Comunicação e sociedade: ecrãs e ligações sociotécnicas [17, 2010]

Abstract

Os ecrãs e os mais variados interfaces tecnológicos desempenham um papel central na era digital do século XXI, ao nível da mediação das nossas atividades diárias e na forma como potenciam a nossa imaginação cultural e técnica. Nesta edição, discutiremos o contributo dos ecrãs que se dividem pelos computadores, pelo cinema, vídeo, entre outros. As tecnologias de informação implicam, por isso, a interação social, no espaço público e privado. Deste modo, este número problematiza questões como: a multiplicidade de papéis assumidos pelos ecrãs tecnológicos; o conceito e a evolução histórica e social do ecrã; a paisagem urbana refém dos ecrãs que mobiliza à interação social; a leitura visual e a perceção social sobre ecrãs; os prazeres de natureza social associados aos ecrãs.

Screens and technological interfaces play a central role in the 21st century digital era: they mediate our daily activities, shape our cultural and technological imagination, and have an undeniable human significance. In this issue, we are especially interested in computer, cinema, video screens, incorporated in urban spaces, as well as on those that are wearable. Thus, we focus on these kinds of screens and related information technologies, trying to understand possible implications in social interactions, both in private and public spaces. This issue explains some sort of discussions on a variety range of topics, for instance: the many different roles of “screen”, the changing concepts of the screen or its social history; the presence of screens in the urban landscape, their implications for shared engagement and social experience; the interactions between “old” semiotic resources and new technologies; the way screens shape perception and the logic of visual reading: the play out between visibility and invisibility; the discourses involved in screens experiences; the embodied and social nature of pleasures, as well as of the “pains” associated with screens.