Intro to Culture & Technology

Culture and technology circumscribe a field incorporating many interests and disciplines.

In academic terms, disciplines such as media studies, cultural studies and sociology have conducted theoretical inquiry into the complex relationship between culture and technology.

We discuss a wide range of theoretical perspectives, assessing their strengths and Weaknesses in the context of recent technological developments.

Focussing on the cultural expression of technology and its social impact ie. Science fiction, relation between art and technology and developing new media art.

Technology has become so ubiquitous that it has been said that We now live in technology, surrounded by technological systems and dependent on them. ‘Technology’ has been generalized to the point of abstraction: it suggests an overarching system that we inhabit.

The reading regards culture as a dynamic and multiple thing. Explaining no singular notion of culture, it could be a cultivation of the mind, or artistic pursuits, or high art.

Culture is dynamic because ideas and values change, often quite quickly and over time. Older attitudes to culture may be superseded, or they may overlap with new ideas, or the older values may re-emerge at a later time.