Information and Communication theories explained through Total Arts
In the winter class of 2018, we went even further in exploring the arts-informed pedagogy by going to a fully-fledged arts-production workshop as a means to facilitate students' understanding and appropriation of Information and Communication Theories of (ICTs). Students were asked to produce art works expressing how certain ICTs operated in plausible, real life or historic contexts. They were to draw from the Bauhaus artistic movement in designing their artwork.
"The Staatliches Bauhaus commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term Bauhaus—literally "building house" (...) was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art (...) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist Architecture and art, design and architectural education." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus.
During the class, students learnt of how this artistic movement became an inspiration during the second world war for American intellectuals gathered around President Franklin Roosevelt to try and combat the spread of fascism in the US. These intellectuals who were mostly from the social sciences and humanities believed that in order to guard Americans from the fascism into which Nazi Germany had fallen, they had to create a situation that will stimulate the making of democratic individuals. They saw the Bauhaus' movement of "total arts" which combined different art forms and media as a model that enables the creation of self-reflecting individuals who can freely form their own opinions owing to exposure to multiple and varied information sources and arts, as opposed to the mass conformity effect fostered by the top-down hierarchic model of the mass media. These intellectuals experimented with several exhibitions recreating the Bauhaus effect in the US. For an account of this post-war movement in the US, read Fred Turner's The democratic surround .
Theoretical course
The course ran for seven weeks at the rhythm of 3 hours per class. The theoretical part of the course delivered by the instructor occupied the first 5 weeks and included topics such as the origins of communication steeped in Rhetorics in Ancient Greece to the use of propaganda techniques in the two world wars which consolidated the mass media and public relations as a profession, mass marketing and the first research programs in communication. The students were further introduced to Wiener's Cybernetic theory, Shannon's Mathematical Theory of Communication and Gregory Bateson and the Palo Alto's school theories on interpersonal communication.
Preparing the art work
The 6th class was organised as a workshop. Students worked in groups of five or six and discussed how they might materialise their chosen theories in their art work and began working in ernest on their arts exhibit. The instructor consulted with each group to make sure that their ideas were realisable within the logistics constraints of the school (available materials) and timeframe (they had 1 week between this workshop and the exhibition day).
Sixteen groups were thus formed which each designed a form of "Bauhaus-like" arts exhibition that was showcased within the precincts of the school the last week.
The "D" Day: 29th October 2018
The arts exhibition took place in the last week of class. Students arrived early to take up their allocated spaces and set up their art work. The audience was then allowed to come and view the arts work, engage with the students as they explained their ideas and how their "total arts" exhibit reflected the functioning of information & communication theories. Below are some of the most creative and impressive arts exhibits produced by the students.
"The Staatliches Bauhaus commonly known as the Bauhaus, was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The German term Bauhaus—literally "building house" (...) was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art (...) in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, Modernist Architecture and art, design and architectural education." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus.
During the class, students learnt of how this artistic movement became an inspiration during the second world war for American intellectuals gathered around President Franklin Roosevelt to try and combat the spread of fascism in the US. These intellectuals who were mostly from the social sciences and humanities believed that in order to guard Americans from the fascism into which Nazi Germany had fallen, they had to create a situation that will stimulate the making of democratic individuals. They saw the Bauhaus' movement of "total arts" which combined different art forms and media as a model that enables the creation of self-reflecting individuals who can freely form their own opinions owing to exposure to multiple and varied information sources and arts, as opposed to the mass conformity effect fostered by the top-down hierarchic model of the mass media. These intellectuals experimented with several exhibitions recreating the Bauhaus effect in the US. For an account of this post-war movement in the US, read Fred Turner's The democratic surround .
Theoretical course
The course ran for seven weeks at the rhythm of 3 hours per class. The theoretical part of the course delivered by the instructor occupied the first 5 weeks and included topics such as the origins of communication steeped in Rhetorics in Ancient Greece to the use of propaganda techniques in the two world wars which consolidated the mass media and public relations as a profession, mass marketing and the first research programs in communication. The students were further introduced to Wiener's Cybernetic theory, Shannon's Mathematical Theory of Communication and Gregory Bateson and the Palo Alto's school theories on interpersonal communication.
Preparing the art work
The 6th class was organised as a workshop. Students worked in groups of five or six and discussed how they might materialise their chosen theories in their art work and began working in ernest on their arts exhibit. The instructor consulted with each group to make sure that their ideas were realisable within the logistics constraints of the school (available materials) and timeframe (they had 1 week between this workshop and the exhibition day).
Sixteen groups were thus formed which each designed a form of "Bauhaus-like" arts exhibition that was showcased within the precincts of the school the last week.
The "D" Day: 29th October 2018
The arts exhibition took place in the last week of class. Students arrived early to take up their allocated spaces and set up their art work. The audience was then allowed to come and view the arts work, engage with the students as they explained their ideas and how their "total arts" exhibit reflected the functioning of information & communication theories. Below are some of the most creative and impressive arts exhibits produced by the students.
ENTROPIA: The tree of life of communication and of knowledge
This very impressive artistic exhibit sought to represent a tree of knowledge bearing images and texts attached to it . The choice of a tree is explained by its symbolism: it exists in all cultures and represents life and communication which is a basic component of life in society or in any group. Its roots reaches deep into the earth. Just as Information & Communication Sciences (ICS) in France is an interdiscipline that draws from several disciplines, the tree trunk represents the common heritage of this interdiscipline while its branches represents the subfields of the ICS (communication, media studies, journalism, information studies, documentation and library science, cultural studies, etc). The branches with their coloured autumnal leaves represent knowledge alreay accumulated by our predecessors. To engage the participation of visitors, each visitor was asked to choose a balloon from a bag. Each ballon contained a piece of paper with a quote or an image on it (see image gallery below). Visitors were then required to pierce the balloon, take out the piece of paper and determine where the image or the quotation might fit on the tree and then stick it there. The tree is thus gradually populated and enriched with knowledge elaborated recursively, each new visitor being inspired by the images and verbal quotes already on the tree placed there by preceding visitors. Through this artistic design, the students sought to illustrate the importance of Norbert Wiener's cybernetic theory in our human interactions: our decisions and knowledge are often guided by those of our predecessors, thus through feedback that we receive from our environment. Overall, this project illustrated Shannon's information entropy, Wiener's feedback and the Palo Alto's interpersonal communication theory which emphasizes the global nature of communication and its links with Wiener's cybernetics. This is explained in this short video by the students who prepared this exhibit (in French, bien sûr!).
