DIGITAL CULTURE AND SOCIOLOGY session 3

1
Digital Culture and Sociology

• Representation Meanings and Symbols

2
about today

• Representation and meaning, mostly following
  Stuart Hall
• Symbols, by Johan Fornäs Storying Cyberspace,
  by David Bell

part 1
break
part 2
3
how all texts work together...
HALL frame FORNÄSin-depth discussion BELLapplied theory
Representation
Codes
Systems
Symbols
Semiotics
Examples
Communication exercises
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
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
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)

7
theories of representation

1. Reflective. Meaning lies in the real world and
   language is a mirror. Mimesis. (what about
   fiction?)
2. Intentional. Speaker imposes meaning through
   language. (all private?)
3. Constructionist. Things dont mean, we construct
   meaning through representational systems. (Hall,
   Fornäs, Bell)

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

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
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.

11
what does this mean?

• Advert for laptops
• Signifier
• Signified
• Myth (cultural themes)
• Power structures
• The Subject / Identity?

12
(No Transcript)
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)

14
symbol aspects
Johan Fornäs

1. Materiality
2. Form-relations, system, structure
3. Meaning, references to some external phenomena or
   other cultural phenomena
4. Pragmatics, symbols in use.

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.

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)

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)

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.

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.