From Media History to Zeitkritik

Abstract

Wolfgang Ernst, Professor of Media Theories at the Humboldt University in Berlin, has become known through his work on media archaeology. Hence the inclusion of this translation represents an alternative take on cultural techniques. It places the legacy of cultural studies, or Kulturwissenschaften, in an interesting tension with the different epistemological demands that technical media impose. After Vico and Dilthey, argues Ernst, we need to investigate the specific modes of knowledge that technical media propose to cultural techniques. Ernst’s media archaeology and the slightly different approach to cultural techniques found in some other contributions in this issue can be seen as two of the most intriguing ways in which current German media studies has been developing in relation to Friedrich Kittler’s impact. For Ernst, this has resulted in a more technical focus and also in the development of critiques of temporality that go beyond media history. Ernst argues that media temporality is not to be understood only through the cultural history of media technologies, but also how media technologies produce time. Machines have their own specific temporality, Eigenzeit. It is in this context that the article discusses the different approaches to cultural techniques, taking into consideration the specific time-critical and epistemic implications of technical media.

The right-time web: Theorizing the kairologic of algorithmic media

“…As it was argued, right-time can neither be neatly categorized as an objective phenomenon external to human activity nor as a subjective phenomenon bound to social norms and individual experience. It is not quite the kind of “Eigenzeit” Ernst (2013) envisioned, nor is it quite the classical rhetorical sense of kairos as the time of turning moments into rhetorical opportunities (Orlikowski and Yates, 2002).…”

“…Here, I want to argue that the kind of kairos indicative of algorithmic media systems like the ones represented by popular platforms like Facebook and Twitter do not necessarily map neatly onto existing notions of kairos but can be understood as a form of temporality specific to algorithmic systems, or what Ernst calls the “Eigenzeit” of machinic apparatuses (Ernst, 2013). 4 In order to differentiate the specific rhetorical and biblical understanding of kairos from the “right-time” inscribed into the current media landscape, I will refer to it as the “kairologic” of algorithms.…”

“…The contribution this article makes is mainly theoretical and conceptual, but it will draw on a variety of empirical materials such as patent documents, media industry documents and public discourse to support its argument. This article draws on conceptualizations of time from social theory, media studies, and rhetoric, to argue for the existence of an “Eigenzeit,” understood as the specific temporality (trans: own or specific time, Ernst, 2013; Nowotny, 1994 [1989]) of algorithmic media that hinges on the classic Greek notion of “kairos”—an opportune time, timeliness, or indeed, “right-time.” 1 In what follows, I discuss different notions of media time that have been important for an understanding of various media forms from Raymond Williams’ (2004) famous notion of television as flow, the notion of liveness in research on broadcasting (Scannell, 1996; Van Es, 2017) through to the notion of “real-time” and related terms to describe the characteristics of the web. The article then proceeds to propose that real-time might no longer be the most adept descriptor of the temporality of the web in a time in which most platforms explicitly seek to deliver content, not so much as it happens but at the right-time.…”

¿Un nuevo a priori histórico? Análisis de propuestas de renovación de las Humanidades centradas en la noción de información

“…20 ss. ;2017); Ernst (2013). Agradecemos a la evaluadora o evaluador anónimo de la revista Co-herencia por dirigir nuestra atención sobre este punto.…”

On the Politics of Chrono-Design: Capture, Time and the Interface

“…Progress bars and throbbers, in this respect, are part of a much wider array of techniques and technologies for tempering the materialities of information. Between inputting a URL into a browser and the appearance of content, when a data packet is sent to initiate the first connection with a given server until the last byte is read from the client's TCP buffer and interpreted by the browser, a series of zeitkritische or time-critical (Ernst, 2013) mechanisms are triggered and executed. Designing for user experience requires a hyper-vigilant stance toward how these micro-temporal events and cascading forces unfold.…”