24 Jan 2008 [ Prev | Next ]

Schemata

I've set up the course with four main touchstones.

oral -> manuscript -> print -> digital
These eras overlap; all modes of communication continue to exist to the present day, but their function in society changes.

Oral Culture
  • personal (one-to-one; one[-speaker]-to-many[-listeners])
  • interactive
  • memory and improvisation (the agora & the courts)
  • limitation: the sound of the human voice
Manuscript Culture
  • private (one-to-one; several-to-several)
  • contemplative
  • scarcity and fidelity (scriptoria and the church)
  • limitations: access to writing materials; access to written documents (for study or copying); hundreds of hours of precision labor for each book
Print Culture
  • public (one-to-many)
  • compartmentized
  • accuracy and efficiency (standardized manufacture, standardized education, university culture)
  • limitations: cheap paper only lasts a few centuries; competition favors authors with mass audiences; mistakes harder to correct
Digital Culture
  • impersonal (many-to-many)
  • ephemeral
  • immediacy and interactivity (erosion of privacy, erosion of print culture borders)
  • limitations: spam & crap; competing notions of "ownership" (file-sharing and digital rights)

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