Moving Beyond Text1

Originally published in 2003, this article presents one of the first attempts to provide a systematic summary of the new concept of cultural technique. It is, in essence, an extended checklist aimed at overcoming the textualist bias of traditional cultural theory by highlighting what is elided by this bias. On the one hand, to speak of cultural techniques redirects our attention to material and physical practices that all too often assume the shape of inconspicuous quotidian practices resistant to accustomed investigations of meaning. On the other hand, cultural techniques also comprise sign systems such as musical notation or arithmetical formulas located outside the domain of the hegemony of alphabetical literacy. The rise of the latter in particular is indebted to the impact of the digital – both as a domain of technology and a source of theoretical reorientation. Together, these aspects require a paradigmatic change that challenges and supersedes the traditional ‘discursivism’ of cultural theory

Flatness. Aesthetics and Epistemology

It is generally assumed that a reference to surfaces marks a reduction and hence a loss for our thinking. But what would it mean to consider the opposite? What if cultural techniques of ‘flattening’ afford a potential without which scientific and artistic inquiry, architectural and technological practices, but also bureaucratic administrations would hardly be possible? Indeed, what cave painting and tattooing share with writing, diagrams, maps, formulas, computer screens, and smartphones is the productive use of illustrated and inscribed surfaces. What is the secret of this success? And what are the changes we are witnessing with the digitalization of artificial flatness? Sybille Krämer was a professor of philosophy at Free University Berlin; since her retirement she has been a guest professor at the Institute of Cultures and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM) at Leuphana University Lüneburg. She served as member of the German ‘Scientific Council’ (2000–06), the European Research Council (2007–14) as well as of the German Research Foundation (2009–15), and was a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study (2005–08). In 2016, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Linköping University, Sweden. Her research areas include mathematics and philosophy of the seventeenth century; social epistemology; philosophy of language and writing; performative studies, media and cultural techniques; digitality and history of computation; testimony and witnessing. Her publications in English include: Media, Messenger, Transmission: An Approach to Media Philosophy (2015); Thinking with Diagrams: The Semiotic Basis of Human Cognition (2016), co-edited with Ch. Ljungberg; and Testimony/Bearing Witness: Epistemology, Ethics, History, Culture (2017), co-edited with Sigrid Weigel.Sybille Krämer, Flatness. Aesthetics and Epistemology, lecture, ICI Berlin, 3 May 2022, video recording, mp4, 34:06 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e220503

Medium, Messenger, Transmission

This rich study provides a comprehensive introduction to media philosophy while offering a new perspective on the concept and function of transmission media in all systems of exchange. Krämer uses the figure of the messenger as a key metaphor, examining a diverse range of transmission events, including the circulation of money, translation of languages, angelic visitations, spread of infectious diseases, and processes of transference and counter-transference that occur during psychoanalysis. "'An interesting read, with an incorporated overview of media theory." - Ana Peraica, Leonardo Review

