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Action at a Distance

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Action at a Distance
Authors and Contributors      By (author) John Durham Peters
By (author) Florian Sprenger
By (author) Christina Vagt
SeriesIn Search of Media
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:95
Dimensions(mm): Height 178,Width 127
ISBN/Barcode 9781517910099
ClassificationsDewey:302.23
Audience
Tertiary Education (US: College)

Publishing Details

Publisher University of Minnesota Press
Imprint University of Minnesota Press
Publication Date 23 June 2020
Publication Country United States

Description

How are human actions shaped by the materiality of media? Contemporary media leads us more than ever to an 'acting at a distance,' an acting entangled with the materiality of communication and the mediality of transmission. This book explores this crucial phenomenon thereby introducing urgent questions of human interaction, the binding and breaking of time and space, and the entanglement of the material and the immaterial. Three vivid inquiries deal with histories and theories of mediality and materiality: John Durham Peters looks at episodes of simultaneity and synchronization. Christina Vagt discusses the agency of computer models against the backdrop of aesthetic theories by Henri Bergson and Hans Blumenberg, and Florian Sprenger discusses early electrical transmissions through copper wire and the temporality of instantaneity.

Author Biography

John Durham Peters is Maria Rosa Menocal Professor of English and of Film and Media Studies at Yale University. Florian Sprenger is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt. Christina Vagt is Assistant Professor of European Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Reviews

"An astute diagnosis and indispensable analysis."-International Journal of Communication