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The Rwandan Genocide and the "Radio Mille Collines" (The 1000 hills radio)
This very profoundly researched multimedia art exhibit showcased the functioning of propaganda during the Rwandan genocide of 1994 which culminated in the massacre of 800 000 Tutsis in less than 100 days by their Hutu ethnic counterpart.
The exhibit reconstructed the timeline of the genocide, dug up archival images, photos and texts and extracts from the mainstream media which were displayed on the wall to enable visitors to retrace how the genocide took place and its devastating consequences. So in the first level, were confronted with the history of the genocide. The second level featured the analysis and theoretical explanations of how the genocide became possible.
Three laptop computers were placed on the table in front of the signs "Avant" (Before), "Pendant" (During) and "Après" (After) the genocide on which the students had prepared audio recordings analysing what happened. To create the impression of immersion in this universe, students wore on the front of their white T-shirts the sign "Je suis..." (I am) and on the back, one of the names of the theorists whose theory helped explained various aspects of information and communication that played out in this genocide (Wiener, E. Bernays, Palo Alto, Corneille and Radio Mille Collines.). This created a Bauhaus effect because the visitor was entirely surrounded in 360° and plunged into the dramatic universe of this genocide, where he/she can discover and appropriate different historic elements of communication put at his/her disposal through the use of various audiovisual displays emitting messages and information in different formats: images, audio recordings, signboards, posters, etc. In order to to convey the gravity of the topic, all the designs were done in black and white.
The way students explained the relevance of N. Wiener's cybernetic theory in explicating why the state controlled media in the Rwandan society pre-genocide was propitious to the genocide is very astute. They observed that the genocide of Tutsis was possible through a privatisation of information by the Hutu government before and during the genocide. The absence of free information was the opposite of the free circulation of information and communication defended by Wiener. This led to an anti-homeostatic situation, thus to entropy which Wieners considered as an absolute evil to be combatted because it is a measure of the degree of disorganisation of any system (society, humans, machines, animals). For N. Wiener, when elements become a system, the whole becomes superior to the sum of the parts. Hence, the individual actors of the massacres relayed by villagers supporting the Hutu cause formed a "system" whose concerted aim was to preserve the Hutu power by destroying the human object of their target: the Tutsis.
The Radio des Milles Collines (RMC) played a major role in orchestrating the massacre of Tutsis. As a vertical and unidirectional media, RMC could not favour free thinking and democracy and thus became a tool for propaganda and manipulation in propagating this hateful ideology through the use of songs, laughter, jokes which rendered banal to its thousands of Hutus listeners, a most heinous crime. All the analysts concord in observing the rise in power of this radio in 1993 and in the months during which the genocide took place. For Wiener, feedback is the action of an element on another which triggers a response from the receiver. The receivers, here tens of thousands of Rwandans that were captivated by this radio emitted a positive feedback to its calls to massacre Tutsis, thereby instigating a retroactive loop of positive feedback by amplifying its message. This showed that students not only understood the subtleties of Wiener's cybernetics theory but also researched further into other theories that shed more light under the sombre functioning of the media in the Rwandan genocide. For instance, whereas they did not encounter this figure in the lecture, the students went out to research the works of Edward Bernays on propaganda and public relations and explained how he had brought the research in psyochanalysis and Gustave Le Bon's work on the psychology of the mob into the field of public relations of which he was a pioneer. Considering that the masses were "irrational and subject to herd instinct—(he) outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desirable ways." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays. Bernays was very successful in applying the theory of consent at a large scale (The Engineering of consent. 1947) and in the marketing of propaganda campaigns.
The image gallery and video below shows some of the exhibits in this project and offers an explanation (in French) of its design.
The exhibit reconstructed the timeline of the genocide, dug up archival images, photos and texts and extracts from the mainstream media which were displayed on the wall to enable visitors to retrace how the genocide took place and its devastating consequences. So in the first level, were confronted with the history of the genocide. The second level featured the analysis and theoretical explanations of how the genocide became possible.
Three laptop computers were placed on the table in front of the signs "Avant" (Before), "Pendant" (During) and "Après" (After) the genocide on which the students had prepared audio recordings analysing what happened. To create the impression of immersion in this universe, students wore on the front of their white T-shirts the sign "Je suis..." (I am) and on the back, one of the names of the theorists whose theory helped explained various aspects of information and communication that played out in this genocide (Wiener, E. Bernays, Palo Alto, Corneille and Radio Mille Collines.). This created a Bauhaus effect because the visitor was entirely surrounded in 360° and plunged into the dramatic universe of this genocide, where he/she can discover and appropriate different historic elements of communication put at his/her disposal through the use of various audiovisual displays emitting messages and information in different formats: images, audio recordings, signboards, posters, etc. In order to to convey the gravity of the topic, all the designs were done in black and white.
The way students explained the relevance of N. Wiener's cybernetic theory in explicating why the state controlled media in the Rwandan society pre-genocide was propitious to the genocide is very astute. They observed that the genocide of Tutsis was possible through a privatisation of information by the Hutu government before and during the genocide. The absence of free information was the opposite of the free circulation of information and communication defended by Wiener. This led to an anti-homeostatic situation, thus to entropy which Wieners considered as an absolute evil to be combatted because it is a measure of the degree of disorganisation of any system (society, humans, machines, animals). For N. Wiener, when elements become a system, the whole becomes superior to the sum of the parts. Hence, the individual actors of the massacres relayed by villagers supporting the Hutu cause formed a "system" whose concerted aim was to preserve the Hutu power by destroying the human object of their target: the Tutsis.
The Radio des Milles Collines (RMC) played a major role in orchestrating the massacre of Tutsis. As a vertical and unidirectional media, RMC could not favour free thinking and democracy and thus became a tool for propaganda and manipulation in propagating this hateful ideology through the use of songs, laughter, jokes which rendered banal to its thousands of Hutus listeners, a most heinous crime. All the analysts concord in observing the rise in power of this radio in 1993 and in the months during which the genocide took place. For Wiener, feedback is the action of an element on another which triggers a response from the receiver. The receivers, here tens of thousands of Rwandans that were captivated by this radio emitted a positive feedback to its calls to massacre Tutsis, thereby instigating a retroactive loop of positive feedback by amplifying its message. This showed that students not only understood the subtleties of Wiener's cybernetics theory but also researched further into other theories that shed more light under the sombre functioning of the media in the Rwandan genocide. For instance, whereas they did not encounter this figure in the lecture, the students went out to research the works of Edward Bernays on propaganda and public relations and explained how he had brought the research in psyochanalysis and Gustave Le Bon's work on the psychology of the mob into the field of public relations of which he was a pioneer. Considering that the masses were "irrational and subject to herd instinct—(he) outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desirable ways." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays. Bernays was very successful in applying the theory of consent at a large scale (The Engineering of consent. 1947) and in the marketing of propaganda campaigns.