Diagrams

a) Topics and Objectives. This research group investigates the history and theory of thinking with the help of diagrams. Diagrams are conceived as cognitive instruments which exploit spatial relationships paradigmatically in order to represent, analyze, and generate knowledge. We use the term "diagram" in both a narrow and in an extended sense: defined more narrowly, diagrams are schematic figures such as geometric constructions or chemical structural formulae; defined in an extended sense, the term may also refer to texts, charts, mathematical formulae, in short: all types of inscriptions upon a delimited surface which display diagrammatical aspects. The guiding presuppositions of our research are: (1) by means of spatial logics and topological orders, diagrams are preferred forms for representing non-spatial, theoretical relationships. (2) Diagrams do not display simple ›objects,‹ but instead relationships within a conceptual or knowledge field. (3) As a consequence, diagrams not only open up spaces of representation, but also experimental, explorative, and operational spaces, in many cases involving abstract, non-sensory, or ideational contents. Diagrams render theories susceptible to experience in sensory terms. (4) On the whole, the capacity for graphism may be ranged alongside the capacity for language as a universal anthropological trait. Against this horizon, our research project – whose orientation is epistemological and philosophical – pursues two problems. The first involves the basic contours of a general theory of diagrammatics and – starting from the ›cartographic impulse‹ embodied in Plato’s parable of the line and in Ptolemy’s "handbook of geography" – an ›epistemology of the line‹ as a philosophical reconstruction of the implicit and explicit diagrammatical aspects of philosophical texts. The second problem involves the diagram as a cognitive artifact which is examined from historical and systematic perspectives. b) Methods: Philosophical analysis of texts, case studies of individual thinkers and specific types of diagrams. c) Current state of the discussion within the research group: Basic concepts related to diagrammatics have been elaborated, central episodes in the Occidental theory of the diagram identified and analyzed, and central elements of a general theory of diagrammatic cognition developed. Planned for the future is on the one hand deepened work on historical case studies, and on the other the integration of the hitherto developed modules into a consistent, overarching theory.a) Gegenstände und Ziele. Diese Forschergruppe untersucht Geschichte und Theorie des Denkens mit Hilfe von Diagrammen. Diagramme werden als kognitive Instrumente begriffen, die in paradigmatischer Weise Raumrelationen zur Darstellung, Analyse und Produktion von Wissen nutzen. Wir verwenden den Begriff »Diagramm« in einem engen und einem erweiterten Sinne: Diagramme im engeren Sinne sind schematische Figuren wie etwa geometrische Konstruktionen oder chemische Strukturformeln, im erweiterten Sinne weisen aber auch Schriften, Tabellen, mathematische Formeln, kurz: alle Arten von Inskriptionen auf einer begrenzten Fläche, diagrammatische Dimensionen auf. Die leitenden Annahmen unserer Forschung sind: (1) Diagramme stellen mittels räumlicher Logiken und topologischer Ordnungen bevorzugt nicht-räumliche, theoretische Zusammenhänge dar. (2) Sie zeigen dabei nicht einfach ›Gegenstände‹, sondern Relationen innerhalb von Begriffs- und Wissensfeldern. (3) Dadurch eröffnen sie nicht nur einen Darstellungsraum, sondern auch einen Raum des Experimentierens, Explorierens und Operierens mit oftmals abstrakten, unsinnlichen, ideellen Sachverhalten. Diagramme machen Theorien sinnlich erfahrbar. (4) Insgesamt ist die Fähigkeit zum Graphismus eine dem Sprachvermögen durchaus zur Seite zu stellende universelle anthropologische Auszeichnung. Vor diesem Horizont verfolgt unser epistemologisch-philosophisch orientiertes Forschungsprojekt zwei Fragen. Erstens: Grundlinien einer allgemeinen Theorie der Diagrammatik und – ausgehend von einem ›kartographischen Impuls‹ der in Platons Liniengleichnis und in Ptolemaios’ »Handbuch der Geographie« verkörpert ist – eine ›Epistemologie der Linie‹ als philosophische Rekonstruktion der impliziten und expliziten diagrammatischen Dimensionen in philosophischen Texten. Zweitens: Diagramme als kognitive Artefakte in historischer und systematischer Perspektive. b) Methoden. Philosophische Analyse von Texten, Fallstudien zu einzelnen Denkern und Diagrammtypen. c) Diskussionsstand in der Forschergruppe. Grundbegriffe der Diagrammatik wurden erarbeitet, zentrale Episoden abendländischer Theorie des Diagramms identifiziert und analysiert, zentrale Elemente einer allgemeinen Theorie diagrammatischer Kognition entwickelt. Für die Zukunft steht einerseits die vertiefte Arbeit an historischen Fallstudien, andererseits die Integration der bisherigen Bausteine zu einer konsistenten, übergreifenden Theorie an

Gewalt der Sprache - Sprache der Gewalt

Zweitveröffentlichun

Qu’est-ce donc qu’une trace, et quelle est sa fonction épistémologique ? État des lieux

1. Des questions à foison Est-il possible que la lecture de traces ne soit pas seulement le reste archaïque d’une « connaissance sauvage », les balbutiements de la métaphysique, le stade d’une herméneutique sans texte ? Est-il possible que cette lecture ne soit pas seulement une forme première et instinctive de grammaires symboliques, mais qu’elle se rencontre dans toutes les pratiques où entrent en jeu les signes, la connaissance et l’interprétation ? La lecture des traces est-elle une prat..

Der Computer – ein Modell des Geistes?

Beckermann A. Der Computer – ein Modell des Geistes? In: Krämer S, ed. Geist - Gehirn - künstliche Intelligenz: zeitgenössische Modelle des Denkens; Ringvorlesung an der Freien Universität Berlin. Berlin: de Gruyter; 1994: 71-87

ESID: A Visual Analytics Tool to Epidemiological Emergencies

Visual analysis tools can help illustrate the spread of infectious diseases and enable informed decisions on epidemiology and public health issues. To create visualisation tools that are intuitive, easy to use, and effective in communicating information, continued research and development focusing on user-centric and methodological design models is extremely important. As a contribution to this topic, this paper presents the design and development of the visual analytics application ESID (Epidemiological Scenarios for Infectious Diseases). The goal of ESID is to provide a platform for rapid assessment of the most effective interventions for infectious disease control. ESID provides spatial-temporal analysis, forecasting, comparison of simulations, interactive filters, and accessibility options. In its current form, it shows the simulations of a hybrid graph-equation-based model as introduced in for infection control. The model can be stratified for different age groups and takes into account the properties of the infectious disease as well as human mobility and contact behaviour.Comment: 6 pages, 5 images and 1 table, Eurovis workshop on visual analytics (EuroVA) 202

ESID: Exploring the Design and Development of a Visual Analytics Tool for Epidemiological Emergencies

Visual analytics tools can help illustrate the spread of infectious diseases and enable informed decisions on epidemiological and public health issues. To create visualisation tools that are intuitive, easy to use, and effective in communicating information, continued research and development focusing on user-centric and methodological design models is extremely important. As a contribution to this topic, this paper presents the design and development process of the visual analytics application ESID (Epidemiological Scenarios for Infectious Diseases). ESID is a visual analytics tool aimed at projecting the future developments of infectious disease spread using reported and simulated data based on sound mathematical-epidemiological models. The development process involved a collaborative and participatory design approach with project partners from diverse scientific fields. The findings from these studies, along with the guidelines derived from them, played a pivotal role in shaping the visualisation tool