Cultural Techniques: Preliminary Remarks

Abstract

These introductory remarks outline the German concept of Kulturtechniken (cultural techniques) by tracing its various overlapping meanings from the late 19th century to today and linking it to developments in recent German theory. Originally related to the agricultural domain, the notion of cultural techniques was later employed to describe the interactions between humans and media, and, most recently, to account for basic operations and differentiations that give rise to an array of conceptual and ontological entities which are said to constitute culture. In the second part of the essay, cultural techniques are analyzed as a concept that allows theorists to overcome certain biases and impasses characteristic of that domain of German media theory associated with the work of the late Friedrich Kittler.

“The Computer Said So”: On the Ethics, Effectiveness, and Cultural Techniques of Predictive Policing

“…Now cultural techniques as a notion has different meanings connected to different historical periods (see Siegert, 2013;Winthrop-Young, 2013) Winthrop-Young exemplifies this statement by noting that people draw pictures before the concept of an image was conceived and played music before the concept of tonality existed. Concepts do not have ontological priority, rather they emerge from practice (Winthrop-Young, 2015, p.459).…”

“…Geoffrey Winthrop-Young (2013) proposes that "Rather than tackling the question 'What are cultural techniques? ', it makes more sense to ask: 'What is the question to which the concept of cultural techniques claims to be an answer?'"…”

Book Reviews

“…The speaker suggested the notion of cultural techniques (Siegert 2013, Winthrop-Young 2013 for bringing together discussions on materiality, practices as well as signs and text into the historical analysis of software. Using the example of business games, he suggested that practices often preclude discourse.…”

Artistic Research Syndrome

“…Originally it was used in the agricultural domain, where it refers to "cultivation of land". More recently it has gained a layered set of meanings (Winthrop-Young, 2013). Since the 1970s the term has been used in media theoretical contexts, where the distinction between culture and nature has been a key point of reference for discussions on the societal impact of technology.…”