Media Archaeology

Introduction: Archaeology and the Media

by Tim Clack

co-authored with Dr Marcus Brittain (CAU, University of Cambridge, UK)

Introduction to T. Clack and M. Brittain (eds) 2007. 'Archaeology and the Media'. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.... more Introduction to T. Clack and M. Brittain (eds) 2007. 'Archaeology and the Media'. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Archaeology is more prevalent in the media today than ever before. Likewise, the media is more prevalent in archaeology than has previously been experienced. Media is both the means to mass communication and the material agency by which that communication is transmitted, transferred, or conveyed. Different media have impacted upon archaeology in different ways, and a future relationship with the media lies in an uncertain balance with the emergence of the digital era of technology. What has archaeology’s relationship with the media looked like in the past, what are the issues at stake in this relationship today, and is archaeology suitably equipped for this partnership in a future of increasingly rapid information transfers?

Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method (Leonardo)

by Garnet Hertz

Co-authored with Jussi Parikka. Forthcoming in Leonardo, MIT Press

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.

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.

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.”

Mobile Gaming: An Engineer Puts an Arcade Cabinet on Wheels (Popular Science)

by Garnet Hertz

Popular Science (February 2012). Story by Gregory Mone. Photographs by Jeff Newton. Edited by Doug Cantor.

In the late 1980s, millions of arcade-addicted kids sat in the faux racing seats of Sega's OutRun videogame, grabbed... more In the late 1980s, millions of arcade-addicted kids sat in the faux racing seats of Sega's OutRun videogame, grabbed the rubber-covered wheel of the imitation Ferrari Testarossa, pressed down on the pedals, and imagined they were roaring down the street. Twenty-five years later, one of those kids, Garnet Hertz, has realized that fantasy, modding an 1,100-pound arcade machine to ride on pavement.

Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method

by Jussi Parikka

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.

Computing Futures: A Vision of the Past

by Robin Boast

Boast, R. (2002) Computing Futures: A Vision of the Past. In B. Cunliffe, W. Davies and C. Renfrew (eds.), Archaeology: the widening debate. London, British Academy, pp. 567-592.

Introduction: Archaeology and the Media

by Marcus Brittain

2007 In T. Clack & M. Brittain (eds). Archaeology and the Media, 11-65. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press (co-authored with T.Clack)

Simona Sanchirico, "la II edizione del Salone dell'Editoria Archeologica di Roma al Museo Pigorini"

by Simona Sanchirico

Pubblicato su "Forma Urbis. Itinerari nascosti di Roma antica", giugno 2011, pp. 41-42
Con scheda di approfondimento sul convegno on - line a cura di Gianluca Melandri (pp.43-44)

Spol in arheologija. Bibliometrična analiza Praistorije jugoslavenskih zemalja

by Vesna Merc

Published in: ARHEO (Ljubljana), 2005, 23, p. 27-34.

"'A New Woman': The Promotional Persona of Anna Sten"

by Ellen Pullar

Published in 'Celebrity Studies" 1, no. 3 (2010)

Collective Memory and Media Innovation: Interdependencies

by Indrek Ibrus

NIngún libro es también una escalera

by Arnd Wedemeyer

published in Aris Fioretos (ed.), Babel. Festschrift für Werner Hamacher (Basel: Urs Engeler, 2008).

Screens of Navigation: From Taking a Ride to Making the Ride

by Nanna Verhoeff

Refractory, 2008

LONDON 2012: DISTRIBUTED IMAG(IN)INGS AND EXPLOITING PROTOCOL

by Paul Caplan

Published in PLATFORM: Journal of Media and Communication

The Olympic Games in London in 2012 is being built online as well as off through official and unofficial photographs... more The Olympic Games in London in 2012 is being built online as well as off through official and unofficial photographs which serve to position ‘2012’ within a discourse of legacy and participation. This paper looks at how network protocols can be addressed as what Bruno Latour would call ