Indeed, different mediations (through tools, theories, power, ...) imply
in different constraints. But I see two different main reasons:
- Firstly, any mediation is incomplete due to processes of abstraction.
Like a lens, it focuses on perticcular issues and not on others.
- Secondly, it is not something we add to access and "exterior reality"
which remains untouched, it is something we construct and _it_is_ part of
the world. Being part of the world, it takes the space of something else.
In other words. When we use an artifact to help us to remember or
transform something, simultaneously we are also forgetting and
transforming something else as a side effect. This can be understood as
the reason of one of the main criticisms of movements in Education
Technology. Computers are important, but they do not substitute
microscopes, clay, or a stage, or even a teacher. They can add something,
but they can also subtract.
Michel Serres, a philosopher I've just started to read, writes a lot
about that. He uses this remembering/forgetting to compare different times
in history in order to show how things that were the concern or part of
very ancient knowledge were forgot in certain periods of history and are
revisited again. His favorite example is chaotic phenomena, and how with
Newtonian mechanics, all the world suddenly became linear, until the
middle of this century (for some people). His concept of time is not at
all linear, and not even his methodology, but is very instructive.
Thanks again,
Luiz
ps: You are right, I was not at xmca at that time. I have only a month of
xmca and not much more studying the subject. :-) Thank you, for the
address of Alfred Lang's site:
http://www.cx.unibe.ch/psy/ukp/langpapers/overview.html For the
others Eva forward me a message from Christine Happle (25 March 98). I
really appreciate that Eva. It will be great to browse through it. It
seems I'll have to brush up my German.
_____________________________________________________________
Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle