1. Networking by metaphors Session: Theorizing mediated spaces ICA Annual Conference, Dresden, June 2006 Marianne van den Boomen Marianne.vandenBoomen@let.uu.nl Institute Media & Re/presentation, Dep. New Media & Digital Culture University Utrecht, The Netherlands

2. Where is my mail? Brand new permanent connection, just ‘click & go’ But: no mail in the inbox

3. There is the mail... Brand new permanent connection, just ‘click & go’ But: no mail in the inbox Online? Cables, hardware? No, a matter of software configuration Missing link, hidden steps Small conceptual error Computer illiteracy? No, literacy!

4. Analysis: 1. icontology Inclination to take the icon literally, iconic metaphorical seduction The function of desktop icons: reduction & delegation Double faced sign: Towards user: signifying job, metaphor for result Towards machine: executing job, indexical reference to code Substituting complex processes with an ontological state/result Representing ontological simplicity, depresenting complexity Icontology = user friendlyness, at interface value

5. Analysis: 2. expected immediacy Expectation of immediate result One-click ideology and general cyber discourse (instant messaging, one click shopping, automatic updates, plug & play etc) Software is supposed to represent that it works, while depresenting how it works Failure and rupture show implied labour of configuration and processing

6. Analysis: 3. transference & transmediation Conceptual transference from work to home configuration Ubiquitous situations of transference: standardized computer interfaces and operation network transferences & transmediations content (copy, mail, downloading) modality (file -> print, sound -> files) format (Word -> PDF,.wav ->.mp3) Identical digital one-to-one copies? Only on the 0-1 machine level, not on human readable level Interfaces: transference/translation by analogical representations

7. Metaphors in action Metaphorical transferences: Metaphorical seduction, icontology & depresentation Transmediation as cross-domain transfer Lakoff & Johnson: conceptual metaphor Cross-domain mapping from source to target TARGET-DOMAIN IS SOURCE-DOMAIN (time is money, argument is war)

8. E-mail is postal mail SOURCE-DOMAIN POSTAL MAIL postbox letters, packets, junk sending, receiving opening, reading sorting, disposing delivery by postman postal distribution system TARGET-DOMAIN E-MAIL mail program messages push the send or get button click the message subject move to folder or delete mail server at provider connect to provider, ‘fetch mail’

10. Material mediation metaphors Katherine Hayles' material metaphors: connect not two concepts, but symbols/signs to material artifacts actually change things/states in the world The mailbox icon has a double reference: conceptual, human readable (source/target-domain, understanding) material, machine readable (blackboxed digital machine domain, action) Digital domain: software & hardware no direct access for humans, but mediated: conceptual, analogical translations represented on the interface analogical translations of digital patterns are apertures in the blackbox

11. Discourse metaphors Discourse of instant immediacy Discourse metaphors: do not directly provoke material changes but might do so indirectly, by framing collective thought, articulation and action Michael Reddy's 'conduit metaphor': THOUGHTS ARE OBJECTS ('I gave you that idea') MESSAGES ARE CONTAINERS ('This letter is full of insults') COMMUNICATION IS SENDING ('His ideas came through')

12. The toolmakers metaphor Michael Reddy's 'toolmakers paradigm': THOUGHTS ARE TOOLS MESSAGES ARE TRANSLATIONS COMMUNICATION IS LABOUR Conceptual & material & discourse metaphors: beyond the mind & the screen material metaphors: open up the digital black box discourse metaphors: open up the social and political blackbox the politics of metaphor: negotiation & controversy