Cyberculture: Bell
In my summary this week I note that we seemed to be focusing on the unreality of cyberspace, and on how it is a type of shared fantasy world in which our connections are taking place. The chapter in this weeks reading from David Bells Introduction to Cybercultures illustrates these interactions through different types of story. Since I’ve just started a new job, I’m picking out his section on Work Stories as the subject of this post.
Bell notes Andrew Ross’ observation that many ‘people work in cyberspace or work to make cyberspace possible. It is not simply a medium for free expression and wealth accumulation; it is a labor-intensive workplace’, (Ross, 1998, quoted in Bell, 2001). My first reaction to this was an offhand and idealistic rejection. I considered the ease to produce and mash up media and the many thousands of sites which enable sharing of content; the supposed fact that anyone can freely become a web designer, developer or multimedia author. But continued reading reminded me that despite the ubiquity of such enabling tools, the free time and skills required to use them come at a premium. Freedom of expression is a luxury when your time is better spent feeding your family. Let us not forget that the real winners of such enabling tools are those who live comfortable first world lives. For many other users, the connection to the world wide web (if it exists at all!) is an enabler of a different kind, namely access to international labor markets. Services like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which provides crowdsourced, on demand, low paid digital workers to western businesses, are becoming increasingly popular and more visible online. Bell goes on to quote Luke (1999) as an illustration of this point, telling us that “thousands of poor women in Jamaica, Mauritius or the Philippines [work] in low-paid, tedious data entry or word-processing jobs for firms in London, Paris or San Diego”. When viewed in this light, cyberspace becomes a much darker place and very different to the vision promoted by the free libre open source movement or by remix culture. But the fact remains that cyberspace is simultaneously created by both the dark and the light forces, and perhaps in that sense it accurately mirrors our physical reality more than we realise.
‘how it is a type of shared fantasy world in which our connections are taking place’
Daniel, this is a very interesting take on ‘cyberspace’. I wonder if you are making reference to William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromancer, which popularised the term ‘cyberspace’, famously described as a ‘consensual hallucination’.
Very interesting reference to the Amazon Mechanical Turk, thanks. I was aware of ‘the Turk’ automaton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turk from which this service gets its name, but this use of crowd sourced labour is fascinating indeed, and adds a very interesting dimension to the idea of ‘work stories’ in relation to cyberculture.
You are right; I love that book! Gibson did occur to me, but not until after the discussions. But ExistenZ definitely has the similar idea of a consensual fantasy world. It occurs to me now that the “consensual” part might be more important. Especially after considering the idea of sharing in a culture. If one member ceases to take part in the fantasy, and “jacks out”, are they no longer part of that culture. Do they even exist for the other members anymore? Lots to think about. Thanks Jeremy!