This weeks reading focussed on technology, an idea we are focussing on for our Project Brief 4 group task. The reading was an extract from A. Murphy and J. Potts (2002), Culture and Technology. 

Murphy and Potts discuss technology as a ‘dynamic field, reflected both in the rapid changes of technologies themselves, and in the growing range of relevant theoretical approaches’. I think the work ‘dynamic’ is extremely accurate here, as technology is constantly changing and overtaking itself. this is something the reading touches on, where they discuss how technology is constantly building upon itself and making what was once relevant obsolete, making fools out of prophets whilst simultaneously making prophets out of fools. This is why, as pointed out by Murphy and Potts, any theory surrounding technology ‘needs to be supple, not monolithic’.

The reading also discussed the notion of culture, particularly the way in which it is related to technology, as technology is often ‘the agent of social change’. For example, as previously discussed in my reflection of this weeks tutorial, new media and technology in the form of smart phones has been a primary fuel for social change in the way it gives ordinary citizens the ability to document the actions of their government. To see evident of this, simply look at the racial discrimination of various sections of US police departments that is now being presented to the online world in the form of videos captured by smartphones.

Murphy and Potts not only point out that schools are keen to research ‘media art’ for theoretical purposes, they also discuss that it needs to be researched properly more than ever due to our generations obsession with exposure of all artifacts. This can be seen in websites like Reddit, where ideas and information are so frequently shared it suggests that there is no where an internet artifact cannot hide. I particularly thought the idea that communication is not about communication itself to be accurate, it may be depressing but it is clearly true when you consider how many conversations on Facebook are relating to events that have transpired on the online space of Facebook itself.

Finally, in relation to culture, the reading discusses how technology has formed cultural change, where culture in this case is seen as ‘everything we do not have to do’ (Brian Eno). This can be seen in the way it is seen as acceptable to communicate formally over text message more and more each day. I can also see this in my own life, where the constant use of internet recourses of this media subject (such as this blog) would not have been seen a decade ago, demonstrating how adapting and changing technology can influence cultural change around us.