From Discourse Networks to Cultural Techniques: Material Text as Medium Discourse Network 1800: German Media Theory begins with a Sigh These items (no. 1 - 6) illustrate various means by which the natural link between word and sound emerges and is visualized in the period of 1800. We begin with scenes from Goethe’s Faust I. According to Kittler, Faust’s lament, the “Ach” (no. 1), brings him out of he Republic of Letters (Gelehrtenrepublik) and into the Romantic pursuit of the “transcendental signified,” a pursuit only achievable through a pact with the devil (no. 2). A fascination with orality and sound emerges, suggesting language is a natural occurrence shaped through the mechanisms of human anatomy (no. 3 and no. 6). Also of interest is the malleability of written language arising from the link between word and sound. Klüber’s primer on composing secret languages (no. 4) relies on the creativity of the writer to explore ways to represent letters differently in order to produce identical same sounds. Pfarrer M. Heim’s primer on tachygraphy (no. 5) shows consonants and vowels conveyed in a more natural script so that one can write as fast as one speaks, but still produce the same words and sounds when read back. Discourse Network 1900: Bare Materiality of Writing and the Human The following items (no. 7 - 12) display the Discourse Network of 1900, marked by the decomposition of language into material nonsense and of the human body into physiological perceptions. Helmholtz (no. 7) records sound, seeking a mathematical basis. Christian Morgenstern’s Galgenlieder (Gallowsongs) (no. 8 and no. 9) phonetically dissects poetry to the point of incomprehensibility. Arno Holz (no. 10) typographically aligns his poetry for the reader’s ease, stressing the physiognomic reception of the text and the reader’s own anatomy when reading poetry. Lastly, there is no inner self that is not a media mechanism, as suggested by the practice of automatic writing (no. 11) and Jung’s Red Book (no. 12), where Jung recorded his visions after “turning off his consciousness.” Cultural Techniques: Hooke’s Fly Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (nos. 13 and 14) famously contains of one of the most recognizable images in the history of science--Hooke’s large-scale drawings of a fly. Media theorists such as Bernhard Siegert have noted the detail with which Hooke described the microscope--the visual medium through which his floral and faunal subjects were perceived. Hooke takes pains to articulate the divisions and overlays between nature and culture produced by such cultural techniques, at one point describing how a flappy substance on the fly’s hind legs “opens and closes like the pages of a book.” Galileo and the “Media” of Media Theory In his seminal essay “Becoming-media: Galileo’s Telescope,” Joseph Vogl takes on the core concept of media theory as imagined by Kittler and his successors--the notion of media. Vogl cites the invention of the printing press and new lens-grinding techniques as two of the many developments enabling a “becoming-media” of the telescope for Galilei. On display here are typographically produced star-charts (no. 15), unique images of the lenses used by Galileo (no. 18) and other curiosities (nos. 16 and 17) highlighting this media-event. 1. Gertrude Frenzel-Koehler, Collection of decorated manuscripts of German Literary Works. Illuminated in Hellerau- Dresden, ca. 1948 - 1950. 2. Mortiz Retzsch, Umrisse zu Goethes Faust I/Outlines of Goethe’s Faust I. Stuttgart: JG Cotta, 18??. 3. Wolfgang von Kempelen, Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache /The Mechanism of Human Speech. Wien: JB Degen, 1791. 4. Johann Ludwig von Klüber, Kryptographik: Lehrbuch der Geheimschreibekunst (Chiffrir und Dechiffrirkunst) in Staats und Privatgesellschften. Tübingen: JG Cotta’schen Buchhandlung, 1809. 5. Pfarrer M. Heim, Deutsche Tachygraphie, oder kurze, leichtfassliche und vollstaendige Anweisung, mittelst besonderer einfacher Charaktere so schnell, als ein oeffentlicher Redner spricht, und mit solcher Deutlichkeit zu schreiben…. Reutlingen: Verlag des literarischen Comtoirs, 1820. 6. Samuel Thomas von Soemmering, Abbildungen der menschlichen Organe des Geschmackes und der Stimme/ Illustrations of the Human Organs of Taste and Voice. Arlington, MA: Edition Medicina Rara, 1972. 7. Hermann von Helmholtz, Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für eine Theorie der Musik. Braunschweig: Druck und Verlag von Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1865. 8. Christian Morgenstern, Christian Morgenstern’s Galgenlieder: A Selection. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963 9. Jess, Gallowsongs.Galgenlieder, A Version by Jess. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1972. 10. Arno Holz, Kindheitsparadies/Childhood Paradise. Berlin: JHW Dietz Nachfolger, 1924. 11. Table III, In: Antia M. Mühl. Automatic Writing . Dresden und Leipzig: Theordor Steinkopff, 1930. 12. CG Jung , The Red Book: Lieber Novus. New York: Philemon Foundation and W.W. Norton, 2009 13 & 14. Robert Hooke, Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies mady by magnifying glasses: with observations and enquiries thereupon.. London: R Wilkinson, 1665. 15, 16 & 17. Galileo Galilei, Operi di Galileo Galilei I-III. Florence: Gaetano Tartini e Santi Franchi, 1718. 18. Galileo’s Telescope: the instrument that changed the world (ed. Giorgio Strano). Florence : Giunti Editore, 2009.