Media Matter: The Materiality of Media, Matter as Medium

Description

What is a medium? If Nietzsche was right in claiming that “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts,” that media help us "think," and if different media allow for different ways of thinking, then the "body" of the respective medium in question, its materiality, shapes and influences the range and direction of how media make us think. Shouldn't we consequently speak of informed matter and of materialized information? Launching Bloomsbury's Thinking Media series, Media Matter introduces readers to the nascent field of media-philosophy. Contributors urge readers to re-adjust their ideas of Media Studies, by both extending the understanding of "medium" in such a way as to include a concept of materiality that also includes "non-human" transmitters (elements such as water, earth, fire, air) and by understanding media not only in the context of cultural or discursive systems or apparatuses, relays, transistors, hardware or "discourse networks," but more inclusively, in terms of a "media ecology." Beginning with more general essays on media and then focusing on particular themes (neuroplasticity, photography, sculpture and music), especially in relation to film, Herzogenrath and contributors redefine the concept of "medium" in order to think through media, rather than about them. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgments Contributors Media|Matter: An Introduction Theory|Matter Text|Matter Film|Matter Art|Matter Sound|Matter Note References Part 1 - [Theory|Matter] Chapter 1 [Meta]Physics of Media Notes References Chapter 2 Media Matter: Materiality and Performativity in Media Theory “Material” reflections Media philosophy Untouchable matter Media practices Notes References Part 2 - [Text|Matter] Chapter 3 Between Print Matter and Page Matter: The Codex Platform as Medial Support Demediation Within the mediatic “network” Stress-tested substrates 3D printing and the e-lided text InterVase: The vanished material interface References Chapter 4 “Local Color”: Light in Faulkner Introduction The elements of Faulkner’s South Light Luminism Deleuze: Light and the image Local light References Part 3 - [Film|Matter] Chapter 5 Figure|Ground: Stills from the Films of Bill Morrison Chapter 6 Matter that Images: Bill Morrison’s Decasia Film: Time|Movement Film: Time|Movement—projection Film: Time|Movement—representation Film: Time|Movement—preservation Film: Time|Movement—manifestation Decasia: The matter-image Film is also a thing … Ruinous film|Filmic ruin The aura of the thing Notes References Chapter 7 Moving Images as Ontographic Images (According to Pier Paolo Pasolini) References Chapter 8 Brain Matter and New Phrenologies: Challenging Brains with Melancholy and Vice Versa One: Brain growth and sparks in context Two: Naked philosophy and neurophilosophies Three: Brains as centers, products, and participants Four: An object of affection in-between and nowhere Five: The in-between on the screen Notes References Chapter 9 The Media Boundary Objects Concept: Theorizing Film and Media Fuzzy material: Semiotic and technological determinism in theorizing media Material semiotics: Material as relational effect Relational determinism: Network as metaphor Boundary objects concept The media boundary objects concept Media boundary objects in the wild: Film and consultancy Conclusion References Part 4 - [Art|Matter] Chapter 10 Borderline: Nauman’s Balls and Acconci’s Shoot Bruce Nauman’s balls Media matter: A body’s semantics and a video’s materiality Vito Acconci’s shoot Borderline: Communication through bodily affinities Notes References Chapter 11 The Romantic Readymade: Toward a Material Vitalism of Contemporary Art Notes References Part 5 - [Sound|Matter] Chapter 12 Revisiting the Voice in Media and as Medium: New Materialist Propositions Introduction Voice and relation: From a mediator in-between to relational events The virtual in the sensory? Vocalizing the posthuman The King’s Speech and the emergent medium of the voice Stripsody and multisensory voice Conclusions Notes References Chapter 13 Sonic Matter: The Material Cut-ups of Christian Marclay Roots Influences Recycled records Pop assemblages Notes References Chapter 14 Media Disenchantments References Index Concepts/keywords