Intermediation: Mediation Under Computation Conditions
David M. Berry Image generated with Google Nano Banana Pro The standard translation of Theodor W. Adorno's concept of Vermittlung is usually given as "mediation" which captures important dimensions of his argument. "Mediation" suggests a process, an activity, a relation, all of which Vermittlung certainly involves. The German Vermittlung derives from Mitte (middle, midst, centre), with the ver - prefix intensifying it. Vermittlung can therefore be understood as "the thorough middle-ing," the process of being-in-the-middle. For Adorno, this Mitte has both spatial and temporal dimensions in the productive space between subject and object, and the duration required for dialectical thought to unfold (O'Connor 2013; Jarvis 1998). Adorno writes that "their becoming fades and dwells within the things; it can no more be stabilized in their concepts than it can be split off from its own results and forgotten. Similar to this becoming is temporal...
