About

The purpose of this blog is to analyze observer perspectives in communication. The epistemological approach is non-positivist, in that society is not thought of as consisting of persons or humans, but rather as its own emergent world of communication. Communication as the operation of society is then distinct from thought as process of the mind, for example, as well as other processes in nature. The images and descriptions we have of such processes are nevertheless part of society, as they are communicative artifacts. In this regard, I especially reference and build on the work of Niklas Luhmann (e.g. “Social Systems”) and Harrison C. White (esp. “Identity and Control”). This blog is especially concerned with the problem that such descriptive artifacts are separate from the phenomena they describe, but that language and the other media of communication are usually only poorly prepared to deal with this schism.

In an attempt to avoid the positivist pitfalls of language, I turn to the analysis of distinctions, focusing on communicated differences in the undercurrents of positive statements made in language. Here, I attempt to work with the distinction logic brought forth in George Spencer Brown’s “Laws of Form”, while also relying heavily on the pioneering work of Dirk Baecker (e.g. in “Form und Formen der Kommunikation”), who advanced the application of distinction forms for the description of social phenomena.

The author:

Florian Grote, born 1980 in Göttingen, works as Senior Product Designer at Native Instruments in Berlin. Studied Cultural Sciences at the University of Lüneburg, with majors in music and computer sciences, and holds a doctorate from Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen. Projects in electronic music and media art, as well lectures at Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), STEIM, Amsterdam, and Zeppelin University. Research in the field of cultural sociology and sociocybernetics.

Personal blog at fgrote.wordpress.com.