This book is about the participatory aesthetics of the fantastic. In it, the author argues that the definition of the fantastic presented by Tzvetan Todorov in 1970 can be used, provided it is first adapted to a media-ecological framework, to theorize the role of aesthetic participation in the creation of secondary worlds. Working within a hermeneutical tradition, Todorov understands reader participation as interpretation, in which the creative ambiguities of the literary object are primarily epistemological. However, it is here argued that the aesthetic object of the fantastic is also characterized by material ambiguity. The purpose of this dissertation is then to present a conceptual framework with which to theorize the relation between the material and the epistemological ambiguity of the fantastic. It is argued that such a framework can be found in an ecological understanding of aesthetic participation. This, in turn, entails understanding human subjectivity as a process always already embodied in a material environment. To this extent, the proposed theoretical framework questions the clear and oppositional distinction between form and matter, as well as that between mind and body, nature and culture, and human and non-human, on which a modern and humanist notion of subjectivity is based. And in this sense, the basic ecological assumptions of this dissertation are posthumanist, or non-humanist. From this position, it is argued that an ecological understanding of participation offers a means to reformulate the function of a number of concepts central to studying the aesthetics of the fantastic, most notably the concepts of media, genre and text. As the fantastic focuses on the creation of other worlds, it is an aesthetics of coming into being, of ontogenesis. Accordingly, it will be argued that the participatory aesthetics of the fantastic operationalizes the ontogenesis of media, genres and texts. By mapping the ontogenesis of three distinct media ecologies – the media ecology of fantasy and J. R. R. Tolkien’s secondary world Middle-earth; the media ecology of the American comic book superhero Miracleman; and the media ecology of William Blake – this book argues that the ecological imagination generates world. Per Israelson has been a doctoral candidate in the Research School of Studies in Cultural History at the department of Culture and Aesthetics, Stockholm University. Ecologies of the Imagination is his dissertation.

<p>I studien har jag ställt frågorna; vad är masskommunikation och hur kan den beskrivas? Vilken väg transporteras en händelse i massmedias infrastruktur? Ambitionen är att undersöka hur masskommunikationen fungerar, därför har tre specifika händelser valts ut för att studeras. Teoretiskt utgår studien ifrån ett mediefilosofiskt synsätt i en postmodern tradition med medieteori av McLuhan, Baudrillard och Bourdieu. Undersökningen har genomförts med kvalitativ fallstudie. Tre händelser har identifierats och kategoriserats i empirisk, definitiv och producerad händelse. 1) Konferensen 1955 förmedlades av pressjournalister till tidningens läsare. 2) Katastrofen 1986 upptäcktes vid avläsning av mätutrustning, där ett radioaktivt utsläpp uppmätts. Experter rapporterade till journalister. 3) Rapporten 2004 förmedlades i ett uttalande i TV av en politisk företrädare och via ett pressmeddelande till redaktionerna. Vid dessa tre händelser så kunde publicering ske i media till användarna av de olika medieartefakterna. In this study these questions are asked; what is mass communication and how can it be described? ow is an event transported through the infrastructure of the mass media? The ambition is to examine some aspects of mass communication. Theoretically the study is oriented towards a postmodern tradition with theories from McLuhan, Baudrillard and Bourdieu. This is connected to the viewpoint of Large Technical System (LTS) and the news office and the mass media, continuing to the news orientation toward events. The method used is qualitative case study. Three different types of events have been classified in the categories empiric, final and produced. 1) The conference 1955 was covered by journalists and delivered to readers of the newspaper. 2) The catastrophe 1986 was revealed by a measuring device that picked up radioactive pollution and experts were reporting to journalists. 3) The report 2004 was communicated in a TV program by a politician and through a press release to news offices. Thus three events were publicized in mass media and thereby made accessible to the users of media artefacts.</p>

This research discusses communication and meaning in the context of orality, using a variety of theoretical perspectives, including memory theory, media and communication theory, and semiotics. Drawing on the work of Walter Ong, it provides new insight about the characteristics and limits of oralnarration by assessing the memes, tropes, and phraseological units in the oral narrations of Armenian Genocide survivors. This research identifies a list of replicable forms of stories and oral devices that are used by the group in question; it then proposes that oral narration of non-fictional topics designed to convey historical or episodic information to others is intuitive, reactive, directed, fuzzy, and sticky. Concerns about the legitimacy and historical value of the narrations under review do not play a role in this research; instead, the focal point is the meaning embedded in the form and structure of the narrations under study.

