This article is a theoretical enquiry about the death of the Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes, shot in London at Stockwell tube station on 22 July 2005 by unknown specialist firearms' officers. The previous day some stations of the Tube were struck by failed bombing attacks. The police were chasing four suspects. Some hours after the murder, de Menezes was discovered to be innocent and not involved in the terrorist act.

Tra le posizioni antitetiche, emerse nei primi secoli di storia del cristianesimo, di accettazione e di rifiuto delle immagini, i Libri Carolini assumono una posizione intermedia. L'immagine, collegata al visibile e all'esteriorità, non può essere in relazione con il vero, né possiede vita senso e ragione. Essa tuttavia ha il compito di mantenere il ricordo dei fatti e, grazie a tale funzione, aiuta la visione spirituale. Il fatto che solo grazie alla iscrizione che l'accompagna, un'immagine acquisti il proprio significato preciso, (...) indica una sorta di autonomia dell'estetico, in cui la bellezza non ha alcun legame con la santità e con la sfera morale. (shrink)

The main assumption of this presentation is that networking can be conceived in terms of an effect of apparatuses. It is characterized by hierarchical observations, normalizing judgements, examinations. From this point of view, networking is not an inter-disciplinary system or – even – a-disciplinary, but it is in fact a discipline. Then, given that one of the main aspects of networking is that we are completely merged with it, it is quite difficult to consider it as a discipline with a (...) critical eye; and we can perceive its consequences mainly within the educational system. The aim of this presentation is, first, to describe networking as a contemporary practice, coextensive with a specific disciplinary system. In this case, I would like to demonstrate how networking (specifically its most massive and less ingenuous branch, social networking) is one of the most powerful apparatus for contemporary subjectivation processes. Following Deleuze, it will be pointed out how networking is based on a peculiar regime of signs that reduces drastically the processes of subjectivation it determines, to the scarce possibilities offered by the apparatus. Second, some exit strategies from the (social) networking apparatus are suggested, built on three keywords: anomie, anonymity and untimeliness. They are based on the assumption that – against a continual push towards the presence or the telepresence – the absence can be a concrete contemporary kind of process of subjectivation. (shrink)