2020/2 — Zirkulation

Now showing 1 - 19 of 19

Zirkulation. Einleitung in den Schwerpunkt
Hagener, Malte; Tellmann, Ute; Opitz, Sven (2020) , S. 10-19
The concept of «circulation» has recently come to hold considerable appeal to the humanities and social sciences, mainly due to the aspects of movement it implies. The concept is being applied today to (nearly) everything that bridges distances und changes positions. Thinking about circulation in this sense implies a conception of order. Our aim is to make visible and place into question such ideas of order through the articulation of three dimensions: the opening and closing of circular movements, the mediated observation of circulation, and the role of infrastructure.
Solar: A Meltdown
An, Ho Rui; Gramlich, Noam (2020) , S. 128-137
Dinge anders machen. Ein Gespräch über feministische Anthropozän-Kritik, Dekolonisierung der Geologie und «sensing» in Medien-Umwelten
Löffler, Petra; Perraudin, Léa; Schneider, Birgit; Yusoff, Kathryn; Gabrys, Jennifer (2020) , S. 138-152
Drawing from the observation of a general saturation in the discourses centered around the Anthropocene, Jennifer Gabrys and Kathryn Yusoff argue for radical and ongoing critique of hegemonic practices of knowledge. The conversation address questions of materiality in media studies and geology, alternative methodologies, and modes of participation, sensation, and representation, while sketching ways for feminist-decolonial worldbuilding in, after, and against the Anthropocene.
Schwebende Infrastrukturen. Die extraterritorialen Ballons von Project Loon und die Medien der Stratosphäre
Zindel, Hannah (2020) , S. 153-167
Since 2013 Google has sent hundreds of balloons into the stratosphere. They provide Internet access to regions that are restricted or not connected to the World Wide Web at all. With this geographically large-scale network, the company acts simultaneously as a telecommunications operator and Internet service provider, beyond the scope of familiar legislative authority. A historically informed perspective on these Internet balloons traces which political, technical, and epistemic concepts of the stratosphere Google takes up, changes, and constitutes with its Internet balloons. It places these concepts in context of discourses about the Internet for All, histories of unmanned balloon flights, and stratosphere simulations.
Die ‹Gestalt› der KI. Jenseits von Holismus und Atomismus
Bajohr, Hannes (2020) , S. 168-183
«Neural networks» seem to suggest a «Gestalt» logic — and, indeed, Gestalt psychology was a frequent reference in the early days of artificial intelligence that was, however, soon supplanted by atomistic descriptions. This article suggests that we conceive of the connectionist paradigm as a third position beyond the two philosophical lineages of atomism and holism. It proposes that we instead conceptualize neural networks executed on digital machines as «mixed systems», as «quasi-holistic assemblages». It also advocates for an understanding of neural networks not only as technical structures but also as conceptual tools in their own right, which allow us to rethink holistic concepts such as «style» or «mood» as quasi-holistic.
Juniorprofessur und dann noch Habilitation: sinnvoll oder absurd?
Ellenbürger, Judith (2020) , S. 184-87
The article discusses the pros and cons of a postdoctoral lecture qualification particularly for junior professors in the German academic system. On the one hand, it describes opportunities presented by this qualification, but on the other hand, it also addresses the absurdity that comes from academic everyday life, the characteristics of this qualification process, and specific point in time during a career in which it takes place. Finally, it argues for a modernization of the system.
Formatwechsel. Zur Methodendebatte
Sprenger, Florian; Heilmann, Till A.; Engemann, Christoph (2020) , S. 188-191
Korrekturlesen. Fehler als Denkfiguren
Nixdorff, Tabea (2020) , S. 192-199
Zeit- und verlustlos? Der Recycling-Kreislauf als ewiges Heilsversprechen
Weber, Heike (2020) , S. 20-32
Currently, many actors from politics, industry, or the waste trade as well as consumers refer to the vision of a circular economy to solve the waste problem once and for all. In the history of waste, the idea that society can imitate nature’s «cycles» through recycling is a recurring figure, and a circular mode of thinking has characterized concepts of nature, material, and waste for centuries. This article examines some of these closed loop metaphors and confronts their promises with the demanding work and transformation processes of recycling. The longer historical tradition as well as the promise of salvation communicated by the closed loop metaphor can explain why more appropriate metaphors for handling waste have largely failed to gain any recognition so far.
