Author: Phillip Vannini
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433103018
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Focusing on the technoculture of everyday life, this book attempts to zero in on the simplicity and the habitual character of the interaction between humans and material objects, which is often assumed or taken for granted. Because objects are always meaningful in the pragmatic use to which they are directed, the material world of everyday life can be seen as a technoculture of its own - one made of behaviors as simple, and yet as significant, as using a lawnmower, or decorating one's body. In discussing the unique methodological components of the ethnography of the technoculture of everyday life, this book begins a dialogue on how we can examine - from the participants' perspective - the interconnections between social agents, their technological/material practices, their material objects or technics, and their social and material environment.
Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life
Author: Phillip Vannini
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433103018
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Focusing on the technoculture of everyday life, this book attempts to zero in on the simplicity and the habitual character of the interaction between humans and material objects, which is often assumed or taken for granted. Because objects are always meaningful in the pragmatic use to which they are directed, the material world of everyday life can be seen as a technoculture of its own - one made of behaviors as simple, and yet as significant, as using a lawnmower, or decorating one's body. In discussing the unique methodological components of the ethnography of the technoculture of everyday life, this book begins a dialogue on how we can examine - from the participants' perspective - the interconnections between social agents, their technological/material practices, their material objects or technics, and their social and material environment.
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433103018
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Focusing on the technoculture of everyday life, this book attempts to zero in on the simplicity and the habitual character of the interaction between humans and material objects, which is often assumed or taken for granted. Because objects are always meaningful in the pragmatic use to which they are directed, the material world of everyday life can be seen as a technoculture of its own - one made of behaviors as simple, and yet as significant, as using a lawnmower, or decorating one's body. In discussing the unique methodological components of the ethnography of the technoculture of everyday life, this book begins a dialogue on how we can examine - from the participants' perspective - the interconnections between social agents, their technological/material practices, their material objects or technics, and their social and material environment.
Material Culture in America
Author: Helen Sheumaker
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 604
Book Description
"You can tell a lot about people by looking at their stuff - the things they make, process, and value. That is the idea that drives the field of material culture, in which scholars explore the meaning of objects of a given society. This book is the first encyclopedia to look at the study of material culture and what it reveals about life in the United States."--Jacket.
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 604
Book Description
"You can tell a lot about people by looking at their stuff - the things they make, process, and value. That is the idea that drives the field of material culture, in which scholars explore the meaning of objects of a given society. This book is the first encyclopedia to look at the study of material culture and what it reveals about life in the United States."--Jacket.
Digital Material
Author: Marianne van den Boomen
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089640681
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This is a compelling study of the often controversial role and meaning of the new media and digital cultures in contemporary society. Three decades of societal and cultural alignment of new media yielded to a host of innovations, trials, and problems, accompanied by versatile popular and academic discourse. "New Media Studies" crystallized internationally into an established academic discipline, which begs the question: where do we stand now; which new issues have emerged now that new media are taken for granted, and which riddles remain unsolved; and, is contemporary digital culture indeed all about 'you', or do we still not really understand the digital machinery and how it constitutes us as 'you'. From desktop metaphors to Web 2.0 ecosystems, from touch screens to bloggging to e-learning, from role-playing games to Cybergoth music to wireless dreams, this timely volume offers a showcase of the most up-to-date research in the field from what may be called a 'digital-materialist' perspective.
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089640681
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
This is a compelling study of the often controversial role and meaning of the new media and digital cultures in contemporary society. Three decades of societal and cultural alignment of new media yielded to a host of innovations, trials, and problems, accompanied by versatile popular and academic discourse. "New Media Studies" crystallized internationally into an established academic discipline, which begs the question: where do we stand now; which new issues have emerged now that new media are taken for granted, and which riddles remain unsolved; and, is contemporary digital culture indeed all about 'you', or do we still not really understand the digital machinery and how it constitutes us as 'you'. From desktop metaphors to Web 2.0 ecosystems, from touch screens to bloggging to e-learning, from role-playing games to Cybergoth music to wireless dreams, this timely volume offers a showcase of the most up-to-date research in the field from what may be called a 'digital-materialist' perspective.
