Scopic Media. A Comparative Study of their Constitution,
Use and Implications for Theories of Interaction and Global Society
The goal of this project is a comparative study of the production, functioning and consequences of scopic media for a theory of global social forms in areas such as global finance, the military, medicine, extreme sports and telepresence-based interaction. The areas of study were selected to represent global, collective-national, interactional and bodily levels of scopic media use. ‘Scopic media’ are screen-based technologies of observation and projection that render distant and invisible phenomena situationally present, unfold remote spaces and information worlds, and shift the boundaries between situation/system and the environment. Our hypothesis is that scopic media transform social situations into synthetic situations, replace face-to-face relations by face-to-screen relations and network coordination by scopic forms of coordination. Scopic media imply that there are alternatives to the network society the frequently literature assumes as a consequence of the increasing dominance of information and communication technologies in all areas of social life. The synthetic situation is potentially a basic component and unit of global social forms. Research in this area will contribute to a theory of global society, while at the same time expanding our repertoire of microsciological concepts such that they become more adequate for the analysis of global forms, flow processes and fateful expansions of social situations.
(Abstract of Research Proposal)