Page 109 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014THEME 9The new affective technologies come to the cultural sectorEMOTION AND FEELING AS TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION, EXPERIENCE AND CREATIONby José Antonio Vázquez Aldecoa @joseantvazquez1. SCIENCE FICTION IS NOW JUST SCIENCE: ROBOTICS AND AFFECTIVE COMPUTINGIn order to discuss emotions in relation to culture— before going into detail about the subject of this article, the affective technologies—we should have a good idea about what it is that we call “culture”, at least in this context, and what is it that we understand as “emotions”. There are so many viewpoints and theories regarding both of them— philosophical, dialectical, sociological, anthropological, psychological and even aesthetic, amongst others—that it would be useless to try to offer a summary of the history and evolution of each of these concepts to provide even the most general outline of what they are.It is important to establish the relation, given that, for example, on the basis of the classic definition of culture in relation to the fine arts, the emotions in their service have been evinced many times when speaking of poetry, theatre and painting. Nonetheless, when we enlarge the scope of what we understand as culture beyond the fine arts, or “high culture”, the emotions—once again understood from a commonplace, generalised perspective, without entering into these theories or doctrines— are diluted, we no longer see so clearly the relationship between certain cultural objects and theAC/Eobligation to generate a particular emotion. However, they are still there1. The so‐called “subcultures”, underground cultures and, beyond them, “popular culture”, outside the aesthetically established, regulated or categorised classes, as well as aspects of culture that have become commercialised in some sense2, also arouse their share of emotions, such is the diversity of their public, or consumers of what have come to be known as cultural products, rather than culture as such.Hence, the complexity of describing these two notions in all their full dimensionality forces us to generalise about what is usually understood by these two concepts in order to reach the relationship between culture and technology, culture being understood as being more heterogenous than homogenous. To talk plainly, we could say that the cultural sector provides, practises, offers—either privately or through public bodies—cultural products and services, such as books, stage plays, art, fairs, festivals, etc., ranging from the arts to mass culture. Now, in all this immense spectrum that might span what is known as the cultural sector, new technologies have arrived, which may be used as instruments for various creative acts, as tools to provide services and new experiences and even as arguments or dialogue with the technology itself— either for those responsible for creating, offering or selling these cultural products, or for those who areWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 9: THE NEW AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES COME TO THE CULTURAL SECTOR CURRENT PAGE...109