Literal Media Ecology: Crisis in the Conditions of Production

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett R. Caraway
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Environmental Responsibility ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Matter Energy

This article outlines a socio-political theory appropriate for the study of the ecological repercussions of contemporary media technologies. More specifically, this approach provides a means of assessing the material impacts of media technologies and the representations of capitalist ecological crises. This approach builds on the work of ecological economists, ecosocialist scholars, and Marx’s writings on the conditions of production to argue that capitalism necessarily results in ecological destabilization. Taking Apple’s 2016 Environmental Responsibility Report as a case study, the article uses the theory to analyze Apple’s responses to ecological crises. The article asserts that Apple’s reactions are emblematic of the capitalist compulsion for increasing rates of productivity. However, unless the matter/energy savings achieved through higher rates of productivity surpass the overall increase in the flow of matter/energy in production, ecological crises will continue. Ultimately, capital accumulation ensures continued ecological destabilization.

scholarly journals Media Innovations, User Innovations, Societal Innovations

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Bruns
Keyword(s):  
Media Ecology ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Technology Innovations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
The Media ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
Media Practices

As the Journal of Media Innovations comes into existence, this article reflects on the first and most obvious question: just what do we mean by “media innovations”? Drawing on the examples of a range of recent innovations in media technologies and practices, initiated by a variety of media audiences, users, professionals, and providers, it explores the interplay between the different drivers of innovation and the effects of such innovation on the complex frameworks of contemporary society and the media ecology which supports it. In doing so, this article makes a number of key observations: first, it notes that media innovation is an innovation in media practices at least as much as in media technologies, and that changes to the practices of media both reflect and promote societal changes as well – media innovations are never just media technology innovations. Second, it shows that the continuing mediatisation of society, and the shift towards a more widespread participation of ordinary users as active content creators and media innovators, make it all the more important to investigate in detail these interlinked, incremental, everyday processes of media and societal change – media innovations are almost always also user innovations. Finally, it suggests that a full understanding of these processes as they unfold across diverse interleaved media spaces and complex societal structures necessarily requires a holistic perspective on media innovations, which considers the contemporary media ecology as a crucial constitutive element of societal structures and seeks to trace the repercussions of innovations across both media and society – media innovations are inextricably interlinked with societal innovations (even if, at times, they may not be considered to be improvements to the status quo).

Candy and Drugs for Dinner

2019 ◽  
pp. 572-588
Author(s):  
Sean Guynes
Keyword(s):  
Comic Book ◽  
Gender Politics ◽  
Media Production ◽  
Comics Studies ◽  
Contemporary Media ◽  
The Aesthetic

This chapter links the seemingly disparate but deeply interconnected discourses and practices of contemporary media production, genre, aesthetics, and comics. It offers these arguments through a case study of the popular fantasy comic book Rat Queens and in the process demonstrates the critical utility to comics studies of reading genre, aesthetics, and industry together. The chapter reads Rat Queens through Sianne Ngai’s conception of the zany, cute, and interesting, showing how each of these categories is part of the aesthetic logic of the series, while also showing how each performs or critiques the series’ (superficial) investment in gender politics and the fantasy genre.

scholarly journals A Computer Vision-Based Occupancy and Equipment Usage Detection Approach for Reducing Building Energy Demand

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Paige Wenbin Tien ◽  
Shuangyu Wei ◽  
John Calautit
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Internal Heat ◽  
Electrical Equipment ◽  
Building Energy ◽  
Hvac Systems ◽  
Equipment Usage

Because of extensive variations in occupancy patterns around office space environments and their use of electrical equipment, accurate occupants’ behaviour detection is valuable for reducing the building energy demand and carbon emissions. Using the collected occupancy information, building energy management system can automatically adjust the operation of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems to meet the actual demands in different conditioned spaces in real-time. Existing and commonly used ‘fixed’ schedules for HVAC systems are not sufficient and cannot adjust based on the dynamic changes in building environments. This study proposes a vision-based occupancy and equipment usage detection method based on deep learning for demand-driven control systems. A model based on region-based convolutional neural network (R-CNN) was developed, trained and deployed to a camera for real-time detection of occupancy activities and equipment usage. Experiments tests within a case study office room suggested an overall accuracy of 97.32% and 80.80%. In order to predict the energy savings that can be attained using the proposed approach, the case study building was simulated. The simulation results revealed that the heat gains could be over or under predicted when using static or fixed profiles. Based on the set conditions, the equipment and occupancy gains were 65.75% and 32.74% lower when using the deep learning approach. Overall, the study showed the capabilities of the proposed approach in detecting and recognising multiple occupants’ activities and equipment usage and providing an alternative to estimate the internal heat emissions.

scholarly journals Increased Plant Quality, Greenhouse Productivity and Energy Efficiency with Broad-Spectrum LED Systems: A Case Study for Thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.)

Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 960
Author(s):  
Jenny Manuela Tabbert ◽  
Hartwig Schulz ◽  
Andrea Krähmer
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Light Emitting Diode ◽  
Thymus Vulgaris ◽  
Light Spectrum ◽  
Light Emitting ◽  
Biomass Yields ◽  
Lighting Systems

A light-emitting diode (LED) system covering plant-receptive wavebands from ultraviolet to far-red radiation (360 to 760 nm, “white” light spectrum) was investigated for greenhouse productions of Thymus vulgaris L. Biomass yields and amounts of terpenoids were examined, and the lights’ productivity and electrical efficiency were determined. All results were compared to two conventionally used light fixture types (high-pressure sodium lamps (HPS) and fluorescent lights (FL)) under naturally low irradiation conditions during fall and winter in Berlin, Germany. Under LED, development of Thymus vulgaris L. was highly accelerated resulting in distinct fresh yield increases per square meter by 43% and 82.4% compared to HPS and FL, respectively. Dry yields per square meter also increased by 43.1% and 88.6% under LED compared to the HPS and FL lighting systems. While composition of terpenoids remained unaffected, their quantity per gram of leaf dry matter significantly increased under LED and HPS as compared to FL. Further, the power consumption calculations revealed energy savings of 31.3% and 20.1% for LED and FL, respectively, compared to HPS. In conclusion, the implementation of a broad-spectrum LED system has tremendous potential for increasing quantity and quality of Thymus vulgaris L. during naturally insufficient light conditions while significantly reducing energy consumption.

“Is an Archive Enough?”: Megatextual Debris in the Work of Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Genre ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-165
Author(s):  
Bradley J. Fest
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
First Century ◽  
Long Poem ◽  
Cultural Logic ◽  
Television Film ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Rachel Blau Duplessis ◽  
Film And Video

In the twenty-first century, digital technologies have made it possible for writers and artists to create massively unreadable works through computational and collaborative composition, what the author has elsewhere called megatexts. The ubiquity of texts appearing across media that are quite literally too big to read—from experimental novels to television, film, and video games—signals that the megatext is an emergent form native to the era of neoliberalism. But what happens to other long forms, such as the twentieth-century long poem, when written in an era of megatextuality? Rachel Blau DuPlessis's work, including Drafts (1987–2013) and Traces, with Days (2017–), readily suggests itself as a case study for thinking through a megatextual impulse in the twenty-first-century long poem. Though her work is plainly indebted to its modernist precursors (H.D., Pound, Williams, etc.) while disavowing at every level of its composition a patriarchal will toward totality, DuPlessis's various experiments in the long poem are also thoroughly contemporary and respond to the economic, military, political, and environmental transformations of the neoliberal era by drawing upon and producing fragmentary, megatextual debris. This essay positions DuPlessis's work amidst a larger twenty-first-century media ecology, which includes both the megatext and the big, ambitious novel, and argues that rather than simply (and futilely) resist the neoliberal cultural logic of accumulation without end, DuPlessis hypertrophically uses the megatext's phallogocentric form against itself in order to interrogate more broadly what it means—socially, culturally, economically—to write a long poem in the age of hyperarchival accumulation.

Understanding parallel structures in public administration

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-292
Author(s):  
Stefan Mann
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Bounded Rationality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parallel Structures ◽  
Objective Hermeneutics ◽  
Underlying Causes

This paper addresses the question of the underlying causes for persistent parallel structures in public administration. Frames like bounded rationality, the budget-maximizing bureaucrat and the political theory of hegemony are examined with respect to the possible provision of explanations for the persistence of parallel administrations. A combination of content analysis and objective hermeneutics is then applied for a case study of parallel administration in Switzerland. A model linking the three approaches is finally developed to show how parallel administration relies on an equilibrium in the struggle for budget and hegemony between the key actors and on ignorance among fringe actors.

Energy Benchmarking of Water and Wastewater Treatment, Distribution and Collection: A Case Study of Austin Water Utility

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill B. Kjellsson ◽  
David Greene ◽  
Raj Bhattarai ◽  
Michael E. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Water Distribution ◽  
Energy Intensity ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Operating Cost ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Water And Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
Water And Wastewater

Nationally, 4% of electricity usage goes towards moving and treating water and wastewater. The energy intensity of the water and wastewater utility sector is affected by many factors including water source, water quality, and the distance and elevation that water must be transported. Furthermore, energy accounts for 10% or more of a utility’s total operating cost, suggesting that energy savings can account for significant cost savings. Better knowledge of where and when energy is used could support strategic energy interventions and reveal opportunities for efficiency. Accordingly, this investigation quantifies energy intensity by process and type, including electricity and natural gas, and explores the time-varying nature of electric energy consumption for potable water distribution using the Austin Water Utility (AWU) in Austin, Texas as a case study. This research found that most of energy consumed by the AWU is for pumping throughout the distribution network (57%) and at lift stations (10%) while potable water treatment accounts for the least (5%). Though the focus is site specific, the methodology shown herein can be applied to other utilities with sufficient data.

scholarly journals CASE STUDY OF ENERGY CONSERVATION IN INDUSTRY BY APPLICATION OF LEAN TOOLS

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
N.Sujith Prasanna ◽  
Dr.J.Nagesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Energy Conservation ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Energy Cost ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Energy Saving Potential ◽  
Lean Tools

Energy cost is significant in many of the manufacturing activities. The efficiency of energy use is quiet low as there are substantial visible and hidden losses. Visible losses can be easily identified and corrective action can be taken. However hidden and indirect losses form a sizeable portion of the losses. Identifying these losses is not easy and requires an integrated approach which includes thorough study of process, operations and their interactions with energy use. Industries across sectors have implemented lean management principles which target various wastes occurring in the plant. This paper discusses case studies which highlight the exploitation of lean tools as a means for unearthing hidden energy saving potential that often go unnoticed. In addition to the energy savings which results in improved profits and competitiveness, the approach also aids the industry to pursue a path of sustainable manufacturing.

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