Deep Time of the Media

A quest to find something new by excavating the "deep time" of media's development—not by simply looking at new media's historic forerunners, but by connecting models, machines, technologies, and accidents that have until now remained separated.

"Deep Time of Media is an extraordinary gift. Next to the canonical geniuses of the past, Siegfried Zielinski introduces us to a host of unknown philosophers, visionaries, and inventors who turn out to be great precursors to the world of modern media. His book will not only encourage the revision of received wisdom in the history of ideas and of science, but also inspire the geniuses of the future." Zbig Rybczynski, filmmaker "We know that to understand the world, we have to understand the media. To understand the media, and our times, we have to understand the deep time of the media. We learn to hear and see our contemporary scenes by learning the archaeology of hearing and seeing. Zielinski's book uncovers this archaeology for us in the best possible way."--Peter Weibel, Director, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, coeditor of *Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art* and *Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy*Please note: Title/affiliation changed. "*Deep Time of the Media* is a revealing book that only Siegfried Zielinksi could have written. It is a book that doesn't legitimize our contemporary technological culture as the logical outcome of a long cultural evolution but instead sees media history as a dynamic process shaped by the accident(al) and the imaginative. Zielinski broadens our view by transgressing different time periods and knowledge fields and exploring obscure archives where hermetics and alchemy reveal the genius of misfits and the art of unforeseen events."--Alex Adriaansens, Director, V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam "*Deep Time of the Media* is an extraordinary gift. Next to the canonical geniuses of the past, Siegfried Zielinski introduces us to a host of unknown philosophers, visionaries, and inventors who turn out to be great precursors to the world of modern media. His book will not only encourage the revision of received wisdom in the history of ideas and of science, but also inspire the geniuses of the future."--Zbig Rybczynski, filmmaker