Mit oder ohne Ohren, mit oder ohne Schall. Theorie- und Begriffsarbeit in den Sound Studies
Haffke, Maren (2020) , S. 200-205
Rezensiert: James A. Steintrager, Rey Chow (Hg.): Sound Objects, Durham, London (Duke University Press) 2019; Britta Herrmann, Lars Korten (Hg.): Diskurse des Sonalen, Berlin (Vorwerk 8) 2019; Kerstin Ergenzinger: Navigating Noise, hg. v. Nathanja van Dijk, Kerstin Ergenzinger, Christian Kassung, Sebastian Schwesinger, Berlin (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König)
Der Schlaf, ein Betriebsmodus? Annäherungen an ein aktuelles Forschungsfeld
Stallschus, Stefanie (2020) , S. 206-211
Rezensiert: Jonathan Crary: 24/7. Schlaflos im Spätkapitalismus, Berlin (Wagenbach) 2014; Matthew Fuller: How to Sleep. The Art, Biology and Culture of Unconsciousness, London u.a. (Bloomsbury) 2018; Fabian Goppelsröder: Aisthetik der Müdigkeit, Zürich (Diaphanes) 2018
Die «Mobilmachung der Materie». Stoffströme und Stoffkreisläufe aus Sicht der stoffgeschichtlichen Forschung
Soentgen, Jens (2020) , S. 32-40
It is misleading to speak of material flows or the cycling of substances or of humans as emitting carbon dioxide, since this naturalizes a process that in reality has actors and contexts. Transdisciplinary research on substance histories focusses on contexts of action. It analyses those actions and networks of actors that mobilize and immobilize certain substances, and it presents its results as an integrated narrative. This type of research is based on a phenomenological notion of substance that stresses the activity of substances and presents, on this basis, a new picture of the interactions between actors and materials that contributes to research on the Anthropocene.
Zirkulationen des Kreises. Von der Regulation zur Adaption
Sprenger, Florian (2020) , S. 41-54
The text examines the significance of the circle for the representation of cycles and circulations in the history of ecology up to about 1970. As a symbol, the circle links totality to completeness and endlessness. It binds opposing forces, graphically showing the overcoming of opposites, while also implying a regular recurrence in processual concatenation and thus explaining a connectedness in which a single factor would be ineffective without the influence of other factors. Ecology is part of a discursive formation that has its origins in Platonic ideas of harmony, which came under pressure with the beginning of modern science. This article argues that the fields of knowledge of ecology are a venue for this conflict. By referring to the diagrammatics of ecology, the text examines the historical-epistemological conditions and the aesthetic representations of this contradiction.
Zirkulation im Netzwerk. Eine Betrachtung zur Zirkulationskraft von Filmfestivals
Loist, Skadi (2020) , S. 55-63
Activities at A-festivals such as Cannes show how much influence festivals have on the exploitation chain of films. A festival premiere promises to generate buzz through the attendance of the press and sales to distributors; this is followed by further festival screenings, a distribution strategy, and theatrical release. This article looks at the circulation of films through the festival network and uses approaches from film festival research and media industry studies, which favor the term circulation over distribution, to suggest that we use the concept of «circulation power». These considerations are supported by initial results from the empirical research project «Film Circulation in the International Festival Network».
