Introduction to Cybersemiotics: A Transdisciplinary Perspective

Description

This book traces the origins and evolution of cybersemiotics, beginning with the integration of semiotics into the theoretical framework of cybernetics and information theory. The book opens with chapters that situate the roots of cybersemiotics in Peircean semiotics, describe the advent of the Information Age and cybernetics, and lay out the proposition that notions of system, communication, self-reference, information, meaning, form, autopoiesis, and self-control are of equal topical interest to semiotics and systems theory. Subsequent chapters introduce a cybersemiotic viewpoint on the capacity of arts and other practices for knowing. This suggests pathways for developing Practice as Research and practice-led research, and prompts the reader to view this new configuration in cybersemiotic terms. Other contributors discuss cultural and perceptual shifts that lead to interaction with hybrid environments such as Alexa. The relationship of storytelling and cybersemiotics is covered at chapter length, and another chapter describes an individual-collectivity dialectics, in which the latter (Commind) constrains the former (interactants), but the former fuels the latter. The concluding chapter begins with the observation that digital technologies have infiltrated every corner of the metropolis - homes, workplaces, and places of leisure - to the extent that cities and bodies have transformed into interconnected interfaces. The book challenges the reader to participate in a broader discussion of the potential, limitations, alternatives, and criticisms of cybersemiotics. Introduction: Cybersemiotics, Biosemiotics, General Semiotics References Contents Contributors About the Authors Chapter 1: Cybersemiotics in the Information Age 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Information 1.3 Cybersemiotics 1.4 The Internet Era References Chapter 2: Cybersemiotic Systemic and Semiotical Based Transdisciplinarity 2.1 Introduction 2.2 How to Formulate the Problem 2.3 Transdisciplinary Paradigms References Chapter 3: From Cybernetics to Semiotics to Cybersemiotics: The Question of Communication and Meaning Processes in Living Systems 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Describing Communication from the Point of View of First and Second-Order Cybernetics 3.3 Describing Communication from the Point of View of Semiotics and Biosemiotics 3.4 Describing Communication from the Point of View of Cybersemiotics 3.5 The Need for a Transdisciplinary Concept of Communication References Chapter 4: System, Sign, Information, and Communication in Cybersemiotics, Systems Theory, and Peirce 4.1 Cybersemiotics 4.2 Systems Theory 4.3 Systems, Systems Theory, Cybersemiotics, and Cultural Semiotics 4.4 Information, Meaning, and Form 4.5 Peircean Systems Theoretic and Cybersemiotic Perspectives on Signs 4.6 How Autopoietic Systems Communicate 4.7 Luhmann’s Radicalization of the Scenario of Self-Reference in Communication 4.8 Self-Referential Communication from the Peircean Perspective References Chapter 5: Transdisciplinary Realism 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Methodology of Transdisciplinarity 5.3 The Hidden Third and Peirce’s Synechism 5.4 Conclusion References Chapter 6: Practice as Research: A Cybersemiotic Overview of Knowing 6.1 Introduction 6.2 PaR – where it Came from and Giving it a Name 6.3 Knowing in PaR: Materiality, First Person, Reflexivity 6.4 Cybersemiotics and the Knowing of PaR 6.5 Transdisciplinarity and the “Cybersemiotic Star” 6.6 PaR and Mediation Beyond the Human 6.7 Continuity and Connection, Process and Practice 6.8 Conclusion References Chapter 7: The Blind Men and the Elephant: Towards an Organization of Epistemic Contexts 7.1 Introduction 7.2 The WHAT of Knowledge: Ontology 7.3 The WHO of Knowledge: Epistemology 7.4 The HOW of Knowledge: Methodology 7.5 Conclusion References Chapter 8: Communicology, Cybernetics, and Chiasm: A Synergism of Logic, Linguistics, and Semiotics 8.1 The Problematic: Choice of Context 8.2 The Problematic: Communication as Context 8.3 Thematic: Cybernetic Communication Contextualizes Bio-Socio-Semiotic Information 8.4 Thematic: Semiotic Phenomenology Contextualizes Cybernetic Communication References Chapter 9: The Return of Philosophy: A Systemic Semiotics Approach 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Is Systems Research a Paradigm? 9.3 Open Systems 9.4 The Organization of Thought Through Network Theory 9.5 Discussion References Chapter 10: Human-Computer Interaction Design and the Cybersemiotic Experience 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Contextualizing Interactions 10.3 A Technoetic Aesthetic 10.4 Interactive Hybrid Environments 10.5 Human-Computer Interactions (HCI) 10.6 The Meta-Environment 10.7 Learning to Embody Digital Technology 10.8 Semiotics of Embodiment 10.9 Space and Time Aesthetics 10.10 Combining Perceptions and Processes 10.11 The Cybersemiotic Framework 10.12 An Integrative Framework 10.13 Mediated Properties 10.14 The Cybersemiotic Experience 10.15 Conclusion References Chapter 11: The Communication of Form. Why Cybersemiotic Star Is Necessary for Information Studies? 