The “Tri-Ergon”

From the Silent Film to the Sound-Film

The paper discusses the historical and media theoretical background of the birth of sound film. It’s main thesis is that in order to unite, the two media, image and sound, inevitably had to undergo a technical isolation process. Kittler argues that Oscar Wilde’s Salomé is the literary simbolization of this process, and analyzes it as a tragic encounter of silent film and phonography. In the technological development of sound film industry, says Kittler, military innovation played a key role. Following the recollections of Hans Vogt, the leading figure of “Tri-Ergon”, the author revisits a few stages in the history of sound film technology, confirming McLuhan’s media theoretical axiom, the “pure logic” of media: the content of every medium refers to just another medium.

Released: Replika 77, 113–123.
Replika block:
Fordította:
Péter György Csobó