Aesthetics of Universal Knowledge
Simon Schaffer · John Tresch · Pasquale Gagliardi
May 2017 · Springer
Ebook
271
Pages
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About this ebook
Born out of a major international dialogue held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy, this collection of essays presents innovative and provocative arguments about the claims of universal knowledge schemes and the different aesthetic and material forms in which such claims have been made and executed. Contributors take a close look at everything from religious pilgrimages, museums, and maps of the world, to search engines and automated GPS.
Current obsessions in information technology, communications theory, and digital culture often concern the value and possibility of a grand accumulation of universally accessible forms of knowledge: total libraries, open data bases, ubiquitous computing, and ‘smart’ technologies. These obsessions have important social and philosophical origins, and they raise profound questions about the very nature of knowledge and its organization. This volume’s contributors draw on the histories of maps and of encyclopedias, worldviews and visionary collections, to make sense of the crucial relation between the way the world is known and how it might be displayed and transformed.
Current obsessions in information technology, communications theory, and digital culture often concern the value and possibility of a grand accumulation of universally accessible forms of knowledge: total libraries, open data bases, ubiquitous computing, and ‘smart’ technologies. These obsessions have important social and philosophical origins, and they raise profound questions about the very nature of knowledge and its organization. This volume’s contributors draw on the histories of maps and of encyclopedias, worldviews and visionary collections, to make sense of the crucial relation between the way the world is known and how it might be displayed and transformed.
About the author
Simon Schaffer is Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of La fabrique des sciences modernes and the coeditor of The Material Cultures of Enlightenment Arts and Sciences.
John Tresch is Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon, among other works.
Pasquale Gagliardi, former Professor of Sociology of Organizations at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, is now Secretary General of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, Italy. He is the author of Symbols & Artifacts. Views of the Corporate Landscape and Le imprese come culture, among other books.
John Tresch is Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is the author of The Romantic Machine: Utopian Science and Technology after Napoleon, among other works.
Pasquale Gagliardi, former Professor of Sociology of Organizations at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy, is now Secretary General of the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice, Italy. He is the author of Symbols & Artifacts. Views of the Corporate Landscape and Le imprese come culture, among other books.
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