Media Philosophy of Vertical Movement: the Elevator as a Node of Modernization

Introduction. The article is devoted to a comprehensive media-philosophical analysis of the elevator as one of the key but underestimated media of modernity and subsequent eras, revealing social, architectural, and perceptual practices through the prism of vertical movement. Methodology and sources. The study is based on a synthesis of media archaeology methodology (W. Ernst, F. Kittler, S. Zielinski), actor-network theory (B. Latour), and the domestic approach to reading the material form of the urban environment (V. Glazychev). To comprehend the elevator as an infrastructural environment, P. Sloterdijk's metaphorology is developed through the introduction of the operative concept of “channel”. The empirical base consists of historical documents, visual representations, and satirical materials. Results and discussion. The elevator is considered a socio-technical aggregate, constituted by the “contract of trust” (E. Otis's performance). The evolution of its design from Art Nouveau to High-Tech is traced as a materialization of the change in philosophical attitudes towards the essence of technology. The elevator is analyzed as a meta-medium and a node of convergence of infrastructural flows, anticipating the logic of network protocols. Its role in shaping the social imaginary (the metaphor of the “social elevator” by P. Sorokin) and the scenography of everyday life is revealed, as well as its transformation into a cybernetic capsule of sensory programming. Conclusion. It is established that the elevator is a prototype and a mirror of the digital age, materializing the principles of managed encapsulation, delegation of agency to an algorithm, and affective management. Its philosophy reveals the fundamental contradictions of technological civilization between mobility and control, and privacy and publicity.

Authors: Alexander V. Markov, Oksana A. Shtayn

Direction: Philosophy

Keywords: media philosophy, elevator, medium, infrastructure, social elevator, actor-network theory, media archaeology, design, technology, urban studies

---

View full article