Course Schedule

Start > Masterprogramm Humanities & Social Sciences: Kulturwissenschaften - Culture, Arts and Media [ab Studienbeginn WS 13/14] (M.A.) -> Schwerpunkt Sound Studies - Digitale Perspektiven -> Mediengeschichte

Lehrveranstaltungen

The Stuff of Bits. Materialities of Digital Cultures (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Sebastian Vehlken

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 16:15 - 17:45 | 05.04.2022 - 05.07.2022 | C 12.013 Seminarraum | C 12.013

Inhalt: »Is there an informational quality that defines twenty-first century culture – a quality that makes such culture unique, that gives it, so to speak, its most characteristic and peculiar trait?« (Tiziana Terranova) Complementary to current, briefly pointed surveys on the topic of digital cultures (DK) (e.g. Stalder, Beyes/Metelmann/Pias) or more philosophical determinations (e.g. Hörl, Stiegler, Hansen), the seminar is dedicated to the topic of DK on the basis of a historical-epistemologically oriented perspective interested in the materiality of media. The selected texts illuminate the sociological, political and economic contexts of DK in addition to aspects of media culture studies. Our approach is divided into three steps: In the first half of the semester, we will firstly address genalogies of today's digital cultures between Cold War and Counterculture. Secondly, we will focus on basic concepts such as algorithm, code, or software. Third, in the second half of the semester, we will examine how existing social subsystems are transformed in digital cultures, and how such transformations have repercussions on technological developments – for example, through cloud computing, submarine cables, electronic waste, and for current concepts of work or surveillance.