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Lecturer(s)
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Course content
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(1) Communication and intentionality o Basic model of communication, structural language description and the code hypothesis, intentionality, invisible technology, basic definitions of writing, reading and speaking and their relations (2) Medium, technology and content distribution o Definition of medium and how it relates to technology (as defined in various sources), technological and social determinism, culture gap, distribution of "content" (approaches, changes) (3) Analogue and digital encoding/decoding o Basic definitions of analogue and digital encoding/decoding, technological aspects of digitalization, digital and analogue encoding/decoding in language, speech and other cultural phenomena. (4) Aspects of spoken and written text o Semiotic aspects of sign in spoken and written speech, what scripts stand for (de Saussure, Hjelmslev), the function of writing (Bühler: intersubjectivity, planning ahead of time, formalization), writing materials (5) Signs and space (and time) o Sings and memory - what digitalization has to say, digitalization and time/space (Virilio), basic characteristic of spoken language as an analogue phenomena (6) The nature of form and transmediality o terms difficult to define: multimediality, transmediality, intermediality; their classification; information design, formal organization of form (Jameson) (7) New Aesthetic o The digital and the "physical" world, an attempt to define New Aesthetic: is it art anyway? (8) Social media o An overview; subject and its identity, the private and the public (9) Chirographic and typographic cultures o Production of written text (formalizing and studying written text), the myth vs written text vs spoken word, operational thinking, organizing texts (libraries, encyclopedias, curricula) (10) Ideology and the distribution of power o Defining ideology, its relation to language; objectivity, ideology vs medium; argumentation (11) Problem set analysis I. o Making use of what we have learned analyzing a recent issue (in terms of medium and the nature of channel) (11) Problem set analysis II. o Making use of what we have learned analyzing a recent issue (in terms of medium and the nature of channel)
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Lecture, Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming), Work with Text (with Book, Textbook), Methods of Written Work
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Learning outcomes
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This discussion-based course wants to be an introduction to a sign medium (in the broadest sense): how it forms a meaning in the communication and how it relates to traditional theories of meaning, which assume (albeit hypothetically) first, the existence of code, and, second, the existence of certain mental states and intentionality (or more precisely, their place in the theory of meaning). We will outline how medium, channel and the material component of a sign affect the way (and the kind of) signs and sign complexes we perceive and what role they take in the process of communication. We will be focusing on the theory behind this presumption and, at the same time, examining real-world examples of the ways a medium (technology) manifests its influence over human behaviour and decision-making (social media, pseudo-art schools such as New Aesthetic, or forms of cataloguing of scientific knowledge). Special attention will be paid to writing, which we will see (like Walter Ong and Roy Harris did) as a significant factor in forming the cultural identity (of a community and its members).
Have knowledge of fundamental topics of the semiotic theory of meaning Be familiar with theory and methodology of description of written/spoken communication
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Student performance, Analysis of linguistic, Dialog, Systematic Observation of Student, Seminar Work
(1) regular class attendance (80%) (2) regular homework / reading assignments (3) writing assignment
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Recommended literature
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de Saussure, F. (1996). Kurs obecné lingvistiky. Praha.
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Harris, R. (2000). Rethinking Writing. New York.
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Ong, W. (2006). Technologizace slova. Mluvená a psaná řeč. Praha.
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