Epistemic Media: Their History and Relations to Subjectivity

In this article, I wish to offer the notion of epistemic media as a theoretical concept. The concept refers to media forms and media practices geared primarily not for communication but for rendering data and information into knowledge. Epistemic media is historically contingent as it emerges with modernity. As epistemic devices were developed in an increasingly rationalised society, they also opened up a space to know not just objective reality but the self, thus becoming entwined with the emergence of subjectivity as a realm of self-reflection where reason is used to form a free and authentic self. Exploring a few case studies of epistemic media, in particular, double-entry bookkeeping, and, drawing on the notions of cultural techniques and media practice, the article offers a preliminary exploration into epistemic media and its relations to the emergence of subjectivity.