Richard Coyne
Encyclopedia
Richard Coyne is Professor of Architectural Computing at the University of Edinburgh
where he is Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Environment, which covers the disciplines of architecture, history of art and music. Coyne is an architect by training and attempts to bring a design-oriented and spatial understanding to his research and writing on digital themes.
on hermeneutics and interpretation theory, particularly as developed by Coyne's colleague Adrian Snodgrass
in the 1990s, and with whom he co-authored the book Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking. Coyne’s work often returns to an appeal to a “commonsense” view that we are interpretive beings, in community and operating in a practical context. He articulates the pragmatic thread in his book Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age: From Method to Metaphor, a theme picked up by HCI researchers such as John McCarthy and Peter Wright, and in which he indicates a debt to Winograd and Flores’ work. He wrote this book while at the University of Sydney, where he completed his PhD. Coyne also acknowledges his debt to John Lansdown
, an architect who pioneered many innovations in digital art and design.
has been well-received, particularly amongst art and design theorists looking for inroads into philosophical debate. His book on the subject
explores the spectrum of romantic narratives that pervades the digital age, from McLuhan's utopian vision of social reintegration by electronic communication to claims that cyberspace creates new realities. The book posits strategies of deconstruction as antidote to technoromanticism, and draws particularly on the writings of Jacques Lacan
and Slavoj Žižek
. He picks up on the theme of deconstruction in his latest book Derrida for Architects (2011).
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
where he is Head of the School of Arts, Culture and Environment, which covers the disciplines of architecture, history of art and music. Coyne is an architect by training and attempts to bring a design-oriented and spatial understanding to his research and writing on digital themes.
Influences
Coyne is author of several books on the implications of information technology and design, published by MIT Press and Routledge. His work is strongly influenced by the writings of the philosopher Hans-Georg GadamerHans-Georg Gadamer
Hans-Georg Gadamer was a German philosopher of the continental tradition, best known for his 1960 magnum opus, Truth and Method .-Life:...
on hermeneutics and interpretation theory, particularly as developed by Coyne's colleague Adrian Snodgrass
Adrian Snodgrass
Adrian Snodgrass is an internationally renowned authority in Buddhist studies and Buddhist art. He has developed important theories in the area of hermeneutical philosophy and its application to knowledge production and cross-cultural understanding. Snodgrass is co-editor of the journal...
in the 1990s, and with whom he co-authored the book Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking. Coyne’s work often returns to an appeal to a “commonsense” view that we are interpretive beings, in community and operating in a practical context. He articulates the pragmatic thread in his book Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age: From Method to Metaphor, a theme picked up by HCI researchers such as John McCarthy and Peter Wright, and in which he indicates a debt to Winograd and Flores’ work. He wrote this book while at the University of Sydney, where he completed his PhD. Coyne also acknowledges his debt to John Lansdown
John Lansdown
Robert John Lansdown was a British computer graphics pioneer, polymath and Professor Emeritus at Middlesex University Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, which was renamed in his honour in 2000....
, an architect who pioneered many innovations in digital art and design.
Technoromanticism
Coyne’s writing on the theme of technoromanticismTechnoromanticism
Technoromanticism is a term used to indicate those aspects of contemporary culture that ascribe to advanced technologies the capacity to promote the power of the imagination, to restore the role of genius and to bring about a unity; in other words that revive and perpetuate the legacy of the...
has been well-received, particularly amongst art and design theorists looking for inroads into philosophical debate. His book on the subject
Technoromanticism (book)
Technoromanticism is a philosophical book written by Richard Coyne with the subtitle: digital narrative, holism, and the romance of the real....
explores the spectrum of romantic narratives that pervades the digital age, from McLuhan's utopian vision of social reintegration by electronic communication to claims that cyberspace creates new realities. The book posits strategies of deconstruction as antidote to technoromanticism, and draws particularly on the writings of Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...
and Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
. He picks up on the theme of deconstruction in his latest book Derrida for Architects (2011).