Electronic Monuments
An eclectic and surprising study documenting the diversification of witnessing
320 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9780816645831
- Published: November 25, 2005
- Series: Electronic Mediations
Details
Electronic Monuments
Series: Electronic Mediations
ISBN: 9780816645831
Publication date: November 25th, 2005
320 Pages
9 x 5
From a do-it-yourself Mount Rushmore to an automated tribute to the devastating annual toll of traffic deaths in the United States, Electronic Monuments describes commemoration as a fundamental experience, joining individual and collective identity, and adapting both to the emerging apparatus of “electracy,” or digital literacy. Concerns about the destruction of civic life caused by the society of the spectacle are refocused on the question of how a collectivity remembers who or what it is.
Ulmer proposes that the Internet makes it possible for monumentality to become a primary site of self-knowledge, one that supports a new politics, ethics, and dimension of education. The Internet thus holds the promise of bringing citizens back into the political equation as witnesses and monitors.
Gregory L. Ulmer is professor of English and media studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville.