Variantology 1: On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies (Kunstwissenschaftliche Bibliothek)

On Deep Time Relations of Arts, Sciences and Technologies--this new journal's subtitle sounds intense, but its simple mandate is to study inexact copies wherever they appear--twins, photographs, memories, Warhol silkscreens, forwarded e-mails: what seems standard may vary more intensely than what appears to be original. In their introduction, the editors write, "The world--as it appears on the monitors of the globalized cultures--is colorful and scintillating. Beneath this beautiful and ugly surface of appearances, however, powerful paradigms operate that increase standardization. Violent conflicts, which we witness erupting daily at the beginning of this new century, are one form in which the resultant tensions are expressed. Anything that does not fit into the concepts of universalization must be isolated or eradicated. Such things are not part of civilization. That this primarily affects those cultures, which in the deep time of history were to a large extent responsible for laying the foundations of the contemporary hegemonial orders, is not even recognized as bitterly ironic." In this issue, Mara Mills writes on "John Cage's Mycology," Arianna Borrelli writes on "Mathematical Notation as a Philosophical Instrument" and Timothy Druckery contributes a piece on "Re-Imagining Archeology," among others.