[Air-L] Seminar_BG journal - special issue # 2 Cultural Shortcuts: Popular, Digital, Wonderful, National

[Slavka Karakusheva]

Dear all,

Seminar_BG is an online journal for cultural studies, situated at the
borderlines of disciplines such as cultural anthropology, aesthetics,
sociology, and media analysis and publishished within the Deprtment of
History and Theory of Culture, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".


The new *special issue with selected papers # 2:
<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2.html>
**Cultural Shortcuts: Popular, Digital, Wonderful,
National<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2.html>
 *(in English) is available online.

Weber’s ‘steel-hard cage of modernity’ (*stahlhartes Gehäuse*) seems out of
sight today. The very metaphor of steel, so dear to the times of
industrialization, seems hopelessly out of date in the age of optic fibre,
silicone and flexibility. It is as if the call to *change the world* has
mutated into the program to *change communications*, and respectively, at
the centre of this second modernity we no longer find the dirty, noisy,
majestic steel-plant, but something dreamlike the kindergarten-style
offices of Google.

To turn away from the real world and concentrate on its representation, on
networks, ratings, data bases, avatars, and the like - this tends to bring
us back the wonderful. Rigorous taxonomy is replaced by clouds of tags that
change their shape whenever you look at them from a different angle; the
simplicity of plan and progress - by the infinite task of reflexive
self-monitoring; ideological purity – by emotional complexity. The old
coordinates no longer seem operational in this new, gaseous stage of
culture. There is no ‘high’ vs. ‘popular’, as there is no legitimate
distinction between expertise and amateurism; creation and consumption tend
to become indistinguishable, and the separation line between public and
private interests is constantly challenged and redefined. That all has
become culture seems to be the logical result of moving the centre of
interest from the outer world towards culture itself.

The present texts have been selected from the three last issues of *
Seminar_BG* in an attempt to reflect on the cultural situation through the
media lens. Over-production of information, brought about by the expansion
of commercial agents, was boosted in the last years even further by the
ascent of the interactive Web 2.0. There are no institutions ready to
harness the unprecedented flow of cultural content. We do not know who is
an author, what is original, and to what extent interaction develops or
destroys the work of art. Even traditional figures as doctors or religious
leaders find themselves challenged; modern constructs like the nation and
political representation – re-enchanted.

The varied research perspectives towards the wonderful world of
media-cultures might leave the reader with the question: what if we were in
some new, *wired cage* of the second modernity?

Ivaylo Ditchev, editor

*Content:*


   - Dessislava Lilova - Literature Online: The Subversive Practices of Fan
   Fiction<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/375-literature-online.html>


   - Orlin Spassov - A Change in the Canon: Television and Its Audience as
   Co-authors<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/376-a-change-in-the-canon.html>


   - Krassimir Terziev - Maneuvers of the Good Old Aura: The Artwork in the
   Culture of Convergence<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/377-maneuvers-of-the-good-old-aura.html>


   - Ivaylo Ditchev - The Culture of Flows: Authors, Users,
Pirates<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/378-the-culture-of-flows.html>


   - Todor Hristov - Publishing on the Internet and the Abduction of
   Copyright<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/379-publishing-on-the-internet.html>


   - Julia Rone - *Fegelein's Views on
Folklore<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/380-fegeleins-views-on-folklore.html>
   *


   - Mila Mineva - The Importance of Being
Enslaved<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/381-the-importance-of-being-enslaved.html>


   - Galina Goncharova - Providers–Users of Medical Knowledge on the
   Bulgarian Net<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/382-providers-users-of-medical-knowledge.html>


   - Nikela Daskalova - The Monopoly over Magical
Thinking<http://www.seminar-bg.eu/spisanie-seminar-bg/special-issue2/item/383-the-monopoly-over-magical-thinking.html>


Enjoy the reading!

The Seminar_BG Team
www: http://www.seminar-bg.eu/
@: seminar_bg at yahoo.com
fb: Семинар_BG<https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80_BG/103991129688839>