abstract: Scholars have diversified notions of sovereignty with indigenous frameworks ranging from native sovereignty to cultural sovereignty. Within this range, there exists only a small body of research investigating technology in relation to indigenous sovereignty, excepting the colonial implications of guns, germs, film, and literacy. Furthermore, there is a lack of inquiry on how indigenous peoples operationalize their sovereignty through designs and uses of technology that combine emerging digital media technologies, old electronic media, and traditional indigenous media. This “indigenous convolution media” leads to what is referred to in this research as Indigenous Technological Sovereignty or “Tecno-Sovereignty.” This dissertation begins to address knowledge gaps regarding the dynamic relationship between technology and indigenous sovereignty, and it posits that Tecno-Sovereignty is operationalized when indigenous groups exercise their own self-determined designs and uses of mediums and media to address their particular needs and desires. Therefore, Tecno-Sovereignty is comprised of the social, cultural, political, and economic effects of indigenous technology. This dissertation, a compendium of essays, presents an indigenous theory of media and sovereignty: defining a vision of Tecno-Sovereignty; arguing the purpose and importance of Tecno-Sovereignty; demonstrating how Tecno-Sovereignty is operationalized; and revealing capacity-building recommendations for the further development of indigenous technological sovereignty. Additionally, this research, through an exhibition of indigenous convolution media, calls attention to indigenous praxes of art, technology, and learning that are both grounded by and support the theories proposed in this research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2015

I studien har jag ställt frågorna; vad är masskommunikation och hur kan den beskrivas? Vilken väg transporteras en händelse i massmedias infrastruktur? Ambitionen är att undersöka hur masskommunikationen fungerar, därför har tre specifika händelser valts ut för att studeras. Teoretiskt utgår studien ifrån ett mediefilosofiskt synsätt i en postmodern tradition med medieteori av McLuhan, Baudrillard och Bourdieu. Undersökningen har genomförts med kvalitativ fallstudie. Tre händelser har identifierats och kategoriserats i empirisk, definitiv och producerad händelse. 1) Konferensen 1955 förmedlades av pressjournalister till tidningens läsare. 2) Katastrofen 1986 upptäcktes vid avläsning av mätutrustning, där ett radioaktivt utsläpp uppmätts. Experter rapporterade till journalister. 3) Rapporten 2004 förmedlades i ett uttalande i TV av en politisk företrädare och via ett pressmeddelande till redaktionerna. Vid dessa tre händelser så kunde publicering ske i media till användarna av de olika medieartefakterna. In this study these questions are asked; what is mass communication and how can it be described? ow is an event transported through the infrastructure of the mass media? The ambition is to examine some aspects of mass communication. Theoretically the study is oriented towards a postmodern tradition with theories from McLuhan, Baudrillard and Bourdieu. This is connected to the viewpoint of Large Technical System (LTS) and the news office and the mass media, continuing to the news orientation toward events. The method used is qualitative case study. Three different types of events have been classified in the categories empiric, final and produced. 1) The conference 1955 was covered by journalists and delivered to readers of the newspaper. 2) The catastrophe 1986 was revealed by a measuring device that picked up radioactive pollution and experts were reporting to journalists. 3) The report 2004 was communicated in a TV program by a politician and through a press release to news offices. Thus three events were publicized in mass media and thereby made accessible to the users of media artefacts.

This thesis argues that the Swedish Gymnsatics League during the 1930’s articulated, what in previous research has been called a citizenship project. This citizenship project was formulated against the backdrop of the widely held gymnastic ideological belief about a ‘sound mind in a sound body’. In the historical context regarding the contemporary problem concerning the qualitative issue of the people, the gymnasts formulated gymnastics as an activity, aimed to produce an ideal, healthy citizen. In 1934, the Swedish gymnastics started a propaganda organization called National Society for promotion of Gymnastics (Riksföreningen för gymnastikens främjande) and its yearbook. The organization aimed to educate, and convince the Swedish population with the ultimate objective to make them active participants, and practitioners in gymnastic body culture. I argue that the gymnasts, through propaganda media as the yearbook, and the gymnastics display, addressed audiences as civic publics, with the potential of, though gymnastics, obtain properties connected to the idea of the ideal citizen. Regarding the conceptions of the gymnasts’ citizenship ideals, the essay demonstrates how the gymnasts argued that ideal civic virtues was reflected in the individual’s aesthetical bodily properties, which ultimately signified health. Thus, they argued that the properties liked to the ideal citizen only could be obtained through physical exercise, and the cultivation of a ‘healthy’ body, via gymnastic exercises. In the mid-1930’s the Gymnastics League undertook an international mission to display the superiority of Swedish gymnastics in front of foreign audiences, primarily by performing a non-competitive display at the Olympics in Berlin. I argue that this international outlook produced, and enhanced the national significance, and citizenship producing purpose of the gymnastics, especially when transcribed and mediated in the National Society’s yearbook, hence with the aim of addressing Swedish publics. The strategy of convincing the Swedish population of participating in gymnastics, through international exposure culminated at the Lingiad in Stockholm 1939, where the Gymnastics League invited to world in celebration of the centennial memory of the death of Per Hendrik Ling, the creator of Swedish gymnastics. This event displayed en masse what could be achieved through gymnastics, and enhanced the universal significance of Swedish culture in producing ascetically, and therefore civically sound, national citizens.

