Well at least that is what I am left thinking after madly trying to wrap my head around the rather verbose texts we read this week.
The best method I utilised to decipher this week's topic was through humanising it in my own way through firstly discussing the issue with my friends and then watching the Big Bang Theory excerpt which not only sheds some light on the complexities of the human brain, but managed this in an amusing way.
The development of technology over the past century has led society to adopt a need of "always being up-to-date" and having constant access to news around the world. Social media in particular today means that we are constantly interacting with multiple networks that the roles that we play vary from adopting a semiotic presence to a material presence. Whether we contribute the thoughts, the physical presence, or the fingers typing into Facebook each user is simultaneously a contributor. This development of social media has meant that people now interact with media differently and in turn this affects the way we interact in society. For example, when was the last time you caught a train and less than half of the passengers in your carriage were not occupied on their smart phone?
These shifts in media and publishing can be discussed further through the concepts of assemblage and actor network theory.
The concept of the Actor Network Theory (ANT), developed as an approach to social theory by Michel Callon, John Law and Bruno Latour, attempts to explain and evaluate the relationship between materials (things) and semiotics (concepts) to ultimately make up a heterogenous network (Wikipedia).
This broadly relates to the concept of "assemblage" which in fact refers to “a relational network of elements or actants in a flat ontology.” Latour states that an assemblage is comprised of both human and non-human "actants". These in turn form relations in which they are all relatively equal, which leads to the concept of a "flat ontology".
In order to humanise this rather strange theory I quite enjoyed looking at the example of a school. While the material objects are there which make the physical attributes of a school for example the desks, the buildings, the pencils.... there are also the semiotic components which consists of the teachers, the thoughts of the teachers, the students, their collective academic ideas all of which collaboratively interact to form this heterogenous network, where each component plays an equal role in forming the network.
Bibliography:
The best method I utilised to decipher this week's topic was through humanising it in my own way through firstly discussing the issue with my friends and then watching the Big Bang Theory excerpt which not only sheds some light on the complexities of the human brain, but managed this in an amusing way.
The development of technology over the past century has led society to adopt a need of "always being up-to-date" and having constant access to news around the world. Social media in particular today means that we are constantly interacting with multiple networks that the roles that we play vary from adopting a semiotic presence to a material presence. Whether we contribute the thoughts, the physical presence, or the fingers typing into Facebook each user is simultaneously a contributor. This development of social media has meant that people now interact with media differently and in turn this affects the way we interact in society. For example, when was the last time you caught a train and less than half of the passengers in your carriage were not occupied on their smart phone?
These shifts in media and publishing can be discussed further through the concepts of assemblage and actor network theory.
The concept of the Actor Network Theory (ANT), developed as an approach to social theory by Michel Callon, John Law and Bruno Latour, attempts to explain and evaluate the relationship between materials (things) and semiotics (concepts) to ultimately make up a heterogenous network (Wikipedia).
This broadly relates to the concept of "assemblage" which in fact refers to “a relational network of elements or actants in a flat ontology.” Latour states that an assemblage is comprised of both human and non-human "actants". These in turn form relations in which they are all relatively equal, which leads to the concept of a "flat ontology".
In order to humanise this rather strange theory I quite enjoyed looking at the example of a school. While the material objects are there which make the physical attributes of a school for example the desks, the buildings, the pencils.... there are also the semiotic components which consists of the teachers, the thoughts of the teachers, the students, their collective academic ideas all of which collaboratively interact to form this heterogenous network, where each component plays an equal role in forming the network.
Bibliography:
‘Actor Network Theory’, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor-network_theory, Date Accessed March 19 2012. Last Page Update: Unknown.
‘Actor Network Rochambeau’, any-space-whatever blog, http://www.anyspacewhatever.com/actor-network-rochambeau/
, November 14, 2010. Date Accessed March 19th 2012
, November 14, 2010. Date Accessed March 19th 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment