With the increasing importance of
digital media in all areas of social and cultural life, it is necessary to
define a conceptual framework for understanding the social changes it
generates. This implies to introduce students and readers to the new methods of
critically interacting with media in digital culture. Conference presentations and publications develop the
theoretical background and methods needed in scholarship and education to
approach the new topics. At various universities, scholars discuss the
consequences of such developments under the umbrella terms of digital literacy,
digital humanities, or “electracy.” Nevertheless, scholars also must concentrate
on the aesthetic aspects of digital media, investigating in new artistic genres
emerging from or changes in existing genres brought about by digital media.
This, however, should not happen on the ground of a metatheoretical discussion or thematic reading, as was common in the 1990s, when the
understanding of the technology (such as hypertext) as the embodiment of
contemporary critical theory distracted critical attention for the actual work
and led to misinterpretations of the theory applied in favor of establishing a
link between this theory and technology. It is important not to reduce any
specific example of digital art to the status of typical representative of some
aspect of digital media or of some genre of digital art. It is time to pay
attention to the specificities of particular works. This does not mean that we
should abstain from discussing a specific work as an example of a genre, or try
to refrain from understand a genre itself as a signifying form in contemporary
culture. If close reading aims at critical reading, making generalizations and
suggestions concerning certain interdependencies between the particular
artifact and the broader cultural situation will be inevitable. The crucial
questions are where one starts, how much attention is paid to the work at hand
and what, first of all, are the central aspects of a hermeneutic perspective in
digital media. The following text proposes a few general ideas towards the
development of digital hermeneutics.
1. Understanding New Media Artifacts
by Using Traditional Criteria
2. Hermeneutic of Invisible Text
3. Signs Without Meaning
4. The End or Beginning of the Work
5. Notes
6. Works Cited
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dichtung-digital