NCCR Mediality (2005-2017)

Home institution: University of Zurich

Research and major results of the NCCR

The NCCR "Mediality - Historical Perspectives" focused on the historicity of media and mediality as well as on communication forms predating mass media and technological media discourses. Based on texts, images, sculptures, architecture, textiles, sounds and films, particular situations were examined in which changes in communication practices took place, prompting a reappraisal of the basic parameters of communication: what medium is being used? What facilitates the transmission of information? The following disciplines participated in the NCCR: German literature and linguistics, history, history of art, film studies, Scandinavian studies and law.

The NCCR developed its own methodological perspective in dealing with media phenomena, which can be applied to many disciplines. Unlike present- and mass-media-oriented media theories, the possibility of mediality was considered in historical perspective, and time-specific models of mediation and meaning-making in the long period between the early Middle Ages and the beginning of modern era were taken into account.

Structural development – Perspectives for the research domain

From the very beginning, NCCR Mediality was a completely novel undertaking that ventured into previously uncharted areas of media research. The NCCR has succeeded in establishing a new field of research – historical mediology – at an international level. This was made possible by bringing together different subjects with a primarily historical focus that had previously followed separate paths. The chronological breadth offered a view of relevant constellations of the medial across different epochs, which was only possible thanks to close collaboration within the NCCR.

The Zentrum für Historische Mediologie (Centre for Historical Mediology) was set up as a successor to the NCCR; this research platform continues to promote early-career researchers and to ensure the transfer of knowledge beyond the academic domain.

Zentrum für historische Mediologie (only in German)