Table of Contents for Communicology
Synopsis
Communication is seen as a tissue composed of individual memories and forming a collective memory by exchanging symbols. Human relations are in a crisis because all dialogues are dominated by omnipresent discourse. The synchronization of the irradiation of stereotypical information, together with small talk about it, is an aspect of our crisis. Mass culture, now turned universal, degrades the sophisticated technical images into an archaic small talk, and it is programmed to do so. If we are to understand our crisis, to understand how and why humanity is being programmed for passive reception, we must make an effort to decipher the technical images that program us. We are not suitably programmed for the situation we are in, and this is an aspect of our crisis.
1.What Is Communication?
First the author establishes what he means by "communication" in the introductory section of the chapter. He defines human communication as an artificial, unnatural process, thereby belonging to the field of the humanities as opposed to the natural sciences. He follows this by outlining what he sees as the six main communicational structures divided into two groups: discourse and dialogue. Under discourse: theatre, pyramid, tree and amphitheater. Under dialogue: circle and network. He then goes on to examine how these six structures work by comparing theater and circle, pyramid and tree, amphitheater and network. The last section of the chapter is dedicated to examining some characteristic media that represent the previous structures: books, manuscripts and technical images.
2.What Are Codes?
In this chapter the author follows an analysis of how human communicational codes emerged, first images, then the alphabet, then technical images. This is done through a series of examples where he uses graphic images to illustrate his ideas. First, he discusses what he identifies as the three main phases: pre-alphabet, alphabet, and post-alphabet. The last section of the chapter is focused on an analysis of how these codes function: images, texts, technical images. Then how these codes become synchronized through a series of relational situations: traditional image vs. text, traditional image vs. technical image, and text vs. technical image.
3.What is Technical Imagination?
This chapter focuses on the main thesis of this book, which is the emergence of technical imagination due to the emergence of technical images. It starts by analyzing some types of technical images: photographs, films, video, television, and the cinema. It follows with an analysis of how these images might work from an epistemological perspective. The final section is dedicated to analyzing the emerging contemporary situation as a result of the emergence of technical images and technical imagination, together with a warning of how they may affect human socio-political reality.