Professorship for Theory and History of Media
Organisational unit: Professoship
Organisation profile
Media Theory and Media History at the ICAM researches the media-related possibilities and conditions of cognition, representation and research, or, more generally, of cultural practices—with a special interest in technological interconnections.
Main research areas
This perspective stands in the tradition of technologically informed discourse analyses following Michel Foucault and Friedrich Kittler. Aware of the limitations and in part justified critique of the techno-deterministic forms of this approach, we conduct research and teach in the frame of theoretical further developments of cultural studies-oriented media research. In exchange with other disciplines, we not only place a greater focus on aspects such as actors, concrete locations or networks, it is also important for us to reflect upon the historical genealogy of concepts and methods applied in media studies themselves. This results in an orientation one can best designate with the term of media-historical epistemology.
The aim is not to advance an own type of “media philosophy,” but to conduct historical studies on (media) technologies that are of interest from a media-theoretical point of view in that they lead to epistemological consequences. We therefore grasp the Media Theory and Media History not as two separate fields that are to be researched and taught at the university independently of each other. Instead, we find that grasping media theory and media history as a dynamic relationship of exchange leads to much more productive ideas and questions in research and teaching. For us, media-historical epistemology is therefore not a discipline in the classical sense. To speak with Ludwik Fleck, it is a form of a “thinking collective” or “style of thinking” chosen for quite pragmatic reasons. Such a style of thinking enables second-order observations that aim at retracing misunderstandings, disruptions, breaks, caesuras, or, in short, “epistemological obstacles” (Bachelard) that characterize the history of media. The strengths of a media-historical epistemology understood in this way lies in its compatibility with other current approaches in cultural studies, e.g., the research of cultural technologies, the research of laboratories and science, or the history of science.
To this end, a media-historical epistemology must be well informed not only about the disciplines whose media-related methods it addresses, but also about the current methodological standards of neighboring approaches, such as science studies, musicology, Science, Technology and Society (STS), visual studies, or technological and cultural history. For the purpose of a specific media epistemology, they are taken up, examined, and reformulated in view of their subject matter. Such a combination of media theory and media history makes no problem-solving promises of enhanced media technologies or more successful conveyance of science, but offers itself as a method to problematize science, society, and culture.
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Blöde Sklaven oder lebhafte Artefakte ? Eine Debatte der 1960er
Müggenburg, J. & Pias, C., 2013, Automatismen - Selbst-Technologien. Bublitz, H., Kaldrack, I., Röhle, T. & Zeman, M. (eds.). Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 45-69 24 p. (Schriftenreihe des Graduiertenkollegs "Automatismen").Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
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Brüchige Hermetik – Zu geschichtstheoretischen Figuren bei Spengler und Kittler
Schnödl, G., 2021, In: Links Rivista Di Letteratura E Cultura Tedesca. 21, p. 33-42 10 p.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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By Means of Which: Media, Technology, Organisation
Beyes, T., Holt, R. & Pias, C., 12.12.2019, The Oxford Handbook of Media, Technology, and Organization Studies. Beyes, T., Pias, C. & Holt, R. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 498-514 17 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research
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Clean by Nature. Lebhafte Oberflächen und das holistisch-systemische Erbe der zeitgenössischen Bionik
Müggenburg, J., 11.03.2015, Das Wissen der Oberfläche: Epistemologie des Horizontalen und Strategien der Benachbarung. Rieger, S. & Lechtermann, C. (eds.). Zürich: Diaphanes Verlag, p. 233-252 20 p. (sequenzia).Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
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Clean by Nature. Lively Surfaces and the Holistic-Systemic Heritage of Contemporary Bionik.
Müggenburg, J., 2014, In: Communication +1. 3, p. 233-252 30 p., 9.Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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Collectives, Connectives, and the ‘Nonsense1 of Participation
Pias, C., 02.2016, ReClaiming participation: technology - mediation - collectivity . Denecke, M., Ganzert, A., Stock, R. & Otto, I. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 23-38 17 p.Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
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Computer Game Worlds
Pias, C., 2017, Zürich: Diaphanes Verlag. 355 p. (sequenzia)Research output: Books and anthologies › Monographs › Research › peer-review
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Computersimulation
Vehlken, S., Schrickel, I. & Pias, C., 2015, Futurologien: Ein Glossar des Zukunftswissens. Bühler, B. & Willer, S. (eds.). 1 ed. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 181-192 12 p. (TRAJEKTE - Eine Reihe des Zentrums für Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin).Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Articles for encyclopedia › Research
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Cybernetics: The Macy Conferences 1946-1953. The Complete Transactions
Pias, C. (Editor), 03.2016, Zurich: Diaphanes Verlag. 736 p.Research output: Books and anthologies › Collected editions and anthologies › Research