Before our next class, post a comment to this blog entry of at least 250 words summarizing your reading and today’s discussion of Kittler’s “Gramophone Film Typewriter.” Focus on the phrases and key terms that I pointed out during our discussion.
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Described as the âDerrida of the age,â Kittler shines light on the media, in his article âGramophone, Film, Typewriter.â He states that institutions, such as big corporations (ex: Apple) contributes a ton to the discourse that is allowed on these platforms of media. In the 21st Century, media has become apart of everyoneâs lives, and is used as a record to keep track of the history of things occurring. It was stated in class that âbefore we even consider writing a message or a communication, the situation, the âlived experienceâ is already determined by these technologies.â This can be because we are cyborgs, we are living with the infiltration of technology specifically the media, from the news channel we watch, to the Instagram app that we post pictures on. Kettler speaks about the advances of technological developments, and that not one single individual can contribute to it, but a mass of individuals. This can be applied to our world today in the context of our politics. The changes in the law, and the systems of the disciplined laws cannot be enforced or even put into action without the contribution of the three systems, judicial, executive and legislative. For any advances in the laws to happen, there needs to be a collective unity; rather than one democratic and one republican proposing their ideas and expecting action. With technology, advances can only occur is there is market forces, social changes and a unity among individuals geared towards assisting the evolution of technology.
Friedrich Kittler was a literary scholar and media theorist was also sometimes called âDerrida of digital age.â According to Jeffries, a writer for âThe Guardianâ, Kittler once said during an interview, âThe development of the internet has more to do with human beings becoming a reflection of their technologies ⊠after all, it is we who adapt to the machine. The machine does not adapt to us.” (Jeffries, 2011). Unlike McLuhan, Kittler believed that the media determines our situation, how our lived experiences are already determined by technologies. He also believed that even during war, whoever had the best technology would have the advantage in winning, like how the British were able to defeat Germany with the development of their aircraft technology. Kittler also taught the role of importance of media in discourse, how all media should be considered equally when studying discourse. In his book âDiscourse Networks 1800/1900â, he defined discourse network as ânetworks of technologies and institutions that allow a given culture to select, store, and process relevant data.â Kittler strongly believed that the evolution of media is a complex process by the logic of escalation, through competition, technological innovation, and market forces. As technology changes over time, so do humans who create technology.
Friedrich Kittler, originally from Germany, was a media theorist and philosopher. He wrote âGramophone, Film, Typewriter,â from which we read and discussed an excerpt. Writing about the emergent technologies of the late 19th century, Kittler analyzes the new media of that time and the impact that those new media had on humans. The gramophone, or record player, revolutionized how we listened to content; film, or moving pictures, revolutionized how we absorbed entertainment and information, and the typewriter revolutionized how we were able to write.
Kittler is saying that all of these new media are part of a âlogic of escalationâ. That is, the evolution of new media is determined by various factors such as competition, consumerism, capitalism, and innovation; they are not spurred by individual agency. In other words, itâs above our heads and we are not in control of these technologies, as much as weâd like to believe that we are. Whereas Bruce Mazlish believed that we co-evolved with technology, essentially making us equal with technology, Kittler believes we are subservient to technology. With regard to many of the writers previously discussed, they strove to convince society that humans were not above technology, but rather were either continuous with it, or an extension of it. Kittler instead says that we are beneath technology in that we have no agency over it, and moreover, our lived experience is already determined by technology before we even begin to use it (âmedia determine our situationâ). Haraway also believed that we couldnât control many things in the technology age, but felt we might take back some control by working together; Kittler instead says we do not have the ability to take any control over technology, as we are merely technologyâs subjects. He wrote, âIt is we who adapt to the machine; the machine does not adapt to us.â To that end, we discussed as a modern example social media and the fact that this medium allows for lots of sharing- stories, photos, memes, etc. So, in response, we began sharing (a lot), a behavior we had not engaged in before as such. The technology dictated our behavior in that sense, proving Kittlerâs point.
With regard to the logic of escalation, Kittler was especially fascinated by military innovation. This view was doubtless informed by his experiences being born into wartime Germany and witnessing the bombing of Dresden. He believed that war was no longer about jingoistic ideologies or homelands, but rather by whose technology is superior. Technology certainly played a large part in WWII when Alan Turing was able to break the code of the Germansâ enigma machine, developing what would be the precursor to the computer.
