[iDC] Alan's questions about media theory/ies

[Mark Edward Cote]

tony wrote:
1. The definitive “epiphylogenetic process” is obviously “culture” (in
the
broader sense), which is after all the primary “repository of memory
which is
preserved well beyond the lifespans of those who first construct [it];”
again,
the definitive requisite for “culture” in this regard is our capacity
for
language. The discrimination of tools as “inorganic” culture is clearly
secondary; it is the (language based) instruction set that permits tools
to
become one aspect of the epiphylogenetic process.

mark wrote:
if we set language as a baseline then we overlook how the body and
affect help constitute the actualization of our environment.

jodi responded:
Why does that follow? If one has in mind spoken language, then voice is
implicated. If one has in mind written language, then sight is
implicated. Comprehension of a statement intended to shock--"she looked
around furtively as she bit out the baby's beating heart"--would require
an affective reaction (another example, the test for clones in Blade
Runner).

a good question jodi. 

i was responding to tony's comments which foreground the role of
lamguage. in my haste to post, i may have inadvertently misrepresented
tony. what i wished to note was that technology is an inorganic
repository of memory not only--nor even primarily--on a discursive
level. this is not to disavow the obvious functional importance of
'language based instruction' vis-a-vis tools. rather, it is to emphasize
the pre-linguistic and pre-cognitive aspects of embodied technology. and
in regards to communication and comprehension, i would include media
artifacts which include everything from orality to distributed digital
networks.

in short, i am not suggesting that language is unimportant. rather, i am
following the holistic perspective your comments suggest. namely that
attention to the pre-linguistic/cognitive enables a fuller appreciation
of how our everyday interfaces with technology always engage with the
bodily sensorium, a realm that is not equivalent with the discursive.

thanks,

mark

Mark Coté, Ph.D
Cultural Studies Program
Trent University
markcote at trentu.ca
>>> "Dean, Jodi" <JDEAN at hws.edu> 07/23/09 10:56 AM >>>