Once more on the Concept of Mediality

Abstract

The concept of mediality has numerous dimensions. In Benjamin's theologically-linguistic, philosophical essay it means "the immediacy of all spiritual communication" (1916), while from the perspective of the historical development of the media, which is characterised by the evolution of technical media, it most often signifies the indirectness of the communication. Mediality can signify the general principles which apply to the four main kinds of media communications (verbality, writing, audio visualisation, and theatricality), but they can also apply to the bundle of characteristics that define "the essence" of the individual media (e. g. book printing, film etc.). It can primarily refer to the expressive-aesthetic potential media (modi operandi), which depend on the technologies used, or to the effects that the technologies have on human cognition, knowledge and organisation of the world. Mediality also has to be defined within its historical dimensions, meaning against the background of variable sign processes, beginning with speech and all the way to the appearance of more modern media.