INTRODUCTION

The introductory chapter summarises the contributions of the book and sets out the frame of reference within which notions of the networked image are discussed. It offers a preliminary definition of the networked image in terms of a socio-technical assemblage, which establishes the limits and possibilities for visuality and knowledge. The chapter outlines the project of the book according to four key topics: the condition of the networked image; computation, software and learning; curating the networked image; and digitisation and the reconfiguration of the archive. It further identifies four themes which emerged from the contributions: time, scale, relations and labour, which are considered in the context of planetary urgency and the production of knowledge. The chapter locates the research approach to the networked image as developing from the Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University and its collaborations with galleries and new media organisations on practice-based research projects.