musical three-dimensionality means considerably more than occupying points in a three-dimensional system of coordinates.[51]

Media narration

In the great forms of media narration such as the book, film and radio, design techniques have developed that are familiar to us as being specifically novel-like, cinematic or ‹funkisch› (radioesque).[52] Laurie Anderson uses these stereotypes in her media narratives. At the same time she describes their origin and their everyday meaning. In her performance «United States I–IV» (1983), Anderson's voice guides us through everyday stories and bases them on a changing multimedia accompaniment. Although her performances implement a lavish multimedia apparatus, they do not reflect high technology, but rather the experience with profane everyday media.[53] The performer Laetitia Sonami takes up Anderson's virtuoso style of media narration and replaces its centrally controlled multimedia presentation with physical interaction with a technical system made up of motion sensors. During her narratives, by moving her body she navigates through a pool of sounds, noises, melodies and

harmonies. Anderson tells of the myths of the media world; Sonami's choreographically narrated pieces demonstrate a ritual-like association with the mystery of technical media.[54]

Paul DeMarinis deals with media history. The installation «The Edison Effect» (1989–1993) reflects mystical components of the technical achievements of sound storage. Instead of using a stylus, a wax cylinder and shellac discs are scanned contact-free by a laser technology developed by the artist himself. DeMarinis virtually stops time, because in contrast to digital storage technologies, the mechanical record playback persistently deletes what has been memorized every time the recording is played; it even writes the moment of play into the storage medium because the noises present in a space are engraved into the groove via the stylus when the record is played back.[55] By example of a clay cylinder with grooves that stems from ancient Jericho, DeMarinis points out that Edison's simple invention of mechanical sound storage could have already been developed centuries earlier. Original recordings of Bach and Mozart would have been preserved, and their music would be different to us.