11.1 Introduction 11.2 The Problems of Information 11.3 Methodologically Reductionist and Fundamentalist Theories 11.4 Information in Formation: Peirce’s Theory of Information 11.5 At the Center of Cybersemiotic Star 11.6 Pragmaticism and Complementarity References Chapter 12: From ‘Motivation’ to ‘Constraints’, from ‘Discourse’ to ‘Modeling System’: Steering Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Towards Cybersemiotics 12.1 Introduction 12.2 From Motivation to Cybersemiotic Constraints 12.3 Discourse and Jamesian Subjectivist Pragmatism 12.4 CDA and the Information-Transmission Model 12.5 Discourse as a Modeling System References Chapter 13: Towards a Cybersemiotic Philology of Buddhist Knowledge Forms: How to Undo Objects and Concepts in Process-  Philosophical Terms 13.1 Introduction 13.2 The Transdisciplinary Model of a Semiotic Philology of Thought Forms 13.3 Classical Forms of Knowledge Representation 13.4 Towards a Cybersemiotic Philology of Buddhist Knowledge Forms 13.5 From Cassirer’s “Symbolic Forms” of Culture to Peirce’s Semiotics as Logic 13.6 “No Self”: Semiosic Agency of a Living System in Buddhism 13.7 A Comprehensive Model of Natural and Cultural Life Forms 13.8 The Environment as a Room of Our Own (Un/Making): How to Undo Objects and Concepts in Process-Philosophical Terms 13.9 Perspectives for a Cybersemiotic Philology of Buddhist Knowledge Forms Appendix (I) Appendix (II) References Chapter 14: Cybersemiotics and Epistemology: A Critical Review of the Conditions of “Observation” from Transcendental Semiotics 14.1 Introduction 14.2 Observation Conditions: A Review from the Philosophy of Science 14.3 Semiotics and Cybernetic Conditions of Observation 14.4 Cybersemiotics and Phenomenology from Transcendental Semiotics References Chapter 15: Storytelling and Cybersemiotics 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Storytelling and Autopoietic Cybersemiotic Communication 15.3 What Is the Storytelling Paradigm? 15.4 Discussion of Storytelling and Cybernetics of Recycling 15.5 Discussion and Conclusion References Chapter 16: Communication and Evolution 16.1 Introduction 16.2 Coincidences and Disagreements with the Program of Cybersemiotics 16.3 Raising the Study Problem 16.4 The Main Basis Behind Evolutionary Biology 16.5 Epistemic-conceptual Framework for Studying Communication from the Biological-evolutionary Perspective 16.6 Communication as an Act and Expressive Behavior 16.7 Communication Thresholds: Minimum, Middle, and Maximum 16.8 Conclusions References Chapter 17: Prolegomena to Cybersemiotic Discourse Pragmatics. Total Human Evolutionary Cognition and Communication 17.1 Introduction 17.2 Propaedeutics – From Metabolism to Symbolism 17.3 Between Private Cognition (Perception-Action) and (Collective) Communication 17.4 The Architectonic of the THECC System and the Disposition of the Chapter 17.5 Propaedeutic: Practo-Poiesis/Semio-Genesis; Oiko-Cybersemiosis; Para-Poiesis/Peri-Semiosis 17.5.1 Biological Background Capacities: Bio-Cybersemiosis; Endo-Semiosis; Structural Coupling 17.5.2 Signification Spheres 17.5.3 Evolution of Private Mind (Actant) – Anapoiesis/Intrasemiosis 17.6 Evolutionary Cognition: Psycho-Cybersemiosis; Eco-semiosis 17.6.1 Consciousness – Pheno-Semiosis 17.6.2 Memory: Gegenwelt 17.6.3 Evolution of social Mind (Interactant) – Cata-Poiesis/Meta-Semiosis; Languaging Semiosis 17.7 Evolutionary Communication; Socio-Cybersemiosis; Poli-Poiesis/Hypero-Semiosis; Eco-Logical Semiosis 17.7.1 Emotional Signaling; Symptomatic Signification 17.7.2 Motivational Sign Playing; Instinctual Signification 17.7.3 Evolution of rational-reflexive Social Mind – Deonto-Poiesis/Nomo-Semiosis; Interlocution 17.8 Language Gaming; Glosso-Semiosis; Thinking Logo-Semiosis; Conceptual Signification 17.8.1 Communion – Phatico-Semiosis 17.8.2 Practice – Poietico-Semiosis 17.8.3 Evolution of Cultural Mind – Paideia-Poiesis/Meta-Semiosis; Deonto-Poiesis/Nomo-Semiosis 17.9 Tradition; Memetico-Semiosis; Critico-Semiosis 17.9.1 Hypothesis Formation (Abduction, Creativity, and Innovation) 17.9.2 Prediction and Testing (Deduction); Meta-Cybersemiosis 17.9.3 Conventionalization (Induction); Idio-Poiesis/Hypo-Semiosis; Para-Poiesis/Peri-Semiosis 17.10 Conclusion References Chapter 18: The Cities and the Bodies As Cyberinterfaces 18.1 What Is an Interface 18.2 Interfaced Cities 18.3 Cyborg Cities 18.4 Sentient and Smart Cities 18.5 The Body Beyond the Visible 18.6 Cities and Bodies in Symbiosis 18.7 The Digital Universe and Cybersemiotics References Index