Telepresence and its transparent infrastructures

Abstract

This article critically examines Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin's concept of remediation, specifically as it pertains to their conceptualisation of transparency, through a detailed analysis of a series of telematic artworks. Their problematic definition of remediation leads to an understanding of telepresence as a medium that denies transparency and aggressively insists for the social and physical reality of media, yet such a definition does not provide the analytical tools required to determine how these conditions are produced in the first place. Remediation, it will be argued, falls short for studying the relations of power that enable and constrain representation, particularly in the case of media such as telepresence. A solution is found in Leah Lievrouw's ‘reconfiguration’ as a complement to remediation. Based on findings from a recent case study, the article will show how this dual approach can be employed to study how artists appropriate information infrastructure.