“From Models to Mirror Worlds”
Cultural Politics 18, forthcoming
Cultural Politics 18, forthcoming
This essay contemplates the
media histories and politics of the digital twin: an accurate three-dimensional
model designed to offer data-based simulation, predictive capability, and
remote control over a material entity. Currently being developed across the spheres
of industry, design, and “smart city” governance, digital twins are “digital-physical” databases purporting not only to represent
the appearance of an object, but also to capture or simulate all changes to its
physical and informatic state, down to the bolt or data point. What are the
media histories and stakes of a real-time digital simulation of the world? What
of the desire to imitate the physical world in fully machine-readable form?
Through three episodes that contribute to the technological imaginary of the twin — the digital factory, the “smart” building model, and the 3D “dashboard” city — it shows how contemporary simulations do not simply reflect reality nor create fictional ones, but are committed to remaking reality over and over again — each time with greater efficiency, oversight, and predictability.
Illustrations produced by Madaleine Ackerman and Amelyn Ng.
Through three episodes that contribute to the technological imaginary of the twin — the digital factory, the “smart” building model, and the 3D “dashboard” city — it shows how contemporary simulations do not simply reflect reality nor create fictional ones, but are committed to remaking reality over and over again — each time with greater efficiency, oversight, and predictability.
Illustrations produced by Madaleine Ackerman and Amelyn Ng.
