From remediation to premediation: or how the affective

immediacy of late 90s digital society evolves to an continuous

affectivity anticipation of future in the 21th century
Interview with Richard Grusin
1
By Elizabeth Saad Corra
2
Richard Grusin one of the most well nown on media studies researchers and a !ioneer
on this area" #is wor concerns historical$ theoretical$ and aesthetic as!ects of media
technolo%ies" &ith 'ay (avid Bolter he is the author of Remediation: Understanding
New Meda )*I+$ 1,,,-$ which setches out a %enealo%y of new media$ be%innin% with
the contradictory visual lo%ics underlyin% contem!orary di%ital media. Remediation has
a remarable connection with his fourth boo$ Premediation: Affect and Mediality After
9/11 )/al%rave$ 2010-$ which ar%ues that in an era of hei%htened securitization$ socially
networed 1S and %lobal media wor to !re2mediate collective affects of antici!ation
and connectivity$ while also !er!etuatin% low levels of a!!rehension or fear" +he
richness of his analysis is the connection between our daily and real life to the di%ital
ambiances that underlies our society" Richard Grusin had recently visited many
Brazilian 1niversities and research %rou!s for a series of conferences and master classes
focusin% on the dar side of the di%ital humanities$ and also the discussion on
!remediation social state2of2life"
MAT!"es: +here are some basic conce!ts$ which are essentials to understand
remediation and !remediation3 mediality$ mediatization and hy!ermediality. could you
e4!lain the relationshi! amon% them and their role on the re5!re2mediation !rocesses6
)althou%h their /ortu%uese translations differences-
1
(irector of the Center for 21st Century Studies and /rofessor at the 1niversity of &isconsin2
*ilwauee" #e received his /h"(" in 1,78 from the 1niversity of California2Bereley" E2mail3
%rusin9uwm"edu
2
:ull /rofessor at 'ournalism and /ublishin% (e!artment$ School of Communications and ;rts$
1niversity of S<o /aulo )EC;21S/-$ and at the Graduate Communication /ro%ram at the same
1niversity" Coordinator of the s!ecialization course (IGIC=R/ and research leader of C=*>" E2mail3
bethsaad9%mail"com
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#rusin: :irst$ it is crucial to distin%uish remediation from !remediation" ;lthou%h both
lo%ics of mediation are at !lay in the 21st century$ they o!erate differently and with
different conce!ts" +he double lo%ic of remediation emer%ed in the late 20th century$ in
res!onse the ram!ant !roliferation of di%ital media technolo%ies that often %oes under
the name of Dmediatization"E Remediation$ the refashionin% or re2mediation$ of one
medium by another$ o!erated in two contradictory ways$ seein% on the one hand to
erase all si%ns of mediation in !rovidin% an immediate encounter with the real and on
the other hand to multi!ly or call attention to remediation in what 'ay Bolter and I
referred to as hy!ermediacy" Remediation differs from mediatization$ which refers to
the technical and social transformation of contem!orary culture$ !olitics$ economy$ etc"$
into a media culture" Remediation on the other hand refers to the lo%ics of mediation
that are enabled by and that enable mediatization"
/remediation is one of the !redominant ways in which remediation manifests
itself in the 21st century" /remediation does not dis!lace remediation but de!loys it in
different aesthetic$ sociotechnical$ or !olitical formations" +he double lo%ic of
remediation still obtains$ but its conflictin% media lo%ics are formally different" 1nlie
remediation$ which sees a ind of !erce!tual or affective immediacy$ !remediation
wors to !roduce an affectivity of antici!ation by remediatin% future events or
occurrences which may or may not ever ha!!en" +he media re%ime of !remediation
mars not the 1,,0s desire for a virtual reality but an en%a%ement with the reality of the
virtual$ what (eleuze understands as D!otentiality"E /remediation describes the tem!oral
and affective formation of todayFs socially networed society" &here remediation
s!oe to the more individualized networed model of immediacy and hy!ermediacy
that !revailed in the cyberculture of the 70s and ,0s$ !remediation s!eas to the
antici!atory tem!orality of the 21st century$ the way in which we are always already
movin% throu%h social networs that are !remediated into the future$ or how we use our