The image gallery and video below shows some of the exhibits in this project and offers an explanation (in French) of its design.
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The adventures of Maya or bees' communication explained
This impressive artistic project showcased very beautiful specimens of bees, a beehive in a tree containing entirely designed by the students. Its aim was to explain how bee hives survive through the meaningful exchange of perfectly orchestrated information and communication in order to overcome numerous obstacles and predators. The storyline was constructed around three episodes each illustrating information and communication situations that arise as the bees buzz around to accomplish their daily tasks.
It is constructed around the central character of Maya, a foraging honeybee whose role it is to help the other bees organise their work, find food and defend the queen and the hive from alien and hostile neighbours. To explain how the different information & communication theories operate in this setting, the students explained how Maya communicates with other bees through the prism of Wiener's cybernetic theory: Bees communicate information (where to find food, the presence of danger) to the rest of the community through specific dance patterns (rounds or waggle dance). Bees in the same colony receive and correctly interpret these dances and then act accordingly, sending the necessary feedback that enable the complex system to auto-regulate itself. The hive is perceived as a society seeking to auto-regulate itself via the transmission and reception of messages. Students also referred to systemics theory of Ludwig Von Bertalanffy who inspired Wiener's cybernetics. According to the systemics theory, the self is constructed through interactions with others and isolated acts do not exist because everything is connected, thus reaffirming the circular causality of phenomena. Evoking Shannon's mathematical theory of communication (MTC), the students explained that in such a system, the degree of uncertainty is low and therefore entropy is also reduced because the inhabitants of the hive understand one another through the use of common codes and language. Thus a low degree of entropy while corresponding to a low degree of surprise and of information in Shannon's MTC, is actually a good thing in Wiener's cybernetic theory where a high level of entropy is synonymous with disorganisation, chaos and disintegration of a system. In a second episode, Maya's meeting with bees from a foreign tribe led a situation of non-communication. The students called in Gregory Bateson's theories on interpersonal communication and the resulting Palo Alto's 5 axioms of communication, particularly the axiom that "to communicate is to enter into the orchestra" and employ the same language and be in harmony with the others.
In a third episode, a perilous situation occurs: Maya and the other bees had to defend the hive from an attacking hornet. To explain how the apparently weaker target - the bees and their queen managed to vanquish the powerful attacker (the hornet), the students drew once again from Wiener's cybernetics theory where intelligent systems, when faced with a task, learn from past signals or occurrences (past actions) of their interlocuteur (or rather signals and information emitted by the attacker (the hornet) in order to anticipate the future actions of the latter and learn from his/her mistakes. Through this cybernetic process of self-adaptative system, the bees learnt that hornets cannot bear a body heat above a certain temperature. Hence, by getting into a defensive formation and completely surrounding the attacker, the naturally weaker bees managed to suffocate the hornet and thereby save their queen and their ecosystem. The video below summarises all this in French. Further explanations on this fascinating and scientifically studied bees communication system can be viewed here.
It is constructed around the central character of Maya, a foraging honeybee whose role it is to help the other bees organise their work, find food and defend the queen and the hive from alien and hostile neighbours. To explain how the different information & communication theories operate in this setting, the students explained how Maya communicates with other bees through the prism of Wiener's cybernetic theory: Bees communicate information (where to find food, the presence of danger) to the rest of the community through specific dance patterns (rounds or waggle dance). Bees in the same colony receive and correctly interpret these dances and then act accordingly, sending the necessary feedback that enable the complex system to auto-regulate itself. The hive is perceived as a society seeking to auto-regulate itself via the transmission and reception of messages. Students also referred to systemics theory of Ludwig Von Bertalanffy who inspired Wiener's cybernetics. According to the systemics theory, the self is constructed through interactions with others and isolated acts do not exist because everything is connected, thus reaffirming the circular causality of phenomena. Evoking Shannon's mathematical theory of communication (MTC), the students explained that in such a system, the degree of uncertainty is low and therefore entropy is also reduced because the inhabitants of the hive understand one another through the use of common codes and language. Thus a low degree of entropy while corresponding to a low degree of surprise and of information in Shannon's MTC, is actually a good thing in Wiener's cybernetic theory where a high level of entropy is synonymous with disorganisation, chaos and disintegration of a system. In a second episode, Maya's meeting with bees from a foreign tribe led a situation of non-communication. The students called in Gregory Bateson's theories on interpersonal communication and the resulting Palo Alto's 5 axioms of communication, particularly the axiom that "to communicate is to enter into the orchestra" and employ the same language and be in harmony with the others.
In a third episode, a perilous situation occurs: Maya and the other bees had to defend the hive from an attacking hornet. To explain how the apparently weaker target - the bees and their queen managed to vanquish the powerful attacker (the hornet), the students drew once again from Wiener's cybernetics theory where intelligent systems, when faced with a task, learn from past signals or occurrences (past actions) of their interlocuteur (or rather signals and information emitted by the attacker (the hornet) in order to anticipate the future actions of the latter and learn from his/her mistakes. Through this cybernetic process of self-adaptative system, the bees learnt that hornets cannot bear a body heat above a certain temperature. Hence, by getting into a defensive formation and completely surrounding the attacker, the naturally weaker bees managed to suffocate the hornet and thereby save their queen and their ecosystem. The video below summarises all this in French. Further explanations on this fascinating and scientifically studied bees communication system can be viewed here.
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The myth of Icarus or the dangers of AI and Aristotle's rhetoric
This impressively executed exhibit consisted of two separate works of art, each illustrating one of the information & communication theories the students had learnt about during the theoretical courses. First, one artwork showcased the myth d'Icarus to illustrate the technological armaggedon which Wiener, the father of cybernetics feared may happen if machines took control of humans. In the myth of Icarus, his Father Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth warned his son about the dangers of flying too close to the sun because of its extreme heat as his wings are made of wax and would melt when in contact with the heat of the sun. This would result in his being precipitated into the sea and therefore to his death. The students transposed this myth to showcase the attraction but also the risks inherent in Wiener's cybernetics and the Artificial Intelligence to which it led. Icarus represents humans (in the story, he is symbolically called Homo-Numericus) who are getting ever closer to the sun (here by building intelligent machines). Daedalus is represented by Wiener.
