Media

Abstract

This chapter is devoted to media archaeologists focusing media as materiality rather than as communicating meaning. Niklas Luhmann’s Systems Theory is mentioned first, but it appears to make room for culture and interpretation even if Luhmann himself did not fully develop this aspect. Then, Friedrich Kittler, Wolfgang Ernst, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht and Bernard Siegert are all shown to start with grand gestures against hermeneutics but then soon step back from such a strong critique to instead suggest a weaker version where interpretation is not replaced but rather supplemented by an attention to materialities. Finally, in the wake of the so-called Toronto School of Communication Theory, North Americans such as John Durham Peters and Alexander Galloway have developed related thoughts on media, meaning and materiality.