Communicating with Objects: Ontology, Object‐Orientations, and the Politics of Communication. Issue 3 (31st March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Malin, Brenton J.
• Is Part Of: Communication theory. Volume 26:Issue 3(2016:Aug.)
• Page Start: 236
• Page End: 254
• Publication Date: 2016-03-31
• Subjects: Object‐Oriented Ontology -- Media and Cultural Studies -- Television -- Historical Materialism -- Philosophy of Technology; Communication -- Periodicals; Information theory -- Periodicals; 302.205
• DOI: 10.1111/comt.12093
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1050-3293

Abstract

Abstract : This essay engages with recent work in Object‐Oriented Ontology, beginning with Alexander Galloway's claims that object‐oriented thought is inherently neoliberal. While I agree with Galloway's critique, his discussion demonstrates some shortcomings of ontological thinking in contemporary media and cultural studies. Building on my response to Galloway, I argue that the problems of object‐oriented thought have less to do with its dismissal of politics than with its problematic conception of objects themselves. In their strict avoidance of "the social, " object‐oriented thinkers ignore fundamentally important features of objects in general and media objects in particular. I conclude with suggestions toward an onto‐materialist theory of objects, which seeks to understand how political economic and other broadly social matter are ontologized in objects.