Digital Dark Age

An overview for the Humanities and Social Sciences

The possibility of a Digital Dark Age worries computer scientists, archivists, and librarians, but it also concerns humanists and social scientists. The absence of access to digital data and cultural products due to the obsolescence of technologies used for today’s communication, entertainment, work, production and circulation of scientific knowledge is an imminent risk. This report is based on texts and interviews with experts. Here we provide an overview of this emer-gent and urgent problem and present suggestions for prevention. […]

Why Should We Talk About Culture, When We Want to Understand ‘Surveillance’?

In public debate, surveillance is considered mainly at the level of institutional power. Consequently, the debate centers on regulatory and legal interventions aimed at specific institutions and actors, be they governmental or commercial. While I will not argue against such a perspective, I find it inadequate for a comprehensive assessment of surveillance as a dynamic set of technologies, techniques, and practices that impact our daily lives […]

Editorial

The Editorial Board in collaboration with Beatrice Michaelis and Martin Zierold

The conceptual footing of On_Culture, reflected in the pilot issue on “Emergence/Emergency,” is kept up in the second issue with its focus on “The Nonhuman.” There could not have been a better turnout for this issue, and the Editorial Board is particularly proud to present a collection of eight double-blind peer reviewed academic _Articles and two _Perspectives, all of which investigate, problematize, and develop key concepts and methods in the field.