Assembly Codes: The Logistics of Media ed. by Matthew Hockenberry, Nicole Starosielski, and Susan Zieger

Abstract

Reviewed by: Assembly Codes: The Logistics of Media ed. by Matthew Hockenberry, Nicole Starosielski, and Susan Zieger Noah Arceneaux (bio) Assembly Codes: The Logistics of Media Edited by Matthew Hockenberry, Nicole Starosielski, and Susan Zieger. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 258. This anthology feels like an eclectic, overcrowded academic panel. There is a theme, indeed even a compelling one, for which a few key chapters are perfectly aligned. Some other essays are tangentially connected, while others are connected only on an impossibly broad conceptual level. And, like a conference presentation, some of the works offer nuggets of insight rather than fully realized academic projects. John Durham Peters describes the collection in a foreword as a "refreshing counter-blast to the ethereal narrative" of modern media (p. vii). In contrast to hyperbolic rhetoric and public fascination with cloud computing and ubiquitous online access, this collection explores the intersection of media systems and the infrastructure that makes content creation, distribution, and mass consumption possible. In the formal introduction, the editors emphasize that historians of the military and capitalism first recognized the importance of logistics for the circulation of resources, with scholars in other fields then adopting the focus. A school of "critical logistical studies" formed, and this book claims to be the first collection to apply this lens to the study of media industries, which circulate physical goods and ideas on a global scale. The authors draw from a range of previous scholars, with the works of Paul Virilio and Anna Tsing cited frequently. The collection's theme is exemplified in the third part, titled "Supply Chain Media." Michael Palm documents the revival of vinyl records and the reliance on the postal system and specialized software that unite seller [End Page 604] and buyer, while also acknowledging the ecological impact of this industry. Nicole Starosielski focuses on the network of undersea cables that make global internet traffic possible. A handful of companies with ties to particular nations dominate this field, a legacy of the colonial, imperial era of the past. There are, however, several historical works on geopolitics and telecommunications, including the work of Dwayne Winseck, not referenced in this chapter. In one of the most compelling chapters, Kay Dickinson connects the decentralized, exploitative nature of modern film production with the state of higher education, which has its own cadre of underpaid adjuncts. Dickinson challenges instructors to instill some political consciousness into their students while simultaneously giving them the necessary skills for employment in the world of film. Another compelling chapter is Matthew Hockenberry's, which connects the latest generation of voice-activated computer programs, including Siri, to original visions of the telephone as an instrument to optimize efficiency. The connection between the ostensible theme of the collection and a few of the other essays is less clear, including four focused on the Atlantic slave trade. This horrific phase in world history was most certainly a grand act of logistics, albeit one for nefarious ends, though it is not immediately clear what these respective works illuminate about contemporary media industries. Susan Zieger's analysis of slave ships, for example, performs a close reading of the "bills of lading" for such vessels to find evidence for the tragic loss of life that occurred during the passage from Africa. But to view these paper documents as "logistical media," as the essay does, suggests a category of evidence so broad that it threatens to lose its value. Another chapter about the movement to repatriate African Americans to Ghana seems even more detached from the anthology's focus. Shannon Mattern's essay advocates for scholars to devote attention to the sounds created by different systems for regulating logistics, from bells to work songs to the beeps of RFID tags. This is an intriguing proposition and relates to the growing field of sound studies, though it is more a provocation than a full explication of exactly what new insights this aural evidence might reveal. Starosielski's work on undersea cables has a similar quality, in that it suggests more questions than answers. The analogy between this anthology and an eclectic conference panel is not intended as a slight, as indeed the serendipitous jumbling of topics...