Titivillus' Bag of Tricks: Media Ontology, Epistemology, and Aesthetics

Titivillus' Bag of Tricks suggests that the birth of a new medium is found inthe misuse of older media. It addresses structural problems in "cusp" periodsof transition from one medium to a more efficient replacement."Titivillus" is the name medieval scribes gave to a patron devil they claimed caused copying errors. He was their excuse for errors due to exhaustion, poor lighting, boredom, and so on. Majkut proposes thatthrough time and ensuing media innovation, Titivillus enlarged his domain, bedeviling typographers, book binders, filmmakers, radio and televisionbroadcasters, web designers - any who labor in any medium. Heargues that during media historical innovation, technical vocabulary for anew medium does not yet exist. The descriptive vocabulary of an older medium becomes metaphorical, and therefore misleading when applied to the new medium.