the boring stuff                        cultural technologies
	I've been thinking a lot about the term "cultural technologies" recently. I studied it a little in Intro Comm last year, mostly focussing on an article this guy Terry Flew wrote. It's a really interesting concept. It's all about notions of cultures, notions of technologies, and bringing the two terms together as a notion in itself - hence, cultural technologies. There's three levels of understanding in the word "technology", apparently. There's the simplest level, where technologies are the tools and artifacts used by people to transform nature, enable social interaction, or extend human capacities. So, obviously at this level, televisions and....nuclear reactors are technologies (go with me!) in the simple definitive form. However, these technologies can't do anything unless we make use of them. This is where the second level of understanding comes in. The second level - and I went to dig up the Flew article again to make sure I was getting this vaguely right - is that technologies, as hardware - have no social value or use unless accompanied by content or 'software' - and this content and software needs to have a social and cultural dimension. So, a computer only has value when its hard drive has programs and software packages that allow you to actually do stuff with the computer in itself. So, this second level is all about the contexts of use, as well as the physical forms themselves. So, the third level talks about semantics. Flew said it's something like...wait, let me get the quote..."the systems of knowledge and social meaning that accompany their development and use" (and yeesh, that quote was firmly hidden within the rather densely-written piece!) So, this is talking about new levels of education and training - in regards to making use of these new technologies. Basically, this third level is talking about the associated forms of knowledge that come with, say, computers (again, go with me!) from the specialised side of research, design and development, to a broader social understanding and competence in using these machines and other forms of technologies. So, this is a multi-dimensional definition of technology that I personally think is neat, and I really love mulling over this point. But I can really be traced to the origins of the word in Greek, as far as I can tell: Techne: technical or applied arts and skills and Logos: systematic reason, knowledge, or discourse (Correct me if I'm wrong there!) Anyshoe. These definitions point toward the interaction between physical objects, contexts of use....well, systems of knowledge, I guess. It indicates the technology is inevitably intersected with cultures. So there's a need to think about new media (the Internet, etc etc) as cultural technologies - assemblages of technology, content, context, social knowledge, and heck, even power relations. But I'm digressing slightly.
		There's also three levels used to define the idea of "culture." The first one is about aesthetics. It equates culture with the arts. I think it was Matthew Arnold, the poet (who wrote one of my favourites, Dover Beach), that said that culture was "the best that has been thought and known in the world." Culture is strongly associated with forms of artistic practice - usually with some kind of government support or...private philanthropy. The second level is the notion of cultural studies (for those of you that have ever studied sociology, communication, or cultural studies - heard of Turner? He was the figure of this notion). So this is cultural studies as a new discipline of study. So this is a kinda anthropological level, defining culture as the whole way of life, or...forms of lived experience of communities and social groups. Basically, since this definition is such and expanded one, it draws to attention to other areas like communication, and social relations and practices of everyday life, and their significance to an understanding of culture - and things that were not always considered cultural. Anyshoe. Some of these practices are organisation of production, structure of the family, structure of the institutions that express and govern social relationships and the ways in which members of society communicate. So, in addition to artistic and intellectual activity, and the ways of life of communities/groups, we have the third definitive level. This one comes from semiotics, structured anthropology, and somewhat Marxist theories of ideology. This last theory is discussed by guys like Levi-Strauss, Althuser, Eco, and Barthes - this is about structural analysis. So this talks about how maybe individuals are not 'free agents' in society and culture, but rather produced as social beings, within this given system of...social, cultural, linguistic and psychological relationships - with these underlying social codes that aren't necessarily accessible, or easily extracted by these individuals, who are expected to adopt, and conform to, these codes. Basically, culture is discursive. It's a psychoanalytical and sociological process upon which individuals are made to fit within a culture. Yeah. (Lost yet?) This all ties into the cultural approach to communication = where communication is understood not only as sender-message-receiver, but what has been described as symbolic process where reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and...transformed. (I love this stuff!) So, at times it's best to see technologies as cultural forms themselves. The concept of cultural technologies has become of increasing interest within communication and media, and cultural studies. See, media as cultural technologies produce not only content - you know, texts - but there's also spatial practices, and forms of consumption...these are material practices with structural effects and...tensions, I guess you could say. So, anyshoe, cultural technology links technology to philosophy. Basically, this leads to a debate as to whether this idea of cultural technologies sets premise for philosophy, or whether its pragmatic and dominated by reason... So, yeah. I find this stuff incredibly interesting! I almost wish I was still in Intro Comm, just so I could back and study this some more. I think this stuff is just so fascinating, that there's these whole schools of thought and ideals about this - and that I get to study this! The life of a Communication student is fun.