The story was designed as a dialogue between Wiener (Daedalus) and his mythical son Homo Numericus (Icarus). The students set the scene by recalling Wiener's work for the Allied Armies during WWII where he built the machine "Predictor" with Julian Bigelow. This machine was aimed as providing the Allied armies with an anti-air defense system against German bomber planes. This work later paved the way later for the emergence of cybernetics as a discipline. In this imaginary dialogue, Wiener warns his son Homo Numericus who's also fascinated by his father's intelligent machines of their dangers, i.e. of flying too close to the sun (here pushing too far the automation of human intelligence). Fatally, despite his Dad's repeated warnings, Homo Numericus, like Icarus, under the influence of hubris, flew too high and close to the sun with the result that his wings were singed and began to be consumed. The continuous aspect of the burning wings reflects the fact that we do not yet know the end of the story: will humans be controlled by the machines they built or will they be able to control them? The future will tell. To illustrate the different stages of this evolution, a styrofoam carton was used as a base on which students drew different patterns and displayed images of the main characters (Icarus, Wiener, the sun). The carton was made of three levels, each representing a progression of the Artificial Intelligence adventure. The first level features Wiener, his face turned towards the second level while he warns his son, Homo-Numericus of the dangers of his fascinating invention. The bottom of this level features an image of the sea. On the second level, Icarus alias Homo-Numericus is shown flying ever higher towards the third level. At the bottom of this level is an image of an electronic board showing the transition of the society towards a digital world and a more and more advanced AI. On the third and highest level is the sun towards which Homo-Numericus was flying dangerously, this represents intelligent machines. It is for this reason that the students decided to represent the sun as a computer chip and wrote on the sun keywords that reflect the advances of AI such as "transhumanism, GAFA, governementality". At the bottom of the third level is a representation of digital data mapped in the cyberspace.
The second display illustrated how Aristotle's rhetoric can be used to manipulate the masses. The students constructed a display that recreated the Bauhaus effect of being surrounded at 360° by different sources of information. Mounted on a wooden construction, the central figure of Aristotle is surrounded by different information sources such that the receiver can avoid the propaganda effect of one-way unidirectional mass media. Aristotle's figure is surrounded on all sides by different emotions that humans can feel when confronted with a message: joy, fear, anger, sadness, ... This translates the fact that communication is often used to seduce one's audience by playing on different registers of the discourse (Aristotle's pathos, ethos, logo) which in turn engender different emotions. All this is explained in the video below and images of this exhibit can be seen in the photo gallery below.
The story was designed as a dialogue between Wiener (Daedalus) and his mythical son Homo Numericus (Icarus). The students set the scene by recalling Wiener's work for the Allied Armies during WWII where he built the machine "Predictor" with Julian Bigelow. This machine was aimed as providing the Allied armies with an anti-air defense system against German bomber planes. This work later paved the way later for the emergence of cybernetics as a discipline. In this imaginary dialogue, Wiener warns his son Homo Numericus who's also fascinated by his father's intelligent machines of their dangers, i.e. of flying too close to the sun (here pushing too far the automation of human intelligence). Fatally, despite his Dad's repeated warnings, Homo Numericus, like Icarus, under the influence of hubris, flew too high and close to the sun with the result that his wings were singed and began to be consumed. The continuous aspect of the burning wings reflects the fact that we do not yet know the end of the story: will humans be controlled by the machines they built or will they be able to control them? The future will tell. To illustrate the different stages of this evolution, a styrofoam carton was used as a base on which students drew different patterns and displayed images of the main characters (Icarus, Wiener, the sun). The carton was made of three levels, each representing a progression of the Artificial Intelligence adventure. The first level features Wiener, his face turned towards the second level while he warns his son, Homo-Numericus of the dangers of his fascinating invention. The bottom of this level features an image of the sea. On the second level, Icarus alias Homo-Numericus is shown flying ever higher towards the third level. At the bottom of this level is an image of an electronic board showing the transition of the society towards a digital world and a more and more advanced AI. On the third and highest level is the sun towards which Homo-Numericus was flying dangerously, this represents intelligent machines. It is for this reason that the students decided to represent the sun as a computer chip and wrote on the sun keywords that reflect the advances of AI such as "transhumanism, GAFA, governementality". At the bottom of the third level is a representation of digital data mapped in the cyberspace.
The second display illustrated how Aristotle's rhetoric can be used to manipulate the masses. The students constructed a display that recreated the Bauhaus effect of being surrounded at 360° by different sources of information. Mounted on a wooden construction, the central figure of Aristotle is surrounded by different information sources such that the receiver can avoid the propaganda effect of one-way unidirectional mass media. Aristotle's figure is surrounded on all sides by different emotions that humans can feel when confronted with a message: joy, fear, anger, sadness, ... This translates the fact that communication is often used to seduce one's audience by playing on different registers of the discourse (Aristotle's pathos, ethos, logo) which in turn engender different emotions. All this is explained in the video below and images of this exhibit can be seen in the photo gallery below.
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Communication molecules: Palo Alto's 5 axioms of interpersonal communication explained
This exhibit showcased Gregory Bateson and Paul Watzlawick's 5 axioms of interpersonal communication, the two key figures of the Palo Alto school. The 5 axioms were represented a group of molecules surrounding a central atom. For the students, this was an abstract way of representing the fusion of scientists and thinkers that coalesced around the different schools at the origin of communication theories, which is why they entitled their exhibit "Communication molecules: When science meets thought". The central atom, made of a white big ball is surrounded by 5 smaller balls suspended to it, each representing the 5 axioms of the Palo Alto school.
The choice of colours of the central atom and the molecules was not left to chance. The central atom in white represents the colour of hydrogen and the 5 red atoms around it make reference to the colour of oxygen. The red colour of the molecules also reflect the fact that without oxygen, we cannot breathe, just like without blood running in our veins, we cannot live. The white colour of the hydrogen (a colourless gas) ball is also a reminder that hydrogen is a principal component of the sun and without the sun, we also cannot live.
