Finite Media, Sean Cubitt
Here I’ll just be discussing this reading that I have done, basically putting my notes from the reading into a semi-readable piece that outlines the main topics he discusses at the beginning of the book.
Finite Media introduces the concept to its readers that the border between what’s natural and what’s manmade is becoming closer to becoming the same thing along with attributes that could only be described as mad made. The example he explains first is about the film ‘The Story of the Kelly Gang’ which was done by Charles Tait in 1906. Only 17 minutes of the original film is still intact, due to the natural decay of the film. Though through technology being able to re-create the film the film has been ‘immortalised’ forever etched into the web. He goes into how this piece of film was something natural, a “Living Medium” and how humans are now able to preserve nature forever.
Mediation is then discussed and how every interaction in the history of the planet is a form of mediation, each one being different in some ways. He discusses how humans have such a reliance on these interactions and how we are turning a blind eye to the damage that we are doing. This is an important aspect of the research I am looking into, how the colonisation of New Zealand and the exploitation fo the Waitakere Forests have affected Kauri Forests and surrounding land. Whats interesting is how he then relates the idea how the idea of things being immortalised is changing how humans think about the aspect of death, as though it has never existed. This is creating the problem of overproduction, which he wanted to differentiate from overconsumption, as overconsumption is a moral issue based on an individual's beliefs, while overproduction is created by a system which feeds society. Corporate greed is the stem of the issue.
The idea of externality is then explored as he goes into the history of countries who have talked about what is public property and what can be privately owned. “Externality” is something which can be exploited without any resources being put into it. Businesses heavily exploit these areas as they are obviously the easiest areas to earn a profit in. Though as mentioned before, a blind eye is often turned to the damage that these practices cause. Humans and all creatures nearly always adapt to the environment, shaping it so they can thrive rather than always searching for the perfect environment.
He then discusses how humans need to look at environments the same way we look at human environments. Lastly, he talks about how in the next few chapters he will be talking about how the earth has finite resources, how humans interact with these resources and how we are controlled by people who have the sole purpose of destroying the very thing that made it.