Phase media: space, time and the politics of smart objects

James Ash theorises how smart objects, understood as internet-connected and sensor-enabled devices, are altering users' experience of their environment.

Rather than networks connected by lines of transmission, smart objects generate phases, understood as space-times that modulate the spatio-temporal intelligibility of both humans and non-humans.

Examining a range of objects and services from the Apple Watch to Nest Cam to Uber, Ash suggests that the modulation of spatio-temporal intelligibility is partly shaped by the commercial logics of the industries that design and manufacture smart objects, but can also exceed them.