Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Assistant Professor
University of Utrecht Department for Media and Culture Studies
Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Assistant Professor
University of Utrecht Department for Media and Culture Studies
The dichotomy between technology and culture is vanishing in a society that recognizes more and more the fact that culture and technology are deeply intertwined. Computer technology and software have a big impact on cultural practices, and at the same time cultural discourses on technology are shaping the construction of technical artefacts. The aim of this course is to study the mutual influences between technology, culture and artefacts. The students will be divided into two groups.
One group will investigate the agency of technology in the information society. The Actor Network Theory and Latour’s notion of the ‘thing’ will be used to map and revisit the relations between artefacts (technology) and developers and users (culture). Based on existing literature on the subject, students will explore the following themes:
Another group will investigate the mutual influences between technology, music and sound. Sound and music are of great importance for software, interfaces and computergames. Moreover, the the iPod and mobile ringtones have digitalised soundscape of public life. Digitalisation also influences music, musical culture and music industry. Based on existing literature on the subject, students will explore the following themes:
Date September 2006 Category University
Coding Culture. ICT and the Constitution of Culture (with Dr. Isabella van Elferen)
Knowledge of and critical reflection on existing theories regarding the relations mutual influences between technology, culture and artefacts. Independent scholarly research in this field, reflection on this research in spoken and written word. The emphasis in this course is on theory regarding the given theme; students are expected to contribute actively to the academic debate on the mutual influeces between technology and culture.