A master thesis from Aalborg University
Cables, frontiers, bunkers, and ruins: relating anew to the internet’s material infrastructure through non-linear speculative assemblies
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2021
Submitted on
2021-08-08
Pages
100 pages
Abstract
This thesis centers on a critical interdisciplinary research on the Atlantis-2 submarine cable and its landing site in Conil, a small coastal town in the south of Spain, seeking to understand the material environments, geopolitical contexts, and social relations in which the internet’s material infrastructure is embedded. Weaving together archival material, interviews, observations, autoethnographic considerations, and speculative storytelling, this thesis reflects on the internet’s contentious mediation of reality, proposing a mode of research on media technologies that operates from a relational networked proximity. Starting with a theoretical discussion on the materiality of media technologies, the first chapter exposes the need for interdisciplinary, creative, and interpretive methodologies in order to approach the complexity of the internet as a technosocial infrastructure. Having established the theoretical and methodological backbone of this thesis, the second chapter traces the intricate relations between submarine cables, frontiers, bunkers, watchtowers, and maritime routes in the south of Spain, emphasizing the colonial and modern paradigm of connectivity through securitization in which the internet’s undersea cable system is deeply rooted. Bearing these connections in mind, the third chapter discusses the tensions between institutional narratives and local stories in Conil about submarine cables, exploring the role of speculative storytelling in the contested production of meaning around the internet’s materiality. This thesis argues that interdisciplinary research on submarine cables and their landing sites, bridging archival, ethnographic, and creative methodologies, brings to the forefront the concealed material and social entanglements embedded in the internet’s infrastructure and opens up new possibilities to relate to contemporary networking technologies.
This thesis centers on a critical interdisciplinary research on the Atlantis-2 submarine cable and its landing site in Conil, a small coastal town in the south of Spain, seeking to understand the material environments, geopolitical contexts, and social relations in which the internet’s material infrastructure is embedded. Weaving together archival material, interviews, observations, autoethnographic considerations, and speculative storytelling, this thesis reflects on the internet’s contentious mediation of reality, proposing a mode of research on media technologies that operates from a relational networked proximity. Starting with a theoretical discussion on the materiality of media technologies, the first chapter exposes the need for interdisciplinary, creative, and interpretive methodologies in order to approach the complexity of the internet as a technosocial infrastructure. Having established the theoretical and methodological backbone of this thesis, the second chapter traces the intricate relations between submarine cables, frontiers, bunkers, watchtowers, and maritime routes in the south of Spain, emphasizing the colonial and modern paradigm of connectivity through securitization in which the internet’s undersea cable system is deeply rooted. Bearing these connections in mind, the third chapter discusses the tensions between institutional narratives and local stories in Conil about submarine cables, exploring the role of speculative storytelling in the contested production of meaning around the internet’s materiality. This thesis argues that interdisciplinary research on submarine cables and their landing sites, bridging archival, ethnographic, and creative methodologies, brings to the forefront the concealed material and social entanglements embedded in the internet’s infrastructure and opens up new possibilities to relate to contemporary networking technologies.
Keywords
Infrastructure ; Materiality ; Internet ; Ethnography ; Undersea cables ; Storytelling ; Spain ; History ; Geopolitics
Documents
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