Walter Benjamin's media theory and the tradition of the media diaphana
Walter Benjamin's media theory and the tradition of the media diaphana
Abstract
The article presents an in-depth analysis of Benjamin’s use of the German term Medium, in order to show how his entire media theory may be interpreted as centered on the interaction between the historically changing realm of the technical and material Apparate, and what he calls in the artwork essay the »Medium of perception«: the spatially extended environment, the atmosphere, the milieu, the Umwelt in which sensory experience occurs. This notion of »Medium of perception« is then located within the long, post-Aristotelian tradition of the media diaphana, whose traces can be found in the 1920s and 1930s in the writings of authors such as Béla Balázs, Fritz Heider, and László Moholy-Nagy.
Citation
Copy Citation
BibTex
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as:
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Generic
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Generic
Keywords:
mediumperceptionenvironmentatmospheremilieu