User:Claxhanson/Thesisoutline

THESIS OUTLINE :

this is the continuation of the research I have started, "A dictatorship in twilight" during Special Issue #11 : Post-digital itch.

INFRASTRUCTURE & CORRUPTION

I want to explore how nation-states restrict flows of communication, monitor content, and promote certain parameters of ‘social order’ through the tactical corruption of infrastructure.

Normally you have already read my project proposal, where I announce the grand ambition of developing a system that will perfectly layout all the elements that constitute a corrupted infrastructure. Well, the thesis will be a direct account of the success of this method.

Along with the growth of the thesis, I will be observing through the cross-examination and juxtaposition methods pre-developed for my project to constitute the chapters of this.

I didn’t want my research to be an all-around the globe sort of thing, like adding a pin on the map in the toilets to keep a collection of all the places I’ve been through. Also, in order not to sound like a paternalist ethnologist or a preachy tourist, I have decided to follow as a guidance line the history that I have been fed with since childhood and up until now.

The heart of that hot topic : the French empire and its strive towards domination. (definitely not a title, just stating)

The quesited projects will be purposely chosen for this thesis to be a stand-alone project.

Can we recognize the symptoms of a power unit that weaponizes infrastructures to corrupt them ? (the answer will be a yes) And if so, what exactly are these dynamics ? How can we categorize them to better identify them ?

I will be using this CARE SHEET system of juxtaposition and cross-examination as a methodology to investigate and exemplify what might also be considered infra-imperial struggles, or infra-structural corruptions within the material world, the online arena, and in the intersection between the two.

renew interest with the notion of empire in the broad sense, in order to contextualize the violences that are perpetuated on the infrastructural level

Be able to define whether these Imperial powers are using the same mechanics to conquer the digital arena as they have been using, and are still using, to conquer physical territory (urban projects, etc). If not, then be able to recognize new patterns, or speculate future ones.

The goal is to make a series of stories, a series of "maquettes", that would be a direct translation of the violence of some architectural infrastructures into digital shapes. They will all be gathered as part of one bigger story, as a mode of historicizing these pervasive tactics.

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OUTLINE

I can’t really lay out the thesis at this exact moment, because it will be written in a non-linear way, and one of the modules in the program will shape them to into a solid narrative, but this will only shape into its firm form around December. Here are some key elements that I am focusing on at the moment.

RESEARCH UNIT: A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT IS WORTH A BATTALION The French empire builder Hubert Lyautey. Key strategist of French colonialism, and the Architecture of Protectorate during French Settlement in post-colonial Morocco ONE OF THE CHAPTERS : YOU’LL GET TO SLEEP WITH NAPOLEON, on life & death THERE WILL BE THREE OR FOR CHAPTERS PER UNIT, depending on the system LAST CHAPTER : THE DESERTS OF MODERNITY, tangible dependencies

For the moment I have already started a few chapters, but I need to focus on the structure before I really understand what the chapters will be made of.