Clara Völker: Mobile Medien. Zur Genealogie des Mobilfunks und zur Ideengeschichte von Virtualität

Mobile media such as mobile phones and laptops have become ubiquitous. At the same time, digital media are suspected to threaten "reality" due to their constitutional virtuality. Questions arise: What is "virtuality"? And how do mobile media and their information spaces relate to the virtual?

This book examines ideas of the virtual of the ancient world, the modern era and the 20th century. Linked to this, it reconstructs how mobile media came into being as successor technologies of optical telegraphy, electrical telephony and radio technology. It becomes apparent that reality has always been formed by perceptions of the present absent, and that mobile media as potentials are further changing this form.

Moderation: Sabine Breitsameter