Telefon-Design. Der Körper des Fernsprechers.

The essay explores the development of the design of telephones from the early times to recent trends (2004). Its focus is the psychological meaning of the changing relation of telephones to the user's body (bodily based acting). Aspects of formal aesthetics ("design' in a more narrow but common understanding) of telephones (and other products) are looked at in this broader perspective which could be labelled "phenomenology of embodied technology'. — The first chapter puts telephones in the context of the general trend to small, compact, mobile, and multifunctional devices. The second chapter describes the changing choreography of using a telephone ("From habitus to gesture'). The third chapter takes a closer look at the (non-)wiredness of users ("cutting the user's umbilical cord'); this chapter includes an excursion about the habits of ?mindless' playing with cords and scribbling while being connected. The fourth chapter analyses psychological implications of the development of interfaces (rest/cradle, dial, keypad, display). The fifth chapter takes into account the acoustic/auditory relation between apparatus and user ("The call of the apparatus'). The final chapter discusses the telephone as a "design object' (in a narrower sense) in the border perspective of the evolution of telephones (telephone-user-relation). The essay was first published as a contribution to J. Bräunlein & B. Flessner (Eds.), Der sprechende Knochen. Perspektiven von Telefonkulturen [The talking bone. Perspectives of telephone cultures]. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2000. A revised and enlarged version was published 2004 as an ebook by the meanwhile former online-publisher "Kerken: buchloaden (Medienbüro Brunn). The present free-access publication is identical with this edition (including the now historical copy-right note of the former publisher). unknown unknown