A Companion to Popular Culture
Author: Gary Burns
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405192054
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A Companion to Popular Culture is a landmark survey of contemporary research in popular culture studies that offers a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the field. Includes over two dozen essays covering the spectrum of popular culture studies from food to folklore and from TV to technology Features contributions from established and up-and-coming scholars from a range of disciplines Offers a detailed history of the study of popular culture Balances new perspectives on the politics of culture with in-depth analysis of topics at the forefront of popular culture studies
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405192054
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 608
Book Description
A Companion to Popular Culture is a landmark survey of contemporary research in popular culture studies that offers a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the field. Includes over two dozen essays covering the spectrum of popular culture studies from food to folklore and from TV to technology Features contributions from established and up-and-coming scholars from a range of disciplines Offers a detailed history of the study of popular culture Balances new perspectives on the politics of culture with in-depth analysis of topics at the forefront of popular culture studies
Wild Things
Author: Judy Attfield
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
ISBN: 135007229X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for 'the real thing' become so important because the high-tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us? This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point of object's “lives”. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings and associations that reflect and assert who we are. Defining designed things as “things with attitude” differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary aretefacts that are too easily taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to 'clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. Beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
ISBN: 135007229X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
What do things mean? What does the life of everyday objects reveal about people and their material worlds? Has the quest for 'the real thing' become so important because the high-tech world of total virtuality threatens to engulf us? This pioneering book bridges design theory and anthropology to offer a new and challenging way of understanding the changing meanings of contemporary human-object relations. The act of consumption is only the starting point of object's “lives”. Thereafter they are transformed and invested with new meanings and associations that reflect and assert who we are. Defining designed things as “things with attitude” differentiates the highly visible fashionable object from ordinary aretefacts that are too easily taken for granted. Through case studies ranging from reproduction furniture to fashion and textiles to 'clutter', the author traces the connection between objects and authenticity, ephemerality and self-identity. Beyond this, she shows the materiality of the everyday in terms of space, time and the body and suggests a transition with the passing of time from embodiment to disembodiment.
People and Things
Author: James M. Skibo
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387765271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
The study of the human-made world, whether it is called artifacts, material culture, or technology, has burgeoned across the academy. Archaeologists have for cen- ries led the way, and today offer investigators myriad programs and conceptual frameworks for engaging the things, ordinary and extraordinary, of everyday life. This book is an attempt by practitioners of one program – Behavioral Archaeology – to furnish between two covers some of our basic principles, heuristic tools, and illustrative case studies. Our greater purpose, however, is to engage the ideas of two competing programs – agency/practice and evolution – in hopes of initiating a dialog. We are convinced that there is enough overlap in goals, interests, and conceptions among these programs to warrant guarded optimism that a more encompassing, more coherent framework for studying the material world can result from a concerted effort to forge a higher-level synthesis. However, in engaging agency/ practice and evolution in Chap. 2, we are not reticent to point out conflicts between Behavioral Archaeology and these programs. This book will appeal to archaeologists and anthropologists as well as historians, sociologists, and philosophers of technology. Those who study science–technology– society interactions may also encounter useful ideas. Finally, this book is suitable for upper-division and graduate courses on anthropological theory, archaeological theory, and the study of technology.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387765271
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 176
Book Description
The study of the human-made world, whether it is called artifacts, material culture, or technology, has burgeoned across the academy. Archaeologists have for cen- ries led the way, and today offer investigators myriad programs and conceptual frameworks for engaging the things, ordinary and extraordinary, of everyday life. This book is an attempt by practitioners of one program – Behavioral Archaeology – to furnish between two covers some of our basic principles, heuristic tools, and illustrative case studies. Our greater purpose, however, is to engage the ideas of two competing programs – agency/practice and evolution – in hopes of initiating a dialog. We are convinced that there is enough overlap in goals, interests, and conceptions among these programs to warrant guarded optimism that a more encompassing, more coherent framework for studying the material world can result from a concerted effort to forge a higher-level synthesis. However, in engaging agency/ practice and evolution in Chap. 2, we are not reticent to point out conflicts between Behavioral Archaeology and these programs. This book will appeal to archaeologists and anthropologists as well as historians, sociologists, and philosophers of technology. Those who study science–technology– society interactions may also encounter useful ideas. Finally, this book is suitable for upper-division and graduate courses on anthropological theory, archaeological theory, and the study of technology.
Artisans, Objects and Everyday Life in Renaissance Italy
Author: Paula Hohti-Erichsen
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9048550262
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Did ordinary Italians have a 'Renaissance'? This book presents the first in-depth exploration of how artisans and small local traders experienced the material and cultural Renaissance. Drawing on a rich blend of sixteenthcentury visual and archival evidence, it examines how individuals and families at artisanal levels (such as shoemakers, barbers, bakers and innkeepers) lived and worked, managed their household economies and consumption, socialised in their homes, and engaged with the arts and the markets for luxury goods. It demonstrates that although the economic and social status of local craftsmen and traders was relatively low, their material possessions show how these men and women who rarely make it into the history books were fully engaged with contemporary culture, cultural customs and the urban way of life.
