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.