forum-introduction

What is Digital Culture?
Nietzsche said, ‘Every victorious second nature will become a first nature’. (cited in Wark, 2004 p. 86)

Traditional mediums of expression for artists were once a second nature, until through practise, experimentation and the resulting assimilation, their possibilities became broadly established, and they became a first nature.

The birth of film may be traced back to 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers shocked audiences with their moving pictures. We now know what to expect from a visit to the cinema. So, over the course of a century, film has emerged as a victorious second nature, and become first nature.

The impact of the computer as it continues to evolve is arguably more considerable than the impact of film, or any other medium that has gone before it. Janet Murray (1997 p. 284), senior research scientist at MIT believes that it is ‘…the most powerful representational medium yet invented’. whilst the UEL’s (2004) course prospectus for Digital Arts states ‘…we are at the beginning of a revolution that goes beyond pointing and clicking’.

Beyond definitions and possibilities, what characterises Digital Culture and Digital Art within, as second nature, is “newness”.

As digital artists we experiment with newness. New tools, new techniques, new ways of interpreting and reinventing culture. And in establishing the framework, over time, we make a second nature into a first nature. Digital Culture becomes culture. Digital Art becomes art.

Aside from the vast array of possibilities that the new tools present, there is the information that technology enables, and the limits that we may place on it.

Richard Barbrook (1998) in the ‘High Tech Gift Economy’ says, ‘the technical and social structure of the Net has been developed to encourage open cooperation among its participants… The protection of intellectual property stops all users having access to every source of knowledge’

Intellectual property and the accessibility of all forms of Digital Cultural output is a hot-topic for Digital Cultural practioners, having implications for the way we collaborate, disseminate and make a living from our work. This subject is discussed further in Authorship, collaboration and licensing.

Finally, it is no small irony that whilst I was researching material for this introduction, I found that the free online encyclopedia – [|Wikipedia], had nothing in its database for Digital Culture, but that I was actively encouraged to contribute to knowledge by starting to define what Digital Culture is.

Other contributors to Wikipedia will add to or change this definition in order to help us qualify what Digital Culture means and shape our understanding of a second nature as it becomes first nature.

Paul Sewter [|creative commons attribution share-alike 2.5 license]**

References**

Wark, M. (2004) //A Hacker Manifesto.// [computer file]. version 8.2

Murray, J. (1997) //Hamlet on the Holodeck.// Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press

UEL (2004) //Postgraduate Programme Specification.// [Internet] London: University of East London. Available from  [Accessed 14 October, 2005]

Barbrook, R. (1998) //The High Tech Gift Economy.// [Internet] First Monday. Available from  [Accessed 14 October, 2005]