Astroculture – Figurations of Cosmology in Media and Arts

Astroculture is a testament to the literary imagination and theoretical innovation of the late Sonja A.J. Neef, who devised the term as an expanding horizon of collaborative research – into the powerful gravitational force exerted on culture by astronomical phenomena and imagery. It is also the name of a conference on the topic inspired by Neef and held at the Center for Advanced Studies Morphomata at the University of Cologne in November, 2011. Indeed, Astroculture is a perfect instance of a morphome, the overall target of the Cologne College’s ongoing symposia: a persistent trope or topos of cultural fascination and transcription appearing across a gamut of civilizations and historical periods. Commentary in this volume ranges from Claudius Ptolemy’s mapping of the universe and the emergence of a pluralistic cosmology in seventeenth-century Europe to the spread of planetariums, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the contemporary artwork of Ingo Günter. With interventions by David Aubin, Lucía Ayala, Monika Bernold, Dietrich Boschung, Bruce Clarke, Gerd Graßhoff, Hans-Christian von Hermann, Martina Leeker, Patricia Pisters, and Henry Sussman

Television is yesterday: Historical transformations of media and televisual »being there« since 1945

The author outlines a number of conceptual approaches from media studies that are of interest for television history. In combining media studies and historical science perspectives, she argues for the historicisation of television and for the use of media studies theory in historical approaches to the subject. Taking J. Ellis' concept of >witness< as a starting point, the author utilizes the notion of eyes/time/witnessing in order to locate television in a complex relationship to history and memory. She describes television as a dispositive means of assigning a sense of belonging; the different historical forms that this process takes must then be considered as of fundamental importance to a history of collective mentalities and representations since 1945. By drawing on examples from the history of television in Austria in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s, the author goes on to demonstrate how television was able to generate different forms of televisual »being there « (a »Television National «, a TV-based community of remembering, a cultural memory of the banal), which corresponded closely with the development of changing media landscapes.The author outlines a number of conceptual approaches from media studies that are of interest for television history. In combining media studies and historical science perspectives, she argues for the historicisation of television and for the use of media studies theory in historical approaches to the subject. Taking J. Ellis' concept of >witness< as a starting point, the author utilizes the notion of eyes/time/witnessing in order to locate television in a complex relationship to history and memory. She describes television as a dispositive means of assigning a sense of belonging; the different historical forms that this process takes must then be considered as of fundamental importance to a history of collective mentalities and representations since 1945. By drawing on examples from the history of television in Austria in the 1960s, 1970s and 1990s, the author goes on to demonstrate how television was able to generate different forms of televisual »being there « (a »Television National «, a TV-based community of remembering, a cultural memory of the banal), which corresponded closely with the development of changing media landscapes

A Couple of Austria: From „Leitners" to „Wünsch dir was." Media Elements of the Second Republic

Taking two highly successful Austrian television programmes - the soap-opera Familie Leitner and the game-show Wünsch dir was - as case-studies, this article describes major shifts in Austrian culture in the 1960s and 1970s, which found their expression in changes in the television system. The discontinuation of the soap-opera on the one hand and the enormous success of the game-show on the other point to the existence of a slowly consolidating middle-class in Austria, for whom the idea of private consumption was closely linked to their sense of national identity in a modern, industrial welfare state. The basis for this identity was embodied in representations of the „television family“ in the 1950s and 1960s. This image then took on a new, gender politically encoded quality at the start of the self-consciously „modern“ 1970s in the form of the „game-show couple“.Taking two highly successful Austrian television programmes - the soap-opera Familie Leitner and the game-show Wünsch dir was - as case-studies, this article describes major shifts in Austrian culture in the 1960s and 1970s, which found their expression in changes in the television system. The discontinuation of the soap-opera on the one hand and the enormous success of the game-show on the other point to the existence of a slowly consolidating middle-class in Austria, for whom the idea of private consumption was closely linked to their sense of national identity in a modern, industrial welfare state. The basis for this identity was embodied in representations of the „television family“ in the 1950s and 1960s. This image then took on a new, gender politically encoded quality at the start of the self-consciously „modern“ 1970s in the form of the „game-show couple“