Thursday, September 02, 2004

Deconstructing Internet Protocols. I thought *I* was pushing the interdisciplinary envelope pretty far, but someone else seems to be *way* out there. Alexander R. Galloway, Assistant Professor of Media Ecology at New York University (my law school alma mater), has recently written a book called Protocol, which appears to apply critical theory (a descendent of deconstruction a la Derrida) to Internet Protocols! Here is the book's blurb: Is the Internet a vast arena of unrestricted communication and freely exchanged information or a regulated, highly structured virtual bureaucracy? In Protocol, Alexander Galloway argues that the founding principle of the Net is control, not freedom, and that the controlling power lies in the technical protocols that make network connections (and disconnections) possible. He does this by treating the computer as a textual medium that is based on a technological language, code. Code, he argues, can be subject to the same kind of cultural and literary analysis as any natural language; computer languages have their own syntax, grammar, communities, and cultures. Instead of relying on established theoretical approaches, Galloway finds a new way to write about digital media, drawing on his backgrounds in computer programming and critical theory. "Discipline-hopping is a necessity when it comes to complicated socio-technical topics like protocol," he writes in the preface. Galloway begins by examining the types of protocols that exist, including TCP/IP, DNS, and HTML. He then looks at examples of resistance and subversion -- hackers, viruses, cyberfeminism, Internet art -- which he views as emblematic of the larger transformations now taking place within digital culture. Written for a nontechnical audience, Protocol serves as a necessary counterpoint to the wildly utopian visions of the Net that were so widespread in earlier days. It seems somewhat related to Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig, which according to reviews I've read, has a thesis that plays on the dual meaning of code as computer software and code as a body of law. We'll see. I found Alexander's home page, which has links to several essays, including an essay with the same title as the book. I liked it so much, I emailed him at NYU to see if we might collaborate on something. 7:25:29 AM