>CC'ing Athina because I think this is very relevant to her current research :-)</div>
<div><br></div><div>I think "premediation" is Grusin's own term, all the search results point to him and I'd never heard the word before. �Here it says: "<span style="color: rgb(64, 56, 56); font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Richard Grusin has coined the term `premediation' to describe the way in which news media and cultural industries map and visualize a plurality of possible futures" (</span><a href="http://sdi.sagepub.com/content/39/2-3/155.abstract" target="_blank">http://sdi.sagepub.com/content/39/2-3/155.abstract</a>) �He has a book on the topic,�<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premediation-Affect-Mediality-After-11/dp/0230242529" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premediation-Affect-Mediality-After-11/dp/0230242529</a>�which seems to be about framings of the future in the media. �</div>
<div><br></div><div>I think it's using the Hegelian/Marxist concept of mediation and the Deleuzian concept of affect.</div><div><br></div><div>Hegelian mediation is defined here:�</div><div><a href="http://www.dkolb.org/sprawlingplaces/gateway/kantoutl/hegelonm.html" target="_blank">http://www.dkolb.org/sprawlingplaces/gateway/kantoutl/hegelonm.html</a></div>
<div>In Hegelian theory, we don't have direct access to reality, but rather, our relationship to reality is 'mediated' by particular concepts, feelings, relations and practices. �So a 'mediation' is something which in constructivist terms, creates a particular social reality, or in realist terms, comes between the self and reality so that reality is experienced in a particular way. �It's a bit like Postman and Weingartner's idea of stained-glass windows: we always see the world through particular stained-glass windows; we can change the windows but we can't do without them. �So mediation is a bit like conceptualisation, except that it doesn't just transform concepts but the whole way of relating to something. �Remediation (in a Hegelian context) is the alteration of mediations through new media or experiences, adding or subtracting existing mediations - the Internet remediated film, film remediated photography and so on. �</div>
<div><br></div><div>Deleuzian affect has two implications. �Firstly, it is socialised emotion. �Whereas emotion is usually viewed as an inner reaction, 'affect' is emotion theorised on something which is actually an impact of the outside, or a relation to the outside (the other 'affects' the self). �Secondly, there is a 'zone of affects' which is a field of different possible combinations of ways of feeling, thinking, relating, etc. �When we form particular subjectivities, we select from the 'zone of affects' to occupy a particular zone or figure. �Affect is roughly coterminous with the Deleuzian virtual and with the 'past' in <i>Difference and Repetition </i>(DR). �The 'future' in DR consists of the possibility to search the zones of the past (affect/virtual) based on desire, to find another zone to occupy or to try out. �Jay Lampert describes the Deleuzian future as like a search engine which searches the 'past' based on terms entered by desire.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So if I'm understanding right, "premediation" is the creation in advance of frames which channel affect and conceptualisation. �It creates "mediations" <i>in advance of</i>�events, which readers/viewers will then apply themselves to the events as they happen. �(e.g. counter-terrorism discourse pre-frames terrorism as risk, so when an attack happens, it is experienced as a preventable risk-management failure). �Premediation selects particular zones of affect to induce in the audience, and attaches them to future events so they will be activated if/when the events happen. �It's basically the creation of a zeitgeist or a field of discourse. �Among other things, it determines what is sayable, what kinds of affects can be articulated and so on. �</div>
<div><br></div><div>In relation to the Deleuzian view of the future as an open search for new zones of affect, the securitised post-911 premediation by the media / through risk-management and preventionism would seem to be an attempt to close the future. �It seeks to ensure that no event can happen which hasn't already been mediated (conceptualised, affectively mapped) in advance. �Grusin sees this as a response to the 'media trauma' of the unexpected event of 911. �</div>
<div><br></div><div>Occupy is seen as intervening in this sphere of premediation to create other possible futures. �It is pointing towards a different world (this is similar to the older idea of "prefiguration" in New Left discourse). �It reshapes the field of what is seen as possible or desirable, and fosters particular affective zones, creating a 'counter-mood'. �This opens up the future to 'other potential becomings'. �In Deleuzian terminology, a 'becoming' is a process of transformation, particularly if it occurs in the direction of active force or liberation. �'Other potential becomings' are other ways of searching the past/virtual/affect based on desires which are not contained in the present frame. �</div>
<div><br></div><div>In this article, Grusin analyses both the failure/refusal of Occupy to formulate clear demands, and the expansive nature of the group names (Occupying Wall Street, London Stock Exchange, or entire cities), as examples of premediation: the lack of demands allows them to open zones of affect, and the expansive names point to possible futures. �Grusin also calls for the movement to try more systematically to premediate its future - i.e. to define affectively what its future is going to be, in what he sees as a battle for 'control of the narrative' (this is similar to the New Left idea of a battle for hegemony). �He's also using the concept of the 'interval', which seems to have a separate intellectual history.</div>
<div><br></div><div>bw</div><div>Andy</div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Dec 5, 2011 at 1:37 PM, Michel Bauwens <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:michel@p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">michel@p2pfoundation.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">hi andy,<br><br>could you explain premediation in more easy language?<br><br>see <a href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v014/14.4S.grusin.html" target="_blank">http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/v014/14.4S.grusin.html</a><br>
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