Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

diversity of cooperative relations people can enter, and therefore of
collaborative projects they can conceive of as open to them’ (2006).
The Internet is particularly well suited to the development of nonconcurrent
collaboration, providing a space where communal dialogue
may emerge independent of participant’s geographic or temporal
location. 23 In addition to this, the searchable nature of online content
means that documents need not be published to a central repository
in order to be discoverable. Search terms become the mechanism by
which content is collected and collated, providing ad-hoc groupings
of data from a diverse array of sources. The resulting collection of
documents and web pages form a layered, multi-vocal space where
individuals select their own paths through the text. By adding their
voices to this space, practitioners consolidate the existing material and
extend the discussion into new domains.
6.14 Shared space
While the Internet facilitates the creation of a heterogeneous discursive
space, it is the genericness of the mass-produced object that gives
this discussion a common ground. Often criticized for its homogenizing
effect, the mass-produced object presents consumers with uniform
material performance, similar user experiences, and often highly
predictable modes of failure. This material uniformity allows for practices
of use to be repeated by users regardless of their specific geographic
location or circumstance and, consequently, a repair process
that works for one user is likely also to work for others. Traditionally,
consumer activity has been dispersed throughout society, existing as
isolated, often private, engagements. However, as we have seen, the
Internet’s ability to bridge geographic and temporal locations has dramatically
shifted this relationship: object use has become a public act.
When the mass-produced, widely distributed object becomes linked
to diverse user accounts, a dramatic shift occurs in the nature of the
object. Bruce Sterling has termed this new form of object-hood a
‘spime’. According to Sterling, every spimed object generates a little
puddle of experience that adds to our understanding of what the object
is or could be. Sterling states:
‘Since they are so well documented, every SPIME is a lab experiment
of sorts. In older days, if an object was radically re-purposed by some
Stategies of Control and Tactics of Use
23/ Of course the Internet has its
own spatial distribution that deter-
mines who can access and contribute
to this discussion and who cannot.
The uneven distribution of Internet
access is commonly referred to as the
‘digital divide’, a division whose lines
are drawn both globally, between the
economically developed and develop-
ing countries, and locally, in terms of
race, economic status, gender and
geographic location (Norris, 2001).
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