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Sign, Storage, Transmission
The Undersea Network
Duke University Press
Copyright:
This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.
ISBN electronic:
978-0-8223-7622-4
Publication date:
2015
Book Chapter
Short-Circuiting Discursive Infrastructure: From Connection to Transmission
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Published:February 2015
This chapter examines the popular and industrial representation of undersea cables. It argues that most stories about undersea cables fit into one of two narrative modes: connection narratives and disruption narratives. The chapter traces these narratives’ spatial and temporal limitations: they only depict infrastructure when it is out of service and as a result, exclude the enormous amount of work involved in the upkeep of global systems. It also reveals how they reflect broader concerns about global interconnection rather than the material specificities of cable laying. The chapter then delineates two alternative forms of infrastructural representation, nodal narratives and transmission...
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