Objects of Knowledge, of Art and of Friendship

Objects of Knowledge, of Art and of Friendship

A small technical encyclopaedia for Siegfried Zielinski

Edited by David Link und Nils Röller
(Leipzig: Institut für Buchkunst, 2011)
ISBN 978-3-932865-64-0

A new Academy? Given the chance to realize one, what would we expect from its members? 

At the Academy of the Lynx-Eyed in Naples, on admission each new member was expected 

to bring a startling, novel object with him. On the occasion of Siegfried Zielinski’s 60th 

birthday next year, we have invited friends to contribute an artifact to an imagined Academy. 

The book presents the result of this collection.

Following the style of a poly-technical journal from the 19th century, the articles 

are ordered alphabetically. They centre on an object, which is presented by a line drawing 

of Peter Blegvad and a text.

Authors and objects:

Amir Alexander: Mathematical Atom

Marie-Luise Angerer: Sardine Can

Nicolas Anatol Baginsky: CPU Extractor

Rosa Barba: The White Museum

Irit Batsry: Video Still

Hans Belting: Small Glass And the Even Smaller Magnifying Glass

Fernando Birri: The Sun Stone – An Aztec Calendar

Peter Blegvad: Bull Roarer

Arianna Borrelli: Playing Cards

Andreas Broeckmann: Writing Pen

Caspar Brötzmann: Hand – 1820 signs

Anke Brunn: Punch Card

Alberto de Campo: Fourses – P. Blassers Kittenettiks

CHEN (Joseph) Cheng-Yih: Astronomical Clock of Sū Sòng

Gerd Conradt: The Portapak

Timothy Druckrey: Shutter – Jules Janssen’s Revolver Photographique, 1874

Thomas Elsaesser: The Kodak Carousel

Heinz Emigholz: Original Sleep Sound Generator

Hinderk Emrich: Negative Mask

Valie Export: Object Detector

Tom Fecht: Camera Obscura – Reassembling a Master-Tool

Eckhard Fürlus: Un Vulcano Esplosivo

FM Einheit: Book Destruction Machine

Gunther Geltinger: Little Box

Claudia Gianetti: Azevedo Typewriter

Heiner Goebbels: Stifter’s Weathermachine

Baruch Gottlieb: Large Hydron Collider

Keith Griffiths: Ship in a Bottle

Ingo Günther: Side Scan Sonar

Yasmin Haskell: Cymbalum Electricum – Mental Notes: Mazzolari’s Poetic Exphrasis of 

Jean-Baptiste de la Borde’ s Clavessin Électrique

Andreas Henrich: Pantograph

Friedrich Kittler: THE TETRAKTYS

Jürgen Klauke: Along the Cioran Lines

Saskia von Klitzing: Klitzingian Barbecue Grill Apparatus

Friedrich Knilli: Embodied Radio Plays – Experimental Media Kits for Kids

Knowbotic Research: MacGhillie Suit

Burkhard König: The Wheel

David Link: Odradek

Christin Lahr: Tally Stick

David Larcher: Digital Video Tape Recorder

Walter Lenertz: Film Camera – The Ghosts in the Machine, Passing Through

Thomas C. Maurer: Newton 2.0 – Manager’s Little Helper or The Long Route of Evolution

Marcello Mercado: Re-enactment of Experiences on Artificial Life by John Wesley Hyatt (1869) 

– Also the First no Flexible, no Photographic, no Billiard Balls Derivative Film

Mara Mills: 500-Type Colour Desk Set Telephone

Alla Mitrofanova: Space Rocket – Unconsiousness and Space

Anthony Moore: The Tele-Caster

Werner Nekes: Phenakistoscope

Miklós Peternák: Polaroid Photo

Wolfgang Pircher: Slide Rule

Stephen and Timothy Quay: MAQUETTE FOR THE SEPULCHRE OF A DEAD RETINA

Dhruv Raina: Jantar Mantar Telescope

Hans Ulrich Reck: Epidiascope

Nils Röller: Shadow Staff

Avital Ronell: Yummy

Otto Rössler: Light of Benevolence – The “Dialogical Catastrophe” in Motivation Interaction

Florian Rötzer: Bathtub – Extinction of an Hermitage

Margit Rosen: Wall Socket

Zbigniew Rybczynski: SExC – Apparatus for Self-Examination of Conscience (for Teens and Adults)

Elisabeth von Samsonow: Media Theory/Girl Technologies

Michael Saup: Geiger Counter

Henning Schmidgen: Neuramœbimeter

Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann: Athanasius Kircher’s Obelisk Dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III

Clemens Schwender: Directory of Subscribers to the Telephone System

Yukiko Shikata: Object B

Andrey Smirnov: Virtual Prosthesis for the Totally Blind

Thomas Steinmaurer: Tubus Oticus Cochleatus – Audio-Archaeological Machines

Stahl Stenslie: One Square Millimetre of Skin

Bruce Sterling: Virtuality Jewelcase

Klaus Theweleit: ELVIS, ANDY – Double Overtures

Michael Thompson: Rubbish Theory Diagram

Amador Vega: Basket

Lioudmila Voropai: Filmoscope/Diafilm

Clea T. Waite: Line

Peter Weibel: Typewriter – Wish Maschine Type Writer

Herwig Weiser: Lucid Phantom M

Jan St. Werner: Schübel the Generator

John Wyver: EMI Emitron Camera

[German translation]

Wenn wir heute eine Akademie gründen dürften, was würden wir dann von jedem ihrer Mitglieder erwarten? 

In der Akademie der Luchsäugigen in Neapel wurde von jedem neuen Mitglied erwartet, daß es bei seinem 

Eintritt einen aufsehenerregenden, neuartigen Gegenstand mitbrachte.

Anläßlich von Siegfried Zielinskis 60. Geburtstag haben wir Freundinnen und Freunde dazu einladen, 

ein Artefakt zur einer Akademie in diesem Sinne beizutragen. Die dabei entstandene Sammlung stellt dieses 

Buch vor. Die Beiträge sind im Stil eines polytechnischen Journals des 19ten Jahrhunderts alphabetisch 

geordnet. Zentral ist ihnen ein Objekt, das durch eine Strichzeichnung von Peter Blegvad und einen Text 

vorgestellt wird.

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