spela

Loss of contact and its hyper-consequences

By the loss of contact and by emerging digitalisation, our supplementation of knowledge has changed. Contact meant certain linearity, at least some certainty into consecutivness and causal relations. A sequential organisation of knowledge as linear causal consistnecy was possible because of this time and cause related contact.

In CMC contact is hypermediated (hyperlink), REpresented and artificial. Contacts are instant and ephemeral, more like tryings and experiments than substantiated and lasting relations. Some get stabilized and legitimized because of the large publicity and use, regardless to its causal embeddedness. Such discontinuity of data, unsequential and nonconsecutive nature of uses emerged that is not only marginalising time and causal linearity but favoring a new way of creative merging of contents - a modularity:

Modularity is a different kind of supplementation and knowledge organisation. Modular structures are not linear or time related but are in contrary conceptual, building a matrix of logically consistent relations (S. Papson, R. Goldman, and N. Kersey,2004.Web Site Design: Hypertext Aesthetics and Visual Sociology) based on content and foreknowledge.
Such "educational constructivism" produces hyper structures that are knowledge simulations and a new way of controlling perception, which is personal ability to perceive and supplement the knowledge and thus control our mental environment (simulation controls someone's control).

Modularity (or even hypertextuality) is based on the tenet that everything can be fragmented, broken into pieces, atomized and then merged together according to preferences, according to desired pattern under certain agenda.

Possibilities in this way are easier to control, user's (public, experts', ...) specialisation is more intuitive and narrower and the number of alternatives can be marginalized and silenced.

posted by spela @ 6/06/2006 12:14:00 PM