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date: 22 April 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter is dedicated to batteries as media of spatio-temporal organization. In a first step, the history of (rechargeable) batteries is summarized with special regard to their influence on the emergence of digital cultures. This is followed by a systematic discussion of their ambivalent role between expansion and destabilization of electrical networks, which in digital cultures manifests itself in the phenomenon of duration or range anxiety. Finally, it is argued that this ambivalent organizational mediality of batteries (including their ecological consequences) is inseparably linked to their perception as humanistic technology.

Keywords: batteries, accumulators, history of electricity, electric mobility, electrochemical energy, range anxiety, green technology, natural resources, spatio-temporal organization

Jan Müggenburg

Assistant Professor for Media History and History of Science, Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany

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