Monographien

Monographien aus dem Bereich der Medienwissenschaft

Now showing 1 - 20 of 334

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Montfort, Nick; Baudoin, Patsy; Bell, John; Bogost, Ian; Douglass, Jeremy; Marino, Mark C.; Mateas, Michael; Reas, Casey; Sample, Mark; Vawter, Noah (2013)
This book takes a single line of code—the extremely concise BASIC program for the Commodore 64 inscribed in the title—and uses it as a lens through which to consider the phenomenon of creative computing and the way computer programs exist in culture. The authors of this collaboratively written book treat code not as merely functional but as a text—in the case of 10 PRINT, a text that appeared in many different printed sources—that yields a story about its making, its purpose, its assumptions, and more. They consider randomness and regularity in computing and art, the maze in culture, the popular BASIC programming language, and the highly influential Commodore 64 computer.
SOS: Medien des Überlebens. Die existenzielle Bedeutung von Lebenszeichen in Notfällen
Siegler, Martin (2023)
SOS-Signale auf hoher See, Klopfzeichen in Trümmerfeldern, Flaschenposten am Strand: Wenn Menschen in Not geraten, müssen sie mit allen Mitteln auf sich aufmerksam machen. Sie müssen Lebenszeichen senden, um am Leben zu bleiben. Dieses Buch erforscht das Phänomen des Lebenszeichens erstmals aus der Perspektive von Medienkulturwissenschaft, Zeichentheorie und Existenzphilosophie. Anhand zahlreicher Katastrophenszenarien wie Erdbeben, Lawinen und Bergwerkunglücken zeigt die Studie, warum Menschen in Not existenziell von Medien und Kommunikationsmitteln abhängen: Keine Lebenszeichen ohne Signalfackeln, Peilsender, Satelliten oder Infrarotsensoren. Medien in Notfällen sind mehr als nur Mittel zur Kommunikation, sie sind Bedingungen menschlicher Existenz. Sie entscheiden, ob und wie sich Leben in Not äußern kann, ob Lebenszeichen Gehör finden und ob Leben gerettet wird. Damit werfen Lebenszeichen ein neues Licht auf die elementaren Bedingungen menschlichen Lebens: Sie zeigen uns, dass Menschen in Not nur überleben, wenn sie mit Artefakten, Netzwerken und Infrastrukturen verbunden sind, die ihre Existenz ermöglichen.
Ed Wood. Trash und Ironie
Kulle, Daniel (2012)
Edward D. Wood jr., so lautet ein populäres Urteil, ist der schlechteste Regisseur aller Zeiten. Und dieser Titel ist nicht einmal ungerechtfertigt: Seine Filme strotzen vor handwerklichen Fehlern, Patzern und logischen Umgereimtheiten. Wackelnde Pappkulissen, nuschelnde Schauspieler oder selbstgebastelte Special Effects unterscheiden sich so gründlich von der herkömmlichen Hollywoodästhetik, dass es Spaß macht, diese Filme als Trash zu genießen. Das Buch geht am Beispiel Ed Woods der Frage nach, was eine Rezeption von schlechten Filmen als Trash bedeutet: Warum sind Filme wie GLEN OR GLENDA (1953), BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1955) oder PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) nicht nur schlecht, sondern grandios schlecht? Was heißt es, einen Film als Trash ab- und ihn im selben Zug ironisch aufzuwerten? Welche ästhetischen Merkmale sind es, die eine solche Rezeption begünstigen? Ausgehend von einer kulturellen Theorie des Mülls und einer romantischen Konzeption von Ironie entwickelt der Autor eine Theorie des Trash, die sich aus einer Ästhetik des Inkonsistenten, des Billigen und Dilettantischen ergibt. Und er klärt die Frage, wie Filme so schlecht sein können, dass sie schon wieder gut sind.
Parody in the Age of Remix. Mashup Creativity vs. the Takedown
Brøvig, Ragnhild (2023)
Parody needn't recognize copyright—but does an algorithm recognize parody? The ever-increasing popularity of remix culture and mashup music, where parody is invariably at play, presents a conundrum for internet platforms, with their extensive automatic, algorithmic policing of content. Taking a wide-ranging look at mashup music—the creative and technical considerations that go into making it; the experience of play, humor, enlightenment, and beauty it affords; and the social and legal issues it presents—Parody in the Age of Remix offers a pointed critique of how society balances the act of regulating art with the act of preserving it. In several jurisdictions, national and international, parody is exempted from copyright laws. Ragnhild Brøvig contends that mashups should be understood as a form of parody, and thus be protected from removal from hosting platforms. Nonetheless, current copyright-related content-moderation regimes, relying on algorithmic detection and automated decision making, frequently eliminate what might otherwise be deemed gray-area content—to the detriment of human listeners and, especially, artists. Given the inaccuracy of takedowns, Parody in the Age of Remix makes a persuasive argument in favor of greater protection for remix creativity in the future—but it also suggests that the content-moderation challenges facing mashup producers and other remixers are symptomatic of larger societal issues.