Zirkulation, infrastrukturelle Bahnung, Schaltstellen. Europäische Grenzkontrolloperationen und die Koordination interorganisationaler Berichtsflüsse
Pollozek, Silvan; Passoth, Jan-Hendrik (2020) , S. 64-73
This paper draws on media studies to analyze the reporting system of Frontex joint operations at the external borders of the EU. It works out modes of coordination that allow reports to circulate interorganizationally. While practices of templatization, standardization, and replication render reports stabile, mobile, and recombinable, the template in form of a list with item batteries makes datasets adaptable to multiple contexts of usage. As reports also circulate along the boundaries and hierarchies of single authorities, switching points are also required in order to punctually transfer data from one administrative channel to another. In this way, multiple forms of infrastructuring enact a network-space of circulation that encompasses multiple authorities in a form that is both fragmented and organized radically.
Die Wirtschaft, durch Strom gelesen. Elektrizitätssysteme als energiewirtschaftliche Aufschreibesysteme (1880–1930)
Russ, Daniela (2020) , S. 74-83
The text ventures into a media history of energy by conceiving of electrical system as discourse networks (Aufschreibesysteme). While the nineteenth century referred to «power sources» that could be tapped locally, the twentieth century began to speak of «energy flows.» An energetic-economic discourse network refers to the methods, technologies, and media that record energy flows. Tracing the development of electrical systems between 1880 and 1930, the text shows how technologies of regulation and control informed the technical, economic, and political appropriation of electricity. It argues that documenting a flowing reservoir of labor power—the national power economy—by large electrical systems was crucial for this shift in the imagination of the energy economy.
The Great Pacific Garbage Catch. Müll als Medium einer ‹Plastic Oceanography›
Vehlken, Sebastian (2020) , S. 84-98
The article is dedicated to a three-fold media-becoming of garbage in oceanographic research. First, it deals with attempts to condense washed-up flotsam through media operations, such as searching, identifying, classifying, or networking it into data on ocean currents. Second, it investigates computer-assisted approaches to collect and recycle accumulated debris found in «garbage patches» by means of drifting barriers. Third, it examines the tracking of sensor-reinforced buoys used to follow the dispersion of marine debris. As an effect, the oceanic interference object plastic waste is included as an element of media-technological operations that make tangible the systemically interlocking circulation of global ocean currents and globalized waste production.
Zirkulation «revisited» Ein Forum zur Aktualität des Konzepts
Collier, Stephen; Chua, Charmaine; Parks, Lisa; Durham Peters, John; Sarkar, Bhaskar; Schüttpelz, Erhard (2020) , S. 99-127
Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft. Heft 23: Zirkulation
(2020)
Die Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft steht für eine kulturwissenschaftlich orientierte Medienwissenschaft, die Untersuchungen zu Einzelmedien aufgreift und durchquert, um nach politischen Kräften und epistemischen Konstellationen zu fragen. Sie stellt Verbindungen zu internationaler Forschung ebenso her wie zu verschiedenen Disziplinen und bringt unterschiedliche Schreibweisen und Textformate, Bilder und Gespräche zusammen, um der Vielfalt, mit der geschrieben, nachgedacht und experimentiert werden kann, Raum zu geben. Heft 23 widmet sich mit dem Begriff der »Zirkulation« einer zentralen Analyse- und Beschreibungskategorie der Medienwissenschaft. Er wird verwendet, um die Bewegung von Filmen und Serien, von Nachrichten und Inhalten, aber auch von Containern und Viren, Geld und Toxinen, Affekten und Verwaltungsformularen und vielem mehr zu erfassen. Insbesondere im Kontext der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie zielt er darauf ab, die Herstellung globaler Ordnungen durch das Nachzeichnen materieller Verknüpfungen, Übersetzungen und Vermittlungen zu verstehen. Indem er bereits selbst Verbindungen zwischen Medien, Ökologien und Ökonomien herstellt, gibt er Anlass, die mediale Ordnung von Kreisläufen zu untersuchen. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf den Dimensionen der Schließung, Beobachtung und Infrastruktur.

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