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Abstract

An introduction to "Computational Cultures after the Cloud" (a special issue of the Journal of e-Media Studies), this essay unpacks some stress points across the issue's various pieces, with an emphasis on how new forms of scholarly communication and activism are engaging emerging digital economies and digital labor practices. Instead of reading computation deterministically, the introduction highlights critically affirmative approaches to the perceived immateriality of computational work, its processing, storage, and circulation included. Throughout the essay, there is an emphasis on the convergences between online and off-line activities (especially forms of organization) as well as various media types. As the essay ultimately demonstrates, the cloud is historically unique because it is simultaneously immersive and at a remove, inviting frequent and seemingly effortless participation while fostering alienation, individuation, and exploitation. Echoing work by Jonathan Beller, Wendy Chun, Alexander Galloway, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Tara McPherson, Lisa Nakamura, and Trebor Scholz (among others), this perceived effortlessness tends to mask the material conditions and technical particulars that are often sites for political, aesthetic, and performative intervention. Contributors to the issue include Zoe Beloff, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Anne Cong-Huyen, Eric Freedman, Matthew Fuller, Hollis Griffin, Wendy Hagenmaier, Carl Hagenmaier, Eric Hoyt, Jonathan Kahana, Adeline Koh, Alexis Lothian, Mark Marino, Nick Marx, Alyssa McLeod, and Amanda Phillips.

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