Adorno and the Media. Book presentation

ZKM invites you to the presentation of the book »Adorno und die Medien«. The conference proceedings of the conference of the same name, which took place at the ZKM and the HfG Karlsruhe in December 2019, ask about the relevance of Theodor W. Adorno's critical theory in the contemporary discussion of digital culture as well as about the significance of his media critique for philosophy, art studies and cultural theory. The editors of the book, Lioudmila Voropai (Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe) and Judith-Frederike Popp (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien), present the central theses of the 13 authors and invite discussion.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was a media theorist and media practitioner like hardly any other philosopher of his time. As a philosopher and sociologist, he developed numerous theories on the essential questions of the humanities and was simultaneously active as both a music critic and a composer. Adorno's thinking, which throughout his life was characterised by a relationship to the media that was as close as it was ambivalent, knew how to sharpen his socio-critical reflections on the media and at the same time use them to communicate his analyses to a broad audience.

The conference, organised in 2019 by the University of Art and Design (HfG), in cooperation with the ZKM | Karlsruhe, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, invited international scholars to discuss Adorno's relationship to the media. This conference volume not only provides insight into Adorno's media theory and practice, but also opens up new interdisciplinary perspectives on current media phenomena and cultural processes in 13 contributions, thus continuing the tradition of philosophically informed and sociologically grounded media criticism.

About the book
Judith-Frederike Popp, Lioudmila Voropai (eds.):
Adorno und die Medien. Kritik, Relevanz, Ästhetik, Kadmos, 2023
272 pages, softcover, German and English, ISBN 978-3-86599-494-3

With contributions by
Sarah Bianchi, Christian Fuchs, Samir Gandesha, Henrik Holm, Sulgi Lie, Stefano Marino, Tyrus Miller, Judith-Frederike Popp, Ulrike Ramming, Martin Ritter, Rolando Vitali, Lioudmila Voropai and Florian Wobser.