The Oscillation Thing Criticizing Lakoff & Johnson's metaphor theory

Kortste definitie Lakoff (& Johnson?) metafoortheorie: Metafoor is het begrijpen/uitdrukken van het ene (in het target domain) in termen van iets anders (uit het source domain)

Sterke kanten 1. Elegant en eenvoudig analytisch model van source & target domain (highlighting & downplaying, representatie/depresentatie, zonder beroep op waarheid/werkelijkheid) 2. Notie van 'correspondence mapping' voorbij linguistische categorieën (substitutie, gelijkenis, vergelijking, analogie, metonymie) 3. Uitgangspunt van samenhang taal, denken en handelen (i.t.t. focus op woord, zin, disocurse of pragmatiek) 4. Voorbij de kwestie letterlijk-figuurlijk (waarheid/waarde vs denkbeeldig, vgl. 'het is maar een metafoor')

Bedenkingen 1. Metaphors we live by: neiging tot zoeken naar universele inhoudelijke conceptuele metaforen ('grounded in bodily experience') 2. Focus op conceptuele/cognitieve samenhang ('opgesloten in het hoofd' als verklaring i.p.v. datgene wat verklaard moet worden)

Naomi Klein, The Vision Thing

Analogy with the Internet •intricately and tightly linked •as “hotlinks” connect their websites •facilitates & shapes the movement in its own image •sparse bureaucracy and hierarchy •organic, decentralised, interlinked pathways of the Internet •the Internet come to life

TARGET DOMAIN: political organising • no clear leadership and followers • disparate campaigns, scattered, non-lineair • convergence, shared belief, emerging consensus • hybrid pattern of dispersal and convergence • intricately and tightly linked to one another

SOURCE DOMAIN: The Internet • hybrid pattern of dispersal and convergence • ‘hotlinks’, ‘websites’ and ‘connections’ • ‘intricately and tightly linked to one another… • …as “hotlinks” connect their websites to the Internet’ hotlinks: subject/object displacement & condensation

More than coincidental Not only a tool, it is also ‘shaping the movement in its own image’: ‘sparse bureaucracy, minimal hierarchy, loose information swapping’ •The image of the Internet shapes the movement… •Internet is shaping the image the movement has of itself…

From tool to mirror •‘mirrors the organic, decentralised, interlinked pathways of the Internet -- the Internet come to life’ •from a tool it has become a mirror, and the mirror subsequently becomes a shaping machine

Metaphors are actors ● Metaphors are oscillating actors between moving domains ● Metaphors (re)construct the target as well as the source domain

Kritiek/uitbreiding op Lakoff 1. Moving domains & domain constructie achteraf i.pv. stabiel & vooraf verondersteld 2. Oscillaties: metaforische-metonymisch, subject-object, cause-effect, tool-mirror 3. Meer focus op materiëel bestaan, productiviteit, labour en transformaties van en door metaphors-in-action 4. Living metaphors: more fuzzy and situated, neem serious en letterlijk

Vragen 1.) Fuzzy Oscillation Principle i.p.v. Invariance Principle? 2.) Tool/mirror oscillatie: • Vergelijkbaar met Lakoff's dualisme 'hebben/zijn'? Image scheme = mirror? • Generaliseerbaar naar nieuwe media metaforen in het algemeen (b.v. cyberspace, open source idem) Technologische metaforen in het algemeen? Science-metaphors? • Wellicht zelfs universeel mechanisme in alle metaforen-in-actie?

Depresented unused parts 1 •Protocols: agreements carved in software which regulates how data streams flow along the channels •The Internet is a set of nested and layered protocols •TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) –small data packets –direct to destination –reassemble on arrival –non-hierarchical, horizontal –unique IP-number –different routes

Depresented unused parts 2 •Other protocols on top of TCP/IP •HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) to browse websites •SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send mail •DNS-protocol (Domain Name System) to translate domain names to IP-numbers •FTP, et cetera •Servers and clients! •Web servers, web clients; mail servers, mail clients etc •We are clients who pay a subscription fee •We use clients (application programs)

Nested and layered protocols •TCP/IP: structurally non-hierarchical •Other protocols: hierarchical client-server architecture •Client-server split is a material division of labour •= an asymmetrical division of power and control •Bureaucracy is translated into protocological infrastructure •Hierarchy is translated into the client-server architecture

Distributed network topologies •A distributed computer system is an application that consists of components running on different computers concurrently (web page: client-server, bricolage, DNS, TCP/IP etc) •Distributedness does not by itself imply anything about hierarchy, centralisation or decentralisation

Distributed network topologies Hierarchical Centralised DecentralisedHybrid

P2P file sharing systems • files not stored on a central server • downloading directly from other clients/peers • good old P2P, purely decentralised?

P2P file sharing systems • no direct channel of transmission between peers • routing of the files must always pass along providers servers • P2P = parasitical layer • You are what you use…

Conclusions In what regards can the new political organising be conceptualised as analogies of the Internet? • protocols and topologies? • depresented local centralities, hierarchies? • clients and servers? • P2P-networking? parasitic peers? Mark Poster: Tool -> social space -> subjects Tool -> mirror -> shaping thing -> subject/objects