How does the automaton monk challenge the centrality of an ‘intentful’ sender of the message in the dominant ideology of media?
Anthropology of Media Final Essay
Instructions:
⦁ You will need to write a ~1500-word response with an introduction and a conclusion in formal essay format. Your essay should answer two specific questions listed in the prompt. Please structure your essay as follows:
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraphs 2 & 3: Address Q1
Paragraphs 4 & 5: Address Q2
Paragraph 6: Conclusion
⦁ Your essay will be assessed not merely on whether you answered correctly or incorrectly, but also on how well you analyzed and structured your response.
⦁ Your essay should show your breadth of knowledge and depth of analysis. To demonstrate these skills, in addition to the class discussions and lectures, you must reference at least five readings or films from the course in your essay. Please include both in-text citations and a reference list. If you remain consistent throughout your essay, you are free to use whatever style you prefer. It is also important to illustrate the relationships between the theories, terms, or views you discuss. Your argument must be well-supported by accurate and compelling information from the course materials and the podcast to which the question refers.
[Q1]
“A Clockwork Miracle” is an episode of the Radiolab podcast about a 16th century automaton kept at the Smithsonian Institution[1]. Please listen to the episode (Links to an external site.) (20 minutes[2]) before writing your essay. (https://radiolab.org/episodes/radiolab-clockwork-miracle)
Let’s examine the legend from the point of view of anthropology of media. This episode of Radiolab focuses on two representations of Diego de Alcalá. On the one hand, we have the Diego that Don Carlos sees in a dream on his deathbed. The dream Diego appears to be a “messenger from God,” telling the badly injured crown prince that he will survive. The other Diego is a mechanical model of the saint, an automaton representing the monk. The automaton too carries a message, this time from Philip II— “the God among men”— to God. It is a message of gratitude: “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Both Diegos—the dream Diego and the robot Diego—are mediums because they function as channels of communication between Philip II of Spain (and his son) and God.
It seems that this notion of a medium (a channel of communication between the royal family and God) closely aligns with what we called in our class the ‘dominant ideology of media’. In the case of the dream Diego, the immaterial phantom of Diego—a pious Franciscan (i.e., unaffected with material life due to required austerity) lay brother (i.e., a less educated person in the order and therefore less likely to alter the message)—transfers an assuring message from one end of the channel to the other end. So, Diego appears to be a neutral instrument used to accomplish someone else’s goal. The robot Diego is also an instrument. Upon being set up, it faithfully repeats the programed message of gratitude and sends it to Heaven.
This conclusion is drawn from the premise that there are only two varieties of Diego de Alcalá in the story. But wait! Are there only two Diegos? Didn’t we completely forget about another Diego: the corpse snuck in Don Carlos’ bed? The first question we’d like you to think about is about how this third Diego problematizes the dominant media ideology.
Q1. How does Diego de Alcalá’s “100-year dead corpse” put in bed with Don Carlos problematize the dominant ideology of media described above in terms of the saint in Don Carlos’ dream? In other words, how does the story of Diego’s corpse challenge the assumptions about the true nature and function of media in the dominant ideology of media and other aspects of a conduit metaphor for communication?
As an automaton monk, the robot Diego also seems to reveal the illusory nature of the view we termed ‘the dominant ideology of media’ in our course. Central to this view is the sender of the message and their intentions, for everything begins with and revolves around the intention of the sender. But what if the movements of a disciplined prayer are more important than their intentions? What if it’s not just about “whether you feel it,” but about how you do it—not intention but practice and performance? The second question we’d like you to reflect on is related to how the automaton monk challenges the dominant media ideology.
Q2. How does the automaton monk challenge the centrality of an ‘intentful’ sender of the message in the dominant ideology of media?
[1] Radiolab is created by Latif Naser, Jad Abumorad, and Robert Krulwhich. The text within quotation marks below is taken directly from the episode.
[2] The transcript of the show is available on the same page