Life and technology. An inquiry into and beyond Simondon
Barthélémy, Jean-Hugues (2015)
The philosophy of Gilbert Simondon has reinvigorated contemporary thinking about biological and technological beings. In this book, Jean-Hugues Barthélémy takes up Simondon’s thought and shows how life and technology are connected by a transversal theme: individuation. In the first essay, Barthélémy delivers a contemporary interpretation of Simondon’s concept of ontogenesis against the backdrop of biology and cybernetics. In the second essay, he extends his reflections to propose a non-anthropological understanding of technology, and so sets up a confrontation with the work of Martin Heidegger.
Playing American. Open-World Videogames and the Reproduction of American Culture
Schoppmeier, Sören (2023)
Videogames have always depicted representations of American culture, but how exactly they feed back into this culture is less obvious. Advocating an action-based understanding of both videogames and culture, this book delineates how aspects of American culture are reproduced transnationally through popular open-world videogames. Playing American proposes an analytic focus on open-world videogames' "ambient operations" and traces practices of "playing American" through the stages of videogame development, gameplay, and reception. Three case studies – concentrating on the Grand Theft Auto, Watch Dogs, and Red Dead Redemption franchises, respectively – highlight different figurations of "playing American." Thematic foci range from public discourses on systemic racism and neoliberal capitalism to the justification of real-world surveillance practices and to the reconfiguration of the Western in the digital age. Playing American provides those interested in either videogames or American culture with a fresh angle and new concepts regarding its subject matters. It demonstrates that videogames are agents of cultural reproduction that do distinct cultural work for American culture in the twenty-first century.
The West in Early Cinema: After the Beginning
Verhoeff, Nanna (2006)
Verhoeff investigates the emergence of the western genre, made in the first two decades of cinema (1895-1915). By analyzing many unknown and forgotten films from international archives she traces the relationships between films about the American West, their surrounding films, and other popular media such as photography, painting, (pulp) literature, Wild West Shows and popular ethnography. Through this exploration of archival material she raises new questions of historiography and provides a model for historical analysis. These first traces of the Western film reveal a preoccupation with presence and actuality that informs us about the way in which film, as new medium, took shape within the context of its contemporary visual culture.
Visualisierungen des Ereignisses. Medienästhetische Betrachtungen zu Bewegung und Stillstand
Schmidt, Gunnar (2009)
Springen, Fallen, Spritzen und Explodieren sind Flüchtigkeitsphänomene, die in jüngerer Geschichte durch mediale Inszenierungen Sensationswert erhalten haben und unser kulturelles Bildbewusstsein prägen. Auf der Grundlage einer kulturwissenschaftlich orientierten Bildwissenschaft rekonstruiert der Autor Ursprung und Wandel von Plötzlichkeitsmotiven, um die daraus entstehenden Semantiken und Faszinationseffekte zu ermitteln. Ausgehend von Beispielen aus der wissenschaftlichen, populärkulturellen, journalistischen und Mode-Ikonografie werden Produktionen des visuell Außergewöhnlichen verfolgt sowie überraschende Verbindungen zwischen unterschiedlichen Visualitätskulturen aufgezeigt. Ein reiches Bildmaterial belegt eindrucksvoll, wie Aufzeichnungsmedien an der Herstellung von modernen Ereigniserfahrungen teilhaben.
Introduction to a Future Way of Thought. On Marx and Heidegger
Axelos, Kōstas M. (2015)
“Technologists only change the world in various ways in generalized indifference; the point is to think the world and interpret the changes in its unfathomability, to perceive and experience the difference binding being to the nothing.” Anticipating the age of planetary technology Kostas Axelos, a Greek-French philosopher, approaches the technological question in this book, first published in 1966, by connecting the thought of Karl Marx and Martin Heidegger. Marx famously declared that philosophers had only interpreted the world, but the point was to change it. Heidegger on his part stressed that our modern malaise was due to the forgetting of being, for which he thought technological questions were central. Following from his study of Marx as a thinker of technology, and foreseeing debates about globalization, Axelos recognizes that technology now determines the world. Providing an introduction to some of his major themes, including the play of the world, Axelos asks if planetary technology requires a new, a future way of thought which in itself is planetary.