Furthermore, a plastic square piece of paper in black was attached to each molecule on which the students had printed keywords alluding to the 5 communication axioms such as "social conformism", verbal and gestural relation», «non verbal communication», «feedback», «symmetry and complementarity». Using the keywords as clues, visitors were invited to guess to which axiom a given keyword referred. For instance, Palo Alto's axiom that "to communicate is to enter into the orchestra" is reflected here by the keyword «social conformism».
At another level, this exhibit is a metaphor expressing the fact that without communication, we cannot function harmoniously as a society. The video below and photo gallery give more details of this exhibit.
The choice of colours of the central atom and the molecules was not left to chance. The central atom in white represents the colour of hydrogen and the 5 red atoms around it make reference to the colour of oxygen. The red colour of the molecules also reflect the fact that without oxygen, we cannot breathe, just like without blood running in our veins, we cannot live. The white colour of the hydrogen (a colourless gas) ball is also a reminder that hydrogen is a principal component of the sun and without the sun, we also cannot live.
Furthermore, a plastic square piece of paper in black was attached to each molecule on which the students had printed keywords alluding to the 5 communication axioms such as "social conformism", verbal and gestural relation», «non verbal communication», «feedback», «symmetry and complementarity». Using the keywords as clues, visitors were invited to guess to which axiom a given keyword referred. For instance, Palo Alto's axiom that "to communicate is to enter into the orchestra" is reflected here by the keyword «social conformism».
At another level, this exhibit is a metaphor expressing the fact that without communication, we cannot function harmoniously as a society. The video below and photo gallery give more details of this exhibit.
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Doctor consultation scenario explained through Palo Alto's 5 axioms of interpersonal communication
This very beautifully executed consisted of miniature characters set within 5 scenes each depicting the different stages of a doctor consultation. The students used these 5 scenes to portray Palo Alto's 5 axioms of interpersonal communication and the communication problems we can encounter in our daily lives. The characters were based on “trollface” or funny face expressions.
The first scene showcased axiom 1 "One cannot not communicate". In expresses the fact that all behaviour is communication (according to the Palo Alto school), from the way the doctor speaks, his body posture, the tone, facial gestures, everything is interpreted by the other interlocutor and this will punctuate the sequence of future exchanges and determine the nature of their communication and relation.
The second axiom "All communication contains two aspects: the content and the relation" illustrates the fact that in any human communication, the relation and the context determine the outcome more than what is actually said.
The third axiom "The punctuation in a communication determines the relation" further illustrates axiom one by emphasizing the circular nature of human interaction: one type of behaviour elicits a certain response from the receiver or interlocutor and amplifies it such that both are engaged in a circular chain of action-reaction and this ultimately determines the nature of their relation. In this scene, the doctor faces a difficult patient and at each consultation, their interactions amplify the difficult relationship because each blames the other (implicitly) for the inamicable relationship and thus adopts a defensive attitude. Axiom 4 showcased the different modalities of human communication: digital (as in fingers not computer-based) and analog, the two modes co-exist and complement each other. In the scene, the doctor is late and therefore felt guilty. He comes in smiling but without uttering a verbal apology. However his non verbal communication expresses his desire to disarm his patient who was showing signs of irritation and impatience. No words are uttered but the two each communicate their feelings to the other through non verbal communication.
Axiom 5 is used to explain the power dynamics that comes into play in all human relations: communication can either be symmetrical (between interlocutors of equal power) or asymmetrical (between unequal partners where one submits to the other or tempers down his or her response in order to maintain harmony). Here the doctor is in a superior position vis-à-vis his patient over whom he asserts his authority and knowledge who thus has to submit to the doctors diagnosis and recommendations. See video and photo gallery below.
The first scene showcased axiom 1 "One cannot not communicate". In expresses the fact that all behaviour is communication (according to the Palo Alto school), from the way the doctor speaks, his body posture, the tone, facial gestures, everything is interpreted by the other interlocutor and this will punctuate the sequence of future exchanges and determine the nature of their communication and relation.
The second axiom "All communication contains two aspects: the content and the relation" illustrates the fact that in any human communication, the relation and the context determine the outcome more than what is actually said.
The third axiom "The punctuation in a communication determines the relation" further illustrates axiom one by emphasizing the circular nature of human interaction: one type of behaviour elicits a certain response from the receiver or interlocutor and amplifies it such that both are engaged in a circular chain of action-reaction and this ultimately determines the nature of their relation. In this scene, the doctor faces a difficult patient and at each consultation, their interactions amplify the difficult relationship because each blames the other (implicitly) for the inamicable relationship and thus adopts a defensive attitude. Axiom 4 showcased the different modalities of human communication: digital (as in fingers not computer-based) and analog, the two modes co-exist and complement each other. In the scene, the doctor is late and therefore felt guilty. He comes in smiling but without uttering a verbal apology. However his non verbal communication expresses his desire to disarm his patient who was showing signs of irritation and impatience. No words are uttered but the two each communicate their feelings to the other through non verbal communication.
Axiom 5 is used to explain the power dynamics that comes into play in all human relations: communication can either be symmetrical (between interlocutors of equal power) or asymmetrical (between unequal partners where one submits to the other or tempers down his or her response in order to maintain harmony). Here the doctor is in a superior position vis-à-vis his patient over whom he asserts his authority and knowledge who thus has to submit to the doctors diagnosis and recommendations. See video and photo gallery below.
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The photo gallery below show pictures of some of the other arts projects designed by the students in this 2018 winter course.
From cSquares to cStories: Communication in action
We took the draw and write technique a step further by asking the students to construct a story from the collection of cSquares. The aim was to find sets of drawings that shed light on complex communication phenomena in the society. This exercise took place towards the end of the course (second to the last class), hence after the students had received the course content on Theories of Communication in the meantime.
Students were asked to form small groups of 3-4 and to select the cSquares that inspired them to write a story of communication. In 2015, 24 groups were thus formed. During the second the second to the last class, we displayed the whole set of 74 cSquares on tables as exhibits and students viewed them during a two-hour period. They were at liberty to select any number of drawings provided they could find way of articulating a story or a path amongst the selected drawings. Students discussed amongst members of their groups and took snapshots of some cSquares. They were free to ask the instructor any number of questions about the aim of the exercise which they found a bit puzzling at first. Most of the questions focused around:
“what the story should be about, whether it had to about something real or make-believe” (to which I replied that it was to be plausible);
“how many cSquares should they choose?” (to which I systematically responded that it was up to them). The story could portray communication situations that they are aware of in everyday life, either through the media or through personal experience or could exemplify some of the communication theories they had heard of or learned of during the course.