networed media to mobilize ourselves and others )our friends or social networs- so
that we come to%ether and dis!erse in hetero%eneous tem!oral and s!atial media events
Gwhether online via :aceboo or +witter or in %eo%ra!hical s!ace throu%h the linin%
of mobile technolo%ies with G/S and other s!atial technolo%ies"
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:inally you allude to the translation !roblems from En%lish to /ortu%uese in
re%ard to remediation" S!ecifically$ the Huestion is whether to translate remediation
with an DiE or an Ee"E :or in En%lish the noun DmediaE and the verb DmediateE are
s!elled the same. hence one remediates a !aintin% and one remediates a !roblem" So in
En%lish remediation can mean both refashionin% and reform" In /ortu%uese these two
different meanin%s have two different s!ellin%s. they are two different words" So the
!un or !lay on words in En%lish does not wor the same in /ortu%uese" /erha!s
remediation should be translated with both letters$ e"%"$ Di5e"E
MAT!"es: Can we understand that remediation and !remediation are combined and
interchan%eable !rocesses$ ty!ical of our contem!oraneity6
#rusin: Ies$ as I mention above$ both remediation and !remediation are at wor in the
contem!orary media environment" ;lthou%h historical differences always obtain at
different moments in time$ in no historical formation is the !redominant media lo%ic
totalizin%" +here are always com!etin% lo%ics and !ractices of mediation at wor" In the
21st century we are still interested in immediacy$ or the now$ Just as in the last decades
of the 20th century new di%ital media technolo%ies brou%ht into !lay new ima%inin%s of
the future$ new interest in alternative$ future2oriented tem!oralities" But in each case
!redominant affective and medial formations are connected with !redominant technical
and medial formations" +hus the obsessive di%itization of all !rior media forms in the
late 20th century fostered an orientation towards renewin% the !ast$ which resulted in
the nearly universal claims of the DnewnessE of di%ital media" In the 21st century the
tem!orality of !remediation is also connected to the !redominant forms of technical
mediation$ which at the start of the second decade of the 21st century are mobile$
socially networed media and the bi% data whose minin% and ca!italization they enable"
MAT!"es: ;ffectivity is core to !remediation" ;s so$ can we characterize remediation
as a !rocess related to media obJects and its technolo%ies and Dhow toE$ and
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!remediation as a !rocess related to !eo!le usin% media and its infos and contents to
establish social relationshi!s6
#rusin3 &ell$ at first %lance this mi%ht mae sense" +he double lo%ic of remediation is
in the first instance a formal lo%ic$ focusin% both on trans!arent immediacy$ in which
the screen or !icture !lane is conceived as a window throu%h which a viewer can see an
unmediated world$ and on hy!ermediacy in which the screen or !icture !lane calls
attention to its own mediation$ often by fra%mentin% itself as in a web browser$ a
com!uter desto!$ or the televisual screen of cable news networs lie CAA" But
remediation has an affective dimension as well$ !articularly in relation to the conce!t of
immediacy$ which in addition to referrin% to the visual lo%ic of trans!arency also refers
to the embodied$ affective res!onse %enerated by trans!arent immediacy and
hy!ermediacy$ which !roduce somethin% lie the feelin% or affectivity of the real"
/remediation$ as you note$ is much more e4!licitly concerned with affectivity$
which is one of the ey conce!ts I develo! in the /remediation boo" ;nd while it is
true that !remediation concerns the way in which !eo!le use media to establish social
relationshi!s$ this is not how I would choose to formulate this !rocess" :ollowin%
Bruno Katour$ I see social relationshi!s as technical as well as social$ nonhuman as well
as human" &hat it so interestin% about our relationshi!s to technical media today is that
they are increasin%ly and intensely affective" &e are totally involved in what I have
called Dthe affective life of media$E in which we do not use media sim!ly as tools or
instruments to relate to others or to society %enerally$ but rather in which we en%a%e
affectively with technical media themselves$ throu%h what I call Daffective feedbac
