Skriftens Teknologi som visuellt tema – Ett historiskt perspektiv
(2002)- Abstract
- To talk about Writing Technology instead of just Writing is tantamount to turning one's attention towards the material circumstances of Writing and Printing - the materiality of the textual Signifier. Defined very broadly, technology is everything that is an extension of the human body. In this sense, Writing Technology is the technology that makes it possible to make external representations of Thinking and Speech, these representations being Extensions outside of the body in which the thinking and speaking takes place. To talk about different kinds of writing technology is to talk about different degrees of separation between Body and Writing, and between Word and Image. According to Marshall McLuhan, this separation culminates in the... (More)
- To talk about Writing Technology instead of just Writing is tantamount to turning one's attention towards the material circumstances of Writing and Printing - the materiality of the textual Signifier. Defined very broadly, technology is everything that is an extension of the human body. In this sense, Writing Technology is the technology that makes it possible to make external representations of Thinking and Speech, these representations being Extensions outside of the body in which the thinking and speaking takes place. To talk about different kinds of writing technology is to talk about different degrees of separation between Body and Writing, and between Word and Image. According to Marshall McLuhan, this separation culminates in the Gutenberg technology of printing and the appearance of a totally new human type - the Typographical Man. Using, in a characteristically selective manner, the scientific findings and speculations of others, McLuhan states that the age of typography is an age in which Sight dominates over the other senses. However often regarded as one of the forerunners of postmodernism, McLuhan is a highly ambiguous writer. Texts like The Gutenberg Galaxy may as well count as typical examples of modernist art theory. From a McLuhanesque point of view, the idea of audio-visual unity in both Italian and Russian futurism may represent the final perversion and alienation of writing technology and textual culture - a stage in which not only letters but also sounds are regarded as visual, material objects in space. Like Walther J Ong, one may ask whether visual or concrete poetry could even exist without the dominance of sight. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/540206
- author
- Andersson, Fred LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2002
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Electronic Art, Futurism, Concrete poetry, Writing Technology
- host publication
- Perspektiv på samtiden, samtida perspektiv: Forskning om det sena 1900-talets och det nya millenniets konst och visuella kultur
- editor
- Hayden, Hans and Tellgren, Anna
- publisher
- Stockholm University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d658d878-d9f6-4967-907f-04d6857e7d0c (old id 540206)
- alternative location
- http://home.swipnet.se/AgnetaB/skrift.html
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:14:30
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:03:34
@inbook{d658d878-d9f6-4967-907f-04d6857e7d0c,
abstract = {{To talk about Writing Technology instead of just Writing is tantamount to turning one's attention towards the material circumstances of Writing and Printing - the materiality of the textual Signifier. Defined very broadly, technology is everything that is an extension of the human body. In this sense, Writing Technology is the technology that makes it possible to make external representations of Thinking and Speech, these representations being Extensions outside of the body in which the thinking and speaking takes place. To talk about different kinds of writing technology is to talk about different degrees of separation between Body and Writing, and between Word and Image. According to Marshall McLuhan, this separation culminates in the Gutenberg technology of printing and the appearance of a totally new human type - the Typographical Man. Using, in a characteristically selective manner, the scientific findings and speculations of others, McLuhan states that the age of typography is an age in which Sight dominates over the other senses. However often regarded as one of the forerunners of postmodernism, McLuhan is a highly ambiguous writer. Texts like The Gutenberg Galaxy may as well count as typical examples of modernist art theory. From a McLuhanesque point of view, the idea of audio-visual unity in both Italian and Russian futurism may represent the final perversion and alienation of writing technology and textual culture - a stage in which not only letters but also sounds are regarded as visual, material objects in space. Like Walther J Ong, one may ask whether visual or concrete poetry could even exist without the dominance of sight.}},
author = {{Andersson, Fred}},
booktitle = {{Perspektiv på samtiden, samtida perspektiv: Forskning om det sena 1900-talets och det nya millenniets konst och visuella kultur}},
editor = {{Hayden, Hans and Tellgren, Anna}},
keywords = {{Electronic Art; Futurism; Concrete poetry; Writing Technology}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Stockholm University}},
title = {{Skriftens Teknologi som visuellt tema – Ett historiskt perspektiv}},
url = {{http://home.swipnet.se/AgnetaB/skrift.html}},
year = {{2002}},
}