There is an inordinate amount of
data that is constantly analysed, aggregated and recorded and yet the majority
of this information goes unobserved by people going about their everyday lives.
Despite this, data plays an integral role in society because it reflects
society itself. Data provides an understanding of our collective past, present
and projected future trends and patterns. I personally find storytelling as a
way of establishing history and culture to be an interesting form of
publishing. While this predominantly brings to mind book publishing, in this
case I am using a broader scope to include more recent e-book publishing as
well as different forms of early historical recordings.
The most fascinating aspect of
published stories, created usually for entertainment purposes, is how the
stories convey universal truisms; the ancient stories that remain popular today
reflect their environment while simultaneously connecting with publics across diverging
social, cultural, historical and political contexts. The earliest recorded
forms of storytelling include cave paintings, oral tradition and stone carvings
(BrandJuice, 2012). Book publishing has occurred for thousands of years – and
will hopefully remain so despite the rise of digital ebooks, self-published
blogs and vlogs. According to Springett (2014), digital platforms have
developed an imagined state without geopolitical borders, thus allowing
publishing to reach a global audience like never before.
The act of storytelling has
existed for eons and finding ways to publish these stories followed not long
afterwards, thus creating several possible complications. Data friction refers
to the effort required to gather historical records and information on a global
scale (Edwards 2010, p. xiv). In regards to data friction, incomplete or
damaged records of these stories prevent us from knowing the original stories.
Also, the number of sources over the years that have adapted, embellished or
unknowingly erred in the telling/recording of these stories further muddy the
waters. Additionally, the distribution and copyright laws of more contemporary
novels can often inhibit the ethical aggregation of stories and therefore the data and
knowledge that can be obtained from them.
Infrastructural globalism is
defined by Edwards (2010, p. xviii) as ‘the building of technical systems for
gathering global data helped to create global institutions and ways of thinking
globally’. The main archives or systems created for the collection and
distribution of stories are bookstores and libraries, whether they are physical
or digital. By collecting stories from the same genre or contextual period, we
can come to understand what society valued and thus we can hopefully learn from
any mistakes of the past and highlight future sociocultural trends.
Therefore, as long as the
exchange of ideas between the composer and audience can be effectively
communicated, the potential for a story to comment on society itself defies all
local and global boundaries.
This short and comprehensive video by BrandJuice, particularly the first half, was the inspiration behind my choice to apply this week's concepts of data friction and infrastructural globalism to different forms of story publishing.
References:
BrandJuice 2012, A Whiteboard History of Storytelling,
online video, accessed 18 October 2014, < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6E8jpFasR0>.
Edwards, P. N. 2010,
‘Introduction’, A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data,
and the Politics of Global Warming, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, xiii-xvii.
Springett, J. 2014, ’Colonising
the Clouds—Infrastructure Territory and The Geopolitics of The Stacks’, Medium.com,
July 8, <https://medium.com/@thejaymo/colonising-the-clouds-4405d2d590b5>.
