Barend van Heusden11 January 2016

Culture, media, and educationAn introduction

Contents

1. A theory of culture and media

2. Theoretical culture

3. Discussion

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› What characterizes human culture?

1. The difference between memory and here-and-now

2. The relating of memory here-and-now to memory

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memory ‘here-and-now’is related to

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Also appliesto cars in

other colours

perception imagination

conceptualizationanalysis

sensory (accommodation)

motor (assimilation)

concrete memories: episodic

abstract memories: semantic

The four dimensions of culture

Culture and media

body artefacts

languagegraphic

gezichthuman face

nägu

7‘Forms of culture’-quiz

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› What characterizes human culture?

1. The difference between memory and here-and-now

2. The relating of memory here-and-now to memory

3. Metacognition, or culture about culture

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memory ‘here-and-now’

metacognition

is related to

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Self-perception: the news

Self-imagination: the arts, entertainment

Self-conceptualization: religion, ideology,

interpretation

Self-analysis: cognitive science

sensory (accommodation)

motor (assimilation)

Concrete memory: episodic

Abstract memory: semantic

Basic forms (expressions) of cultural selfconsciousness

Theoretical Culture

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Evolution of culture

› Human species emerges (5-4.000.000 year ago)

› Mimetic culture (2.000.000 jaar – 200.000 year)

› Mythical culture (200-000 jaar – 50.000 year)

› Graphic culture (50.000 jaar – present)

• Magical culture (50.000 – 10.000 year)

• Totemistic culture (10.000 – 5.000 BP)

• Religious culture (5.000 – 700 v.C.)

• Theoretical culture (700 BC – present)

• Greek antiquity (700 BC – )

• Roman antiquity (300 BC - 300)

• Middle Ages (300 – 1300)

• Modern Times (1400 – present)

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Human Evolution

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4. Evolution of culture (Merlin Donald)

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time

Doubling Mimetic Mythical Theoretic

(perception) (artefacts) (language) (graphic)

2.000.000 200.000 35.0005.000.000

Concept ‘horse’

The flat surface (wall, (clay)tablet, paper, board) allows us to

see (visual) abstractions

Seeing structures (‘insight’) is a prerequisite for theory and theoretical culture

› Theoretical culture depends on a specific medium.

› Theoretical cognition is not inborn…

› Our brain (the visual cortex) must learn to discover and see structures.

Evolution of graphic culture

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time

image… imagination … writing… abstract structures

paleolithicum …. neolithicum …..city culture… modernity

3200 70020000 500035000

Horses

Chauvet, France, 32.000-30.000 BP

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Mixed CultureIntentionele Cultuur

Media and Mimesis

Cave of Chauvet, approximately 30.000 years ago

The ‘lion-man’ from Hohlenstein-StadelAurignacien, circa 30.000 year BP

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Totem pole (detail), Thunderbird Park, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

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› The first agriculture developed in China (rice)

› The middle east (today’s Iran, Iraq, Turkey (Göbekli Tepe), Syria, Jordan) was a particularly fertile area.

› The oldest cultivated grain is found here (cf. How Art Made the World).

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Sumerian statue: abstract

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Vase from Uruk, 3500-3100 11-1-2016 | 28

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Kritios Boy - epheboi± 500 BC

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Paper

•403 BCE Standardisation of handwriting (in Athens)

•± 400 BCE Ink (stabile form)

•Trade relations with Egypt and Phoenicia

One of the earliest images of a person reading a papyrus (440 – 435 BC)

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Researching reality

• In history: Herodote, Thucydides

• In philosophy: Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and many others

• In literature: Pindar, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Menander

Oedipus and the sphinx (vase painting)

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School of Athens - Raphael (1483-1520) - Painted 1510-1511

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Phaedrus - A dialogue on love,

speech and writing (370 BCE?)

Bad for memory

Non-dialogical

Max Velthuis (1923-2004), Frog

Questions / discussion

Thank you for your attention!