Can I read Titivillus' Bag of Tricks: Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics on EtoBox?

Titivillus' Bag of Tricks: Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics by Paul Majkut is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Titivillus' Bag of Tricks: Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics about?

Titivillus’ Bag of Tricks puts forward an understanding of media change that accounts for the birth of a medium in the misuse of older media, addressing structural problems in ”cusp” periods of transition from one medium to its more efficient replacement. ”Titivillus” is the name medieval scribes gave to a patron devil they claimed caused copying errors. He was their excuse for errors due to exhaustion, poor lighting, boredom, and other external factors. Through time and in ensuing media innovation, he has seemingly enlarged his domain in order to bedevil typographers, book binders, filmmakers, radio and television broadcasters, web designers – any who labor in any form of media. With this flexibility, not only scribal errors but any language error may be attributed to him. In Titivillus’ Bag of Tricks, Majkut argues that at the time of media historical change, technical vocabulary for a new medium does not yet exist so inherited vocabulary is all that is available. The vocabulary of the older medium, originally descriptive, becomes metaphorical, and therefore misleading when applied to the new medium – another addition to Titivillus’ bag of tricks.

Who reads Titivillus' Bag of Tricks: Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics?

Author

Paul Majkut

Publisher

Brill | Fink. ein Imprint der Brill Deutschland GmbH

Published

2025

Language

EN

ISBN

9783770569267

Category

nonfiction