Hands-on! Plädoyer für eine experimentelle Medienarchäologie

in Technikgeschichte (2015), 82(1), 67-85

Inspired by experiences with doing experimental research in the fields of history of science, archaeology and musicology this essay aims at reflecting on the heuristic potential of experimental media ... [more ▼]

Inspired by experiences with doing experimental research in the fields of history of science, archaeology and musicology this essay aims at reflecting on the heuristic potential of experimental media archaeology for a history of technology interested in the sensorial dimension of technology. Based on the concept of re-enactment, experimental media archaeology tries to explore new ways of experiencing and understanding the materiality of media technologies by interacting with these objects in a playful manner. In order to do so, the article argues, we need to de-auratize historical objects and turn the historian – which to often remains within the textual realm when studying the past media practices – into an experimenter and the museum into a laboratory. Ziel dieses Essays ist es, experimentelle Medienarchäologie als alternative Methode einer sinnes- und objektorientierten Technik- und Mediengeschichtsschreibung zu skizzieren. Basierend auf den Erfahrungen im Bereich experimenteller Wissenschaftsgeschichte, der experimentellen Archäologie sowie der historisch informierten Aufführungspraxis in der Musik soll das erkenntnistheoretische Potenzial eines objekt- und sinnesorientierten experimentellen Zugangs im Bereich der Medien- und Technikgeschichte diskutiert werden. In bewusster Abgrenzung von klassischen medienarchäologischen Arbeiten, deren methodologisches Repertoire sich meist in der Diskursanalyse erschöpft, zielt die experimentelle Medienarchäologie auf eine spielerische Heuristik, in deren Mittelpunkt die Methode des „re-enactment“ steht. [less ▲]

"Neither good, nor bad, nor neutral": The Historical Dispositif of Communication Technologies

in Schreiber, Martin; Zimmermann, Clemens (Eds.) Journalism and Technological Change. Historical Perspectives, Contemporary Trends (2014)

Veins filled with the dilluted sap of rationality. A critical reply to Rens Bod

in BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review (2013), 128(4), 155-163

This article argues – in contradiction to the thesis developed by Rens Bod – that the hermeneutic tradition of humanities is not obsolete, especially when trying to understand the opportunities and ... [more ▼]

This article argues – in contradiction to the thesis developed by Rens Bod – that the hermeneutic tradition of humanities is not obsolete, especially when trying to understand the opportunities and challenges of using digital technologies for future research. The practice of digital history will have to be based on the critical analysis of the creation, enrichment, editing and retrieval of digital data as much as on the application of classical source criticism and historical contextualisation. If 'content' or rather 'data' is king in digital humanities, as imagined by Bod, context is its crown – at least for digital historians. [less ▲]

Tele-Saar. Europe's first commercial television station as a transnational experiment

in Comunicazioni Sociali: Journal of Media, Performing Arts and Cultural Sciences (2013), (1), 6-19

European Television

in Gabbard, Krin (Ed.) Oxford Bibliography Online: Cinema and Media Studies (2013)

European television has a double connotation: it characterizes both the history and current existence of multiple television institutions and channels across Europe as well as the phenomenon of ... [more ▼]

European television has a double connotation: it characterizes both the history and current existence of multiple television institutions and channels across Europe as well as the phenomenon of transnational, European television. Reaffirming the concept of Europe as “unity in diversity” and acknowledging the contested nature of Europe as a discursive character, both television and Europe can best be defined as projects that need to be continuously renegotiated and reinvented. Both “Europe” and “television” as concepts are constructed entities whose identities vary depending on the topic of inquiry and the roster of questions of those investigating the phenomena. Europe as a discursive construction has been instrumentalized from a multitude of angles (historical, religious, geographical, political, and cultural), and television has been approached as being essentially a technology, an institution, an art, or simply a form of popular entertainment. Historically speaking, the first regular television services started before World War II in Germany (1935) and Great Britain, but the late 1950s and early 1960s marked the real take off of television as a mass medium in most European countries. Transnational television in Europe started with the launch of Eurovision, the organization for the exchange of television programs within the European Broadcasting Union. Until the advent of the so-called dual broadcasting systems in the 1980s, most European countries had public service television institutions, financed by broadcasting fees. The start of commercial television and the advent of satellite broadcasting in the 1980s radically changed the European television landscape. This bibliography aims at offering guidance to the technical, economic, political, and cultural factors that shaped European television since its emergence in the late 1930s. It tries to pay equal attention to both important transnational developments and to specificities of national television cultures. [less ▲]

Experimental Media Archaeology: A Plea for New Directions

in Van den Oever, Annie (Ed.) Techné / Technology. Researching Cinema and Media Technologies - Their development, Use, and Impact (2013)

Sounds Familiar: Intermediality and Remediation in the Written, Sonic and Audiovisual Narratives of Berlin Alexanderplatz

in Bijsterveld, Karin (Ed.) Soundscapes of the Urban Past: Staged Sound as Mediated Cultural Heritage (2013)

Shifting Sounds: Textualization and Dramatization of Urban Soundscapes

in Bijsterveld, Karin (Ed.) Soundscapes of the Urban Past: Staged Sound as Mediated Cultural Heritage (2013)

Lire entre les lignes: une histoire transnationale de "l'entente cordiale" franco-britannique dans la télévision d'après-guerre

in Lévy, Marie-Francoise (Ed.) Jean d'Arcy. Penser la communication au xxe siècle (2013)

Phase II. Einige unpoetische Assoziationen zu einem Rundfunkgespräch zwischen Gotfried Benn und Thilo Koch (1949)

in Roder, Jan (Ed.) Ik woon in duizend kamers tegelijk. Opstellen voor en over Wiel Kusters (2012)