Students then had one week to work on their storyline outside of the class. During the last class, they presented their stories in front of their classmates.. Each group had 10 minutes maximum to stage and tell their story. they could use any type of props and presentation material (powerpoint slides, videos, staging, role plays, etc).
The presentations were not filmed.
The 24 stories constructed from the 74 cSquares collected in 2015 illustrate how students were able to articulate a path among the depictions of communication in order to make convincing statements and narrative about the role of communication in society. For reasons of space, it is not possible to reproduce the entire sets of slides used in the 24 presentations nor to reproduce the stories in their entirety. However, we obtained the written scenarios of the stories which struck us as particularly well articulated, striking or creative. We note that in particular, cSquare 67 proved to be popular since it featured in many of the stories whereas the execution of the drawing is rather tentative, schematic and not particularly striking. This drawing conveyed a popular belief about the social function of communication that captured the imagination of many students. It showed a shepherd holding a staff and using a loudspeaker to call his flock of sheep to attention who then follow him. This is clearly an allegory of the hypodermic syringe or the functionalist-behaviourist theory of the mass media defended by Harold Lasswell (1927) to which Paul Lazarsfeld (1944) brought a nuance by postulating the two-step-flow model of communication which states that people's opinion are more influenced by intermediaries (circles of friends, families, co-workers, opinion leaders). However, later studies by McCombs and Shaw’s on the Agenda setting theory (1972) of the mass media reaffirmed their influence on public opinion. The drawing portrays the unidirectional model of communication as a powerful tool for propaganda and persuasion in the hands of opinion leaders or of the mass media. The flock of sheep here represent the masses who adopt the views of those perceived as opinion leaders rather than form their own.
Underlying this seemingly simple depiction is the psychology of the crowd which has been well studied in behavioural sciences, since the late 19th century (Gustave Le Bon 1895). Fiction and literature have also given us many memorable illustrations. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar famously portrays the very fickle nature of public opinion which was constantly swayed by the last orator.
Below is a translated and abridged version of two of the most remarkable story lines that were presented in our 2015 storytelling activity using this collection of cSquares.
- Instructions and set-up
Students were asked to form small groups of 3-4 and to select the cSquares that inspired them to write a story of communication. In 2015, 24 groups were thus formed. During the second the second to the last class, we displayed the whole set of 74 cSquares on tables as exhibits and students viewed them during a two-hour period. They were at liberty to select any number of drawings provided they could find way of articulating a story or a path amongst the selected drawings. Students discussed amongst members of their groups and took snapshots of some cSquares. They were free to ask the instructor any number of questions about the aim of the exercise which they found a bit puzzling at first. Most of the questions focused around:
“what the story should be about, whether it had to about something real or make-believe” (to which I replied that it was to be plausible);
“how many cSquares should they choose?” (to which I systematically responded that it was up to them). The story could portray communication situations that they are aware of in everyday life, either through the media or through personal experience or could exemplify some of the communication theories they had heard of or learned of during the course.
Students then had one week to work on their storyline outside of the class. During the last class, they presented their stories in front of their classmates.. Each group had 10 minutes maximum to stage and tell their story. they could use any type of props and presentation material (powerpoint slides, videos, staging, role plays, etc).
The presentations were not filmed.
The 24 stories constructed from the 74 cSquares collected in 2015 illustrate how students were able to articulate a path among the depictions of communication in order to make convincing statements and narrative about the role of communication in society. For reasons of space, it is not possible to reproduce the entire sets of slides used in the 24 presentations nor to reproduce the stories in their entirety. However, we obtained the written scenarios of the stories which struck us as particularly well articulated, striking or creative. We note that in particular, cSquare 67 proved to be popular since it featured in many of the stories whereas the execution of the drawing is rather tentative, schematic and not particularly striking. This drawing conveyed a popular belief about the social function of communication that captured the imagination of many students. It showed a shepherd holding a staff and using a loudspeaker to call his flock of sheep to attention who then follow him. This is clearly an allegory of the hypodermic syringe or the functionalist-behaviourist theory of the mass media defended by Harold Lasswell (1927) to which Paul Lazarsfeld (1944) brought a nuance by postulating the two-step-flow model of communication which states that people's opinion are more influenced by intermediaries (circles of friends, families, co-workers, opinion leaders). However, later studies by McCombs and Shaw’s on the Agenda setting theory (1972) of the mass media reaffirmed their influence on public opinion. The drawing portrays the unidirectional model of communication as a powerful tool for propaganda and persuasion in the hands of opinion leaders or of the mass media. The flock of sheep here represent the masses who adopt the views of those perceived as opinion leaders rather than form their own.
Underlying this seemingly simple depiction is the psychology of the crowd which has been well studied in behavioural sciences, since the late 19th century (Gustave Le Bon 1895). Fiction and literature have also given us many memorable illustrations. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar famously portrays the very fickle nature of public opinion which was constantly swayed by the last orator.
Below is a translated and abridged version of two of the most remarkable story lines that were presented in our 2015 storytelling activity using this collection of cSquares.
Communication campaign strategy storyline
This story is set in the planning stages of an international marketing campaign to launch a fictitious product by a team of communication consultants. This story employed six cSquares to highlight the persuasion-influence function of communication (Figure 2 below). Students artfully and insightfully associated the publicity and marketing “behind-the-scenes” discourse with communication theories which best explained the manipulative ideologies therein.
Stage 1 of the campaign entitled “Know your target population” used cSquare 9 to illustrate Harold Lasswell’s hypodermic needle model of mass communication. However, since the explanatory power of Lasswell’s theory on how public opinion formation was somewhat weakened by Paul Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow communication model, the students supplemented it with this second theory to cater for segments of the target audience that are not directly under media exposure but are more likely to be influenced by intermediaries (opinion leaders, friends, colleagues). This justified their recourse to more than one communication strategy and therefore to more than one theory. Students then used cSquare 67 which they labelled the “mass effect” to illustrate their two-stage communication strategy in order to ensure maximum coverage of their target audience. This drawing served to illustrate how certain brands or messages became successful because they had been adopted by celebrities. By analogy, the shepherd in the drawing is the celebrity or the opinion leader influencing his flock of followers. This is totally in line with our earlier interpretation of this drawing.
