Med 7 - Fall 2005
Digital Culture
Course Outline
Welcome!
Luis Emilio Bruni
[email protected]
My background:
Environmental Engineering
Communication Science and Semiotics
Interdisciplinarity:
 Natural and Social Sciences
 Art and Science
 Culture-Nature relations
Ph. D. Institute of Molecular Biology (KU)
 A sign-theoretic approach to biotechnology
 Biosensing and signal transduction
Objectives of the course
Provide an understanding of the social implications and the cultural
context of the work of the medialogist.
Acquire a comprehensive view of the advent of digital culture in
contemporary society.
Review the major disciplines that study cultural and cognitive
phenomena.
Provide a humanistic view to digital culture.
Explore the conceptual relations between cognitive processes,
communication and behaviour in biological and artificial systems.
Dynamics of the course
The course has the modality of a seminar, with lectures,
readings, presentation of articles, discussions and class
exercises.
You are expected to participate actively in discussions and
to make presentations of selected reading materials and
work in progress of your semester projects.
The course is related to the other courses of the Med 7
semester and to your semester projects.
Project analysis
Elaborate a case study in order to develop, analyse and characterise the
context, the cultural and the social implications of a case of your
interest in relation to your semester project.
Such analysis of the project should cover the different aspects,
dimensions and points of view that will be addressed during the
course.
The objective is to make a presentation of your case to the rest of the
class. There will be time allocated to work on this analyses in class. In
the last session you will present your case for discussion in class.
You are free to choose the media you prefer for this presentation. Be as
creative as you want, but remember that the analysis of the case and
the conceptual framework that you use are the most important issues of
your presentations.
What about you?
Background  past experiences
Medialogy interests
Current projects  semester project
Specialization
Future perspectives  dreams
Topics of the course
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The cybernetic ”revolution”.
What is culture? What is digital culture?
The work of the medialogist.
The study of cognitive processes in biological and
cultural systems.
Digital culture in the Semiosphere.
Influence and impacts of digital culture in the different
aspects of life.
Globalization, Sustainability and the risk society.
1) The cybernetic revolution
The Myth of the Computer Revolution.
The Defining Moments in Digital Culture.
Information: between nature and culture.
Introduccion to Cybernetics
2) What is culture?
What is digital culture?
A tip for understanding culture  The culture/nature dichotomy.
What is western’s “Modernity”?
Culture as a mental process.
What is non-digital culture?
When did it become digital?  What is the difference?
Material supports for cultural products  the media, the channel.
The “flow” of culture, what is it that “flows”?  The content 
Where is it generated?
3) The work of the medialogist
Multimedia.
The integration of technology.
Cross-modal based media.
Creativity.
Towards a definition of medialogy.
4) The study of cognitive processes in
biological and cultural systems.
Sociology of media
Anthropology
Cultural studies
Cultural semiotics
Cognitive sciences  cognitive processes and behaviour in
natural and artificial systems.
Biosemiotics  sensation, perception and communication
in biological systems.
Umwelt theory  building internal models about the
world and its own actions
5) Digital culture in the Semiosphere
The Semiotic Theory of Culture.
Global communication.
Inter-cultural communication  Cultural diversity 
Cultural homogenisation.
Global media and entertainment corporations  Cultural
franchising.
6) Influence and impacts of digital
culture in the different aspects of life
Art  Aesthetics
Science
Economy  Finances  Marketing
Education
News
Knowledge vs. Information
Crime
Politics, institutions, democracy and citizens  electronic
democracy
Religion
7) Globalization, Sustainability
and the risk society
Sustainable multimedia.
Multimedia related social/health hazzards.
Ethics  Environmental and social responsibility.
Privacy – Exclusion.
Credibility and reliability of information sources.
Information control  information imperialism.
Energy consumption  paper vs. electricity comsumption.
Dependence on digital culture and electricity.
Attention deficit disorder: quantity vs. quality.
Syllabus
Date
Sept. 6 (am/pm)
Sept. 13 (am/pm)
Sept. 20 (am/pm)
Sept. 27 (am/pm)
Oct. 4 (am/pm)
Contents
Reading
Introduction to the course.
The cybernetic revolution.
No reading to be done :-)
Towards a definition of
culture.
The information age.
Appropriate chapter in the
compendium
Information, semiotics and
cognitive sciences.
Appropriate chapter in the
compendium
Implications and impacts of
digital culture I.
The work of the medialogist:
applications of digital
technology I.
Implications and impacts of
digital culture II.
The work of the medialogist:
applications of digital
technology II.
Selected articles
Selected articles
Oct. 11 (am)
Digital culture in the
Semiosphere.
Appropriate chapter in the
compendium
Nov. 8 (am)
Globalization, Sustainability
and the risk society.
Appropriate chapter in the
compendium
Nov. 15 (am)
Conclusions and
presentations.