Into the Screenscape: Screens, Bodies, and the Biopolitics of the Population

• Other Authors: Wright, Katheryn (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Arts; Humanities; Social sciences
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-4643

This dissertation explores the formation and significance of the screenscape in popular culture. A screenscape encompasses the mixture of screens and bodies that enter into and transform the aesthetic quality of social space. After reviewing types of screens that might comprise a given screenscape, I approach the screen not only as a technology but a cultural form that influences the way audiences perceive the relationship between media and their environments. As such, I expand Brian Massumi's reading of the production of fear through the television after 9/11 and argue that the screen is a space of and for the collective modulation of affect. My argument hinges on three interlocking concepts: the screen as threshold, the affective body, and the biopolitical population. While new media theorists Lev Manovich and Anne Friedberg position the screen as a frame for onscreen content, the first chapter concludes by outlining how the screen also functions as a threshold, a critical point or site of transition. The second chapter defines the affective body and biopolitical population, linking the two through the collective modulation of affect. Each of the final three chapters focuses on a specific example, weaving together the concepts of the screen as threshold, affective body, and biopolitical population through the construction of the screenscape. I analyze the television series Dollhouse as a metaphor of the screen as a threshold. The narrative positions the primary character, Echo (Eliza Dushku), as a screen – a site for display rather than an object on display. She simultaneously represents both the affective body and the biopolitical population. Next I turn to Nine Inch Nail's Lights in the Sky tour. Trent Reznor, the visionary behind Nine Inch Nails, stands for the fantasy of the artist who surrenders his body to the onstage screenscape he finances and designs. Reznor's playful interactions with the three "stealth" screens enable his body to be controlled and secured by the logic of the screenscape as it expands beyond his control. My final discussion takes an ethnographic approach to the study of the screen at the 2008 US Open in New York. This sporting attraction and entertainment spectacle brings together a variety of screens ranging from video boards to handheld televisions. Here, the enormity of the event is expressed through the personal, affective relationships people have with their screen technologies. At the same time, the arrangement of screens across the venue help to manage crowds, control access, and corporately brand an event in its becoming. These readings hinge on a paradox embedded in the screen as a cultural form: to enter into the screenscape means to affect and be affected by the biopolitical population as it weaves into and informs the logic of cultural production and consumption. === A Dissertation submitted to the Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Spring Semester, 2010. === March 26, 2010. === Screen, Screenscape, Threshold, Biopower, Affect, Population, US Open, Nine Inch Nails, Dollhouse === Includes bibliographical references. === Amit Rai, Professor Directing Dissertation; Andy Opel, University Representative; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member; Kathleen Yancey, Committee Member.