Variantology 3: On Deep Time. Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies in China and Elsewhere

The editors of this newest installation of the challenging international art-meets-science-meets-technology journal Variantology endeavor to explain the overlapping and independent histories of European and Chinese media, moving from reflections about the deep time history of certain cultural arts and sciences to speculations that reach all the way into the present and our future. Contributors expand on themes such as: Fireworks as a Time-based Praxis of Performance, Magnetized Chess Automata, Paper-cuts, Thermometers, Radical Interventions in the Natural Landscape by Humans and The Compass, revealing discovery-rich areas that may lead to broader and richer concepts of what art and media are. In addition, they explore media issues from regional perspectives, and finally, they look at deep time--particularly in the evolution of Chinese technology and knowledge. Brecht's 1920s parable proposing that Chinese civilization had already forgotten about the innovations of the Modern Age finds new meaning here.