loo!sE between our media and ourselves" ;lthou%h this conce!t was setchily alluded
to in Remediation$ Premediation %oes much further in develo!in% our affective
relationshi!s with our technical media"
MAT!"es: *ost of your e4!lanations on !remediation are based on bi% or
catastro!hic %lobal events" +he idea of collectivity and common sense are evident on
%lobal events" #ow can we e4em!lify !remediation on the daily routine of the cyber
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society6 /residentFs =bama inau%uration$ or ;merican Idol final commented via
:aceboo and +witter$ or here in Brazilian telenovela second screen commentaries are
also !ro!er e4am!les6

#rusin3 Iou are ri%ht that !remediation is most dramatically evident in relation to
catastro!hic %lobal events lie ,511 or the war in IraH or the :uushima (aichi disaster"
But all of these events have Huotidian effects and indeed in some sense !remediation
o!erates more !owerfully in our everyday transactions with di%ital media than in these
%lobal events" In my boo I define three senses of !remediation3 as the remediation of
future media forms and technolo%ies. as the remediation of future events. and )most
!owerfully- as the e4tension of socio2technical media networs into the future" It is this
last sense that o!erates on the level of the media everyday in the 21st century$
!articularly in structurin% an affectivity and tem!orality of antici!ation"
+he !roliferation of !remediated social networs of !eo!le and thin%s is a
!owerful force in the daily life of 21st century di%ital media users" Social media
networs e4ist almost e4clusively for the !ur!ose of !remediatin% connectivity$ by
!romotin% an antici!ation that a connection will be madeGthat somebody will
comment on your :aceboo status or on the !hoto you share$ that your +weet will be
favorite or retweeted$ that you will hear the distinctive rin%tone of one of your favorites$
or that your com!uter$ tablet$ or mobile !hone will alert you that you have new mail or
that you have been te4ted" +hese everyday !remediations do not o!erate only in
discreet one2to2one interactions between individuals and !articular networed media but
%enerate a fluid and ever2chan%in% field of affective tem!oral interactions amon%
!remediated networs of humans and non2humans$ of technical and embodied
mediators" +his tem!oral and affective antici!ation !roduces a !resent that is always
divided$ that is oriented towards the immediate moment and the very near future$ that is
neither !resent to itself nor ever com!letely %one" +his antici!atory tem!orality
sometimes creates a hei%htened sense of alertness$ while at other times )and !erha!s
more often- %enerates a muted or low2level affect of waitin% or !assin% time"
;ntici!ation names the tem!oral state a!!ro!riate to !remediation$ as well as the
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affective Huality fostered by the !roliferation of mobile social networs or the creation
of an internet of thin%s in which !eo!le and their mobile devices navi%ate throu%h social
networs made u! not only of humans and their sociotechnical media but$ throu%h
technolo%ies lie G/S and R:I($ of localities and obJects as well"
MAT!"es3 Could you tal us a little bit more about the relationshi! of !remediation
and mobility6
#rusin: In the 21st century the affective and tem!oral focus of our socially networed
media is increasin%ly on futurity or antici!ation$ on what is to come$ where we are to
%o$ when we are to meet" +he affective tem!orality of !remediation is the tem!orality of
antici!ation$ in which our mobile$ socially networed media wor to%ether to !roduce$
satisfy$ and maintain individual and collective affective states of antici!ation towards a
!otential$ virtual$ and thereby already real futurity" =n the level of individual users$ this
antici!atory tem!orality ee!s users attached to and en%a%ed with their mobile media$
and in fact !uts a !remium on tem!oral and s!atial mobility" +he inte%ration of G/S2
related media formats into our social mediaGchec2ins$ for e4am!le$ in :B$ Goo%le
*a!s into our !hones$ %eolocation in !hotos$ or :ourSHuare more %enerallyGall wor
to%ether both to encoura%e us to declare our location and to mae mobility easier and
more social than ever" But this mobility for individual users also has benefits for
business and the state" Businesses can use %eolocation to maret !roducts and services