Stage two of the campaign strategy entitled “Our objectives” consisted in explaining their communication policy and the expected ROI. Three objectives of the campaign were identified: cognitive, affective, conative which are direct references to Roman Jakobson's well-known six functions of language. Under the heading “How to make the product known”, cSquare 32 was used to explain that although communication is a global phenomenon, it needs to be tailored to specific consumers according to local culture (customs, traditions, beliefs, attitudes). Here again, students gave example of successful brands like Mcdonalds and Apple iPhones whose communication strategies were so successful that their products became indispensable and global household names. On the theoretical level, the students predictably invoked Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that the next set of inventions (from the 1980s) will make the world a “global village”. This corroborates our interpretation of this cSquare which we made previously in our thematic analysis before we heard the students’ storyline.
Under the heading “How to push people to consume”, cSquare 69 was used to explain that communication is associated with money (the drawing shows a mouth saying “bla bla bla”, some ICT devices and a bag of money with the $ sign). Again, this statement was backed up theoretically by a reference made to a quotation by from a well-known french communication scholar, Dominique Wolton who said that “Communication is the art of seduction”. Hence, the objective of the communication campaign is to seduce consumers into buying their new product.
Stage three of the campaign focused on "the means of communication" (form of the message, the devices and media employed). cSquare 58 which shows the five senses (face, mouth, lips, eyes, ears, hand) used in human face-to-face communication was used to convey the fact that communication can be verbal and non verbal. This was also stated verbally in the students' script.
The students then tackled the “Question of the intention” (teleology) in which they illustrated the fact that a message sent with a particular intent may be interpreted in a different way. cSquare 68 was chosen to convey this idea. It shows two sets of faces: the sender of a message and a mirror image of that face smiling (as if it was showing the intent and the mind of the sender) and a second face that of the receiver and a mirror of his face unsmiling, which conveyed the idea that the message was not interpreted in the way the sender meant it to be.
The way in which the students interpreted this drawing showed more depth than our own interpretation of the drawing. via the thematic analysis The students obviously understood better the intent of the author of the drawing (could it be that one of them was the author?). Hence, the storytelling activity can deepen the thematic analysis done by the looking at the drawings in isolation. As examples of how the purpose of a message can be misinterpreted by the target audience, the students cited the case of Benetton brand which specialises in outrageous publicity campaigns that often ended up having a negative effect than the positive one the company had expected.
Stage 1 of the campaign entitled “Know your target population” used cSquare 9 to illustrate Harold Lasswell’s hypodermic needle model of mass communication. However, since the explanatory power of Lasswell’s theory on how public opinion formation was somewhat weakened by Paul Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow communication model, the students supplemented it with this second theory to cater for segments of the target audience that are not directly under media exposure but are more likely to be influenced by intermediaries (opinion leaders, friends, colleagues). This justified their recourse to more than one communication strategy and therefore to more than one theory. Students then used cSquare 67 which they labelled the “mass effect” to illustrate their two-stage communication strategy in order to ensure maximum coverage of their target audience. This drawing served to illustrate how certain brands or messages became successful because they had been adopted by celebrities. By analogy, the shepherd in the drawing is the celebrity or the opinion leader influencing his flock of followers. This is totally in line with our earlier interpretation of this drawing.
Stage two of the campaign strategy entitled “Our objectives” consisted in explaining their communication policy and the expected ROI. Three objectives of the campaign were identified: cognitive, affective, conative which are direct references to Roman Jakobson's well-known six functions of language. Under the heading “How to make the product known”, cSquare 32 was used to explain that although communication is a global phenomenon, it needs to be tailored to specific consumers according to local culture (customs, traditions, beliefs, attitudes). Here again, students gave example of successful brands like Mcdonalds and Apple iPhones whose communication strategies were so successful that their products became indispensable and global household names. On the theoretical level, the students predictably invoked Marshall McLuhan’s prediction that the next set of inventions (from the 1980s) will make the world a “global village”. This corroborates our interpretation of this cSquare which we made previously in our thematic analysis before we heard the students’ storyline.
Under the heading “How to push people to consume”, cSquare 69 was used to explain that communication is associated with money (the drawing shows a mouth saying “bla bla bla”, some ICT devices and a bag of money with the $ sign). Again, this statement was backed up theoretically by a reference made to a quotation by from a well-known french communication scholar, Dominique Wolton who said that “Communication is the art of seduction”. Hence, the objective of the communication campaign is to seduce consumers into buying their new product.
Stage three of the campaign focused on "the means of communication" (form of the message, the devices and media employed). cSquare 58 which shows the five senses (face, mouth, lips, eyes, ears, hand) used in human face-to-face communication was used to convey the fact that communication can be verbal and non verbal. This was also stated verbally in the students' script.
The students then tackled the “Question of the intention” (teleology) in which they illustrated the fact that a message sent with a particular intent may be interpreted in a different way. cSquare 68 was chosen to convey this idea. It shows two sets of faces: the sender of a message and a mirror image of that face smiling (as if it was showing the intent and the mind of the sender) and a second face that of the receiver and a mirror of his face unsmiling, which conveyed the idea that the message was not interpreted in the way the sender meant it to be.
The way in which the students interpreted this drawing showed more depth than our own interpretation of the drawing. via the thematic analysis The students obviously understood better the intent of the author of the drawing (could it be that one of them was the author?). Hence, the storytelling activity can deepen the thematic analysis done by the looking at the drawings in isolation. As examples of how the purpose of a message can be misinterpreted by the target audience, the students cited the case of Benetton brand which specialises in outrageous publicity campaigns that often ended up having a negative effect than the positive one the company had expected.
“The question of feedback” was tackled in the fifth stage. The students correctly analysed its strategic importance in view of the empowering capabilities of web 2.0 technologies which make customers’ voices more audible and powerful. Companies, brands and reputations can be destroyed in minutes by a bad buzz. The students correctly analysed that feedback can be a positive thing in that it can enable an organisation to adjust its message but it can also be negative in the case of bad buzz. The theoretical justification of the importance of feedback in communication is of course Wiener’s cybernetics model which showed that in any system (human, animal or machine) the components of that system are in interaction with one another and their actions are auto-regulated by feedback received from their environment. Wiener defined two types of feedback: positive which accentuates the phenomenon and negative which diminishes the effect expected. cSquare 60 was chosen to illustrate the cybernetic and circular model of communication. Once again, students illustrated the consequences of a negative feedback by citing the case of IKEA who had removed all feminine presence in one of its catalogue destined to Saudi Arabia thereby generating a negative feedback from viewers in the western world.
