Time-Access-Manipulation
A lecture by Friedrich Kittler (D).
Time-Access-Manipulation; photo: Hans van Dugteren
A lecture about the influence of electronic media in art and society:
The two terms fiction and simulation are used to state a difference between the traditional arts and the technical media, that is to challenge the concept of electronic 'art'. Whereas the traditional arts have been operations in the symbolic (in the terminology of Jacques Lacan), producing imaginary effects on a psychological level at best, the technical media employ symbolic procedures at a level concerned with "reality"and its unpredictability. Here simulation surpasses fiction. This unpredictability was first illustrated by the well known Mandelbrot set, used to minimize strategic surprises caused by the enemy in military battles. This military concept of simulation developed during World War ll permits retrospective strategic reformulation of aesthetic simulations (as Richard Wagner, e.g.).
