Information media
Cf. 'information media` (Marletto, Chiara. The Science of Can and Can’t: A Physicist’s Journey through the Land of Counterfactuals. New York: Viking, 2021, p. 85)
Distinction medium/form
The distinction medium/form comes from an idea originally expressed by Fritz Heider.
Heider, Fritz. Ding und Medium. Berlin: Kadmos, 2005. *Ding und Medium* (engl. Thing and Medium) appeared in 1926 in der journal *Symposium: philosophische Zeitschrift für Forschung und Aussprache* Jg. 1, H. 2, Berlin 1926, 109–157.
Heider used the distinction to explain the individual perception of objects that are not directly in contact with the body, such as, for instance, optical or acoustic perception. According to Heider, such perception is made possible by a medium (light or air), which is itself not perceived, but conveys the properties of the object in question (i.e. its form) without changing them. Thus, under normal conditions, it is not light or air that are perceived, but the pictures or sounds they convey. The perceived objects take a form thanks to their higher “rigidity,” as opposed to the “flexibility” of the medium, which can always accept forms.
The medium is characterized by a loose coupling between elements, which can be viewed as being dependent upon one another. Thus, the medium offers no internal resistance to forms impressing it from outside (for instance, from an object that vibrates or a reflecting surface). **The forms “condense” the connections between the elements of the medium into tight couplings, which are thus perceived by a psychic system.** The medium is formless: air makes no sound, and electromagnetic waves are not visible. For instance, a footprint in the sand establishes a tight coupling between the grains of sand, which cannot be resisted because the grains are not connected to one another strongly enough. The weaker the stable couplings between its elements, the better the medium is at accepting forms: for instance, stones or larger grains of sand already have their own form, thus conditioning the form of the footprint and making for a less suitable medium.
In this example, the totality of grains of sand is treated as a medium in which the footprint is established. Moreover, the distinction between form and medium is always relative: nothing is a form or medium in itself; everything may be either a medium in relation to a form that establishes itself, or a form that establishes itself in a medium at a lower level. For instance, the elements of →Language (i.e., words) are established as forms on the continuum of sounds, thus condensing as stable configurations; however, at the same time they constitute a medium for conveying the content of communication. The distinction medium/form always operates as a distinction, each side referring to the other.
From the example of language, we are led to consider another sociologically interesting domain: communication media, which can make something probable that would otherwise have been improbable. Communication media connect the communications that would otherwise find no connections. The communication media are language, →Dissemination Media and the →Symbolically Generalized Media. They perform the function of facilitating the constant coupling/uncoupling of the elements of the medium, i.e., the constant production of forms. Forms correspond, for instance, to words and sentences in language, written and printed texts, payments, scientific theories, legal norms. The communication media therefore provide a weak and formless substrate: language does not speak, the printing press does not determine what is printed, scientific truth as a medium creates no Knowledge, and so on.
The distinction medium/form is applied in all cases in which the connections between previously loosely coupled elements are observed to condense and become tight: variety in the medium means that redundant configurations are established. At the level of society, we can observe an evolutionary differentiation of communication media (such as writing, printing, power, money), which enables communication to be connected to further communication, thereby creating forms that can be generalized and expected [→Evolution]. In this sense, communication media are social structures that facilitate the autopoiesis of communication. [G. C., E. E.]
Theory of Society (2012: Ch. 2.1); The Form of Writing, 1992; Sign as Form (1999); Art as a Social System (2000: Ch. 3).
Baraldi, Claudio, Giancarlo Corsi, and Elena Esposito. Unlocking Luhmann; Luhmann in Glossario. I Concetti Fondamentali Della Teoria : A Keyword Introduction to Systems Theory. transcript Verlag, 2021. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/48859, p 149–150