Like Derrida, Kittler wanted to develop a discourse on the topic of new media. Unlike Michel Foucault, who focused on written works, Kittler realized all of this emergent media was conducive for discourse and described these as discourse networks. A discourse network, or Aufschreibesysteme in German, is a ânetwork of technology and institutions that allow a culture to select, store and process relevant dataâ. Kittler was an interdisciplinary thinker who delved deeply into physics, engineering, optics and fiber-optic cables. I believe itâs this linear/scientific mindset that largely informed his perspective that humans simply reflect our technologies, and are not equal to–much less in control of–them.
âGramophone, Film, Typewriter,â by Friedrich Kittler contenting the influence of new media on the human. The gramophone as revolutionized human’s senses. It involves how we produce films by moving different kinds of pictures, how we refine our information based on the media. He informs which media is predominant on the part of the discourse. Media determines our situation; media defines how and what the discourse recorded Kittler mentioned the discourse network, which is the network combines with technologies and infrastructures that enable by providing the culture ability to select stores and process correlated data. Kittler indicates that technologies could transform how its form and our humanity is on a continuum. The evolution of media by is formed by the logic of escalation, Kittler was interested in military inventions. The logic of escalation fragmented by the technology development driven by innovation, competitions, and complex processes. War takes place where has the best technology; Kittler informs which the tendency between wars would depend on the best available technology. Kittler wants to implement discourse on the media; he realizes the importance of media. Similar to Marshall McLuhan, “we shape our tools, and then our tools shape us,” technology has formed the correspondence among the evolution. Therefore, technology requires human to move forward and human needs technology to make enhancements.
Friedrich Kittler was literary scholar and a media theorist. In his writing âGramophone Film Typewriterâ he discusses how important media is to us. Media determines our situation because it is through media is how we get all of our news and information about world events. It is because of this that media has been a huge part of discourse with many people questioning different kinds of sources in their arguments. Kittler says that all media should be equally considered in discourse. He means that one piece of information should not be held higher that another piece of information. What he says is true because if youâre in a discussion or conversation with some one you should always take into account all the pieces of information presented fairly so you can have a better understanding about the topic at hand.
In our in-class discussion we read Kittlerâs obituary. We read about Kittlerâs discourse network, the ability for people to store and process data. This helps with the logic of escalation, the process of technology development driven by technological market forces competition. You can also argue that this is because of capitalism and this is only used to make profit. An example was given in class about how Facebook can keep people connected and because of that Facebook rolled in a lot of money, because of this google tried to get in on the connection business with google plus but it ultimately turned out to be a colossal failure .
In âGramophone, Film, and Typewriterâ by Friedrich Kittler, he talks about how we as human beings are adapting to new technology and not the other way around. As new technology emerges, we quickly try to adapt and understand how it works. Aside from that, he also talks about how media has become an important topic of discourse. Media has and still plays a big role today, especially in politics. Media no longer includes TV, or a newspaper. It now includes social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. where we can now get our news without having to buy a newspaper. These types of media collect and store all of our information. They shape society and determine our situation. Something that was discussed in class was Kittlerâs definition of a discourse network. Kittlerâs definition of a discourse network is as follows, “The network of technologies and institutions that allow a given culture to select, store, and process relevant data.” Big corporations and professional organizations contribute to the discourse. These organizations and corporations are developing these platforms of social media where instead of questioning it, we go along with it and make it part of our lives. They choose what this new technology will do and what will get recorded and stored and we have no say in it. We should be in control of this new technology and instead its the other way around.
Friedrich Kittler was an author and literary theorist. One of his most famous works, âGramophone, Film, and Typewriterâ was published in 1999 and it describes how we as a society have tried to keep up with technology and adapt to it. He stated that digitalization of information and channels has abolished selective media and the thought of each media broadcasting content that they only have access to, hearing and seeing becomes the only way we interact with these technologies. Kittler believed that all media is important because of how it places us in a situation, in the 21st-century social media has become apart of what and how discourse is being conducted; we have grown to the idea of broadcasting anything and creating a place for it in history. For example, Facebook has a live stream feature called facebook live where people can see what you are doing in real time they also have a feature called Facebook memory where they show you what you posted on that day or who you interacted with on that day. This feature has become the logic of escalation since the addition of youtube, the way big companies have promoted their products; by promoting their feature as the next big thing which is to broadcast yourself. Kittler also believed that “writing only stores writing”, there is two sides to that statement. In the literal sense, writing only stores writing, but writing also stores history, and it serves a medium of communication in today’s world despite the advancements in social media and technology.
