Media Culture in Transformation

Media Culture in Transformation Proximity - Distance -What were modern communications media?-Which infrastructures did they rely on?-How did technological infrastructures inform the modern experience of time and space?-how were modern communications media introduced differently (US vs Europe) Industrialization and Networks -european perspective -modernity Early modernModern period 1500 - 18001800 - 1970s beginning of Renaissance enlightenment, industrial revolution reformation, mercantilism, colonialism, experimental science capitalism, urbanization, industrialization not modernism!! - was an art movement Networks before the early modern period?-silk road - trade -economic relations -political relations -spread of culture and religion -roman roads -military -transportation -postal routes -messages and goods -transatlantic slave trade -triangle -import, export of goods, not only slaves 1 / 3

Industrialization: shift of energy sources, energy wind and water becomes

iron, coal and steam power -increase in productivity and popularization First wave Second wave 1800 - 1860s 1850s - 1900 canals gas and electricity postal networksurban transit railroads wireless telephone telegraphs

Transport infrastructure: trains

-England, 1800 -steam locomotive -steam powered trains to transport coal (1810) -1835 - First passenger train -transform how people experience life around them

-Transforming culture:

-certain way of perceiving the environment -before trains, only rich people travelled far -not only see, but also feel, hear and smell -full sensory experience -- intense

-Modern consciousness of space :

-landscape: naturally grown environment

-railways cut through the landscape -even lives from one point to another -transport people at a higher speed -feels like trains shot through space -stands in contrast to a more natural landscape -more geometrical, straight flat lines between points -aims at mastery of expansive space -expansive, yet shrinking at the same time 2 / 3

-Mastery: the transcontinental railroad was instrumental to the settlement

of western America and the oppression and genocide of indigenous people -Steamboy - japanese animation

-Panoramic view:

-travel in a horse-drawn carriage -continuous sequence of impressions and a synthetic experience of the environment -by contrast, speed of train travel disrupts that continuity and synesthesia -immediate environment cannot be grasped -overstimulation of vision, disconnected from other senses

-Results: reorganization of sensory experience

-looking into distance to get the bigger picture -panoramic view also becomes relevant in the growing tourist industry

-Modern consciousness of time:

-this is a comparative time-table that shows the times in various cities in the US compared to Washington DC -evidence of an earlier, premodern approach to time persisting into the modern era -What is the pre-modern approach to time?-Why was this kind of time-table necessary?-different local times pose a problem -new infrastructure requires coordination and punctuation

-Solution: synchronization of time across countries and later time

zones.-growing societies now also share the same clock time -modern time is linear, divisible, synchronized and coordinated fast -new importance of strict punctuality -trains will not wait for one passenger

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