Hierarchies of Communication
Fri, July 04, 2003 – Sun, July 06, 2003, Symposium

Ever since Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver developed the “mathematical theory of communication”, communication has become a hot potato of scholarly debate. This has put naturalistic and cultural perspectives on a collision course. There are more than 100 different definitions of communication whereby their most hotly disputed component is “information” – the entity which is presumably exchanged during communication.

Scientists and artists will meet at this inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional symposium in order to discuss this theme in light of both systems and cultural theory. For many adherents of systems theory, communication by and large involves interaction between linked systems, i.e., a concept which, in principle, can be used on different scales. It is irrelevant here whether the interaction between molecules can be called communication. That said, language usage suggests that even primitive organisms, like bacteria, practice communication. Does communication take place in the networked structure of linked neurons in the brain or does communication first take place between creatures that are equipped with a brain? 

Cultural scientists reject this reduction of the concept of communication to known structures of interaction. They point to “speech” and “meaning” as it has historically developed within society. In such discussions there will always be discrepancies and unanswered questions. Nevertheless it is the declared intention of the symposium to make a reconciliatory contribution to the subject of communication.

Program

Fri, July 04, 2003

11 am Welcoming remarks 

11:30 am Lehan Ramsay: Chasing World Orders

1 pm Break

2:30 pm Hans Diebner: Operational Hermeneutics

4 pm Yoshiaki Mima, Ken-ichi Kimura, Hidekatsu Yanagi: The Thinking Sketch Project

5:30 pm Break

6 pm Istvan Fekete: Systematisation Modelling of Communication

 

Sat., July 5, 2003

10:15 am Welcoming remarks and review of day one

10:30 am Peter Weibel: Future Cinema

11:30 am Tohru Moriyama: Misunderstanding of signals and creation of information in communication

1 pm Break

2:30 pm Manfred Hentz: Intra-Organizational Communication based on Maturana's Autopoietic System Theory

4 pm Nils Röller: Media Hierarchies

5:30 pm Break

6 pm Shigeru Sakurazawa: How is communication of material possible?

 

Sun, July 06, 2003

11 am Welcoming remarks and review of day two

11:15 am Tilman Sack: Chattheatre - three medias - one vision

12:30 pm Break

2 pm Tetsuo Ono: Embodied Communication Between Humans and Robots Emerging from Entrained Gestures

3:15 pm Rafael Capurro: Angeletics - A Message Theory

4:30 pm Break

4:45 pm Masaki Fujihata: Interface Design and Connectivity

6 pm Round Table Discussion

Organization / Institution
ZKM
Partners

Future University in Hakodate