The story then concluded by recalling three ingredients that are fundamental to a successful communication campaign: choosing one’s target, defining one’s objectives and choosing the adequate means to get the message across as effectively as possible. |
Communication religion satire
The second story is a satire about the power of communication cast as an all powerful religion against a backdrop of Greek mythology. The three students forming this group actually acted this play out in front of their peers. Given its allegorical nature, a summary of the script will lose the essence of the satire. The full translation of this satire is offered below with some of my comments in brown and in curly brackets.
Aside from the six drawings chosen from the collection of cSquares (Figure 3 below), the students added other colourful and striking illustrations culled from the Internet.
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Introduction
Since the 20th century, we witness the birth and the lightning ascension of a new religion: Communication. Known since a long time, it has hoisted itself up by dint of information and media to penetrate our beliefs, hopes and lives.
I. Polytheism
a) Deification of means of communication
On Data-Olympus, all is networks and Google, the Zeus of Internet reigns supreme, surrounded by his brothers Apple (Poseidon) and TOR (Hades), his wife Facebook (Hera), his children WOW (Ares), Youtube (Appollo), Instagram (Aphrodite), Twitter (Artemis), Tinder (Hephaestus)! And let’s not forget his faithful Gmail (Hermes) and the rest of the pantheon!
Our gods have led us to the peak of cybernetics! We communicate with machines and by machines. We love them, we cherish them, we sacrifice our time, our data, our lives to them. We can no longer live without them, and for most of us, we cannot imagine life away from their bosom.
{Students used the image in illustration 1 probably culled from the Internet to illustrate this textual sequence. The apt choice of different Greek gods to represent web technologies and platforms shows the students' knowledge the Greek mythology. Hermes as we know is the messenger god. Some of the students in this group had majored in history and archeology before coming to do the Masters in Communication and Media, thus showing how they tapped into their prior intellectual baggage to reinterpret communication theories and phenomena.}.
Aside from the six drawings chosen from the collection of cSquares (Figure 3 below), the students added other colourful and striking illustrations culled from the Internet.
.
Introduction
Since the 20th century, we witness the birth and the lightning ascension of a new religion: Communication. Known since a long time, it has hoisted itself up by dint of information and media to penetrate our beliefs, hopes and lives.
I. Polytheism
a) Deification of means of communication
On Data-Olympus, all is networks and Google, the Zeus of Internet reigns supreme, surrounded by his brothers Apple (Poseidon) and TOR (Hades), his wife Facebook (Hera), his children WOW (Ares), Youtube (Appollo), Instagram (Aphrodite), Twitter (Artemis), Tinder (Hephaestus)! And let’s not forget his faithful Gmail (Hermes) and the rest of the pantheon!
Our gods have led us to the peak of cybernetics! We communicate with machines and by machines. We love them, we cherish them, we sacrifice our time, our data, our lives to them. We can no longer live without them, and for most of us, we cannot imagine life away from their bosom.
{Students used the image in illustration 1 probably culled from the Internet to illustrate this textual sequence. The apt choice of different Greek gods to represent web technologies and platforms shows the students' knowledge the Greek mythology. Hermes as we know is the messenger god. Some of the students in this group had majored in history and archeology before coming to do the Masters in Communication and Media, thus showing how they tapped into their prior intellectual baggage to reinterpret communication theories and phenomena.}.
b) Divine informative pollution
Our modern society is in the grips of divine pollution! The gods are so present that they have invaded our dear vital space, our ecosystem. We are no longer in the information village – as McLuhan might have said – but well on planet information. We have erected many monuments to our gods at the expense of our own lives and behold, our adoration is eating away at us. We live, eat and breathe for our gods, but will they save us? II. Monotheist a) The information crusade Since a certain amount of time, the gods have reunified in order to form but one, the unique InfoCom God. For his love, we turned ourselves into a flock of sheep following his priests, priestesses or his most fervent disciples blindly. We call them journalists, communicators, or simply opinion relays. We are waging a crusade against the slowness of transfer and the lack of information and communication. New Bernard de Clairvaux [1] are leading us, but will they lead us to our destruction during this second crusade? b) The informative reform Our crusades drive us more and more into illumination and informational and communicational extremism! Our priests preach to us thus:
[2] A latin expression for «Step back Satan». See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vade_retro_satana [3] The act of killing a god. {This whole sequence once again shows the students level of erudition and knowledge of ancient history and mythologies}. But voices are raised today, advocating the return to the true belief (knowing how to read). The reform is on, rallying many men and women in the worthy calvinist tradition that demands a return to the origins: to a more organised and structured world. Religious obscurantism is being transformed and phased out. {Illustration 4 which is again captioned "Monotheism II" and "informative reform" has as bubble speech the following monologue by the Info-Com Lord: Have humans not yet finished their foolishness? I'm on strike since the season 1 of Secret Story anyway!"}. III. Animism a) Return to the human But let’s go back to basics, we all know this credo of the Palo Alto school “we cannot not communicate”. Yes, all is communication, but it comes first from us! Our body emits and receives information. We have to be aware that our communication towards others is also sensory. It is what makes communication more meaningful and different from simple contact. Think about it: try to remember all the people you spoke to. With how many did you have meaningful communication? {This sequence is illustrated by the image entitled "Humanism III" in illustration 5.} b) Union of information, communication to the world We all need to find ourselves and to share more concrete link that is less virtual and turned towards reality. We do not need God Google and co. We do not need infocom, the unique God. We are the divine communicator, the divine informing, the divine mediatic! We do not need external gods. We are everything and everything is us! We are God! The ancient gods must fall. We shall not sacrifice ourselves anymore for them. We must subjugate them and use them for ourselves and for others like us: for our earth. {To illustrate this sequence, the students used the same title of "Humanism III" in illustration 6 but with a different image in which we witness the triumphal return of true communication, that which is between humans, not mediated by computers nor supplanted by softwares that tell us what to do or think. The all-powerful Google is finally vanquished and put in a cage (or is it a cart?).} Conclusion We are thus living in a world invaded by information but also by noise where we only swear by ICTs. In this world where mail has replaced letter, selfies postal cards, there is still hope because on the Internet, sharing resists capitalism as Jeremy Rifkin explained. But we are offering ourselves to social media for which we become “consumer-producer” and we spend time there. By the way, the American magazine “Time” offers a tool on the Internet allowing us to estimate the time lost on Facebook. As an example is worth a thousand words, since 14th april 2008, I have lost 158 days of my life on Facebook. And you? The END |