Digital Culture and Sociology

1. Digital Culture and Sociology Representation: Meanings and Symbols DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

2. about today • Representationand meaning, mostly following Stuart Hall • Symbols, by Johan Fornäs + Storying Cyberspace, by David Bell part 1 break part 2 DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

3. how all texts work together... DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

4. representation a process Definition: it is the production of meaning through language Properties: * it connects meaning and language to culture * it allows us to refer to the world Requirements: * systems of representation (“conceptual maps” that we share with others) * shared language for exchages DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

5. what it this? sign Not exactly real, right? 2-dimensional, stylized... Visual signs, even if close resemblance, need to be interpreted. Even more difficult with spoken language: SHEEP, FÅR DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

6. codes • Set up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system • Meaning not in things but result of this practice • Cultural agreement • Children learn it and become cultural subjects • Certain cultural relativism (ex. snow) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

7. theories of representation • Reflective. Meaning lies in the real world and language is a mirror. Mimesis. (what about fiction?) • Intentional. Speaker imposes meaning through language. (all private?) • Constructionist. Things don’t mean, we construct meaning through representational systems. (Hall, Fornäs, Bell) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

8. a representational system: traffic • Colours’ meaning is arbitrary • Sequence and position also important • - Meaning is relational: “depends on the relation between a sign and a concept, which is fixed by a code” DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

9. saussure Language is a system of signs Signifier: form  sign Signified: concept related points:-union signifier-signified not fixed (i.e. Black)-importance of sign relations-language has two parts: langue and parole-problems: no pragmatics, too formal, not about how we construct relationship DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

10. from linguistics to semiotics • Mythologies, Barthes. Ex. “The World of Wrestling”, what does it mean? From signifier to signified to myth • Lévi-Strauss. Primitive people in Brazil. What messages do their practices tell about their culture? • Foucault: Discourse as larger units than texts, (i.e. Sexuality). Appear historically and change. Power, the Body. Subject as produced within discourse. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

11. what does this mean? • Advert for laptops: • Signifier • Signified • Myth (cultural themes) • Power structures • The Subject / Identity? DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

12. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

13. symbols Johan Fornäs • Symbolic communication as the core of culture (and therefore cultural studies) • Offers a detailed academic discussion of the term culture. • A prefered one: “Culture is the aspect of human interaction that concerns how meaning is created by the use of symbols, involving various modes of style production and communicative action”. (135) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

14. symbol aspects Johan Fornäs • Materiality • Form-relations, system, structure • Meaning, references to some external phenomena or other cultural phenomena • Pragmatics, symbols in use. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

15. culture dimensions Johan Fornäs • Psychological. Individual minds and senses • Social. Communication between groups and societies • Objective. Material objects They are all joint together by a shared symbolic order. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

16. main points Johan Fornäs • He explores the concept of communication and its relation to culture • Why are media such an important object of study for us + how they deal with communication • An examination of the idea of popular culture • Differences between text, work and discourse • “All cultural work is embedded in discourse, but individual work or signifying practices may be more or less (explicitly) discursive.” (154) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

17. framing the chapter David Bell • He looks at representation: stories we tell about cyberspace • What do these stories mean? • Barlovian cyberspace: “a way of naming and describing the ways we experience computers and the Internet, in recognition that our experiences sit at the intersection of material and symbolic understandings”. (28) DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

18. cyberspace stories David Bell • Material (Computer, Internet, VR, political economy, social characteristics of cyberspace) • Symbolic (cyberpunk, pop culture / mainstream) It is interesting how the stories blend together and the themes can concur, we will make an experiment in our exercise. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca

19. complementary bibliography • BARTHES, R. 1967. The Elements of Semiology. London: Cape. • BARTHES, R. 1972. Mythologies. London: Cape. • FOUCAULT, M. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London, Tavistock. • FOUCAULT, M. 1980. Power/Knowledge. Brighton: Harvester. • HALL, S. (ed). 1997. Representation. Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices. London: Sage. • SAUSSURE, F. 1960. Course in General Linguistics. London: Peter Owen. Note: The David Bell text has its own bibliography and URL recommendations in the last page, the Fornäs text examines a great amount of theorists as you can see in the notes, please approach me if you need precise information about any of them. DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3 – Susana Tosca