In the history of brain research, the prospect of visualizing brain processes has continually awakened great expectations. In this study, Cornelius Borck focuses on a recording technique developed by the German physiologist Hans Berger to register electric brain currents; a technique that was expected to allow the brain to write in its own language, and which would reveal the way the brain worked. Borck traces the numerous contradictory interpretations of electroencephalography, from Berger's experiments and his publication of the first human EEG in 1929, to its international proliferation and consolidation as a clinical diagnostic method in the mid-twentieth century. Borck's thesis is that the language of the brain takes on specific contours depending on the local investigative cultures, from whose conflicting views emerged a new scientific object: the electric brain.

Using both historical and contemporary examples, this publication traces the complex relationships between art, technology, and science, focusing on technological and artistic media from the nineteenth century to the present day.The interplay of technological invention and artistic innovation requires a variety of methods, ranging from the fine arts and cultural studies to the history of science and media archaeology. Among the key themes, which the contributions will examine from a variety of perspectives, are: the status of technology as a shared feature of or "boundary object" between art and science; the conflicts among ethical, aesthetic, and economic values in the system of art versus that of technology; the paradox that inventions are regarded as achievements of individual geniuses but can actually only be made and successfully applied when they have been sanctioned by the sociohistorical zeitgeist.