The Oscillation Thing Criticizing Lakoff & Johnson's
metaphor theory
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Kortste definitie Lakoff (& Johnson?) metafoortheorie:
Metafoor is het begrijpen/uitdrukken van het ene (in het target
domain) in termen van iets anders (uit het source domain)
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Sterke kanten 1. Elegant en eenvoudig analytisch model van
source & target domain (highlighting & downplaying,
representatie/depresentatie, zonder beroep op
waarheid/werkelijkheid) 2. Notie van 'correspondence mapping'
voorbij linguistische categorien (substitutie, gelijkenis,
vergelijking, analogie, metonymie) 3. Uitgangspunt van samenhang
taal, denken en handelen (i.t.t. focus op woord, zin, disocurse of
pragmatiek) 4. Voorbij de kwestie letterlijk-figuurlijk
(waarheid/waarde vs denkbeeldig, vgl. 'het is maar een
metafoor')
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Bedenkingen 1. Metaphors we live by: neiging tot zoeken naar
universele inhoudelijke conceptuele metaforen ('grounded in bodily
experience') 2. Focus op conceptuele/cognitieve samenhang
('opgesloten in het hoofd' als verklaring i.p.v. datgene wat
verklaard moet worden)
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Naomi Klein, The Vision Thing
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Analogy with the Internet intricately and tightly linked as
hotlinks connect their websites facilitates & shapes the
movement in its own image sparse bureaucracy and hierarchy organic,
decentralised, interlinked pathways of the Internet the Internet
come to life
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TARGET DOMAIN: political organising no clear leadership and
followers disparate campaigns, scattered, non-lineair convergence,
shared belief, emerging consensus hybrid pattern of dispersal and
convergence intricately and tightly linked to one another
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SOURCE DOMAIN: The Internet hybrid pattern of dispersal and
convergence hotlinks, websites and connections intricately and
tightly linked to one another as hotlinks connect their websites to
the Internet hotlinks: subject/object displacement &
condensation
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More than coincidental Not only a tool, it is also shaping the
movement in its own image: sparse bureaucracy, minimal hierarchy,
loose information swapping The image of the Internet shapes the
movement Internet is shaping the image the movement has of
itself
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From tool to mirror mirrors the organic, decentralised,
interlinked pathways of the Internet -- the Internet come to life
from a tool it has become a mirror, and the mirror subsequently
becomes a shaping machine
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Metaphors are actors Metaphors are oscillating actors between
moving domains Metaphors (re)construct the target as well as the
source domain
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Kritiek/uitbreiding op Lakoff 1. Moving domains & domain
constructie achteraf i.pv. stabiel & vooraf verondersteld 2.
Oscillaties: metaforische-metonymisch, subject-object,
cause-effect, tool-mirror 3. Meer focus op materiel bestaan,
productiviteit, labour en transformaties van en door
metaphors-in-action 4. Living metaphors: more fuzzy and situated,
neem serious en letterlijk
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Vragen 1.) Fuzzy Oscillation Principle i.p.v. Invariance
Principle? 2.) Tool/mirror oscillatie: Vergelijkbaar met Lakoff's
dualisme 'hebben/zijn'? Image scheme = mirror? Generaliseerbaar
naar nieuwe media metaforen in het algemeen (b.v. cyberspace, open
source idem) Technologische metaforen in het algemeen?
Science-metaphors? Wellicht zelfs universeel mechanisme in alle
metaforen-in-actie?
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Depresented unused parts 1 Protocols: agreements carved in
software which regulates how data streams flow along the channels
The Internet is a set of nested and layered protocols TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) small data
packets direct to destination reassemble on arrival
non-hierarchical, horizontal unique IP-number different routes
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Depresented unused parts 2 Other protocols on top of TCP/IP
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) to browse websites SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol) to send mail DNS-protocol (Domain Name
System) to translate domain names to IP-numbers FTP, et cetera
Servers and clients! Web servers, web clients; mail servers, mail
clients etc We are clients who pay a subscription fee We use
clients (application programs)
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Nested and layered protocols TCP/IP: structurally
non-hierarchical Other protocols: hierarchical client-server
architecture Client-server split is a material division of labour =
an asymmetrical division of power and control Bureaucracy is
translated into protocological infrastructure Hierarchy is
translated into the client-server architecture
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Distributed network topologies A distributed computer system is
an application that consists of components running on different
computers concurrently (web page: client-server, bricolage, DNS,
TCP/IP etc) Distributedness does not by itself imply anything about
hierarchy, centralisation or decentralisation
P2P file sharing systems files not stored on a central server
downloading directly from other clients/peers good old P2P, purely
decentralised?
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P2P file sharing systems no direct channel of transmission
between peers routing of the files must always pass along providers
servers P2P = parasitical layer You are what you use
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Conclusions In what regards can the new political organising be
conceptualised as analogies of the Internet? protocols and
topologies? depresented local centralities, hierarchies? clients
and servers? P2P-networking? parasitic peers? Mark Poster: Tool
-> social space -> subjects Tool -> mirror -> shaping
thing -> subject/objects