Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1
Table of contents 5
Preface 9
Technical Gadgetry. Technological Development in the Aesthetic Economy 23
Aesthetic Precision 37
Architecture in the Mirror of Technology. The Rhetoric of Le Corbusier and the Futurist Movement 47
Readerless Media: Modernism, Information Theory, and the Commodity 59
Mass Aesthetics, Technicist Expansionism and the Ambivalence of Posthumanist Cultural Thought 69
Transhumanist Arts. Aesthetics of the Future? Parallels to 19th Century Dandyism 83
Art in the Age of Biotechnology 93
Cultural Aspects of Interface Design 105
Imaging Reality. On the Performativity of Imagination 117
Causality, Custom and the Marvellous. On Natural Science at the Beginning of Modern Times 129
Growth of Biofacts: The Real Thing or Metaphor? 141
The Brain as Icon - Reflections on the Representation of Brain Imaging on American Television, 1984-2002 153
"If There is a Risk Inside of Me, I am the First Person who Should Know About it." - Images of 'Genetic Risks' as Anticipation of the Future 163
From the Historical Continuity of the Engineering Imaginary to an Anti- Essentialist Conception of the Mechanical-Electrical Relationship 173
Architectural Structuralism and a New Mode of Knowledge Production 185
Some Notes on Aesthetics in a 'Städtebau' on a Regional Scale 199
Between Determination and Freedom: The Technological Transformation of Education and Learning 213
(Self)Normalisation of Private Spaces - Biography, Space and Photographic Representation 225
The Aestheticisation of Futurity. From Facts to Values - Authority to Authenticity 237
Technological Transformation of Society in Children's Books 253
Aesthetics of Technology as Forms of Life 267
On the Symbolic Dimension of Infographics and its Impact on Normalization (With Examples Drawn from Demography) 279
The Mental and Practical Impact of Pre-Bacteriological Quality Criteria for Water in the 1870s 295
War and the Beautiful: On the Aestheticising of the First World War in Film - Yesterday and Today 305
Soldiers on the Screen. Visual Orders and Modern Battlefields 317
Military Bodies, Weapon Use and Gender in the German Armed Forces 327
"A Horribly Beautiful Picture". Aesthetic Dimensions of Aerial Warfare 337
Postmodern Aesthetics: Manipulating War Images 351
Authors 363
Backmatter 366