<nettime> Wolfgang Schirmacher: Media Aesthetics & the European Graduate School

["Wolfgang Schirmacher" <W.Schirmacher@worldnet.att.net>]

Geert, congratulations!  But I am still puzzled how you were able to dig
out a text to which no link from our EGS site points.  I have not looked
at the Artificial Life site where you got the lecture from for quite a
time and am painfully aware it needs a much higher standard in terms of
sources and links. We are in the process of updating the EGS site anyway,
hopefully there is some energy left for the AL site. 

Maybe, next time you could send me an e-mal before you publish an article
of mine - just to spare everybody the embarrassment of a blatantly
anachronistic criticism.  There was no ZMK at the time of writing, and it
took a few more years before I came very close to getting a professorship
at KHM.  Wasn't Peter Weibel still in the US?  Still, the Ars Electronica
was a hopeful sign and I should have mentioned it. 

It may be helpful to acknowledge that the European Graduate School as an
academic institution is no longer under the spell of a scholarly book
culture: We do accept as a Master or Doctoral Thesis a multi-media
project;  for example, a film with a written document attached arguing its
innovative aesthetic position.  Media Philosophy is the focus of our
programs but we encourage creative embodiments utilizing all art and media
forms. 

Frank Hartmann's statement that is it hard to apply "traditional
philosophy on a new media situation" is not even half-true. What is
"traditional"  philosophy?  A living philosopher who is not merely a
philosophy professor (remember Schopenhauer’s criticism of the university
philosophy) begins a tradition of his/her own, and information technology
is a crucial element of a world to be understood philosophically. How can
you NOT be a media philosopher in our time and age? Still, the discussion
of the philosophers among themselves helps - as in any other profession -
to test your strength and weaknesses and to grow professionally. 
Therefore, you have to choose the best as your opponents (and most of them
happen to be dead already). I am quite eager to see Frank’s book on
“Medienphilosophie”! 

I had little use for so-called media theory in the 15 years I've taught
Media Philosophy in New York since I believe you should confront the
students with the most challenging minds (most had a French accent) - even
if their main concern was not media or communication. My students (many of
them working in the media) made the application on their own - and taught
me quite a bit.  By the way, I’ve postponed publication of my “Media
Philosophy” since it should not be only a book - with the resources of the
European Graduate School I now will be able to make it a project. 

THINK MEDIA is the battle cry of the Communication Division - and we mean
it. And no, Frank, we are not going for funds and don’t have to: Like at
the beginning of the universities, students’ tuition pays for the
professors salaries, and the bureaucracy is eliminated which makes up 80
percent of the overhead costs at traditional universities.  Consequently,
administration, students’ recruiting, and advising is done via the
Internet. 

Wolfgang Schirmacher
www.egs.edu

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