Digital Think Tank presents some interesting theory on Digital Culture including:

An interview of Charles Gere, Author of “Digital Culture” by Stephen Janis who teaches MP3 Culture and Digital Promotion: A cultural perspective at The Johns Hopkins University.

Charles seems to posit a very broad definition of digital. The difficulty of projecting/predicting the impact of new technology is highlighted – even argued – but not with the same drama as for example Vernor Vinge’s contention of a technological Singularity as a result of the development of entities with greater than human intelligence. This is not a new concept but perhaps one that is becoming more accessible and apparent to a larger segment of society.

Asked about texts that may suplement his book Gere listed:

My top five texts on digital culture
1. The Closed World by Paul N. Edwards
2. How We Became Posthuman by N. Katherine Hayles
3. Gramophone Film Typewriter by Friedrich Kittler
4. Technics and Time by Bernard Stiegler
5. Archive Fever by Jacques Derrida
Plus – coming early next year – my new book, Art, Time and Technology (Berg books)

In another post DTT considers ‘Moore’s Wall’, how according to Ralph Koster, Chief Creative Officer of Sony’s Online Entertainment Division, technology curtails creativity. If I was his direct superior I’d think realy hard about firing him for a statement. He does point out that creativity is largely about finding solutions but I am not convinced of the conclusion that:

It’s just human nature to do what we have done before, only to try to do it nicer. And that fundamentally is the limitation of advances in technology as regards game design.” but this rides largely on how one defines technology, human nature, or may explain why I don’t care much for digital gaming.

I suspect creativity is often too strongly associated with new-ness for the sake of new-ness, the novelty factor, sadly at the cost of relevancy. Something that is old-hat but applied in a way that increases relevancy and thus the quality of the solution is creative – whether popular culture gets this or not. This is because creative doesn’t only mean ‘originality’ but also ‘imaginative’, ‘expressive’ and most importantly the capacity to ‘create’ or bring into existence. Which leads us straight back to Autopoeisis – ” the process whereby an organization produces itself; literally, self-production” (Klaus Krippendorff’s Dictionary of Cybernetics). Perhaps what is limited is not creativity, but rather individuals’ experience of- or acces of creativity (especialy as seen from the perspective of the previously mentioned issue of the Singularity factor.

A Salutogenic Design Orientation considers at least the three primary (inter-related) parameters:
· Usability & Economy (Manageability)
· Context & Environment (Meaningfulness)
· Clarity & Integrity & accessibility (Comprehensibility)

Synopsis of Professor Kobus Kruger’s, (Head of UNISA’s Department of Religious Studies) introductory talk on Mysticism at Café Riche, Pretoria, 25 November 2005

(I translated this synopsis ‘on the fly’ from Afrikaans to English.)

Mysticism in relation to, and from the context of religion

Assumptions:

1 Religions are collections of phenomena
2 Religion understood in a broad sense
3 Religion is just a word, just an abstraction, but which describes (or points towards) real things

Religion is about ultimate meaning. Within religion one can identify two legs (threads) namely:

1 The search for meaning
2 The expression of meaning

A hierarchy of Religion

Prof. Kruger uses the metaphor of a mountain to illustrate a framework of of the inter-related levels, or contours of religion.

1 Social Organisation, institutionalisation, the level where most people live and die
2 Traditions, the stories and books
3 Ethics, concerns with authenticity and authority
4 Ritual, aesthetics
5 Experience, the realm of feeling
6 Symbolism and Mythology, semiotic and narrative expressions of the experience of truth
7 Esoteric Knowledge and Philosophy

Religions have characteristics ranging across the above spectrum. The ‘spiritual’, in a sense, describes in a group context the experience of meaning, and is the essence of religion.

Mysticism

Mysticism is the culmination of religion and culture.

Mystics are both the dreamers – the pioneers of the future, as well as messengers of the future. Mystics are held to be in, or have been in, an intimate experience of a direct fundamental relationship with what truly matters.

Prof Kruger briefly outlined some differences between exponents of fellowship vs. non-duality religions, and identified four typical focuses of religion:

1 Action
2 Love
3 Knowledge
4 Mythic-poetic

Mysticism exists and functions in all the above levels and aspects of religion. For example in the level of institutionalisation mystics are typical outsiders, in the context of tradition they are often the cast-breakers etc.

This talk was followed by an open discussion which addressed issues such as

• notions of transcendence
• questions about the dynamics of social-psychological escapism as a trigger for attraction to ‘the other’
• transcendence of paradigms
• confrontation vs. reclusiveness

Prof Kruger held that there is a clear verifiable cultural need and role for mysticism.