Intermediality, Quo Vadis?

Abstract

Some 30 years after its coining, the notion and concept of intermediality still proves to be of great relevance for many disciplines, ranging from semiotics to communication, media, literary, and social studies. However, in the digital era, intermediality as a work in progress has to meet the challenges of the so-called new media and develop innovative and adequate axes of research. This article presents some basics of the latest state of affairs of intermedia studies and proposes six central axes of future intermedia research. It focuses on the perspectives of an intermedia network history, which will tackle the reconstruction of historical functions of intermedia processes; the blurring of genre patterns; new interactivities; the interplays among medial, technological, economic, and social vectors; and the making of meaning in current media networks. Thus, some (interwinding?) paths of future intermedia studies will be indicated.