Hyperdocumentation

Book description

The term "hyperdocumentation" is a hyperbole that seems to characterize a paradox. The leading discussions on this topic bring in diverse ideas such as that of data, the fantasy of Big Data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, algorithmic processing, the flow of information and the outstanding successes of disinformation.

The purpose of this book is to show that the current context of documentation is just another step in human construction that has been ongoing for not centuries but millennia and which, since the end of the 19th century, has been accelerating. Coined by Paul Otlet in 1934 in his Traite de Documentation, "hyperdocumentation" refers to the concept of documentation that is constantly being expanded and extended in its functionalities and prerogatives.

While, according to Otlet, everything could potentially be documented in this way, increasingly we find that it is our lives that are being hyperdocumented. Hyperdocumentation manifests as an increase not only in the quantity of information that is processed but also in its scope, as information is progressively integrated across areas that were previously poorly documented or even undocumented.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Foreword
  6. Introduction
    1. I.1. Between “attention war” and “attention whore”
    2. I.2. Editorialization and referencing
    3. I.3. Chapter structure
  7. 1 Hyperdocumentation According to Paul Otlet
    1. 1.1. The different levels of hyper in hyperdocumentation
    2. 1.2. Hyperdocumentation as reduction
    3. 1.3. Hyperdocumentation as hypertext
    4. 1.4. Hyperdocumentation as a new world order
    5. 1.5. The ultimate perspective of the documentation
  8. 2 Hyperdocumentation as a Triumph of Documentality
    1. 2.1. A documentary theory of humanity
    2. 2.2. Documentality or social ontology
    3. 2.3. Documentality and memory
    4. 2.4. Documentation and authority
    5. 2.5. A hyperdocumentary era
    6. 2.6. A document theory
  9. 3 Hyperhuman or Hypermachine?
    1. 3.1. Desiring machines?
    2. 3.2. Typology of hyperdocumentary machines
    3. 3.3. Towards hyperdocumentality?
  10. 4 Towards Hyperdocumentary Regimes
    1. 4.1. The documentary regime of Otlet’s time
    2. 4.2. Changes in documentary regimes
    3. 4.3. Post-Otlet documentation regimes
  11. 5 Between Knowledge Indexing and Existence Indexing
    1. 5.1. An index question
    2. 5.2. The two faces of indexing
    3. 5.3. The need for an indexing ethic
    4. 5.4. A long history of indexing
    5. 5.5. Between documentarity and monumentality
    6. 5.6. Which indexation regime?
    7. 5.7. Should we stop indexing?
  12. 6 Personal Documentation: Between “The Self” and “Myself”
    1. 6.1. Renewal of personal documentary practices
    2. 6.2. Self-documentation
    3. 6.3. Self-demonstration or self-documentation
    4. 6.4. Documentary freedom under constraints
    5. 6.5. Hypodocumentation or the concept of sousveillance
  13. 7 The Hyperdocumentalists of Our Lives
    1. 7.1. The hyperdocumentalists of self
    2. 7.2. From the found friend to the “caring” lover
    3. 7.3. Computing centers or archive centers
    4. 7.4. Post-mortem hyperdocumentation
    5. 7.5. Post-human hyperdocumentation?
  14. 8 Documentation of All the Senses
    1. 8.1. Hyperdocumentation as documentation of all the senses
    2. 8.2. Beyond the senses?
    3. 8.3. Paranormal hyperdocumentation
    4. 8.4. Political meaning?
    5. 8.5. Indexation of desires
  15. 9 Free (or Open?) Hyperdocumentation
    1. 9.1. Which hyperdocumentary forms are “open”?
    2. 9.2. Documentation as resistance
    3. 9.3. Hyperleaks?
    4. 9.4. Hyperdocumentary convergence: the OSINT
    5. 9.5. Utopia or dystopia?
  16. 10 Conclusion: Is it Necessary to Go to San Junipero?
    1. 10.1. A continuous confrontation between ancient and modern?
    2. 10.2. Between documents and monuments: Promethean vertigo
    3. 10.3. Towards an ethical hyperdocumentation, the challenge of moderation
    4. 10.4. Preserving the links, nexialism against hyperseparatism
  17. Postface
    1. P.1. Back to the future: against, but very close to Paul Otlet
    2. P.2. Beyond the Traité and the Krisis
    3. P.3. The current documentary laboratory: some characteristics
    4. P.4. Intelligences always already collective and machined
    5. P.5. Uncertain area
    6. P.6. Against the smothering paste of the homogeneous
    7. P.7. “Perplication” in knowledge
    8. P.8. Doxic tensions in fragmented Encyclopedism
    9. P.9. Machine interfaces
    10. P.10. Knowledge, thought in the encyclopedism in splintered form
    11. P.11. What criteriology for encyclopedic writings?
    12. P.12. Boundaries in fragmented encyclopedism: dissensus
    13. P.13. Borders being everywhere, the critical scientific work consists in making them evolve towards zones of transformation and creation
    14. P.14. Fragmented encyclopedism: a milieu for controversy?
  18. References
  19. Index
  20. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Hyperdocumentation
  • Author(s): Olivier Le Deuff
  • Release date: September 2021
  • Publisher(s): Wiley-ISTE
  • ISBN: 9781786306449