Abstract
Arguably, the genealogy of the term postdigital rests on the inseparability of the digital and the analog, that the concept that the digital and analog are intertwined as one inseparable entity, and that the digital will only be noticed by its absence, not its presence. This chapter explores the tensions inherent in these claims, arguing that the digital is theorised as ubiquitous and also occluded from direct view; resulting in the postdigital, in which the digital as a presence seems to be imagined as an entity outside of direct perception. Interrogating the concept of being intertwined and the nature of twine, I will argue that this commonly-used metaphor is in fact flawed, and does not provide sufficient theoretical purchase on the nature of the relationship between the digital and analog. I consider the concept of the network and the meshwork, arguing that neither of these concepts are adequate when seeking to capture the nature of the more-than-digital in the university. I argue for the importance of ephemerality, seclusion and copresence as fundamental elements of being and entanglement in the university; aspects of which which have hitherto been neglected in theories of the postdigital. I conclude by proposing the concept of fugitive practices.
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This research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship grant number MRF-2020-135.
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Gourlay, L. (2023). Postdigital/More-Than-Digital: Ephemerality, Seclusion, and Copresence in the University. In: Jandrić, P., MacKenzie, A., Knox, J. (eds) Postdigital Research. Postdigital Science and Education . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31299-1_4
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