GRK 1479: Automatisms - Emerging Structures in Information Technology, Media and Culture

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Automatisms are defined as processes that largely develop beyond conscious control. Psychology has detected automatisms in individual behaviour; sociology analyses structures of habitualisation and conventionalisation; economists consider the market as an automatism. Virtually behind the backs of those involved, automatisms generate new structures; this is what makes them an interesting model of development, situated at a distance from conscious designs and planned processes. Automatisms seem to operate particularly in distributed systems; they are technical and quasi-technical procedures. Simultaneously, they conflict with the concept of technical automatons. The Research Training Group invites dissertation projects that analyse automatisms in the field of media, information technology and culture; approaches should include the analysis of concrete materials, theoretical work or engineering. The Research Training Group is designed to be interdisciplinary: Participant advisors are from the social sciences, media studies, literature and film studies as well as computer science; the applicants are expected to have a degree in one of these fields.