| This thesis attempts to articulate questions concerning digital communication theory in order to create a framework for further inquiry. Specifically, this thesis asks, is silicon just an innocuous conveyor of information? What is the relationship between the medium (digital coding in the form of bits) and its material substratum (silicon)? In other words, how does silicon, the carrier, processor, and translator of binary codes, affect the digital messages themselves? To assess the nature of the relationship between material and medium from a historical perspective, this thesis examines the analyses of Walter Benjamin, Harold Innis, and Marshall McLuhan and their hypotheses regarding art and architecture; paper and print; and electric media respectively. Also, this essay presents an analysis of how modes of signifying may indicate material and cultural biases (e.g., binarism and systems of logic) with reference to Walter Ong and Renaissance mathematician Peter Ramus. A critique of the current theoretical dialogues and their navigation of self, identity, the corporeal, orality, signification, and materiality is discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
