Affective Communication: Exchanges between People and Nature via Information Technology
Jakub Siwak · Communicatio · 2019
Ironically, the material infrastructure that underpins the digital platforms we use to share information related to environmental degradation comprises reliance on heavily polluting forms of energy which are a staple part of that very same degradation rallied against online. As it is implausible to suggest that we would move away from our new digital reality, it is argued that we should embrace its communicative capacities despite the fact that our digital infrastructure is environmentally destructive. And, it is argued that the greatest capacity of digitality lies not in its ability for information sharing, but in its ability to affect us on a level beyond the consumption of environmental information. In doing so, great caution should be exercised so as not to fall into the trap of reifying the powers of information technology. Rather, we should see it as yet indeterminate and as capable of producing exchanges between people and nature that are of surprising potential. In order to read the potential of these exchanges, the article draws on a philosophical framework developed by the post- structuralist duo Deleuze and Guattari. Following this, two nature-oriented digital artefacts are examined for their ability to communicate with us on a level beyond information exchange.