[Nettime-nl] lezing van Friedrich Kittler in Amsterdam (29-11)

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

TOWARDS AN ONTOLOGY OF MEDIA

Friedrich Kittler

The question whether media can be thought in terms of European
ontology is both a crucial and a difficult one. As you know, there
are, for very good reasons, many technological or mathematical
theories of communication, even - as in McLuhan or Walter J. Ong -
some silently theological ones. Ontology, however, as defined, in the
twilight of Greece, by Aristotle's "Metaphysics", has since then been
hostile to media, whether physical or technical. More than any other
theories and sciences, philosophies forgot to ask which media support
their very existence. Therefore, it is only with Heidegger's help
that we can hope to develop something like an ontology of  technical
media.

Friedrich Kittler is a media theorist and is a seminal figure in the
development of media theory. He is a Chair of Aesthetics and Media
History at the Humboldt University in Berlin and teaches at
University of California, Berkeley, the University of California,
Santa Barbara and Stanford University, Yale University, and Columbia
University as a visiting professor. His publications include
"Discourse Networks 1800 / 1900", "Gramophone Film Typewriter", and
"Literature, Media, Information Systems".

Respondent: Scott Lash, Professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies
at Goldsmiths College, University of London

Logistics

Date: Thursday, 29 November 2007

Time: 6 pm

Location: Doelenzaal, University Library, Singel 425, Amsterdam

Event hosts: Celia Lury, Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of
London and Richard Rogers, New Media, University of Amsterdam

The talk is made possible by "A Topological Approach to Cultural
Dynamics," the EU project, http://www.atacd.net, led by Goldsmiths
College, University of London. The co-sponsor is the Department of
Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, http://www.mediastudies.nl.

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