Pre-Socratic media theory

Drawing inspiration from Siegfried Zielinski's ground-breaking study of media archaeology, Deep Time of the Media, this paper explores the potential for pre-Socratic philosophy to provide a model for alternative conceptions of mediation within contemporary media art. It argues that pre-Socratic philosophy develops notions of mediation that extend beyond the contemporary focus on technical media. In their exploration of fundamental dynamic principles within nature and in their sensitivity to the uncertain relation between truth, appearance and finite human understanding, they suggest diverse conceptions of mediation that have continuing critical and creative relevance.