Friedrich Adolf Kittler is a German media scholar. His work, alongside Siegfried Zelinski’s, is thought to be among the center writings of media. His book âGramophone Film Typewriterâ is rich in its extension and intertextuality, its effective in using a couple of words to get the job done. Kittler’s basic recommendation is that media does not just impact our idea; rather, they are our idea. Media is innovation from the earliest of all reasoning. It is not that the film copies our oblivious, however, that our oblivious impersonates film. As Kittler recommends, differential conditions can be fathoms in either course.
Language is an infection that struck the man, it is the primary media that formed our ideas. With the major mechanical correspondence transformation, the gramophone, film and the separated sound, picture and language (voice and dialect is symbolism of his internal soul, the German Romanticist character Kittler investigates), and human brain research was cut. The gramophone bids to the genuine, capacities as a simple portrayal of the voice, and keeps up the voice of the dead (the shout of the diminishing over radio). The film works as the fanciful, catching not light waves but rather the impact of light waves, and imitating our deceptive doppelganger before our eyes at a speed too quick to catch contrast.
Kittler is genuinely unconcerned with customary “authentic” strategy. He flips forward and backward through time, neglecting ordinary chains of occasions or evident clarifications for societal movements. He uses stories and papers to open how media are spoken to and the forces conceivably credited to them.
Friedrich A. Kittler used interdisciplinary research in his works that used media, technological and military aspects. As a literary scholar and media theorist, Kittler wrote âGramophone, Film, Typewriterâ. Before reading this work, I researched each item.
A gramophone is similar to a phonograph. This was used for recording and replaying sound. A film is a motion picture in which a series of still images make the figment of moving pictures.A typewriter is used for writing. It is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for writing characters. With these definitions, understanding Kittlerâs message became easier. Each item mentioned has been used to convert a message or a concept. Kittler uses theories by Foucault, Lacan, and McLuhan. His book explains the significances of new media advances. Kittler provides a method in which how one should decide when they should use the technology. An individual should avoid changing themselves when using technology. Users should adopt the new innovation to fit personal needs. Living in a digital age, people today should learn to be the drivers in which the digital tools are a car. Currently, myriad people utilize a sharing technology. This can include devices such as the use of social media. Social media or networking has changed the way we represent ourselves in the breach of our privacy on the internet.Our daily lives, therefore, are on display for the public to see.
In addition, Kittler brings to life technology userâs fears of being overtaken by advance innovations. Kittlerâs ideas represented the idea that machinery will not hurt us completely. Innovations should only just change minor factions of one’s daily life. It should make life easier. However, with time, our brains will become accustomed to needing the newest technology. Professor Ellis included an example of Appleâs introduction of new products every six months. Kittler observes this action as a recurring transformation.
Ultimately, technology has replaced the way one views the world and how one will interact in life. McLuhanâs work âMedium is the Messageâ comes to mind when I read Kittlerâs work. Kittlerâs medium of the world was the media. Growing up during the battle of machines with Germany and Britain, Kittler understood how media and weaponry advances influenced warfare. He views technological advances as they influenced events around him. It is clear to understand why Kittler used interdisciplinary research in this work to bring forth discourse.
Jessica L. Roman
ENG 1710
March 20, 2018
Friedrich Kittler was a literary scholar and media theorist from Saxony, Germany. He was an interdisciplinary thinker who also pursued interest in physics, engineering and computer coding. In his obituary, it is argued that his interdisciplinarity provided him a more in-depth knowledge of media and their technologies. While both McLuhan and Kittler aim to inform the reader of the ways media and technology changes us, their stances differ. While McLuhan suggested that we only need to be wary of the affects our media have on us Kittlerâs stance is more rigid, Kittler holds that we are mistaken to believe that we have any agency over the changes that occur within us and society. Much like the last few writers, I would guess our pride and humanistic views have some play in this. Kittler contends that media determines our situation. In class, this was brought up in terms of special media such as Facebook. Facebook is a technology built on sharing; in turn, sharing or oversharing has become part of our situation. According to Killer in this, we are like mere cattle that make our way from one media pasture to the next blindly.
