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Digital Media

Human–Technology Connection

Stacey O'Neal Irwin - Foreword by Don Ihde

Digital Media: Human-Technology Connection examines what it is like to be alive in today’s technologically textured world and showcases specific digital media technologies that makes this kind of world possible. So much of human experience occurs through digital media that it is time to pause and consider the process and proliferation of digital consumption and humanity’s role in it through an interdisciplinary array of sources from philosophy, media studies, film studies, media ecology and philosophy of technology. When placed in the interpretive lens of artifact, instrument, and tool, digital media can be studied in a uniquely different way, as a kind of technology that pushes the boundaries on production, distribution and communication and alters the way humans and technology connect with each other and the world.

The book is divided into two sections to provide overarching definitions and case study specifics. Section one, Raw Materials, examines pertinent concepts like digital media, philosophy of technology, phenomenology and postphenomenology by author Stacey O Irwin. In Section Two, Feeling the Weave, Irwin uses conversations with digital media users and other written materials along with the postphenomenological framework to explore nine empirical cases that focus on deep analysis of screens, sound, photo manipulation, data-mining, aggregate news and self-tracking. Postphenomenological concepts like multistability, variational theory, microperception, macroperception, embodiment, technological mediation, and culture figure prominently in the investigation.

The aim of the book is to recognize that digital media technologies and the content it creates and proliferates are not neutral. They texture the world in multiple and varied ways that transform human abilities, augment experience and pattern the world in significant and comprehensive ways.

Lexington Books

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-7391-8653-4 • Hardback • April 2016 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-4985-3710-0 • Paperback • November 2017 • $53.99 • (£42.00)

978-0-7391-8654-1 • eBook • April 2016 • $51.00 • (£39.00)

Series: Postphenomenology and the Philosophy of Technology

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Humanism, Social Science / Media Studies

Digital Media

Human–Technology Connection

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Digital Media: Human-Technology Connection examines what it is like to be alive in today’s technologically textured world and showcases specific digital media technologies that makes this kind of world possible. So much of human experience occurs through digital media that it is time to pause and consider the process and proliferation of digital consumption and humanity’s role in it through an interdisciplinary array of sources from philosophy, media studies, film studies, media ecology and philosophy of technology. When placed in the interpretive lens of artifact, instrument, and tool, digital media can be studied in a uniquely different way, as a kind of technology that pushes the boundaries on production, distribution and communication and alters the way humans and technology connect with each other and the world.

The book is divided into two sections to provide overarching definitions and case study specifics. Section one, Raw Materials, examines pertinent concepts like digital media, philosophy of technology, phenomenology and postphenomenology by author Stacey O Irwin. In Section Two, Feeling the Weave, Irwin uses conversations with digital media users and other written materials along with the postphenomenological framework to explore nine empirical cases that focus on deep analysis of screens, sound, photo manipulation, data-mining, aggregate news and self-tracking. Postphenomenological concepts like multistability, variational theory, microperception, macroperception, embodiment, technological mediation, and culture figure prominently in the investigation.

The aim of the book is to recognize that digital media technologies and the content it creates and proliferates are not neutral. They texture the world in multiple and varied ways that transform human abilities, augment experience and pattern the world in significant and comprehensive ways.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 198 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-7391-8653-4 • Hardback • April 2016 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

978-1-4985-3710-0 • Paperback • November 2017 • $53.99 • (£42.00)

978-0-7391-8654-1 • eBook • April 2016 • $51.00 • (£39.00)

Series: Postphenomenology and the Philosophy of Technology

Subjects: Philosophy / Movements / Humanism, Social Science / Media Studies

Author

Stacey O. Irwin is associate professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre at Millersville University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Section 1: Raw Materials
Chapter 1: Exploring the Texture
Chapter 2: Describing Digital Media
Chapter 3: Digging
Section 2: Feeling the Weave
Chapter 4: Case: The Screen
Chapter 5: Case: Dwelling in digital Sound
Chapter 6: Case: Earbud Embodiment
Chapter 7: Case: Being-In-The World-With my iPod
Chapter 8: Case: Dubstep
Chapter 9: Case: The Photoshop Aesthetic
Chapter 10: Case: Data mining
Chapter 11: Case: Aggregate News
Chapter 12: Case: Self Tracking
Epilogue

Reviews

This small volume has an immodest aim—to analyze 'how digital media change our day-to-day lifeworld experience.' This analysis consists primarily of two components. First is a description of 'postphenomenology,' which is described as phenomenology leavened with pragmatism and close attention to the experiences of using specific technologies. The second is a series of 'cases,' which include descriptions of the use of screens, earbuds, portable music players, digitally altered ('photoshopped') images, aggregate news services, and athletic performance monitoring. Straightforward descriptions of these familiar digital media experiences are juxtaposed with metaphors (e.g., the 'siren's song of today'), oracular statements by phenomenologists, and, most especially, open-ended questions ('Is the technological weave in our contemporary world a heavy covering?' or 'If I cannot hear lifeworld sounds, am I less of a citizen?'). Readers should not expect definitive answers to such questions but instead are encouraged to be mindful of how casual, but pervasive, use of digital media can alter basic experiences and thus who people are. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and professionals.
— Choice Reviews

Digital Media

Human–Technology Connection

Stacey O'Neal Irwin - Foreword by Don Ihde

Digital Media

Human–Technology Connection

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