The term patina refers to a particular quality of decay in material objects, where the decay is both a physical and symbolic property of the object. As a physical property patina is an expression of the passage of time, a visual marker of the object's timeboundedness reflected in signs of ageing and/or use. This thesis considers the implications of a digital patina, including its relevance for an analysis of the relationship between things and time or timeboundedness.

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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of the study is to identify and analyse conspiracy narratives as popular counter-knowledge and as alternatives to leftist discourse and explanations of the contradictions of a capitalist system in a systemic crisis. The study makes a distinction between pathological and cultural approaches to conspiracy theories. While pathological approaches critically assess conspiracy theories as expressions of a certain political paranoia, cultural approaches are more inclusive and view conspiracy theory as cultural expressions of the postmodern condition. The cultural understandings break the categorical link between conspiracy theories and irrationality and allows a further discussion on how conspiracy theories might relate to leftist discourse and its attempts to counter neoliberal hegemonic structures. The approach taken by the study relies on the theoretical framework of historical materialism. Key theories used derive from Karl Marx, along with Gramscian, World Systems theory and critical approaches to global political economy. In the historical analysis that was performed, the understanding of structures in the historical development of the world economy, as well as the role of social forces which lead to changes in these structures were shown to be better approaches for understanding both historical events and the current crisis in the capitalist system. However, even within the opportune movement of an on-going capitalist crisis, the Left struggles to create a consistent counter-hegemonic narrative, and current counter-hegemonic movements, whilst being influential, are not succeeding in being transformative This suggests that leftist discourse fails to address the micro-level manifestations of the contradictions of the current system in a way that appeals to the masses. Accordingly, conspiracy theories as frameworks from which to critique the current global political economy are discussed. It is argued that although conspiracy theories are essentially reactionary, as well as historically a product of the far right, these theories might be understood as allegorical narrative constructs that serve as tools of orientation in a confusing political reality and, as such, the label of irrationality should not be applied without further consideration. It is further suggested that there is a proximity between various critical perspectives and conspiracy theories, although it is not implied that there is an exchange of ideas. It is argued that strands of critical theory and conspiracy theory share certain convictions about how the social world is constructed. While leftist/critical discourse relies on a scientific historical analysis, conspiracy discourses are often categorised lacking in scientific support. Critical theoretical perspectives are therefore suggested as the most effective remedy against utopian and simplistic narratives. While the thesis does not challenge the appropriateness of Marxist/critical perspectives at explaining economic crisis and global inequity, it aims at discussing the popularity of conspiracy theories as, for many, preferable tools of orientation in the present times. While political scientific theories and conspiracy theories are generally understood as in essence incompatible, this thesis attempted to discuss and analyse whether this established view could be challenged in light of recent scholarship on conspiracy culture. The study concludes that Marxist/critical approaches should understand conspiracy theories as alternative counter-knowledge and as popular doorways into major social issues that define global political culture, which could actually complement traditional leftist discourse. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die studie is om sameswerings-verhale as populêre teen-kennis en as alternatiewe vir linkse diskoers en verklarings van die teenstrydighede van ’n kapitalistiese stelsel wat ’n sistemiese krisies beleef, te identifiseer en te analiseer. Die studie onderskei tussen patalogiese en kulturele benaderings tot samesweringsteorieë. Patologiese benaderinge raam samesweringsteorieë krities as uitdrukkings van bepaalde politieke paranoia, terwyl kulturele benaderinge meer inklusief is, samesweringsteorie beskou as ’n kulturele uitdrukking van die postmoderne toestand. Die kulturele begrip breek die kategoriese skakel tussen samesweringsteorieë en irrasionaliteit en fasiliteer nog ’n gesprek oor hoe hierdie teorieë moontlik verwant sou kon wees aan linkse diskoers, asook laasgenoemde se pogings om neoliberale hegemoniese strukture teen te staan. Die benadering wat gevolg word in die studie steun op die teoretiese raamwerk van historiese materialisme. Die vernaamste vertrekpunte wat gebruik word is afgelei van Karl Marx, tesame met Gramsciaanse, Wêreldstelsel-teorie en kritiese benaderings tot globale politieke ekonomie. In die historiese analiese wat onderneem is, word gedemonstreer dat ’n begrip van strukture in die historiese ontwikkeling van die wêreld-ekonomie, asook die rol van sosiale magte wat verandering in hierdie strukture meebring, beter verklarings bied vir beide historiese gebeure en die teenswoordige krisies in die kapitalistiese stelsel. Nietemin, selfs met die geleenthede wat geskep word te midde van die aangaande kapitalistiese krisies, sukkel Linksgesindes om ’n konsekwente teen-hegemoniese “verhaal” te skep. Kontemporêre teen-hegemoniese bewegings, ongeag hul skynbare invloed, slaag nie daarin om verandering te weeg te bring nie. Dit wil voorkom asof linkse diskoers nie daarin slaag om die manifistering van die teenswoordige stelsel se teenstrydighede aan te spreek op ’n wyse wat aanklank vind by die massas nie. Dienooreenkomstig word samesweringsteorieë bespreek as raamwerke vanwaar en waaruit die huidige globale politieke ekonomie gekritiseer kan word. Die argument word aangevoer dat, alhoewel hierdie teorieë essensieel reaksionêr is, asook histories gesien ’n verregse produk, hulle moontlik verstaan kan word as allegoriese verhaal konstrukte wat dien as middele vir orientasie in ’n verwarrende politieke werklikheid. As sulks, behoort die etiket van irrasionaliteit nie sondermeer en onkrities aan hulle toegedien te word nie. Verder, word daar in die studie voorgestel, dat daar raakpunte is tussen verskeie kritiese perspektiewe en samesweringsteorieë. Daar word egter nie gesuggereer dat daar ’n uitruil van idees is nie. Daar word egter wel ge-argumenteer dat daar elemente van kritiese teorieë en samesweringsteorieë is wat bepaalde oortuiginge deel oor hoe die sosiale werklikheid gevorm word. Terwyl linkse en kritiese diskoers gekoppel is aan wetenskaplike-historiese analise, word samesweringsdiskoerse gekategoriseer as verklarings wat gebrek lei aan wetenskaplike ondersteuning. Kritiese teoretiese perspektiewe word dus voorgehou as die mees effektiewe oplossing teen utopieseen simplistiese narratiewe. Terwyl die tesis nie die toepasbaarheid van Marxistiese/Kritiese perspektiewe, as verklarings vir die ekonomiese krisies en globale ongelykheid, uitdaag nie, het dit gepoog om die populariteit van samesweringsteorieë, as voorkeur raamwerke vir orientering in teenswoordige tye, aan te spreek. Die tesis het onderneem om vas te stel en te analiseer of die algemeen aanvaarde aanname dat politiek wetenskaplike teorieë en samesweringsteorieë essensieel onversoenbaar is, uitgedaag kan word, gesien in die lig van onlangse akademiese werk oor samesweringskultuur. Die studie bevind dat Marxistiese/kritiese benaderings samesweringsteorieë behoort te verstaan as alternatiewe teen-kennis en as populêre ingangspunte tot belangrike sosiale kwessies wat die globale politieke kultuur definieer. In die sin, sou samesweringsteorieë selfs tradisionele linkse diskoers kon aanvul.

