Titivillus’ Bag of Tricks Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics

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by Paul Majkut
English | 2025 | ISBN: 3770569261 | 147 Pages | PDF | 4.87 MB

Titivillus’ Bag of Tricks puts forward an understanding of media change that accounts for the birth of a medium in the misuse of older media, addressing structural problems in "cusp" periods of transition from one medium to its more efficient replacement. "Titivillus" is the name medieval scribes gave to a patron devil they claimed caused copying errors. He was their excuse for errors due to exhaustion, poor lighting, boredom, and other external factors. Through time and in ensuing media innovation, he has seemingly enlarged his domain in order to bedevil typographers, book binders, filmmakers, radio and television broadcasters, web designers – any who labor in any form of media. With this flexibility, not only scribal errors but any language error may be attributed to him.
In Titivillus’ Bag of Tricks, Majkut argues that at the time of media historical change, technical vocabulary for a new medium does not yet exist so inherited vocabulary is all that is available. The vocabulary of the older medium, originally descriptive, becomes metaphorical, and therefore misleading when applied to the new medium – another addition to Titivillus’ bag of tricks.
"A profound endeavour that reveals that media shifts are not merely technological advancements but reconfigurations of humanity’s epistemological and ontological framework … Majkut’s exploration into the embodiment of language is exactly what we need. An incisive critique of academia’s blind spots." Professor Jun Inutsuka, PhD – Jissen Women’s University, Tokyo, Japan