book

Hyperdocumentation

by Olivier Le Deuff

September 2021

Intermediate to advanced

288 pages

7h 25m

English

Wiley-ISTE

Read now

Unlock full access

I.1. Between “attention war” and “attention whore”I.2. Editorialization and referencingI.3. Chapter structure
1.1. The different levels of hyper in hyperdocumentation1.2. Hyperdocumentation as reduction1.3. Hyperdocumentation as hypertext1.4. Hyperdocumentation as a new world order1.5. The ultimate perspective of the documentation
2.1. A documentary theory of humanity2.2. Documentality or social ontology2.3. Documentality and memory2.4. Documentation and authority2.5. A hyperdocumentary era2.6. A document theory
3.1. Desiring machines?3.2. Typology of hyperdocumentary machines3.3. Towards hyperdocumentality?
4.1. The documentary regime of Otlet’s time4.2. Changes in documentary regimes4.3. Post-Otlet documentation regimes

5.1. An index question5.2. The two faces of indexing5.3. The need for an indexing ethic5.4. A long history of indexing5.5. Between documentarity and monumentality5.6. Which indexation regime?5.7. Should we stop indexing?
6.1. Renewal of personal documentary practices6.2. Self-documentation6.3. Self-demonstration or self-documentation6.4. Documentary freedom under constraints6.5. Hypodocumentation or the concept of sousveillance
7.1. The hyperdocumentalists of self7.2. From the found friend to the “caring” lover7.3. Computing centers or archive centers7.4. Post-mortem hyperdocumentation7.5. Post-human hyperdocumentation?
8.1. Hyperdocumentation as documentation of all the senses8.2. Beyond the senses?8.3. Paranormal hyperdocumentation8.4. Political meaning?8.5. Indexation of desires
9.1. Which hyperdocumentary forms are “open”?9.2. Documentation as resistance9.3. Hyperleaks?9.4. Hyperdocumentary convergence: the OSINT9.5. Utopia or dystopia?
10.1. A continuous confrontation between ancient and modern?10.2. Between documents and monuments: Promethean vertigo10.3. Towards an ethical hyperdocumentation, the challenge of moderation10.4. Preserving the links, nexialism against hyperseparatism
P.1. Back to the future: against, but very close to Paul OtletP.2. Beyond the Traité and the KrisisP.3. The current documentary laboratory: some characteristicsP.4. Intelligences always already collective and machinedP.5. Uncertain areaP.6. Against the smothering paste of the homogeneousP.7. “Perplication” in knowledgeP.8. Doxic tensions in fragmented EncyclopedismP.9. Machine interfacesP.10. Knowledge, thought in the encyclopedism in splintered formP.11. What criteriology for encyclopedic writings?P.12. Boundaries in fragmented encyclopedism: dissensusP.13. Borders being everywhere, the critical scientific work consists in making them evolve towards zones of transformation and creationP.14. Fragmented encyclopedism: a milieu for controversy?

Overview

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.