LEA Special Issue: Dispersive Anatomies

Guest edited by Sandy Baldwin and Alan Sondheim. Gallery curated by Mez Breeze.

This special issue, guest edited by Sandy Baldwin and Alan Sondheim, considers the network as dispersive anatomy. As the call for papers stated, "A fundamental shift in the way we view the world is underway: the abandonment of discrete objects, and objecthood itself. The world is now plural, and the distinction between real and virtual is becoming increasingly blurred, with troubling consequences within the geopolitical register. This shift is related to a cultural change that emphasizes digital deconstruction over analog construction: a photograph for example can be accessed and transformed, pixel by pixel, cities can be taken apart by gerrymandering or eminent domain, and our social networks are replete with names and images that problematize friendship, sexuality, and culture itself. One issue that emerges here: Are we networking or are we networked? Are we networks ourselves?" The resulting texts and works deal with this fundamental shift in new and illuminating ways.

Dispersive Anatomies Papers

Sandy Baldwin, "Introduction: the Anatomy of Dispersion"
Alan Sondheim, "The Uselessness of Monoculture"
Andy Clark, "Dispersed Selves"
Alphonso Lingis, "The Inner Cauldron; the Upward Array"
Tom Zummer, "A Cartography of Interstices: Some Annotations Toward the Mapping of Biological-Technological Embodiment"
Jon Marshall, "The Physiognomy of Dispersed Power"
Maria Chatzichristodoulou, "When Presence & Absence Turn Into Pattern & Randomness: Can You See Me Now?"
Joy James, "Mind the Gap"
Barbara Rauch, "'Natural' and Digital Virtual Realities"
Franziska Schroeder and Pedro Rebelo, "Sounding the Network: The Body as Disturbant"
Tanya Vujinovic, "Tactile Nodes"
Patrick Lichty, "The Translation of Art in Virtual Worlds"
Jon Cates, "A Prospect of the Dispersive Anatomies"
Marko Monteiro, "Molecular Representations"
Matthew Holtmeier "Scars, Cars, and Bodies without Organs: Techno-colonialism in J.G. Ballard's Crash"

Dispersive Anatomies Gallery

Mez Breeze, Introduction
Robert Ladislas Derr, "Chance"
Marcel O'Gorman, "Dreadmill"
Nathaniel Stern and Pall Thayer, "Ripple"
Eugenio Tisselli, "JB Wock Blog"
Luther Thie, Eyal Fried, "Acclair"
Caitlin Berrigan, Michael McBean, "The Smelling Committee"
Vince Dziekan, "Remote"
Jon Cates, "A Prospect Of The Dispersive Anatomies"

Special thanks to Nisar Keshvani, LEA Editor in Chief, 2001-2008

Updated 19 August 2009