Mediating the elemental: an immaterialist ethics for ecomaterialist media theory

Abstract

ABSTRACT Up until the 19th century, the notion ‘medium’ described the natural elements – e.g. earth, water, fire, and air. John Durham Peters’ media philosophy (2015) demonstrates how contemporary technical media rely on this forgotten elemental dimension; as cultural techniques, media can reveal the elemental’s environmental sense. Against its broader philosophical background, I extend Peters’ account into a ‘trans-materialist’ film-philosophy: I claim that the notion of the elemental stands, and mediates, ‘between’ the materialist tradition – currently operative in ecomaterial media theory (e.g. Cubitt; Ivakhiv; Parikka; Parks; Starosielski; Vaughan) – as well as the ethico-existential, immaterial dimension that belongs to the elemental. Two philosophical readings support this mediating aspect of the trans-material philosophy: Levinas’ immaterialist ethics ([1961] 1969) and Bachelard’s ‘material imagination’. Levinas’ ethics underscore that existence is defined in relation to alterity; the enveloping elemental environment enables developing a relational sense of self. Additionally, Bachelard’s materialism invites us to reimagine our cosmic connection to the material world – and I argue it is the medium of film that expresses this potential most dynamically. As moving audiovisual image, cinema’s technical form fosters, for the immersed spectator, a renewed sense for our elemental environment.