Wolfgang Ernst (born 1959) is a German media theorist. He is Professor for Media Theories at

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

and a major exponent of

media archaeology Media archaeology or media archeology is a field that attempts to understand new and emerging media through close examination of the past, and especially through critical scrutiny of dominant progressivist narratives of popular commercial media s ...

as a method of scholarly inquiry.

Biography

Ernst studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, and

Ruhr University Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

. He wrote his dissertation on the aesthetic history of collections and work as an assistant at the

Studienstiftung The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (German: , or ''Studienstiftung'' for short) is Germany's largest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. According to its statutes, it supports "the university education of young people who, on ac ...

. He held positions in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

Bochum Bochum ( , also , ; wep, Baukem) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia. With a population of 364,920 (2016), is the sixth largest city (after Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen and Duisburg) of the most populous Germany, German federal state o ...

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Wolfgang Ernst collaborated with bootlab

and developed alternative formats of theory with Till Nikolaus von Heiseler. In 2001 he finished his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

about institutions of remembrance and memory in the 19th and 20th century. Since April 2003 he is a full professor at

. 2015-2017 Wolfgang Ernst has held the position as director of the Department for Musicology and Media Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin. Ernst is internationally known as a theorist of archives and the media practice of archiving and as an exponent of

. His latest work focuses on media-time, time-critical media, and the "sonic" as a form that connects technical and musical practices. He is the founder of a unique operative collection of technical media at Humboldt University Berlin — the "media archaeological fund".

Selected writings in German

*''Das Rumoren der Archive. Ordnung aus Unordnung'' (), Merve, Berlin 2002 *''Im Namen von Geschichte. Sammeln – Speichern – (Er-)Zählen'' (, Habilitationsschrift HU Berlin), Wilhelm Fink, München 2003 *''Das Gesetz des Gedächtnisses. Medien und Archive am Ende (des 20. Jahrhunderts)'' (), Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2007 *Doppelband ''Gleichursprünglichkeit. Zeitwesen und Zeitgegebenheit technischer Medien'' () und ''Chronopoetik. Zeitweisen und Zeitgaben technischer Medien'' (), Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin, 2013 *''Signale aus der Vergangenheit. Eine kleine Geschichtskritik'' (), Wilhelm Fink, Berlin 2013 *''Im Medium erklingt die Zeit. Technologische Tempor(e)alitäten und das Sonische als ihre privilegierte Erkenntnisform'' (), Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2015

Selected writings in English

*''Digital Memory and the Archive.'', (, , edited and with an introduction by

Jussi Parikka Jussi Parikka (born 1976) is a Finnish new media theorist and Professor iDigital Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University Denmark. He is also (visiting) Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics at Winchester School of Art (University of ...

) University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, London 2013 *''Stirrings in the Archive. Order from Disorder'', (, translation of ''Das Rumoren der Archive'') Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Boulder, New York, London 2015 *''Chronopoetics. The Temporal Being and Operativity of technological Media'', (, selection and translation of texts taken from ''Gleichursprünglichkeit. Zeitwesen und Zeitgegebenheit technischer Medien'' and ''Chronopoetik. Zeitweisen und Zeitgaben technischer Medien'') Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Boulder, New York, London 2016 *''Sonic Time Machines. Explicit Sound, Sirenic Voices, and Implicit Sonicity'', () Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2016 *''The Delayed Present: Media-Induced Tempor(e)alities & Techno-traumatic Irritations of the Contemporary'', () Sternberg Press, Berlin 2017

References

External links

*
Ernst's homepage at Humboldt University Berlinunedited texts and scripts by Wolfgang Ernst in English
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ernst, Wolfgang 1959 births Living people Mass media theorists Alumni of the University of London Ruhr University Bochum alumni University of Cologne alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin