Be Part, Play the Game! Proposal for a Model on Education in Digital Cultures

Im Text wird der Zustand von Bildung in digitalen Kulturen aus der Konstitution von Kritik in diesen hergeleitet. Auffällig wird dabei eine ‹posthumane› Wende, denn eine automatische ‹Daten-Kritik› unterläuft die Vorstellung, dass Kritikfähigkeit allein Menschen vorbehalten sei. Zudem drängt Kritik – statt Distanznahme und Reflexion zu gewährleisten – als Exzess zur Immersion in technologische Umwelten. Diese Funktionen werden als Verweis auf eine paradoxale Aufgabe von Kritik in digitalen Kulturen gelesen: die Erzeugung von Unmittelbarkeit in ungleichen techno-humanen ‹Ko-Operationen›. Dieser Umstand wird zum Anlass genommen, die Untersuchung aktueller sowie historischer Ausprägungen von Kritik medienwissenschaftlich tieferzulegen. Sie erscheinen nun als Kulturtechnik zur operativen Vermittlung von Differenzen und Lücken, die ob der unterschiedlichen Konstitution von menschlicher und technischer Welterfassung und -verarbeitung in medientechnologischen Verhältnissen immer vorhanden sind. ‹Digitale Kritik› überwindet die Differenzen, indem diese schlicht zum Zweck optimaler Konnektivierung an technische Umwelten ausgeblendet werden. In diesem Kontext wird auch Bildung als Anpassung an Medienkulturen lesbar. Anstelle von Kritik und vermeintlich emanzipatorischen humanistischen Bildungszielen werden deshalb medienwissenschaftlich informierte ‹Kulturen der operativen Vermittlung› als ‹posthumane Bildung› in digitalen Kulturen vorgeschlagen, bestehend aus: (1) einem diskursanalytischen Zugang zu Bildung, (2) ‹Daten-Bildung›, (3) einem Training für ein engagiert-zauderndes Mitspielen in techno-humanen Performances.In this text, the state of education in digital cultures is deduced from the constitution of critique within them. A ‹posthuman› turn becomes obvious, because an automatic ‹data-critique› undermines the idea that the ability to critique is reserved exclusively for humans. Moreover, instead of ensuring detachment and reflection, excessively practiced critique pushes for immersion in technological environments. These functions are read as the paradoxical task of critique in digital cultures: the generation of immediacy in unequal techno-human ‹co-operation›. This constitution is taken as a hint to delve deeper into the tasks of current as well as historical forms of critique from the viewpoint of media studies. They now appear as a cultural technique for an operative mediation of differences and gaps, which are always present in media-technological relations due to the different constitution of human and technical understanding and processing of the world. ‹Digital critique› overcomes these by simply fading them out for the purpose of optimal connectivity to technological environments. In this context, education can also be read as an adaptation to media cultures. Instead of critique and supposedly emancipatory, humanistic educational goals, ‹cultures of operative mediation› are proposed as ‹posthuman education› in digital cultures, consisting of: (1) a discourse-analytical approach to education, (2) ‹data-education›, (3) training for an engaged-hesitating playing along in techno-human performances

Astroculture – Figurations of Cosmology in Media and Arts

Astroculture is a testament to the literary imagination and theoretical innovation of the late Sonja A.J. Neef, who devised the term as an expanding horizon of collaborative research – into the powerful gravitational force exerted on culture by astronomical phenomena and imagery. It is also the name of a conference on the topic inspired by Neef and held at the Center for Advanced Studies Morphomata at the University of Cologne in November, 2011. Indeed, Astroculture is a perfect instance of a morphome, the overall target of the Cologne College’s ongoing symposia: a persistent trope or topos of cultural fascination and transcription appearing across a gamut of civilizations and historical periods. Commentary in this volume ranges from Claudius Ptolemy’s mapping of the universe and the emergence of a pluralistic cosmology in seventeenth-century Europe to the spread of planetariums, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the contemporary artwork of Ingo Günter. With interventions by David Aubin, Lucía Ayala, Monika Bernold, Dietrich Boschung, Bruce Clarke, Gerd Graßhoff, Hans-Christian von Hermann, Martina Leeker, Patricia Pisters, and Henry Sussman

There is no Software, there are just Services

Is software dead? Services like Google, Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud, or Social Media apps are all-pervasive in our digital media landscape. This marks the (re)emergence of the service paradigm that challenges traditional business and license models as well as modes of media creation and use. The short essays in this edited collection discuss how services shift the notion of software, the cultural technique of programming, conditions of labor as well as the ecology and politics of data and how they influence dispositifs of knowledge.Series: Digital Cultures Serie