Cultural Technologies: German Culture and Media Research Frontier——Interview with Professor Geoffrey Winthrop-Young

Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5) : 51-60.

PDF(4400 KB)
PDF(4400 KB)
Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (5) : 51-60.

Cultural Technologies: German Culture and Media Research Frontier——Interview with Professor Geoffrey Winthrop-Young

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Abstract

In recent years, “cultural technologies”has become a new frontier of German culture and media research. This paper makes an interview with media philosopher Geoffrey WinthropYoung around relevant issues.He is one of the most insightful scholars of German media theory. Professor Geoffrey believes that“cultural technologies”are operations that generate the grid of distinctions we know as culture.The reason why Kittler uses the term“cultural technologies”in his theoretical pedigree is that the concept of“media”cannot cover everything he wants to do. Therefore, the“cultural technologies”goes far beyond the technical field. At the same time, technology determinism involves a unilinear, causal influence, which is denied by“cultural technologies”.In addition, compared with McLuhan’s “Anthropocentrism” tendency, “cultural technologies”approach is a non-teleological, non-anthropocentric analysis of the co-evolution of the human, animal and machine species. And it emphasizing that there never was a“pure” human who later on merged with technology and then turned into a posthuman.Therefore, humans are not the center or originating points of tools or media,they are the result of operative chains involving human, animal and artifciality.

Key words

Cultural Technologies / Media / Technology / New Materialism / Post-humanism

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Cultural Technologies: German Culture and Media Research Frontier——Interview with Professor Geoffrey Winthrop-Young[J]. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2020, 42(5): 51-60
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