Carnival in the global village: Re-imagining information infrastructures

Infrastructures are typically seen as boring and serious, and are routinely depicted using metaphors from transportation. We argue that the carnival is a fruitful metaphor for understanding emerging information infrastructures, as the information age is also the age of the carnival. We distinguish between the ubiquitous or distal carnival and its particular manifestations – the proximate carnival – both of which are characterized by play, anarchy, dissimulation, vulgar language, and excessive consumption. The article focuses on Bitcoin, which we see as a nascent information infrastructure and an exemplary instance of a proximate carnival. It also considers how the carnival metaphor might help us reimagine our study of the information age.