Article:
The tactile and the index – From the remote control to the hand-held computer, some speculative reflections on the bodies of the will

Author(s): Engell, Lorenz
Abstract

The article deals with the conception of tactility in Marshall McLuhan’s media theory and its relation to the notion of the index and the category of ‘secondness’ in the semiotic pragmatism of Charles Sanders Peirce. It shows how two different aspects of tactility in McLuhan’s work can be differentiated and, by further comparison with Michel Serres’ philosophy of the senses, how they are linked to the philosophical problem of the delegation of the will, or of the intention, from the human body to media technologies such as remote controls or computer interfaces.


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Engell, Lorenz: The tactile and the index – From the remote control to the hand-held computer, some speculative reflections on the bodies of the will. In: NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies, Jg. 2 (2013), Nr. 2, S. 323-336. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15093.
@ARTICLE{Engell2013,
 author = {Engell, Lorenz},
 title = {The tactile and the index – From the remote control to the hand-held computer, some speculative reflections on the bodies of the will},
 year = 2013,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15093}",
 volume = 2,
 address = {Amsterdam},
 journal = {NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies},
 number = 2,
 pages = {323--336},
}
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