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.

Topics

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.

  1. 2015
  2. Published

    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/worksArticles for encyclopediaResearch

  3. Published

    Das endlos bewegte Buch

    Pias, C., 2015, Das bewegte Buch: Ein Katalog der gelesenen Bücher; mit 104 Beispielen aus dem Deutschen Literaturarchiv Marbach. D. L. M. (ed.). Marbach: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft e.V., p. 48-67 20 p. (Marbacher Magazin; vol. 150/151/152).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesTransferpeer-review

  4. Published

    Fort da. Ein Zirkular über bewegte Bücher: Fragen von Claus Pias. Antworten von Andreas Bernard, Timon Beyes, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Christian Kracht, Thomas Macho, Eckhart Nickel, Joseph Vogl und Sigrid Weigel

    Pias, C., Bernard, A., Beyes, T., Gumbrecht, H. U., Kracht, C., Macho, T., Nickel, E., Vogl, J. & Weigel, S., 2015, Das bewegte Buch: ein Katalog der gelesenen Bücher; mit 104 Beispielen aus dem Deutschen Literaturarchiv Marbach. Gfrereis, H. & Pias, C. (eds.). Marbach: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft e.V., p. 68-87 20 p. (Marbacher Magazin; vol. 150/151/152).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  5. Published

    The Actions that Make a Musical Instrument: Exploring Club-DJing as an Instrumental Practice

    Förstel, A., Hardjowirogo, S.-I. & Egermann, H., 2015, Proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research: 16 – 19 June, 2015; Plymouth, UK. Kronland-Marinet, R., Aramaki, M., Ystad, S. & Eaton, J. (eds.). Plymouth: The Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics, p. 762–769 8 p. (Publications of the LMA).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    Von Modell zu Modell

    Müggenburg, J., 2015, Modelle und Modellierung. Balke, F., Siegert, B. & Vogl, J. (eds.). Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, p. 11-22 12 p. 1. (Archiv für Mediengeschichte; vol. 14).

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  7. 2014
  8. Published

    Soziale Medien: Neue Massen

    Baxmann, I. (Editor), Beyes, T. (Editor) & Pias, C. (Editor), 01.09.2014, Zürich: Diaphanes Verlag. 368 p. (Medienwissenschaftliche Symposien der DFG)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  9. Published
  10. Published

    Agentenspiele. Crowd Management, Sozialsimulation und Big Data

    Vehlken, S. & Pias, C., 01.02.2014, Managementperspektiven für die Zivilgesellschaft des 21. Jahrhunderts: Management als Liberal Art. von Müller, C. & Zinth, C.-P. (eds.). Berlin: Springer, p. 167-182 16 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  11. Published

    3DMIN – Challenges and Interventions in Design, Development and Dissemination of New Musical Instruments.

    Bovermann, T., Hinrichsen, A., Hildebrand Marques Lopes, D., de Campo, A., Egermann, H., Förstel, A., Hardjowirogo, S.-I., Pysiewciz, A. & Weinzierl, S., 2014, Proceedings - 40th International Computer Music Conference, ICMC 2014 and 11th Sound and Music Computing Conference, SMC 2014 - Music Technology Meets Philosophy: From Digital Echos to Virtual Ethos. Kouroupetroglou, G. & Georgaki, A. (eds.). National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Vol. 2. p. 1637-1641 5 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksArticle in conference proceedingsResearchpeer-review

  12. Published

    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 contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

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