Transformations of more-than-human networks and the impact of material objects on tactical media artworks

Abstract

More-than-human networks and the impact of material non-human entities have come into focus, in both social and computer sciences, since the late twentieth century. In social sciences, a plethora of conceptualizations emerged to describe complex, dynamic, heterogeneous and non-hierarchical structures of material and non-material, human and non-human, congruent and conflicting entities. In computer science, the birth of the Internet and the subsequent emergence of the World Wide Web drew scientists’ attention to networks, as well. Later, the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) contributed to a shift in the prevailing perception of the Internet, from an immaterial entity to a network of interconnected material objects. Critical media artists explore the agency of non-human entities and the hybrid networks they articulate with heterogeneous agents. Some of them employ interconnected material objects to initiate tactical interventions at the intersection of art and activism. In this paper, we study tactical media artworks that incorporate material and technologically augmented everyday objects. We treat material objects as threefold entities – social, artistic and technological – and focus on the heterogeneous dynamic networks articulated around them. We investigate the actions and interactions of the entities involved, which result in a transformation of the emerging network. We show that these actions and interactions establish small-scale spatiotemporal spheres in which power relations are redistributed. The paper begins with a review of selected social and philosophical theories that introduced new terms, topologies and concepts for describing more-than-human networks. It then moves on to the advancement of networked technologies, focusing on the Internet’s materiality and the Internet of Things. Finally, it examines more-than-human networks, their transformations and the role of material objects in tactical media artworks through the analysis of two selected case studies.