Connectivism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the literary movement. For the learning theory, see Connectivism (learning theory).
Connectivism (or Nexialism, or even Nextialism) is a cultural movement risen at the beginning of the 21st century in Italy, where is known as Connettivismo. It originated in Italian science fiction as an initiative of a group of writers, bloggers and artists. The name is derived from the imaginary doctrine that connects the specific knowledge of other disciplines, as introduced by Canadian science fiction author Alfred Elton van Vogt. The word Nexialism was translated in Italian as Connettivismo, which is at present time nearer to the English "Connectivism". The character of the "nexialist" appears for the first time in the story "Black Destroyer" (1939), which was integrated in 1950 in the novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle.
[edit] Italian Science Fiction
In Italian science fiction, Connectivism is a literary movement that includes experiences and features from the genre as well as from the Avant-gardes of the 20th century, like Cyberpunk and Futurism. Officially it was born in December 2004, after the release of a "Manifesto" that fixed its main coordinates in the convergence of several expressive languages and media and its purpose in the definition of a new sensibility, necessary to interpret the changes produced by technological progress in our societies. This tendency leads the movement close to the features of Transhumanism and Posthumanism.
Main influences on connectivists are science fiction writers Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, James G. Ballard, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Vernor Vinge, Iain M. Banks, Ken MacLeod, Valerio Evangelisti, cubo-futurist poets Vladimir Majakovskij and Velimir Khlebnikov and postmodernists William S. Burroughs and Thomas Pynchon. In their works, the members of this movement aim to match scientific subjects proper of hard sci-fi with a taste for literary experimentation.
Connectivists publish a fanzine, "NeXT", at the origin of the alternative name of nextialist. The group is structured as an open source project and accepts new members who express adhesion to the spirit and program lines of the "Manifesto". In 2007 Giovanni De Matteo (one of the founders together with Sandro Battisti and Marco Milani) won the Urania Award with the novel Sezione π².
