Pixel politics and satellite interpretation in the Syrian war
Pixel politics and satellite interpretation in the Syrian war
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DOI：
10.1177/01634437221077169
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发表时间：
2022-05-06
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Greenland, Fiona A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Greenland, Fiona A.
像素是当代视觉文化的基本元素，具有影响整个数字组成的解释的图像和感知属性。然而，尽管像素具有重要性，但它仍然是文化社会学和批判性媒体研究中一个被忽视的分析对象。为了推进像素研究的框架，我提出了一个诠释学的方法。从经验上讲，我通过叙利亚冲突地区（2011-2017年）暴力事件的卫星图像关注像素的政治和社会技术层面。通过采访和观察，我研究了卫星程序员，技术人员，考古学家和人类学家，他们组成了一个跨学科的努力来解释战争期间考古破坏和其他形式的文化暴力的卫星图片。他们的解释，其中一些是美国政策制定者做出重大决定的基础，涉及到在屏幕上隔离两个像素。为了解释这意味着什么，我借鉴了Alberto Romele和Don Ihde的理论，将像素置于一个解释性的圆圈内，通过这个圆圈，卫星图像在不同的层次上被“阅读”。我的研究结果具有更广泛的社会学和媒体研究的影响，根据他们的深刻的政治，技术和人的相互关系，对数字媒体的认识状态的批评。
The pixel is a fundamental element of contemporary visual culture, with pictorial and perceptual properties that affect the interpretation of the digital composition as a whole. Despite its importance, however, the pixel remains a neglected object of analysis in cultural sociology and critical media studies. To advance a framework of pixel studies I present a hermeneutical approach. Empirically, I focus on the pixel's political and socio-technical dimensions through satellite images of violence in the Syrian conflict zone (2011-2017). Through interviews and observations, I study the satellite programmers, technicians, archeologists, and anthropologists who comprised an interdisciplinary effort to interpret satellite pictures of archeological damage and other forms of cultural violence during the war. Their interpretations, some of which were the basis for consequential decisions by US policymakers, involved isolating as few as two pixels on the screen. To explain what this entailed, I draw on theories from Alberto Romele and Don Ihde to situate the pixel within a hermeneutic circle through which satellite images were 'read' at different levels. My findings have implications for broader sociological and media studies critiques of the epistemic status of digital media in light of their deep interrelations of politics, technology, and people.