Title: Read & Repair - The Means of Communication as a Means of Production
Date: 2020-08-25
Category: event
Slug: rr-the-means-of-communication
lang: en
event_start: 2020-08-30 11:00
event_duration: 2h00
featured_image:/images/read-and-repair-august-2020.png
status: draft
summary: Every last Sunday of the month the Varia library and Rotterdam Electronics Depot are open. This Sunday we will dive into a text written by Raymond Williams in 1978, called *The Means of Communication as the Means of Production*.


Come and make yourself comfortable, read together with others, browse/exchange/acquire parts from our electronics depot or use the quietness of the day to repair things that need fixing.

Each session of Read & Repair is looking at a different text, sometimes guided by a guest.

This next edition will feature Raymond Williams' The Means of Communication as a Means of Production (1978). Having been reduced from their status as means of social production, means of communication are seen only as "media".

The text focuses on the materiality of communication, how communication tools are produced and questions how this determines who can use, study or alter them. Although the text is not directly written in relation to questions around user agency and digital tools, it closely connects to them. We will read Williams' text and try to contextualise it in light of our current relationship with communication technologies.

*In this it is above all a production of new means (new forces and new relations) of production, in a central part of the social material process; and through these new means of production a more advanced and more complex realization of the decisive productive relationships between communication and community.*

The reading will take place on the day itself, but you can browse the text in advance [here](https://arena-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/5203089/588b63303705dfc574fa6186d1a15500.pdf?1570568092).

We will meet this time in the physical space of Varia in Charlois!

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**Date**: Sunday 28th of June

**Time**: 15:00h - 17:00h

**Location**: Varia, Gouwstraat 3 (Rotterdam, Charlois)

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We are looking forward to practice careful conviviality together again! Physical presences will be protected as much as possible by adopting some security measures: max 12 people are allowed in the space with 1.5 meter distance between them. Hand gel and masks are available.