Recently in analytic philosophy, interest in the issue of the epistemic value of art has been revived. Philosophers have sought to establish whether and in what ways art is a source of knowledge, understanding or a means of inquiry. In philosophy this is a longstanding question, addressed both in the Greek and German traditions, but it seems pertinent to ask the question again today in light of significant changes that have taken place in contemporary art practice. In my thesis, I investigate this question from two perspectives: in terms of analytic philosophy of art, and in terms of developments in contemporary art since the 1960s. In Part I, I offer a defence of a philosophical theory of artistic value, critically overview the extant philosophical literature on the question of epistemic value of art, and explain why the inherently experimental character of contemporary art makes it difficult simply to apply the available theories. I argue that a philosophical engagement with contemporary art requires a different, more inductive method. In Part II, I closely consider three recent developments in which the relationship between art and knowledge has been rendered more complex. The Conceptual Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s privileged concerns with concepts, thought processes and truth over expression, materiality and fidelity to genre. The social turn of the 1990s cast the artist in a position that is almost indistinguishable from that of a teacher, social activist or even of a technology developer. And the artists working within the bio art movement of the 1990s and 2000s have assimilated the activity of the artist to that of the scientist, sometimes blurring the two roles. The goal of the thesis is twofold. On the one hand, I show how cases from recent art history put pressure on some key commitments in recent analytic philosophy. Revisions and challenges are suggested in particular for extant theories of artistic value, conceptions of artistic autonomy and heteronomy, and some popular accounts of the epistemic value of art. On the other hand, concepts from analytic philosophy are used to shed light on some of the more radical developments in recent art practice, and to rethink the ways in which art participates in the broader culture.

