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Category Archives: Media Theory
Science (Scholarship) as Open Source Process
This very short piece from the late F. Kittler becomes increasingly relevant.as issues of open scholarship and open education become ever more established. For example: However, it was practical when some programmers at the MIT resisted venality and when a computer … Continue reading
Posted in Friedrich Kittler, Media Theory
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CTheory – Jailbreaking the Perfect User Interface
Just published a paper on CTheory.net titled: Doing with Icons makes Symbols; or, Jailbreaking the Perfect User Interface Here’s a sample: “Mediation and technologies of mediation, whether the sign (Vygotsky), the symbol (Piaget), or the mirror or signifier (Lacan), all … Continue reading
Posted in Media Theory, Writing
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Dewey's Cosmic Traffic: Politics and Pedagogy as Communication
Dewey’s cosmic traffic [slideshare id=12240322&doc=deweyscosmictraffic-120401024713-phpapp02] View another webinar from Norm Friesen This is a set of slides and audio recording from the Media Transatlantic IV Conference in Paderborn. (Richard Cavell and I hosted Media Transatlantic III at UBC in 2010). … Continue reading
Posted in Media Theory
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What's "The Canadian School" of Media Theory?
(Hint: It’s NOT the same thing as the Toronto School of Communications.) I’ve been working with Darryl Cressman on an article on “Die kanadische Schule” for a German Handbook of Media Studies. The piece will be translated and then … Continue reading
Posted in Friedrich Kittler, Media Theory, Writing
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"Certain Media Biases:" Lecturing via TV, Radio, Text
In completing a research project looking into McLuhan, media theory and education, I’ve been reading about an early experiment on “certain media biases” and the pedagogical form of the lecture. Download a .pdf of the initial report, originally published in … Continue reading
Posted in Lecture, Marshall McLuhan, Media Theory
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German Documentary: McLuhan – Visionary of the Media Age
German Documentary: M. McLuhan: Visionary of the Media Age from Norm Friesen on Vimeo. (The entire broadcast can be viewed here.) Interviewer: …but [he] wasn’t a systematizer Martina Leeker (media studies, Cologne): …that makes it perhaps difficult to work with him … Continue reading
Posted in Friedrich Kittler, Marshall McLuhan, Media Theory
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Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors
Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors from Ben Mendelsohn on Vimeo. A short documentary, sounding almost like a commentary and update on Innis’ Empire & Communications: It reminds us that the Internet is very much a physical infrastructure, with one … Continue reading
Posted in Media Theory, Uncategorized
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The (Dys)functionality of the User Interface
The [Dys]functionality of the User Interface [slideshare id=9577669&doc=doingwithiconsmakessymbols-111006112620-phpapp01] View another webinar from Norm Friesen A recording of a presentation I recently gave at the annual meeting of the (German) Soceity for Media Studies in Potsdam, Germany. The theme of the … Continue reading
Posted in Media Theory, Presentation, Writing
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Jesus, Computers and Communication
Many important characteristics and tensions in computational and other conceptions of communication find remarkable resonance in the words of the Jewish carpenter from Galilee. For example, Claude Shannon, the inventor of information theory and a proponent of digital computation (i.e. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Media Theory, Uncategorized
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All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace
All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace from Norm Friesen on Vimeo. “All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace” is the title of a 1967 poem by Richard Brautigan. Among other things, it is a rich record of what new … Continue reading
Posted in Media Theory
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