Perspectives on the postdigital

Abstract

The term postdigital has in recent years been applied across a broad range of disciplines, often with contradictory meanings. This article seeks to map the various definitions, deployments and appropriations of the term alongside undertaking a consideration of the underlying issues that the postdigital is argued to gesture towards. These issues, which pertain to contemporary (post)digital technologies and their relationships to discourses and practices surrounding novelty, materiality, embodiment, progress and the construction, comprehension, and control of contemporary urban spaces, are considered through the rhetorics associated with the multifarious manifestations of the postdigital and subsequently contrasted with numerous existing apertures that explore digital technoculture, including digital humanities, software studies, digital studies (following Bernard Stiegler) and media archaeology.