Regimes of the Parasite: exploring new domains inherent within media formations

Abstract

Viruses are neither alive nor dead, viruses do not grow, however, viruses greatly impact the growth of systems (biological, technological, bio-technological, etc.). Ultimately, the parasite is a confounding agent for how we account for things. That said, motored by technology’s productive potential, the current discourse on media technology largely ignores the structural force of the parasite. Analysis is centered on a device’s own functionality and purpose. Alternatively, I suggest we examine how the parasite is integral to technology. However, instead of the parasitic threat somehow being crucial to a system’s future, I take the parasite’s operations as requiring new investigations into domains of and perspectives on media technology beyond those engendered by instrumentalist discourses. I propose we think media technologies as emergent within the diverse and fracturing regimes of ‘the virus.’ This means analyzing media as discrete formations that possibly deviate from functionalist explanations. More problematically, 'the virus' provokes re-conceiving the kinds of economies and temporal realms in which media takes form.