This essay analyzes Mette Edvardsens performative work oslo, which usually falls under the label of dance and choreography. The performance is in many ways making use of and staging language though, so the aim here is to examine how the linguistic and textual material of the performance is enacted in relation to its mediating devices and vice versa. The essay is making use of the media theory by David J. Bolter and Richard A. Grusin to show that no medium stands by itself but always exists and works in a web-like relation to other medias. Language will therefore not be seen as isolated but always interacting with other mediating instances. Their theory will also stand as a base in trying to track different medias ideological origin. With inspiration from actor-network theory, this essay tries to map the performance as a network made up by components. The components will be understood, through material- semiotic theorists as Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, to exhibit agency. That is, they are seen to be doing something, they affect the network in a way which is beyond the control and possible intention by an author. The essay shows that Edvardsens performance is being enacted by its network, wherein the author or choreographer is one but not the only actor. The essay also examines how we come to understand a body or and object for what they are, how we define their borders, and will argue that borders are not static but are open for negotiation.

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att illustrera vilka effekter olika medietyper och medieteknologier har på biblioteksutformning samt på vilket sätt. Detta undersöks genom två grupper av frågeställningar där den ena fokuserar på medieteknologier som en aktör i ett nätverk och den andra hänvisar till medieteknologiers placering och effekten därav. Teori: För att besvara dessa frågeställningar används i uppsatsen tre huvudsakliga teorier som består av materiell media-teori, posthumanism samt aktör-nätverksteori (ANT). Metod: Den genomförda undersökningen är en fallstudie, och använder sig av en kombination av observationer, existerande dokument och semi-strukturerade intervjuer för att samla in ett empiriskt dataunderlag. Vidare används en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att bearbeta det insamlade materialet. Slutsatser: Uppsatsen kommer fram till att processen att utforma ett fysiskt bibliotek kan karakteriseras som ett aktör-nätverk med ett stort antal aktörer som inverkar på bibliotekets design. Medier och medieteknologier är en av dessa aktörer som påverkar bibliotekets utformning genom deras kopplingar till andra aktörer, till värderingar och symbolism samt genom deras materiella förutsättningar.

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Comment caractériser les liens entre les récits mobilisant la figure du patient zéro et la production de cette dite figure? La notion de récit ici abordée, étant particulièrement inspirée de Ricoeur (1983), fait essentiellement du récit une configuration narrative et médiatique cherchant à imiter une temporalité donnée. La notion de figure, quant à elle, dépasse l’opposition classique entre l’abstrait et le concret; la figure est le lieu où se rencontrent représentations concrétisées et entités idéelles afin de se « figurer » mutuellement. Le référent de la figure, n’étant pas une abstraction figée dans le temps, est constamment en proie au réassemblage, à la transformation et à l’effacement des éléments qui la constituent. Je qualifie de figuration ce processus temporellement déployé. Par le biais de ma perspective narrative, ce sont les récits médiatisés, surtout en temps d’épidémies/pandémies, que je tiens pour éléments d’assemblage de la figuration du patient zéro en regard des deux dernières décennies. Ainsi, j’ai pu conclure que la personnification y est certainement son mode d’instanciation le plus récurrent et celle-ci s’exécute habituellement par le biais d’une désignation – de qui s’agit-il? – jumelée à une performance personnificatrice – de quelles actions s’agit-il? De plus, une étude intermédiale du parcours de cette figuration a permis de faire ressortir l’hypermédialité relativement constante de l’écrit en son sein. En dernier lieu, pour synthétiser l’évolution de la figuration du patient zéro au cours du laps de temps concerné, j’ai proposé d’aborder celle-ci via trois processus transformateurs : la dé-personnification, la distanciation et la pluralisation. / How can we characterize the links between the stories mobilizing the figure of patient zero and the production of this so-called figure? The notion of story discussed here, being particularly inspired by Ricoeur (1983), essentially makes the story a narrative and media configuration seeking to imitate a given temporality. The notion of figure, for its part, goes beyond the classical opposition between the abstract and the concrete; the figure is the place where concretized representations and ideal entities meet in order to "figure" each other. The referent of the figure, not being an abstraction frozen in time, is constantly plagued by the reassembly, transformation and erasure of the elements that constitute it. I call this temporally deployed process figuration. Through my narratively informed perspective, it is the mediatized stories, especially during times of epidemic/pandemic, that I hold as elements of assembly of the figuration of patient zero within the scope of the last two decades. Thus, I was able to conclude that personification is certainly its most recurrent mode of instantiation and this is usually carried out through a designation – who is it? – paired with a personifying performance – what actions are those? In addition, an intermedial study of such figuration has above all made it possible to highlight the relatively constant hypermediality of the writing form within it. Finally, to synthesize the evolution of the figuration of patient zero during the time span concerned, I proposed to approach it through three transformative processes: de-personification, distancing and pluralization.