in a tar%eted and %eos!atially !ertinent manner" +he state can archive and mine all of
the transaction data %enerated by our mobile interactions to create a com!rehensive
record of individual behavior that can be accessed and mobilized as needed in
!rotectin% the interests of the state" *ore so than in remediation at the end of the 20th
century$ mobility is ey to the functionin% of !remediation in the 21st century"
MAT!"es: In /remediation you say that D!refi%urative ima%inative e4!eriencesE are
a %ood way that we use to !rotect ourselves over future catastro!hic events" (onFt you
thin that this !ractice could lead us to a fantasy or a dream life6
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#rusin: +he concern that new media will lead !eo!le to withdraw from the vicissitudes
of reality into fantasy or dream lives is one that rea!!ears with re%ularity" &hen !rint
novels first became readily affordable and accessible in the 1,th century$ many adults
worried that youn% !eo!le would become absorbed in the fictional worlds de!icted on
the !a%es of their favorite boos and turn away from the !racticalities of everyday
livin%" :ilms !rom!ted similar fears$ as did television and now the internet and social
media more %enerally" &hat this recurrent fear res!onds to is that all new media
refashion or remediate our relation to reality. to those unfamiliar with these new media
the affective en%a%ement by )es!ecially- youn% !eo!le with these new forms of
technical media devices loos lie a withdrawal from reality into fanyasy or dream
lives" But I would ar%ue that it re!resents more accurately a different en%a%ement with
the world$ one which )to cite *cKuhan- chan%es the ratio not only of our senses but of
our embodied interactions with both humans and nonhumans$ with the natural and the
built environment" In fact because of the increased mobility of our media devices and
their com!le4 networin% with %eo!hysical s!ace and obJects in the world$ our new
media devices )and the !remediation they foster- could be said to be less involved in
fantasy or dreams than older media lie novels or film or television"
MAT!"es: 'ournalism is one of the communication areas that are directly affected by
all these cyber2social chan%es" ;s so$ is there any s!ace for a mass2media !roduction6 If
'ournalism deals with facts and if we are tryin% to !remediate facts to acce!t them
easier$ how come this to Journalism6 Recent cases as AS; lea or the &iileas
!ractices are !ositioned as !remediation acts6
#rusin: 'ournalism$ es!ecially news$ is one of the ey institutions of communication
that are im!acted by media chan%e and which can mae evident the shiftin% media
lo%ics and tem!oralities that have occurred over the !ast centuries" &hile it is obvious
that news media today focus more on what will come or what mi%ht ha!!en than on
what is ha!!enin% or has already occurred$ news has always involved a mi4ture of !ast
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and future events as well as of the near and the far" In its earliest manifestation$ news
was transmitted orally by someone lie the !raecones of ancient Roman times or the
town criers of medieval En%land" Aews would be both of si%nificant actions that had
ha!!ened and of comin% events$ but the !redominant focus was on local occurrences"
&ith the advent of !rint news$ the focus on re!ortin% on the !ast continued$ even while
news!a!ers wored in concert with %overnment a%encies in announcin% u!comin%
deadlines and official events" +he introduction of !hoto%ra!hy to news!a!ers$ even
while addin% inde4icality and facticity$ increased the focus on the !ast$ as !hoto%ra!hs
)lie cinema later on- could only re!resent events that had already ha!!ened" +he maJor
tem!oral breathrou%h came with the advent of television news$ initially in the return to
the oral tradition with live newscasters but then$ throu%h the introduction of %lobally
networed live video covera%e by CAA and later others$ with the shift to tem!oral
immediacy and instantaneity$ real2time news$ as the hi%hest %oal of news covera%e" ;t
the end of the 20th century$ and culminatin% with the live %lobal news broadcasts of the
tra%ic events of ,511$ the %old standard of news covera%e was the trans!arent
immediacy of liveness$ althou%h always cou!led with the hy!ermediacy that maes u!
