Class History of the Media

It is assumed that, in the context of human history, a set of tools, techniques and communication protocols constituted (and constitute) that history, both in the way they altered culture, society and human perception / consciousness, as well as they define, as artifacts, modes of presentation and access to that history. From language and writing to computers and cyber networks, through clocks, calendars, towers, perspective or meteorology, all these medialogical devices determined paradigms of relationship - verbal and non-verbal - between humans and between humans and the world. This Curricular Unit seeks to trace the historical evolution of these material ways of configuring communication throughout history, identifying key moments in this course.

0. Principles of a materialistic history of communication

1. Orality
The zero degree of communication

The ritualization of the world

2. Alphabet and Writing

From the magical culture of hearing to the neutral culture of vision

Writing as ordering the world: the formalization of thought

3. Book
Volumen - codex - volumen
The library and the legibility of the world

4. Press
From Guttenberg to Luther
The foundation of the modern world and the circulation of knowledge

5. Electromagnetism, sound and atmospheric media Nature as the original "broadcaster"
The home delivery of sensory reality

6. Photography and Cinema
The multiplication of the images and the recording of time
The rediscovery of the optical and the (new) motives of the real

7. Radio and Television
The mass media paradigm "Drama for a dramatized society"

8. Computer and Internet
From JM. Jaquard and C. Babbage to A. Turing and V. Bush Decentralization and globalization
Social interactionism (Web 2.0) and machine automation (Web 3.0)

Oral exposal class; hermeneutics and textual heuristics; public discussion of arguments; visual support material.

Attali, J. Histoire des médias: des signaux de fumée aux réseaux sociaux, et bien après. Fayard, 2021.

Bogalheiro, M. "Para lá dos meios e dos fins: um epítome da ontologia dos media". In Crítica das Mediações Totais - Perspectivas expandidas dos media, Ed. M. Bogalheiro. Documenta, 2020
Chartier, R. (1992) A Ordem dos Livros. Vega, 1997
Hu, T-H. The Prehistory of the Cloud . Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2015
Hugo, V. (1831) "Isto matará aquilo". In Notre-Dame de Paris. Relógio d'Água, 2020

Levinson, P. The Soft Edge - A natural history and future of the information revolution. Routledge, 1997

Kittler, F. (1986) Gramophone, Film, Typewritter. Stanford University Press, 1999

McLuhan, M. (1962) A Galáxia de Gutenberg. Universidade de São Paulo, 1972
Peters, J. D. The Marvelous Clouds. University of Chicago Press, 2015
Platão. Fedro. Edições 70, 2009
Valéry, P. (1928) "A Conquista da Ubiquidade". In Revista de Comunicação e Linguagens , 34/35. Relógio d'Água, 2005