The Transmedial Basis

Abstract

In this chapter, I explore the fundamental media properties that make media transformation possible: the transmedial basis. The most elementary but profoundly essential transmedial basis consists of the four modalities of media (categories of related media characteristics): the material, the sensorial, the spatiotemporal, and the semiotic modalities. I argue that the observation of differing modes of the modalities is necessary to pinpoint media similarities and differences and demonstrate that modal differences are essential for circumscribing processes of transmediation and media representation. The entities that are understood to be transferred across modal borders are termed compound media characteristics; although based on material mediation, these characteristics are ultimately cognitive entities. In this context, I scrutinize the crucial but problematic distinction between media form and media content.