Power of imagination (Vorstellungskraft) refers to the ability to create inner images that either remember and reproduce perceptions or productively transgress reality. Imaginations constitute imaginative future scenarios or create - as art does - aesthetic alterity. The interdisciplinary contributions to this issue of ZfK investigate figurations and agency of the imaginary: From the relics of the middle ages to spatial productions of modernity, from the early amateur film discourse all the way to techno-security. The debate section, entitled 'Transparency and Secrets', deals with media and culture studies approaches to devices of surveillance.

Siegfried Mattl (Univ.-Doz. Dr. phil.) (1954-2015) war Leiter des Ludwig Boltzmann Instituts für Geschichte und Gesellschaft Wien. Christian Schulte (Dr. phil.) ist Professor für Theater- und Medienkulturen der Neuzeit am Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft der Universität Wien.