the other half of remediationFs double lo%ic"
;fter ,511$ as I ar%ue in Premediation$ the !redominant lo%ic and tem!orality of
news media shifted from the remediation of the !resent to the !remediation of the
future" /rom!ted initially by the desire to avoid the traumatic Journalistic immediacy
e4!erienced on ,511$ news media be%an to shift their focus from remediatin% what had
already ha!!ened or what was ha!!enin% live towards !remediatin% what mi%ht ha!!en
or be about to ha!!en" 'ournalism be%an to tae on as its ey tas the !remediation of
!otential future catastro!hesGnot Just the ne4t terrorist attac$ but future threats lie
climate chan%e$ %lobal !andemics$ financial crises$ or infrastructural colla!se" ;t the
same time$ however$ social media networs as we now now them were be%innin% to
evolve. there was no :aceboo or +witter or Insta%ram on ,511" +he emer%ence of these
networs$ with their antici!atory media tem!oralities$ added another dimension to
Journalism$ as evidenced most dramatically with the role of social media in the D;rab
S!rin%E of 2011" Aot only did the !rint$ televisual$ and networed news media find
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themselves coverin% social media as the story$ but they be%an to inte%rate social media
into their own !remediation of the future$ further intensifyin% the tem!oral shift from
re!ortin% on the !ast to re!ortin% on the !resent to re!ortin% on the future" In tracin%
this shift of Journalistic tem!orality I want to mae it clear that it is not a matter of one
media tem!orality bein% re!laced by another but rather of new modes of media
tem!orality bein% added on to e4istin% ones$ shiftin% the tem!oral ratio of news
covera%e but not doin% away with re!ortin% on what has already ha!!ened or on what is
ha!!enin% now"
MAT!"es: Iour methodolo%ical !ro!osals e4!lained on the introduction of
/remediation em!hasize the interconnected relationshi! of different areas and
nowled%e needed for Internet studies and researches" #ow do you evaluate the
traditional academic rituals over these issues6
#rusin: ;cademic research and disci!lines are in the midst of fundamental
transformations$ some of which were initiated internally and some of which come from
e4ternal challen%es !osed by the increasin% neoliberalization of education"
Internally$ at least since the last third of the 20th century$ academics have
become convinced that the intellectual and !ractical !roblems of !ostmodern$
!ostindustrial ca!italism cannot be addressed only within traditional disci!linary
framewors that %o bac to the 1,th century and earlier" In the humanities and social
sciences !ro%rams lie area studies$ womenFs studies$ ethnic studies$ media studies$
environmental studies$ and the lie emer%ed as a way to brin% to%ether different
research traditions to address new inds of !roblems" /erha!s the most transformative
of these new interdisci!linary areas was science and technolo%y studies )S+S-$
!articularly the actor2networ theory of Bruno Katour$ which insisted on refusin%
cate%orical distinctions between human and nonhuman actors and on followin% the
actants wherever they went throu%hout the hetero%eneous sociotechnical networs that
be%an to !roliferate in the late 20th century" &hen a!!lied to the study of di%ital media
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technolo%ies this methodolo%y demands that researchers i%nore or actively trans%ress
traditional disci!linary boundaries in their !ursuit of nowled%e"
E4ternally this same sociotechnical transformation has led to what has come to
be understood as the neoliberal university in which traditional disci!linary formations
are actively dis!ensed with or i%nored in the !ursuit of economic %oals" +his new
technocratic interdisci!linary de!loys a rhetoric of newness$ radical reform$ and the
avant %arde to dis!ense with any traditional academic institutions and !ractices that are
not economically efficient$ that do not lead to an immediate$ bottom2line !rofit"
/arado4ically the same rhetoric used in the late 20th century to ar%ue that new di%ital
media would enable liberation$ freedom$ and radically new forms of thou%ht is used in
