What is "variantology"

Variantology has been conceived as an international research project with the aim of developing a critical appraisal of the established concepts of “ media”. The concept of a medium is thus opened up to approaches and disciplines that up to now have remained outside the contemporary discourse on media, such as theology, various musicology, aspects of natural sciences, fine arts or classical philology. Furthermore it is opened up to cultures of knowledge that have long been excluded from the western discourse, like the oriental and Arabic-Islamic culture. Variantology also attempts to explore how reciprocally these disciplines then become open to thinking in categories and terms of media and communication. Consequently, the network of research that constitutes the Variantology project involves scholars based in academic institutions as well as artists, musicians and authors.