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, 25 Euro Bestellen

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.

Hans Belting, Small Glass And the Even Smaller Magnifying Glass, illustration by Peter Blegvad

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 S? 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.