the 21st century to reduce education to trainin% students for Jobs at the lowest !ossible
cost to society" In Brazil I did not see this ha!!enin% as intensively as in the 1S or the
1O$ where Silicon ?alley entre!eneurs are !romotin% a revolution in *assive =!en
=nline Courses )*==Cs-$ but it will not be lon% before you will see somethin% similar
ha!!enin% here"
+he solution to this !roblem is not to return to a time before interdisci!linarity or
before the introduction of di%ital technolo%y into teachin% and research in the university"
Rather the solution is to find ways to use these new technolo%ies in the service of some
of the crucial values of research in the university$ !articularly the freedom to !ursue
research Huestions wherever they mi%ht lead and no matter what their immediate )or
even lon%2term- financial !ayoff mi%ht be"
MAT!"es: Iour !roduction shows a very interestin% dialo%ue with Euro!ean authors
as (eleuze$ Katour$ Baudrillard$ ?irillio$ BenJamin$ etc" somethin% s!ecial6
#rusin: Iou are ri%ht to have noticed a mared chan%e in my !ost2Remediation
en%a%ement with Euro!ean )and non2Euro!ean- !hiloso!hers and critical theorists"
+his is due to two thin%s" :irst$ the fact that Remediation was co2authored meant that
each of us brou%ht our own stren%ths )and weanesses- to the !roJect" &hat Bolter
brou%ht to Remediation was a so!histicated understandin% of new media technolo%y and
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online culture$ as well as a trac record in the field of com!uters and humanities$
evidenced in his two !rior boos$ Turings Man and Writing !ace" #e also brou%ht a
clarity of thou%ht and !rose$ which is evident throu%hout our wor to%ether" I brou%ht
to the collaboration a much more e4tensive nowled%e of and en%a%ement with critical
theory and !hiloso!hy as well as a bac%round in the visual arts from the 17th220th
centuries" In Remediation we were fortunate that the whole !roved to be %reater than
the sum of its !arts" ;nd what made that come about was that each of us had to
sacrifice some of our own interests and concerns in the service of the !roJect as a whole"
+his has not been the case in our wor after Remediation" +hus my wor in new
media has become increasin%ly theoretical and !hiloso!hical$ while BolterFs wor has
focused more on desi%n and !ractice" But it is also the case that my readin% as well has
become more theoretically and !hiloso!hically inclined" Bolter had been worin% in
humanities com!utin% before he arrived at Geor%ia +ech in the early 1,,0s. I only
be%an to wor in new media after I had been at Geor%ia +ech for five years" #avin%
moved to &ayne State 1niversity in 2001$ my en%a%ement with di%ital media desi%n
and !ractice became less a !art of my scholarly research and my en%a%ement with
theory and !hiloso!hy became a%ain more central to my research"
Currently I am worin% on the conce!t of mediation itself$ tryin% to challen%e
the way in which mediation has been defined and de!loyed conventionally as a
secondary )or tertiary- conce!t or cate%ory$ as somethin% that enters the scene belatedly$
after the world has already been divided u! into obJects and subJects$ humans and
nonhumans$ re!resentation and reality" In such more or less traditional accounts
mediation has been seen to come between$ in the middle of$ already !re2formed$ !re2
e4istent subJects or obJects$ actants or entities" Es!ecially in !ost2#e%elian$ *ar4ian
thou%ht$ mediation has been seen as e!istemolo%ical or ideolo%ical$ as somethin% that is
o!!osed to immediacy$ as what mi%ht be called an a%ent of correlation which filters$
limits$ constrains$ or distorts an immediate !erce!tion or nowled%e of or en%a%ement
with the world$ the real$ other !eo!le$ !ower$ and so forth" *ovin% forward I will
continue to en%a%e with the &estern theoretical and !hiloso!hical tradition in order to
ar%ue for the immediacy of mediation$ as that which maes !ossible the Ddirect and
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immediateE relation with the world which Brian *assumi insists u!on as a fundamental
com!onent of human and nonhuman e4!erience"
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