The idea that we change without thought and control to our media and technology reminds me of a Science Fiction short, âThe Machine Stopsâ by E.M. Forster. Forsterâs story was a cautionary tale against Whig interpretations of history that believe our progress can only be positive and all advancements are for the good of humanity. In his story, humankind have truly become subservient to our technology, in fact it is practically a religion. When the technology that we became so dependent on humanity could not go on without it and perished. A similar story more may be familiar with is Disney Pixarâs âWALL-Eâ where all human interaction is more like media than an actual tangible experience.
Also presented in Kittler work is the logic of escalation and discourse networks. The position of the logic of escalation hold that the emergence of new media is a result of things like consumerism and market forces and not the individual person. The logic of escalation does not mean technology escalates itself. Closely tied to this is and a way to study this if through discourse networks related to the technology. A discourse network is a network our technology and the institutions in our society that enable us to select and store what is deemed relevant information. Lastly, Kittler believes that all modalities of media are equally valid and one should not be preference over another, as the modalities that become commonplace in our society will be used in our discourse.
TO: Professor Dr. Jason W. Ellis
FROM: Ronald C. Hinds
DATE: March 20, 2018
SUBJECT: Gramophone, Film, Typewriter
Friedrich Adolf Kittler, a German post-structuralist, literary scholar and media theorist, focuses on all media. He saw us not as masters of our technological domain but âits pawns.â Kittler was one of the very first German philosophers to appreciate the work of the post structuralist thinker, Jacques Lacan. Lacanâs ideas had a significant impact on post-structuralism, critical theory, linguistics, 20th-century French philosophy, film theory, and clinical psychoanalysis. Post-structuralism, among many definitions, holds that there are many truths, that frameworks must bleed, and that structures must become unstable or decentered; displaced from a central position. Ted Chiangâs, novella, âTruth of Fact, the truth of Feeling,â points out in a vivid way the âtruthâ about truths.
The Guardian of October 21, 2011, mentions in a âFriedrich Kittler obituary,â that Kittler argued in his book, âGramophone, Film, Typewriter,â that those âearly and seemingly harmless machines capable of storing and therefore separating sounds, sights and writing ushered in a technologizing of information.â Kittler writes that media determines our situation because the media defines what and how discourse is recorded. The media determines what is important.
Where Marshall McLuhan, the communications theorist, sees the media as an extension of man, and that the contents of all media are always other media, Kittler sees man as an extension of media. Kittler says that media are not âpseudopods for extending the human body.â A pseudopod is an extension or projection from something. Kittler speaks about the evolution of media being determined by the âlogic of escalation.â Kittlerâs point of view regarding the logic of escalation can be seen through the prism of the technology that changed the nature of the Second World War: “It has become clear that real wars are fought not for people or fatherlands, but take place between different media, information technologies, data flows.” Bletchley Park (or B.P.) was the central site for British (and subsequently, allied) code breakers during World War II. It housed the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS), which regularly penetrated the secret communications of Hitlerism, and Nazism, and German forces. According to the official historians, the secret work done at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two to four years and that without it the outcome of the war might have been uncertain.
Kittler, among other adjectives, is a Derridian. Kittlerâs media theory owes a debt to Derridaâs deconstruction. Jacques Derrida, a French philosopher, introduced in the second half of the 20th century the concept of deconstruction. Deconstruction has at least two aspects: literary and philosophical. The literary aspect concerns the textual, where invention is essential to finding hidden alternative meanings in the text. Kittler was the first to invite Derrida to lectures in Germany and to translate Derridaâs text to German. Kittler also mused that machines will exterminate us and not vice versa.
On a lighter note, Marshall McLuhan was called the high priest of popular culture and in this vein he pays homage to the Beatles, whom he sees as conveyors, through their music, and movies e.g. âHard Dayâs Nightâ of the everymanâs daily discourse. In this way the Beatles had a human touch. Unlike some of their contemporaries, such as âGerry and the Pacemakers,â the âFab Fourâ sang about not just the Liverpool experience, but took us to the far corners of the world as well as out into the great beyond. They even plumbed the strange depths of inner space. In the âYellow submarineâ the Beatles were less parochial. One music writer, in assessing the enduring world wide appeal of the Beatles, said of them, âThey were simple without being simplistic and sophisticated without being obscure.â
Kittler, on the other hand, was not shy about his fondness of Pink Floyd. He sees in âBrain Damageâ from the album âthe Dark Side of the Moonâ a Derridian deconstruction-like line, âThereâs someone in my head but itâs not me.â In its lyrics Kittler sees examples of mono, loudspeakers and surround sound and these examples hearken back to his Gramophone, Film, and Typewriter spiel.
