Activities
10 June 2022 | International Symposium: format : dispositif, Zurich, CH
Paper Presentation:
Frank Kessler:
Prospects for a History of Media Dispositifs
How can we make the concept of “dispositif” productive for media historiographies? What perspectives does such an approach open up, compared to traditional media histories? How do we need to conceive of media dispositifs to be able to study their multiple histories? These are some of the questions that this paper aims to address.
The term dispositif being notoriously polysemic, it is at the same time open enough to be operational as a heuristic analytical tool. As an “in-between” concept, it allows to consider the manifold interrelationships between the technical-material, the textual and the spectatorial factors in a mediated communication process. As these factors, in turn, are subject to historical change, considering media as dispositifs makes it possible to explore their historicity from various viewpoints.
The full program of the symposium can be found here.
