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2017 | Book

Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

Mobile Media Technologies and Poiēsis

Rediscovering How We Use Technology to Cultivate Meaning in a Nihilistic World

Author: Prof. Justin Michael Battin

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book intertwines phenomenological fieldwork with a wide range of Heidegger’s writings to explore how our everyday uses of mobile media technologies permit a unique avenue to rediscover poiēsis, our creative cultivation that is simultaneously a bringing forth, a revealing. Shining a light on poiēsis better allows us to see how human beings are, at their core, dwellers that disclose worlds and cultivate meaning. In our chaotic modern world, our ability to appreciate this foundational feature of our existence seems to be fading from view. Such forgetting has fractured our confidence; we increasingly question, doubt, and struggle with what unfolds before us. This book thus argues that we ought to look towards our intimate and recursive mobile media practices as the avenue for which we can revitalize poiēsis, as doing so allows us a purview into how we are always situated in a meaningful locale, playing an imperative role in its continued cultivation.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
This opening chapter provides a brief introduction to the book’s inspiration, goals, themes, and methodology. It also gives a brief explanation of dwelling and poiēsis, terms that may be unfamiliar to media studies and cultural studies audiences.
Justin Michael Battin
Chapter 2. Situating Heidegger for the Study of Mobile Media Technology Use
Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of Heidegger’s philosophy in relation to the exploration of everyday uses of mobile media technologies. This philosopher often paints in broad strokes with the intent to elucidate grand ideas, what his work lacks are considerations of actual practice; what practices, in terms of comportment, correlate with poiēsis, ereignis, and our being-dwellers? This chapter attempts to fill this gap by expounding upon the practices that belong to dwelling, those of inhabitation that permit the formation of worldhood to become apparent.
Justin Michael Battin
Chapter 3. This Technology is a Part of Me
Abstract
This chapter explores how material objects, specifically mobile media technologies, become incorporated into what Wojciech Kalaga (2010) refers to as the third of the body. Throughout the fieldwork participants overwhelmingly expressed that via motivated, recursive use, their mobile no longer felt like an object, but like something that had become a part of them. This chapter, via the backdrop of the life transition from secondary school to university, explores how a number of the interviewee’s mobile media practices contribute to processes of internalization and externalization and, depending on the practice, equally encourage the mobile to be designated as existentially important.
Justin Michael Battin
Chapter 4. The Immaterial as Traversable
Abstract
This chapter positions mobile media technologies as what Heidegger referred to as things and argues how only through our interaction with things can meaningful locations emerge within our phenomenological horizon. As things, these specific technologies permit us the ability to gather the immaterial and material together, thus giving new meaning to our understanding of ourselves in-place and our understanding of locations as available for our traversing.
Justin Michael Battin
Chapter 5. Our Relationship to the Technological Self
Abstract
This chapter explores the clear and identifiable anxiety sometimes associated with the everyday uses of these technologies, particularly such uses that involve the self with social media sites. This chapter draws on the notion of anxiety to show where it fits in Heidegger’s understanding of poiēsis and asks how we can use anxiety to recognize some ontological conditions about humanity in our current epoch. In particular, this chapter demonstrates great concern for the growing nihilism, calculative individualism, and dwindling of confidence exhibited by some of the project participants.
Justin Michael Battin
Chapter 6. The Saving Power of Marginal Practices
Abstract
This closing chapter argues for the adoption of Gelassenheit, a releasement towards things, in order to access poiēsis and productive seeing. In an era noted for its rampant skepticism and widespread lack of confidence, we should be mindful of how our everyday being-in-the-world reveals the way we ongoingly identify with the world through our dwelling practices, particularly in ways that cultivate social cohesion and solidify communal relationships across a vast array of interconnected planes. The book concludes by advising us to take careful note of the invitation we have received, an invitation to recognize and appreciate how our purposive movements allow us to become involved and invested in meaningful worlds.
Justin Michael Battin
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Mobile Media Technologies and Poiēsis
Author
Prof. Justin Michael Battin
Copyright Year
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-59797-3
Print ISBN
978-3-319-59796-6
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59797-3