Digitality and materiality of media

Alongside the euphoria and urgency surrounding the 'digital revolution,' positions have increasingly developed in recent years that have led to critical distance in the discussion of computers and digitisation. Of particular relevance are the ongoing debates in the light of the integration of computer technology in the most varied aspects of life; these are addressed under the headings „ubiquitous computing“ or „ambient intelligence,“ „scripted spaces,“ „the Internet of things“ and „big data.“

A lasting problem of this thematic area begins with its key category, the term „digital“, mythologised since its inception. The intrinsic characteristics of interactivity/participation, flexibility, control and immateriality, as well as the thence derived hopes of empowerment on the one hand and freedom on the other, decisively influence, among others, the theory and practice of globalisation and knowledge society.

This mythical charge of the digital also builds on the opposite associations to the analogue. These include fears of the loss of putatively fixed dimensions; securities, expressed as stability, authenticity, originality and concreteness, emphasised as the opposites of the immateriality of digitised objects, which threatens misperception of the specific materiality of digital media.

In order to deal with the diverse aspects of the mythical digital without reproducing its radiance in a notorious or unconsidered manner, the term „digitality“ suggests itself – understood as a simultaneous strategic withdrawal and approach. The current promise of digitality is today still marked by an amalgam of control, flexibility and immediacy, expressed by the examples of the establishment of touchscreens, cloud computing and ubiquitous computing, as well as by contemporary fears about the misuse of the possibilities.

One way in which digitality may be analytically encountered and its historical and current relevance investigated is in the discussion of appearances of computers and computer-based media, in order to question their relationship to digitality with methodical reflection. How does the respective aesthetic of the computer and what it offers relate to those promises/fears of the dominant fictions which affect the public image of 'the digital'? What ideas about the computer and its use are offered and transmitted by the aesthetic appearance of a concrete combination of hardware and software? Which theory should become practice, through which procedures and theories may the question validly be asked?