Abstract
The article presents the NCCR "Mediality" existing since October 2005, to which the University of Zurich is the leading house. The NCCR examines the specific ways in history, in which writing, images and objects generate cultural meaning, without submitting to the teleologic, technology-centered, or mass-media-oriented theories of media. The focus is on media situations in an era before mediality became an explicit topic of discourse. Particular attention is paid to the interfaces and transitions at which mediality becomes visible: where media circumstances change (Medienwandel), where a shifting or switching of media occurs (Medienwechsel), and where a display and reflection of mediality takes place (Medienwissen).