Postphenomenology and Media

We live in a "mediatized" world where media and technology are changing what it means to be human and how we refer to our environment. "Media" used to be relatively well-defined: books, newspapers, radio, television, ...Now they aren't anymore: they have become increasingly complex, diverse, ubiquit [...]
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We live in a "mediatized" world where media and technology are changing what it means to be human and how we refer to our environment. "Media" used to be relatively well-defined: books, newspapers, radio, television, ...Now they aren't anymore: they have become increasingly complex, diverse, ubiquitous, enmeshed with our daily lives, invisible, transparent, "seamless" and interactive-all with the shift from analog to digital. Where are media? Everywhere. What are media? We're not quite sure. Postphenomenology and Media: Essays on Human-Media-World Relations wants to shed light on this situation, on how new, digital media are affecting and shaping humans and their world. It does so by offering for the first time the postphenomenological framework for a dedicated, comprehensive study of "human-media relations." The postphenomenological toolbox holds many conceptual instruments that can be used to analyze these relations in a fresh, innovative way, such as the transparency vs. opacity distinction, embodiment, multistability, variational analysis, cultural hermeneutics and more, to contribute to new understandings of contemporary media and their evolution.After a preface by postphenomenology founder Don Ihde, the book moves into an introductory chapter by the volume's editors Yoni Van Den Eede, Stacey O. Irwin, and Galit Wellner, which outlines central issues of media and mediation theory that can be explored postphenomenologically. Next, the collection showcases research at the cutting edge of philosophy of media and technology over the course of twelve chapters in three distinct sections: Exploring Media Environments with Postphenomenology, Postphenomenologically Investigating Media Cases and Shaping Postphenomenological Media Theory. Each section's contribution enlarges the range of thinking about human-media-world relations in contemporary society, reflecting the interdisciplinary range of this school of thought, and the chapters explore, sometimes self-reflexively and sometimes critically, the provocative landscape of postphenomenology and media. Aided by upbeat examples such as Augmented Reality, GoPro cameras and Artificial Intelligence, authors examine and expand both the postphenomenological framework and the understanding of media, supplementing it with new approaches or perspectives, as ignited by thinking on media.