Widłak – od pirotechniki do kserografii. W stronę (bio)archeologii mediów
Lycopodium – from Pyrotechnics to Xerography. Toward a (Bio)Archeology of Media

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt to present the plant called the lycopodium clavatum as an agent that informed the changes in the aesthetics of theatrical performance of Giovanni Servandoni’s late baroque spectacles in the 18th century, and catalyzed new forms of pyrotechnics which found their continuation in early cinema period, and even today in the performances of German industrial music band Rammstein. Lycopodium reveals a new dimension of intermediality connecting music, theatre, painting, as well as – excluded from the domain of art – implements like sound waves measuring equipment, combustion engine and xerography. Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory is tested here on the grounds of technical developments in metallurgy, pyrotechnics and theatrical tricks, all connected and mediated by certain plant. The study of lycopodium is also a proposal to introduce a perspective of bio-archeology of media as complementary to the geology of media already established by Jussi Parikka.

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