The Mediatization of the O.J. Simpson Case. From Reality Television to Filmic Adaptation
Neubauer, Tatjana (2023)
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said: “Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.” In the 1990s, nobody fell deeper than O.J. Simpson. Once considered a national treasure, the athlete was accused of brutally slaying his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994. Within days, the media and public developed an unprecedented obsession with the story, turning a murder investigation and trial into a sensationalized reality show. Tatjana Neubauer examines the mediatization, deliberate manipulation, and the simplification of popular criminal trials for profit on television. She demonstrates that TV conflated legal proceedings into entertainment programming by commodifying events, people, and places.
Stardesigner oder Gestalter des Alltäglichen? Designrezeption in der Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie
Köck, Markus (2021)
Wie “entstehen” Stars und Designklassiker im Feld des Designs? Markus Köck befasst sich erstmals mit der Prominenz im Feld des Designs für den deutschsprachigen Raum und bietet einen Einblick in 13 Publikationen über einen Zeitraum von nahezu sechs Jahrzehnten sowie in seine Arbeit mit raren Quelltexten aus Finnland, Japan und den USA. Dabei bettet er die Kernthemen Designrezeption und Konstruktion von Prominenz in der deutschsprachigen Presselandschaft in einen breiten Kontext ein, der die Grenzen der Disziplin zur Soziologie, Ethnologie, Anthropologie und auch zur Psychologie hin ausweitet.
Medien - Systeme – Netze. Elemente einer Theorie der Cyber-Netzwerke
Weber, Stefan (2001)
Alle reden von Netzen und Netzwerken. Was bislang in der Medienwissenschaft fehlt, ist eine empirisch belastbare und theoretisch hinreichend komplexe Theorie der Fäden, Knoten, Netze und Netzwerke. Der Medienepistemologe Stefan Weber stellt sich mit diesem Buch dieser Aufgabe. Ist das Internet ein Medium oder bloß technische Infrastruktur? Ist das World-Wide-Web ein autopoietisches System? Sind Netzwerke Systeme? – Fragen dieser Art beherrschen die netzwissenschaftliche Debatte und zeugen von begrifflichen Konfusionen angesichts der neuen Medien. Webers Text ist der Versuch einer Flurbereinigung. Empirisch führt der Theorievorschlag zu einer strukturierten Beobachtung von Mikro- bis Makro-Trends der Netzmedialisierung: ›Viralisierung‹, Selbstreferenzialisierung, Mensch/Maschine-Entdifferenzierung, Entdualisierung klassischer Kommunikationsverhältnisse und Redualisierung binärer Sozialstrukturen.
Distant Viewing. Computational Exploration of Digital Images
Arnold, Taylor; Tilton, Lauren (2023)
A new theory and methodology for the application of computer vision methods to the computational analysis of collected, digitized visual materials, called “distant viewing.” Distant Viewing: Computational Exploration of Digital Images presents a new theory and methodology for the computational analysis of digital images, offering a lively, constructive critique of computer vision that you can actually use. What does it mean to say that computer vision “understands” visual inputs? Annotations never capture a whole image. The way digital images convey information requires what researchers Taylor Arnold and Lauren Tilton call “distant viewing”—a play on the well-known term “distant reading” from computational literary analysis. Recognizing computer vision's limitations, Arnold and Tilton's spirited examination makes the technical exciting by applying distant viewing to the sitcoms Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, movie posters and other popular forms of advertising, and Dorothea Lange's photography. In the tradition of visual culture studies and computer vision, Distant Viewing's interdisciplinary perspective encompasses film and media studies, visual semiotics, and the sciences to create a playful, accessible guide for an international audience working in digital humanities, data science, media studies, and visual culture studies.
Picturing the Future in Outer Space at the Dawn of the Space Race. Disneys TOMORROWLAND (USA 1955–56) and ROAD TO THE STARS (USSR 1957)
Grampp, Sven (2015)
The "Space Race" describes the race for the supremacy in space between the two superpowers, the USA and the former Soviet Union, during the Cold War. This race was lead in the 1950s and 1960s and culminated in the question which nation would be able to send its first manned mission to the moon. Sven Grampp considers the "Space Race" not by looking at images of space missions that have already taken place or are taking place right this moment, but instead by devoting himself to the explicit "future visions" that were circulating while the race to the moon was in the early stages. In his analysis he looks at the different styles of interpreting the future of East and West with two examples: Walt Disney’s TOMORROWLAND (USA 1955–1956) and ROAD TO THE STARS (USSR 1957).
Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, Misinformation and Manipulation
Hendricks, Vincent F.; Vestergaard, Mads (2019)
This open access book looks at how a democracy can devolve into a post-factual state. The media is being flooded by populist narratives, fake news, conspiracy theories and make-believe. Misinformation is turning into a challenge for all of us, whether politicians, journalists, or citizens. In the age of information, attention is a prime asset and may be converted into money, power, and influence – sometimes at the cost of facts. The point is to obtain exposure on the air and in print media, and to generate traffic on social media platforms. With information in abundance and attention scarce, the competition is ever fiercer with truth all too often becoming the first victim. Reality Lost: Markets of Attention, Misinformation and Manipulation is an analysis by philosophers Vincent F. Hendricks and Mads Vestergaard of the nuts and bolts of the information market, the attention economy and media eco-system which may pave way to postfactual democracy. Here misleading narratives become the basis for political opinion formation, debate, and legislation. To curb this development and the threat it poses to democratic deliberation, political self-determination and freedom, it is necessary that we first grasp the mechanisms and structural conditions that cause it.
Cinema of Confinement
Connelly, Thomas J. (2019)
In this book, Thomas J. Connelly draws on a number of key psychoanalytic concepts from the works of Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Žižek, Joan Copjec, Michel Chion, and Todd McGowan to identify and describe a genre of cinema characterized by spatial confinement. Examining classic films such as Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE and Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, as well as current films such as ROOM, GREEN ROOM, and 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, Connelly shows that the source of enjoyment of confined spaces lies in the viewer's relationship to excess. Cinema of Confinement offers rich insights into the appeal of constricted filmic spaces at a time when one can easily traverse spatial boundaries within the virtual reality of cyberspace.
Games and Bereavement. How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and Grief
Harrer, Sabine (2018)
How can videogames portray love and loss? Games and Bereavement answers this question by looking at five videogames and carrying out a participatory design study with grievers. Sabine Harrer highlights possible connections between grief and videogames, arguing that game design may help make difficult personal feelings tangible. After a brief literary review of grief concepts and videogame theory, the book deep-dives into examples of tragic inter-character relationships from videogame history. Building on these examples, the book presents a case study on pregnancy loss as a potential grief experience that can be validated through game design dialogue.
High-tech trash. Glitch, noise, and aesthetic failure
Kane, Carolyn L. (2019)
High-Tech Trash analyzes creative strategies in glitch, noise, and error to chart the development of an aesthetic paradigm rooted in failure. Carolyn L. Kane explores how technologically influenced creative practices, primarily from the second half of the twentieth and first quarter of the twenty-first centuries, critically offset a broader culture of pervasive risk and discontent. In so doing, she questions how we continue onward, striving to do better and acquire more, despite inevitable disappointment. High-Tech Trash speaks to a paradox in contemporary society in which failure is disavowed yet necessary for technological innovation.
Basiswissen Medien
Winkler, Hartmut (2008)
Die Medienwissenschaft ist ein relativ junges Fach und hat daher kaum ihre Grundvorstellungen formuliert. Hartmut Winkler nimmt ihre wichtigsten Modelle und Begriffe auf und stellt sie in pluralistischer, aber zusammenhängender Form dar. Ausgehend von sieben Basisdefinitionen führt er knapp und anschaulich in die Medienwissenschaft ein. Ein umfangreicher Index macht das Buch gleichzeitig zu einem Nachschlagewerk für Schüler und Studierende.
The Politics of Imagination. Benjamin, Kracauer, Kluge
Forrest, Tara (2007)
This book explores Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer and Alexander Kluge's analyses of the role that a rejuvenation in the capacity for imagination can play in encouraging us to reconceive the possibilities of the past, the present, and the future outside of the parameters of the status quo. The concept of imagination to which the title of the book refers is not a strictly defined, stable concept, but rather a term which is employed to refer to a capacity that facilitates both an active, creative relationship to one's environment, and a process of mediation between the outside world and one's own experiences and memories. Through a detailed analysis of their engagements with subjects that span a broad range of historical and thematic contexts (including topics as diverse as literature, children's play, film, photography, history, and television) the book charts the extent to which the concept of imagination plays a central role in Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge's explorations of a mode of perception and experience which could serve as a catalyst for the creation and sustenance of a desire for a different kind of future.

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