Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Institut für Musik­wissen­schaft und Medien­wissen­schaft | Medienwissenschaft | 　↳ Medientheorien | Kolloquium | Jingwei Wu: From Cultural Techniques to Cosmic Technology: Chinese Lute / Guohua Zeng: “Moral Life” Emerged from/with Recursive Cultural Operative Chains: Solar Terms (Jieqi), Cosmotechnics, and Universe

Jingwei Wu: From Cultural Techniques to Cosmic Technology: Chinese Lute / Guohua Zeng: “Moral Life” Emerged from/with Recursive Cultural Operative Chains: Solar Terms (Jieqi), Cosmotechnics, and Universe

  • Wann 19.06.2024 von 18:00 bis 20:00
  • Wo Medientheater Raum 001 Georgenstraße 47
  • Name des Kontakts constantin.matti.roth@hu-berlin.de
  • iCal

European media theory constructs "medium" or "mediality" based on the binary division of subject and object. It may ignore the relational, dynamic, and organic development view among subjects, objects, and the environment. Some scholars have recognized this problem and have absorbed the idea of "relational ontology" from important thinkers such as Heidegger, Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, and Latour to bridge the rupture and crisis brought about by the binary division. The philosophical resources for this bridging are closely related to Eastern philosophy, such as Chinese philosophy.

As a medium, what role does technology play in the relationship between people and the outside world? How can we imagine a Chinese media theory? Based on the cultural techniques of playing Chinese lute (Guqin), this article explores how “the way of Moral” of Confucius can be presented and discusses the relationship between nature and humans in Chinese culture, and how playing Chinese lute transforms from a cultural technique to a Cosmotechnics (Hui 2021), in which the integration of subject and object occurs through "induction," namely, "the unity of Tao and instrument." In this context, I will try to explore the basics of Chinese media theory and the possibility of dialogue with German media theory.

 

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This study attempts to revisit the interrelationship between humans, non-human species, objects and the nature/universe with the perspectives of cultural techniques (Siegert 2013) and “Cosmotechnics” (Hui 2021). Viewing the "24 Solar Terms" (a compact Chinese solar calendar) as a

(series of) cultural technique(s), in addition to a cultural apparatus, this article sketches out how the 24 Solar Terms as a set of recursive cultural operative chains organically associating agricultural production, festivals, rituals, food and beverage, and cultural practices (in a narrower term) in everyday life. In the meantime, it also organically associates individuals, assemblages, objects, stars and planets and the nature/universe. In traditional China (and arguably in contemporary China), it was believed that the recursive practices of these cultural operative chains could lead to an ideal form of “moral life”, in which jieqi is both cultural techniques and Cosmotechnics. With this examination, this study attempts to open up possibilities of two recursive “returns”, i.e., the returning to research interests in the “nature/world” in early communication studies, and the returning to the idea of “moral life” in the contemporary condition in which spatial technology and artificial intelligence are becoming omnipresent.