Verkabelt. Zur filmischen Inszenierung des Roten Telefons

Das "Rote Telefon" steht als Symbol für die Kommunikationsstruktur des Kalten Krieges zwischen Moskau und Washington. Tobias Nanz untersucht anhand verschiedener (filmischer) Inszenierungen das Verhältnis von Politik, Macht und Medien anhand des Dispositivs des Politischen

Das Rote Telefon: Ein hybrides Objekt des Kalten Krieges

The ‘Red Phone’, understood as a telephone connection between the Cremlin and the White House, never existed. In this paper I treat it as a hybrid object of knowledge, whose materiality is mixed with facts and fictions. When the fictitious object first appeared in literature and film it was still relatively amorphous and insignificant. Only due to an increased production of signs, symbolic attributions, narrative strategies and rhetorical figures was the notorious Cold War apparatus constituted. As a discursive object the ‘Red Phone’ in turn provides specific information on a form of knowledge characteristic of this period. The ‘Red Phone’ is closely connected to crisis situations that deal with apocalyptic scenarios. To better understand this hybrid object this paper will analyze the short story „Abraham ’59 – A nuclear Fantasy“ (Harvey Wheeler) and the novel Fail-Safe (Eugene Burdick/Harvey Wheeler) that both stage a telephone connection between Moscow and Washington, which aims at deescalating a crisis situation

Blind Flight. Psychotechnics of the Pilot and his Instruments

From the beginnings of aviation until the end of World War II, the status of the pi­lot has radically changed by the increasing technological refinement of flight instru­ments. The article focuses on the appearance of blind flight and particularly on the design of the user interface, i.e. the interaction between the pilot and his instru­ments. Therefore blind flight cannot be characterised as the outcome of a conti­nuous history of technological progress, and should - instead - be described by analysing the relationship between the history of natural sciences, life sciences and technological sciences. In consequence the article deals with the dispositive of the cockpit and reveals the structural connections between the instruments in laborato­ ries and the instruments in flight simulators. This relationship became explicit in the psychotechnical experiments during the first half of the 20 Century: The flight simulator training gave rise to a new type of pilot who is optimally adapted to the instruments, that have taken over the primary command in the aircraft. Finally the central question deals with the differences between contact flight and blind flight.From the beginnings of aviation until the end of World War II, the status of the pi­lot has radically changed by the increasing technological refinement of flight instru­ments. The article focuses on the appearance of blind flight and particularly on the design of the user interface, i.e. the interaction between the pilot and his instru­ments. Therefore blind flight cannot be characterised as the outcome of a conti­nuous history of technological progress, and should - instead - be described by analysing the relationship between the history of natural sciences, life sciences and technological sciences. In consequence the article deals with the dispositive of the cockpit and reveals the structural connections between the instruments in laborato­ ries and the instruments in flight simulators. This relationship became explicit in the psychotechnical experiments during the first half of the 20 Century: The flight simulator training gave rise to a new type of pilot who is optimally adapted to the instruments, that have taken over the primary command in the aircraft. Finally the central question deals with the differences between contact flight and blind flight

Ästhetische Experimente: Zur Ereignishaftigkeit und Funktion von Störungen in den Künsten

Disruption is a phenomenon that has gained the attention of a broad and diverse range of academic disciplines. Building on this work we propose that disruptions are by no means solely destructive but rather have productive consequences. We aim to establish disruption as a starting point for the analysis of formulas of societal self-description. In this, epistemological and aesthetic aspects of disturbances will be focused since these moments of interruption or loss of order evoke efforts of theoretical or practical consolidation of the social sphere. After discussing the history of experimentalization of the life sciences, we point out how art can be understood as an experimental system that integrates and explores the function of disruption. Second, the relationship between factual and fictional knowledge and how both impact on society through the fabrication of different worlds are to be questioned. Finally, we will argue that art such as literature, film, modern theatre, or performances use disruptions as a tool, with which the perception of the past, present and future and of the society itself can be shaped. They achieve this by employing powerfully repercussive narratives that construct political and socio-cultural coherence through the symbolic re-integration of imaginary or real disruptive incidents

Szenarien des Dritten Weltkriegs: Ausnahmesituationen und souveräne Akteure im Film

Der Beitrag untersucht die Filme WarGames (USA 1983), Krieg und Frieden (BRD 1982) und Der Dritte Weltkrieg (BRD 1998) als Dokumente aus der letzten Phase des Kalten Krieges. Die Filme behandeln Ausnahmesituationen, in denen jeweils die Grenzen souveräner Entscheidung in einer lebensbedrohlichen Krise verhandelt werden. Sie entwerfen eine mögliche Zukunft ebenso wie einen kontrafaktischen Verlauf der Geschichte. Ihre Dynamik beziehen die zwar fiktionalen, aber denkbaren Erzählungen aus der Spieltheorie, aus Simulationen und aus der Kraft der historischen Imagination