WHEN OLD TECH WERE NEW Marvin, Carolyn. new forms of communication ::: MODERNITY electrical communication machines:: "In a historical sense, the computer is no more than an instantaneous telegraph with a prodigious memory, and all the communications inventions in between have simply been elaborations on the telegraph's original work." 3 application of electricity to communication proto-mass media invented between 1845-1900 : telephone, phonograph, electric light, wireless, and cinema electric media in the 1900s >> sources of fear and fascination changes in the speed, capacity, and performance of communication devices >>> instrument centered perspective early arenas of negociation :: who is inside/outside, who may speak, who may not, who has authority power, authority, representation, knowlege >> struggle in society: groups, classes, >> negotiation "new media intrude on these negotiations by providing new platforms on which old gropus confront one another." 5 alter social distances, surveillance, group habits are reformed practices around new media the inventions were still experimental ::: could be shaped >> elctric light and telephone >> al lot of experimentation "electricians" >> earliest users and observers of electric media >> involved in the field of cultural production and technical production >>> have families, class, community, gender relations social interactions of the 19 century prototypes complex arenas of ommunication >> social practice electric literacy >>> technical texts >>> construction of social world media "are constructed complexes of habits, beliefs, and procedures embedded in elaborate cultural codes of communication." 8 social practices and conflicts "communication is a peculiar kind of interaction that actively seeks variety." 8 >>> carries the seeds of its own subversion electrical experts and their publics projected their social worlds into technology means of reproducing social inequalities ******************** CH 1. INVENTING THE EXPERT. TECH LITERACY AS SOCIAL CURRENCY shifts at the end of 1800s re-scalation of systems of production and distribution emerging technical infrastructure electrical experts journals >>> kept readers informed of the lates electrical innovations and scientific findings >>> addressed not only acadeic and scientist but also designers, managers entreeeneurs arguments of better social position and respect for electrical workers culture of electricity *textual communities (brian stock) groups around authoritative texts >> and certified interpreters >>>electric community spokes persons and interpreters. lettered communities claim to public authority skill interpreting technical documents :: "technological literacy" documetntary procedures replacing the skills of the tinkerer and craft mechanic circles of expertise popular press diseminated exchanges to larger audiences "effort of electrical professionals to invent themselves as an elite in the late nineteenth century." 15 proper naming of persons, gadgets, and concepts in their electrical concepts identify alies and enemies outsiders insiders textual cues for recognizing outsiders/insiders documentary skills >> fundamental professional qualification minimum standard of literacy expected for coexisting with the practical aspects of electricity. 17 >>> telegraphist writing letters for other people write telegraphic messages -------------------- telegraphic messaging >>>>>>>>>>>>Check "telegraphy's corporeal fictions" NEW MEDIA 1740-1915 http://web.mit.edu/transition/subs/gitelman.html technoculture studies telegraphic literature as a complex site where the telegraph is understood in often contradictory terms. ** Lightning flashes and electric dashes, a volume of choice telegraphic literature, humor, fun, wit & wisdom (1877) http://www.archive.org/details/lightningflashes00john -------------------- *Stigmatizing the unempowered : rural, female, nonwhite what electiricity could offer >>> jokes in the electrical press about outsiders>> knowledge / commonsense / humor at the expense of powerless groups journals articles, letters, stories -anecdotes -jokes social mischief of technological ignorance indicators of technnological literacy : textual competence, skill in operating electrical machinery, sensitivity to the social condition sand constraints surrounding the exercise of those skills. 21 women associeted to oral sociability >>> frivolous electrical conversations contrast with efficient, task oriented, worldly talk of business and pressional men. 23 electrical ignorance male control of communication justified by ignorance stories in journals about women's ignorance "Women entered the technical wolrd at the sufferance of men." 27 telephone operators :: the most visible female workers in the electrical industry >> what they do "best" and love : "talking" jokes in newspapers female telegraph operators >>> commanding males who were not yet men. the telephone girl was generally not so fragile > independently employed posseced a "frefloating social identity" "The drama of women's place on the stage of men's technology was constructed and reconstructed as consistently in electrical journals as elsewhere in society." 