References
Jeffries, S. (2011). Friedrich Kittler obituary: Philosopher and media theorist known as the âDerrida of the digital age.â The Guardian. Late ed. Downloaded on 15 March, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/21/friedrich-kittler. Downloaded on 15 March, 2018.
Kittler F., von MĂŒcke, D., Similon, P.L. (1987). Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. October. Vol. 41 pp. 101-118.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/778332. Downloaded on 15 March, 2018.
Keywords: Discourse analysis, logic of escalation, pseudopods, post-structuralist
Friedrich A. Kittler was born June 12th, 1943 and passed away on October 18th, 2011. Littler was born in Rochlitz, Saxony until his family fled to West Germany in 1958. Littler received his doctorateâs in philosophy. He spent brief stints as a Visiting(Assistant) Professor at the Universities of California, Santa Barbara, Stanford and California, Berkley. Kittlerâs written many pieces but none as prevalent to our class than âGramophone, Film, Typewriterâ. Littler posits that we have no true control over the medias we use, but, in fact, it controls us. When companies market their products, they feed us this message that weâre in control of the product. All of the medias is Kittlerâs title were created with a specific use: the gramophone for listening to music, film to watch movies, and the typewriter to write. These technologies are not malleable to serve other purposes and we have to adapt to them, or else they are useless to us. So this idea that we have control over these medias and technologies is just utterly false. The medias and technologies control us whether it be how we act, what we say, how we say it, what we see, how we see it and most importantly what we think. An important quote is written by Goethe, who says âLiterature is the fragment of fragments; the least of what had happened and of what had been spoken was written down; of what had been written down, only the smallest fraction was preserved.â This lends itself to the point by illustrating that no matter the medium, the message is never the entire truth. The medium does determine the message and how we process and form our thoughts, opinions and, in turn, our actions. By fully giving these medias and technologies absolute influence on us is such a dangerous thing to do. We become subservient to it, devoid of will. In essence, we lose ourselves to technology, something not too far off from the people who believe that weâll be overtaken by said technology in the future.
vIn todayâs class we talked about Fredrich Kittler and his writing titles, âGramophone Film Typewriterâ. Kittler was a very ambitious writer and was recognized for his work at Yale University as well as Columbia University in New York. Kittler has his own opinion on media theory and on new media. In his writing he points out that it was not that the machines will exterminate us, it will be the other way around. He addresses that population that we are deluded to consider ourselves masters of our technologies domain. In class we discussed, logic of escalation, which in this case is something that we see evert six weeks in example to modern technologies that would be apple phones that are constantly changing and being âimprovedâ. This example is capitalism and consumers purposely drive this. As mentioned, âmedia determines our situationsâ the meaning behind this phrase is that before people consider writing in communication or new media their situation will be then already determined.
Kittler teaches people the gramophone writing, and that media had been an important part of discourse. All of media should be equally considered in discourse. Moreover, in class we discussed the following discourse network, âThe network of technologies and institutions that allow a given culture to select, store, and process relevant data.â One of the most important aspect I took out of this class was that the evolution of media is determined by logic of scalation. Lastly, Kittler has different point of view as in comparison to McLuahan as Kittler sees
Friedrich A. Kittler was born on June 12, 1943.
He was a literary scholar and a media theorist. His works relate to media, technology.
In 1958 to 1963 he was enrolled in a Gymnasium studying natural sciences and modern languages. And in 1972, he transferred to Albert Ludwigâs University of Freiburg and began his studies in German studies, Romance philology and philosophy.
One of the works Kittler is known for is, âGramophone, Film, Typewriter. In it, he disagrees with McLuhan and argues that media technology forms the logic of escalation.
All media have always been an important and interval part of the discourse. Building on McLuhan, He observes that, âthe content of each medium is another medium,â Our medium within media should be considered equally in the discourse. Not only as discourseâs record but always because they determine our situation. They determine our situation because they define what and how dssoure is recorded. We study this VIA discourse networks. Or in Kittlerâs words âthe network of Technologies institutions that allow a given culture to select, store, and porgess all the dataâ the evolution of media is determined by the logic of escalation of the evolutionary process of technological development, driven by technological innovation, market forces, competition, etc. and not necessarily human agency.