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9048550262
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Did ordinary Italians have a 'Renaissance'? This book presents the first in-depth exploration of how artisans and small local traders experienced the material and cultural Renaissance. Drawing on a rich blend of sixteenthcentury visual and archival evidence, it examines how individuals and families at artisanal levels (such as shoemakers, barbers, bakers and innkeepers) lived and worked, managed their household economies and consumption, socialised in their homes, and engaged with the arts and the markets for luxury goods. It demonstrates that although the economic and social status of local craftsmen and traders was relatively low, their material possessions show how these men and women who rarely make it into the history books were fully engaged with contemporary culture, cultural customs and the urban way of life.
Learning Things
Author: Doug Blandy
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807777021
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Through activities, approaches, and examples, this resource highlights concrete strategies for incorporating material culture into K–16 art classrooms, as well as museum and community settings. Chapters are written by luminaries in the field and organized around various aspects of material culture, including object study, the role of technology, and multisensory art. “Learning Things is a resource abounding in lucid insights into how everyday objects impact teaching and learning in art. I am certain this book will quickly become a foundational text in our field.” —Juan Carlos Castro, chair, NAEA Research Commission “Filled with excellent examples and teaching strategies, this book brings to life the interdisciplinary stories objects hold and the ways we can use them in research and teaching.” —Deborah L. Smith-Shank, The Ohio State University “In this intimate and educative book, Doug Blandy and Paul Bolin invite us to consider how things come into appearance and take form in the uses to which they are put. If you have ever wondered how we find and lose ourselves in the things that we create, collect, or carry with us, then, this book is for you.” —Dónal O’Donoghue, The University of British Columbia
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 0807777021
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 145
Book Description
Through activities, approaches, and examples, this resource highlights concrete strategies for incorporating material culture into K–16 art classrooms, as well as museum and community settings. Chapters are written by luminaries in the field and organized around various aspects of material culture, including object study, the role of technology, and multisensory art. “Learning Things is a resource abounding in lucid insights into how everyday objects impact teaching and learning in art. I am certain this book will quickly become a foundational text in our field.” —Juan Carlos Castro, chair, NAEA Research Commission “Filled with excellent examples and teaching strategies, this book brings to life the interdisciplinary stories objects hold and the ways we can use them in research and teaching.” —Deborah L. Smith-Shank, The Ohio State University “In this intimate and educative book, Doug Blandy and Paul Bolin invite us to consider how things come into appearance and take form in the uses to which they are put. If you have ever wondered how we find and lose ourselves in the things that we create, collect, or carry with us, then, this book is for you.” —Dónal O’Donoghue, The University of British Columbia
Digital Performance in Everyday Life
Author: Lyndsay Michalik Gratch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429801327
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Digital Performance in Everyday Life combines theories of performance, communication, and media to explore the many ways we perform in our everyday lives through digital media and in virtual spaces. Digital communication technologies and the social norms and discourses that developed alongside these technologies have altered the ways we perform as and for ourselves and each other in virtual spaces. Through a diverse range of topics and examples—including discussions of self-identity, surveillance, mourning, internet memes, storytelling, ritual, political action, and activism—this book addresses how the physical and virtual have become inseparable in everyday life, and how the digital is always rooted in embodied action. Focusing on performance and human agency, the authors offer fresh perspectives on communication and digital culture. The unique, interdisciplinary approach of this book will be useful to scholars, artists, and activists in communication, digital media, performance studies, theatre, sociology, political science, information technology, and cybersecurity—along with anyone interested in how communication shapes and is shaped by digital technologies.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429801327
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Digital Performance in Everyday Life combines theories of performance, communication, and media to explore the many ways we perform in our everyday lives through digital media and in virtual spaces. Digital communication technologies and the social norms and discourses that developed alongside these technologies have altered the ways we perform as and for ourselves and each other in virtual spaces. Through a diverse range of topics and examples—including discussions of self-identity, surveillance, mourning, internet memes, storytelling, ritual, political action, and activism—this book addresses how the physical and virtual have become inseparable in everyday life, and how the digital is always rooted in embodied action. Focusing on performance and human agency, the authors offer fresh perspectives on communication and digital culture. The unique, interdisciplinary approach of this book will be useful to scholars, artists, and activists in communication, digital media, performance studies, theatre, sociology, political science, information technology, and cybersecurity—along with anyone interested in how communication shapes and is shaped by digital technologies.
Human-Built World
Author: Thomas P. Hughes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022612066X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 237
Book Description
To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens. In Human-Built World, thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential. Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life. Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In Human-Built World, he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022612066X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 237
Book Description
To most people, technology has been reduced to computers, consumer goods, and military weapons; we speak of "technological progress" in terms of RAM and CD-ROMs and the flatness of our television screens. In Human-Built World, thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential. Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life. Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In Human-Built World, he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.