30 variations on women's capacity to disorder a mode of communication thought to be ordered by an unelectable natural law that males observed . 31 pranks against lower status, ignorants instill fears in the laymen textual communities : scientist, engeneers, elitism of professionals ::: controlling language experts : electrical elites >> electrical experts as defenders of western civilization "Deception and coercion were accepted sanctions against those who refused to recognize the authority of electrical expertise." 62 ***************************** Ch 2. Community and Class order. Progress close to home professional literature newspapers bourgeois family under attack "New forms of communication put communities like the family under stress by making contacts between its members and outsiders difficult to supervise." 69 new forms of communication create new opportunities for courting, infidelity, romancing unacceptable persons of different classes, races changes in the social conduct of love >> courtship innovations in domestic communication >>> improve facility of orders transmission electriifying movements across classes with the aid of electricity how to interprete remote or nonimmediate presence >>> from of interpersonal engagement peculiar to new media romance of high technology ************* Ch 3. Locating the Body in Electrical Space and Time "The inscription of cultural codes upon the body is perhaps the principal means of detaching it from nature and trasnforming it into culture. The body and its actions, therefore, have a richly ambiguous social meanin. 110 relationships between nature- body - electricity civilized accomplishment electricity and sports ****************** Ch.4 Dazzling the multitude Original media spectacles applying electrical technologies to a range of modes from private conversation to public spectacle enhance the drama enhancing the dramatization spectacles *********************************** Ch 5. ANNIHILATING SPACE, TIME, AND DIFFERENCE Experiments in cultural homogenization extending messages effortlessly and instantaneously across time and space cognitive imperialism >>> practiced by expert technical and popular scientific journals visions of the globe administered by anglo-saxon tech "What these writers hoped to extent without challenge were self-concptions that confirmed their dreams of being comfortably at home and perfectly in control of a world at their electric fingertips." 192 SCALE changes the scale of the community in which they imagined themselves as participants changed missionaries of civilization > saving the world from barbarism cultural visions of salvation of the world "new era" of evangelism instantaneous long distance communication "instantaneousness" *The self-centered universe of media. Communication and cultural difference. "The more any medium triumphed over distance, time, and embodied presence, the more exciting it was, and the more it seemed to tread the path of the future." 194 assumptions of cross-cultural understanding, contacts with other cultures, "same as home" positioning authors at the moral center of the universe communicating will all the earth and beyond the stars ************************* EPILOGUE the drama of the new tech possibilities in communication during late 19 c experts constructing the particular tech world publics who expected to live in it technological worlds technologists as champions of novelty, change, and progress technologist are social actors with a variety of layalties members of families, citizens of countries, genders, races an entiere society confronted the introduction of electricity in the late 19c ongoing social objectives >> preserving class stability, moving upward sociallly early electric media the world of electrical imagination the social meaning of electricity >> frameworks *the body electrical discourse shaped itself first to the human body 247 ways of viewing the body and its activities "In the late ninetheenth century, the intellectual establishment represented by scientific thought opposed nature, and its representative, the body, to the culture of technical knowledge as a product of literate modes." 247 effort to place electricity in a cultural relationship to the body * the immediate community: family, professional group, gender, race, class * the unfamiliar community how to use electricity to organize and regiment the world outside visions of one-world homogeneity in which difference was deviance "Electric media were central to this work o cognitive imperialism, in which Western civilization was the center of a stage play for which the rest of the world was an awestruck audience." 