Centrum pro studium populární kultury

Technology, Humanity, and (Pop)Culture – a new theme for the 2024/2025 academic year, exclusively at the Center for the Study of Popular Culture. After last year’s successful run at Na Boršově Café, we’re returning there again – and we haven’t forgotten audio either – our podcast Popkultovka will air its second season.

 

Program of the Year

 

October 7, 2024 | Technology, Magazines, Gender
Jakub Machek 

November 11, 2024 | Women, Minorities, and Video Games: 15 Years of “Woke” (R)evolution
Honza Fára Andrš

December 2, 2024 | Technoculture in Berlin (🇬🇧 in English)
Anita Jóri

January 14, 2025 | The Little Insectivore and the Modern City
Blanka Nyklová 

February 11, 2025 | Technological Innovations in Socialist Food Production
Docent Jídlo, Martin Franc 

March 11, 2025 | Socialist Techno-Optimism and Ecological Catastrophe
Martin Babička 

April 8, 2025 | Captive of Images: The Visual Politics of the 21st Century
Andrea Průchová Hrůzová

May 13, 2025 | Punk and Music Fanzines in a Changing World
Miro Michela 

June 10, 2025 | Home, Smart Home. Futurescapes of Domestic Living (🇬🇧 in English)
Bartosz Hamarowski

 

Venue

 

All lectures take place at Na Boršově Café (map link), usually on the second Monday or Tuesday of the month. Lectures are not streamed online.

 

Annotation

 

The question of how new technologies influence modern society has accompanied it throughout its existence. Views oscillate and blend between, on the one hand, near-paranoia about technological development – think of the Luddite movement smashing machinery in 19th-century English textile factories – and, on the other, technophilia, an almost blind faith in the liberating and universally beneficial power of various technologies and technical solutions as the only way forward to a better future.

While both camps assign values to technologies, they often neglect the broader contexts of their origin and use. Technologies help define various identities – some directly (like nerds), others less obviously. Masculinity, for instance, is generally associated with greater technical competence than femininity; and conversely, technical activities performed by women are devalued as insufficiently professional.

Technology also profoundly affects cultural production, both materially – by enabling reproduction of cultural works or the emergence of new art forms such as photography, film, radio, computer games, and graphic art – and as a subject represented in culture. Not to mention its influence on the consumption of cultural content, including the rise of fan fiction.

These innovations don’t stop at the door of our homes; they also reshape what we consider “home” and “privacy.”

This year too, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPK) won’t disappoint its supporters. The rich program will unravel the complex relationships between popular culture and various technologies. We’ll examine how technology influences fanzine creation and how gender plays a role in it. We’ll explore how technology is portrayed in children’s media – through none other than the iconic Mole (Krtek) from film and TV. With help from international guests, we’ll look into how so-called smart homes are depicted in pop culture.

We won’t skip the gaming world – even the one behind the Iron Curtain – and to ensure no one leaves hungry, we’ll offer some insights from the world of socialist gastronomy and its technological ambitions.