Technopoïesis: Transmedia Mythologisation and the Unity of Knowedge

Abstract

It is difficult to explain why different disciplines are drawn to similar problems. Inter-relations are not always explainable by direct influence. It has been argued that any common ground derives from the fact that people share certain kinds of everyday experiences. Is ‘consilience’ or the unification of knowledge a utopia or a possibility, as William Whewell Edward Wilson would have it? This thematic issue of Icono14 explores the common premise underlying all human disciplines: the confirmation that technology has a direct impact upon sign production, distribution and reception and, thus, upon the entire system of human thought, cultural representation and cognition. The collection examines transmedial representations of technological advance by looking at their mythical shades of meanings as strategic narratives. As practical knowledge engaged in the creation and use of tools and machines as well as in the development of techniques and methods of organization that perform specific functions in making human life easier, the technologies of the past can shed some light on the future that emerging media can bring about for human groups.