235 telephony and telegraphy were organized in compliance with existing social boundaries new media rearrange and imperil social relationships ***************************************** LECTURE looks at some aspects of how society operates negotiation of power, knowledge, groups in society what is the audience? -Marvin is looking as social groups : people in different occupations interacting with the system different approach to audience >>> not the tipical mass media (Radio, tv) tradition of audience center studies in com studies focus on the novelties >> notion of "NEW" - OUtcomes and effects of technology :: disadvantages, advantages ideological and rhetorical spaces >> positive discourse effects in privacy :: violated boundaries individual encountering technology >>> looking at the end user >>> ignores the big infrastructure : Macro level systems are ignored experts ::: rise of scientificism >> scientific approach >>> aparatus of professionalism rise of technological literacy :: literacy standards always define INSIDERS/OUTSIDERS >>> insiders have the power : define the standards, constructs the tests, literacy and power >>> standards as expressions of power the expert : credentialling, expertise, language used as a marker of expertise class aspirations of experts :: marvin is not interested in a flow of a narrative >> >>>>>diffusion theory Evertt Rogers : about adoption of a technology, or buying a product Frames the interaction with technology with individual choice :: S curve of adoption critical mass >>> C. Fisher, America calling >>> looks at the macro level structure >>> Ned Lud enlgish person who destroyed 2 machines in 1779. the machine was actually around before. but until that time the machine was embedded in the industrial process Lud against the machine, industrial revolution in britain. the body death punishment jewelry: situates the body between nature and culture the body as a testing side : electricity created a vocabulary of popular forms of specatcles and reorganizes the audiences spectacles that electricity creates :: fair and expositions cognitive imperialism >>> thinking of everything different as inferior ******************************************************** >>>>>>>>>>>>>> my post: Anglo-Saxon Electric Technoculture In "When Old Technologies Were New" Carolyn Marvin reveals how the social and cultural practices and conflicts of the USA and England interacted with early electronic communication technologies. By means of a historiographic research, Marvin shows that the setting up of the first electrified media systems was made in interaction with the ongoing social struggle between groups, genders, classes, and races. In this struggle, the white male electricians/technologists/experts, were the avant-garde social group in charged of announcing, explaining, and constructing the new technoworld. In order to back up her argument about the interaction electronic communication technologies and socio-cultural practices, Marvin has limited her primary sources to British and American trade journals and newspapers. As some other readers in the forum have pointed out, her narrow choice does not provide a broader picture of the broader public debate and more general/laymen technological discourse. However, Marvin's sources work pretty well in his historical argument and end providing sufficient evidence of how early communication technology systems were arranged in the middle of the social struggle. More important, her sources demonstrate how much drama and anxiety was generated by the early electrification of culture and society. Yes, I agree with Travis that a comparative study of such early process of electrification could improve Marvin's book. Besides having non-textual sources such as films, comic strips, caricatures, music, and paintings, I think it could also be important to have some textual references from the literature world, especially since the electrification of writing triggered many experiments in style. For instance, Marvin could have included this curious book published in 1877: Lightning flashes and electric dashes, a volume of choice telegraphic literature, humor, fun, wit & wisdom (1877) http://www.archive.org/details/lightningflashes00john electric dramas and anxieties struggle kind of society where is taking place study of a particular community, a specific selection of source >> reveals the inecualities and back up the argument. bias the sources Marvin selects work very well for backing up her argument. They reveal the power relationships....... She could have used other sources as well.... as for instance, there is a very interesting study of telegraphic literature made by women. her sources are also very american. perhaps for making his argument of crosscultural domination will be interesting to compare the reception of the electric light in other countries, perhaps in those from the periphery where science and technology was not as developed as in the USA. the electrical imagination *************************************** BLOG POSTS Please comment on the choice of sources that Marvin uses for this book. What are the advantages and disadvantages to them? What other sources might she have consulted or used? As an alternative point of departure for your comment, you might consider Marvin's statement that "the past really does survive in the future" in terms of its implications for preserving the status quo in the face of disruptive technologies. In her analysis, what core factors push new systems, new capabilities into the mold of the established and familiar? >>>>>>>>>>>> Additionally, the fear of privacy invasion (p.76) and anonymity (p.86), the change in presence from face-to-face encounter to phone connection (p.87), and concern about profanity over the phone (p.89) appear to be the same as what we are experiencing with the ‘new’ technology, i.e. Internet, in our time. If her choice of sources was not skewed to trade journals such as Electrical Review and Electrical World, this book might have provided us more accurate descriptions of the lived experience of the general public as well as the experts, which studies in social science are susceptible to miss by objectifying and abstracting social phenomenon. Travis Givens Perhaps utilizing more newspaper and other non-textual sources would have allowed for Marvin to cover the minority experience. The excerpts that Marvin includes show a trade press that is largely opposed to the fantastic stories that appear in the lay-press because they espoused wonderment and claims that were considered overly optimistic or non-sensical and too mystical. If this is representative of the popular opinion viewpoint then I would liked to have heard more about these verbal spars between the presses. Non-written textual resources could have included nickelodeons or later, films related to the idea of these moving pictures. Not only that, but photos, pictures and interviews about the events at the various World Fairs where the action was happening could have offered other sources of reference. However, sifting through these types of resources might be more difficult than a largely textual and archival study that Marvin chose to do and they would suffer from their own limitations; largely that they were produced for purpose of entertainment. she views “the past in the future” as both a reinforcing and expansion of previously held power relations and as a threat to existing social orders. On the first side(that of reinforcing/modifying existing relations of power), the examples of technologically-mediated modes of courtships in the second chapter offer an interesting take on this reinvigoration of power relationships. technology neither creates nor maintains a plane of equality between all users. The socio-cultural milieu of lawyers and other “experts” are able to maintain a position of relative power over those who hold a lesser social position. she also recognizes that these technologies can also instigate crises in the social fabric. “New forms of presence muddied social distance. The most extreme fears were expressed as anecdotes in which protagonists who behaved as though full and attenuated presence could be treated as socially equivalent were promptly victimized by fast-talking, silver-tongued predators who knew how to take advantage of the fact that they were not”(87) Marvin’s theory of historical change and the preservation/alteration of the past in the present offers a useful(if not always coherent) negotiation between technological agency and the agency embedded in sedimentary forms of class, occupation, and status. relegating her sources to mainly trade journals, Marvin effectively silences the many who possessed less specialized, unbiased and more relatable backgrounds. Sources include the Electrician, the Scientific American, Electrical Review and perhaps most frequently, Electrical World among others. She fails to include accounts about those without access to electricity or telephones or a more intrusive investigation into the struggle between the public’s resistance to the experts’ oppressive agenda. As many of these themes (power, control over technologies) resonate today, a broader approach would have been especially salient. Marvin chooses to primarily use trade journals as sources of information for her book and in doing so openly discusses only the dominant themes and the subject matter within. Looking over her notes, she primarily draws from three journals: Electrical Review, Electrical World, and Western Electrician (Chicago). All three can be classified as trade journals and thus subject to the criticisms present in any examination of an industry text. Steven Shannon The trade journals offer one perspective from the voice of the insider but not from that of the layman. The only time that I felt Marvin examined the impact from the layman’s perspective was in the final chapter describing the use of the electric light as a form of communication and its rapid proliferation into advertising and commercialism. The excerpts that Marvin includes show a trade press that is largely opposed to the fantastic stories that appear in the lay-press because they espoused wonderment and claims that were considered overly optimistic or non-sensical and too mystical. If this is representative of the popular opinion viewpoint then I would liked to have heard more about these verbal spars between the presses. As for the quote that “the past really does survive in the future”, I found the book interesting for highlighting patterns that emerge as new technologies develop. Often these same patterns can be seen in the merging technologies of today. This interesting interpretation of technology and cultural exchange seems to have played out many times since this period and continue to this day. Technology is often claimed as a means for cross cultural exchange, but due to the attitudes described, really ends up as a one way tool for communication/indoctrination. File