[Truncated abstract] This thesis explores the ways in which 'the secular' is represented in contemporary Australian participatory art, screen, and print cultures. Secularisms are currently the subject of analysis in a broad range of disciplines within the humanities, and this thesis intervenes upon the field by focusing on the cultural politics of representations of embodied, spatialized secularisms. The secular is commonly defined in opposition to the 'religious,' and can also be extrapolated to the division of public and private spaces. Thus, by considering the occlusions and violences inherent in the ways bodies negotiate and are constructed through space, this thesis argues for the fluidity and porosity of these oppositions. By drawing from Janet Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini's notion of secularisms, understood as specific, situated narratives of the secular, as well as Talal Asad's and William E. Connolly's conceptions of the secular, this thesis identifies 'neutrality' and 'spirituality' as two key narratives of the secular around which questions of language, embodiment, affect, and subjectivity are set in motion. Here, a regime of representation that constructs 'religious' subjects as outsiders to an imagined Australian national identity is critiqued and reconsidered in terms of anxieties about remembering and living with difference and loss. Rather than defining 'the secular,' this thesis seeks to maintain focus on the context and contingencies of enunciation. Thus, firstly the conflation of secularism with 'neutrality' and 'objectivity' is explored through a discussion of 'defining' secularisms, alongside critique of representations of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). By identifying the ways in which this 'everyday' text signals exclusions through the privileging of British Protestant Christianity in its contents, colonial history and usage, I consider how 'neutrality' is made contextually and contingently. ... . Here, secular mourning is a suggestive concept that foregrounds 'affective economies' of loss, grief, and mourning alongside openness to the ways in which identity is made and lived relationally, and differently. Given that the representations of Australian secularisms I identify are made by locating 'the religious' elsewhere, this thesis reflects upon this process by including a contingent comparative study of representations of Canadian secularisms. Participatory art including the Secular Confession Booth (2007) in Toronto and The Booth (2008) in Perth, news media debates about secularism in Ontario and

CAPES / A investigação das relações entre tecnologia e cultura viabiliza discussões e reflexões profundas sobre a sociedade e os modos de vida. Esta dissertação busca, por meio da literatura infanto-juvenil, avançar no debate de tecnologia e cultura, bem como questionar o papel historicamente assumido pelo gênero. Por meio de obras da literatura infantojuvenil brasileira produzidas entre os anos de 1999 e 2010, busca-se levantar possíveis formas de representação da tecnologia na produção contemporânea e defender sua importância como produção literária. Apresentar a literatura infantojuvenil como plano de fundo para discussões acadêmicas, independentemente do recorte proposto, pode ser um trabalho bastante árduo, especialmente pela pouca valorização que o gênero encontra frente à crítica literária. O diálogo entre tecnologia e cultura, por sua vez, também ainda é pouco divulgado inclusive no campo interdisciplinar de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade. A linha principal linha teórica que permeia o trabalho é o Materialismo Cultural, proposto por Raymond Williams. / The research about technology and culture makes possible discussions and reflections about society and ways of life. This dissertation intents, through children's literature, to advance the discussion of technology and culture as well as to question the role historically assumed by gender. Through works of Brazilian teenager literature produced between the years 1999 and 2010, we intend to raise possible ways of manifestation of technology in contemporary production and to defend its value as a literary production. Propose the teenager literature as background for academic discussions can be rather arduous, especially because the low value granted to the gender by literary criticism. The dialogue between technology and culture, in turn, is still too little known even in the interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology and Society. As our theoretical basis we resorted to the Cultural Materialism, presented by Raymond Williams.

CAPES / A investigação das relações entre tecnologia e cultura viabiliza discussões e reflexões profundas sobre a sociedade e os modos de vida. Esta dissertação busca, por meio da literatura infanto-juvenil, avançar no debate de tecnologia e cultura, bem como questionar o papel historicamente assumido pelo gênero. Por meio de obras da literatura infantojuvenil brasileira produzidas entre os anos de 1999 e 2010, busca-se levantar possíveis formas de representação da tecnologia na produção contemporânea e defender sua importância como produção literária. Apresentar a literatura infantojuvenil como plano de fundo para discussões acadêmicas, independentemente do recorte proposto, pode ser um trabalho bastante árduo, especialmente pela pouca valorização que o gênero encontra frente à crítica literária. O diálogo entre tecnologia e cultura, por sua vez, também ainda é pouco divulgado inclusive no campo interdisciplinar de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade. A linha principal linha teórica que permeia o trabalho é o Materialismo Cultural, proposto por Raymond Williams. / The research about technology and culture makes possible discussions and reflections about society and ways of life. This dissertation intents, through children's literature, to advance the discussion of technology and culture as well as to question the role historically assumed by gender. Through works of Brazilian teenager literature produced between the years 1999 and 2010, we intend to raise possible ways of manifestation of technology in contemporary production and to defend its value as a literary production. Propose the teenager literature as background for academic discussions can be rather arduous, especially because the low value granted to the gender by literary criticism. The dialogue between technology and culture, in turn, is still too little known even in the interdisciplinary field of Science, Technology and Society. As our theoretical basis we resorted to the Cultural Materialism, presented by Raymond Williams.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)