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Specters of the Intangible: Law's Materiality Outside Paper

Kang, Hyo Yoon (2018) Specters of the Intangible: Law's Materiality Outside Paper. In: Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities 2018, 16-17 Mar 2018, Georgetown Law, Washington DC. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:78487)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)

Abstract

Where and what is the law in a digital network? Does the meaning of a law change with the change of medium? This paper problematizes the effects of digital mediation on the relationship

between legal epistemology and ontology by analysing computer-oriented representational practices in patent law. The international patent law system is based on an enormous digital

networked and physical infrastructure, which has transformed patent documents from text inscribed on paper to digital images and data. The effects are that words are dissolved into

digital codes, and documents into electronic signs. For analysing these phenomena, I think with works that have explored the intersection of material aesthetics, digital media and

mathematical semiotics: Matthew Kirschenbaum’s work on textuality and forensic materiality, Johanna Drucker’s work on material semiotics and her concept of diagrammatic writing, and

Brian Rotman’s analysis of digital computing in relation to semiotics of alphabetic and numeric inscriptions. The digitization of patents as a legal form raises issues of law’s visibility (relating to search, retrieval and storage), legibility (relating to sensorial perception and experience, as well as reader’s reception and interpretation), and instrumentality (relating to questions about ease of navigation, manoeuvrability, comparison, and translation).

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Paper)
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: Hyo Yoon Kang
Date Deposited: 10 Nov 2019 06:18 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:09 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/78487 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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