The project focused on the explicit turns, tides and ruptures in network history. It started in antiquity, but its multisided focus was on specific epistemic constellations from the 18th to the 20th century.

Research

“Nets and Networks. A Cultural History” narrates a history of networking as a cultural technique (Kulturtechnik). Being a material cultural and media history of longue durée, the project focused on the explicit turns, tides and ruptures in network history. It started in antiquity, but its multisided focus is on specific epistemic constellations from the 18th to the 20th century. This involved natural history and physiology, water supplies and sewage, telephone networks, urban railroad systems, computer networking and the metamorphoses of the network diagram.

This dissertation was successfully completed in 2012 and was published with the title: Die Verbundenheit der Dinge. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Netze und Netzwerke, Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos 2014.