Performativity and computer art. Towards a “DIY society”

Abstract

The paper analyzes the figure of the prosumer from a visual studies perspective, combining speech act theory and new media theory. The aim is to assess whether the distinctions between producers and consumers and strategies and tactics of Michel de Certeau is still useful for  the global information culture of the 21^st century’s graphic interfaces of Scott Lash.  For this purpose it distinguishes between two types of speech acts: software top-down performativity and bottom-up performativity of language games and forms of life. These typologies  are applied to  a discourse analysis of slogans taken from “open” and collaborative economy websites. The former are engaged in the production of intangible goods and the second in the production of tangible goods. The analysis show how the two types of performativity transform textual analysis of literary and film studies into  a methodology capable of investigating material actions, human and not human. The conclusion describes the emergence of new conventions for non-fiction narratives of power and control pointing to a “DIY society.”