Five Principles of Zombie Media (DeFunct/ReFunct)
by Garnet Hertz
Co-authored with Jussi Parikka, in DeFunct/ReFunct Exhibition Catalogue, published by South Dublin Arts Centre, RUA RED
Zombie media addresses the living deads of media culture. As such, it is clearly related to the earlier calls to... more Zombie media addresses the living deads of media culture. As such, it is clearly related to the earlier calls to investigate "dead media" by Bruce Sterling and others: to map the forgotten, out-of-use, obsolete and judged dysfunctional technologies in order to understand better the nature of media cultural development. And yet, we want to point to a further issue when it comes to abandoned media: the amount of discarded electronic media is not only the excavation ground for quirky media archaeological interests, but one of the biggest threats for ecology in terms of the various toxins they are leaking back to nature. A discarded piece of media technology is never just discarded but part of a wider pattern of circulation that ties obsoleteness to recycling centers, dismantling centres in Asia, markets in Nigeria, and so forth - a whole global political ecology of different sorts where one of the biggest questions is the material toxicity of our electronic media. Media kills nature as they remain as living deads.
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Seen by:Art After New Media: Exploring Black Boxes, Tactics and Archaeologies (LEA)
by Garnet Hertz
forthcoming in Leonardo Electronic Almanac, MIT Press
This paper discusses three methodological themes employed by contemporary media artists who reuse obsolete information... more This paper discusses three methodological themes employed by contemporary media artists who reuse obsolete information technology hardware in their work. Methodologies include the exploration of the hidden “blackboxed” layer of technology by circuit bending artists like Reed Ghazala, the tactical use of technologies to bring social change by artists like Natalie Jeremijenko, and the archaeological use of outdated technologies to intervene in history by artists like Tom Jennings. These themes are presented as useful tools to construct a language of reuse which serves a valuable function in a culture increasingly confronted by electronic waste and assists in critiquing assumptions of obsolescence, technological progress and understanding digital culture primarily within the framework of “new media.”
Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method
Forthcoming in Leonardo-journal in 2012. Co-authored with Garnet Hertz.
This text is an investigation into planned obsolescence, media culture and temporalities of media objects; we approach... more
This text is an investigation into planned obsolescence, media culture and temporalities of media objects; we approach this under the umbrella of media archaeology and aim to extend the media archaeological interest of knowledge into an art methodology, following the work of theorists such as Erkki Huhtamo [3] and others who have given the impetus to think about the complex materiality of media as technology – from Friedrich Kittler to Wolfgang Ernst and Sean Cubitt. Hence, media archaeology becomes not only a method for excavation of the repressed, the forgotten, or the past, but it extends itself
into an artistic method close to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture, circuit bending, hardware hacking, and other exercises that are closely related to the political economy of information technology. Media in its various layers embodies memory: not only human memory, but the memory of things, of objects, of chemicals, and circuits.
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Seen by: and 37 moreThe Real Virtual Living
by Kieran Nolan
International Symposium on Electronic Arts 2009, 27/08/2009, Belfast
ISBN 978-1-905902-05-7 (F1 fully refereed)
It is the contention of this paper that posthuman creativity is already taking place, rather than solely existing in... more
It is the contention of this paper that posthuman creativity is already taking place, rather than solely existing in the domain of a biomechanical cyberpunk dream. Manifesting work in both cyberspace and meatspace, the posthuman in this case understood to be someone who embraces digital creative technologies (both hardware and software), taking advantage of the artistic opportunities they afford.
The effects of Moore's law over the last two decades has led to a profuse amount of cheap and obsolete computer equipment, both open and closed system. These castaway gadgets have become an abundant raw material, sparking the burgeoning movement of creative hardware hackers.
The internet has enabled the creative subversion of technology, through the dissemination of new creative tools and techniques. Closed video games consoles are been repurposed into new expressive platforms and tools. Indeed, the retro video gaming movement has grown beyond the digital domain, bringing pixels to oil painting to and the new flesh to performance art.
The posthuman aesthetic conceived in science fiction and nurtured online is now very real and tangible.
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