is a media theorist and media historian. He is director of the IKKM and Gerd Bucerius Professor for History and Theory of Cultural Techniques at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (since 2001). He co-founded the Graduate Research Program “History of Media—Media of History” at the Universities in Weimar, Erfurt, and Jena in 2004. His main fields of research are history of cultural techniques/technologies, media history and late medieval Dutch book painting. He is currently preparing a book on the political, cultural, aesthetic, and media theoretical impact of seafaring.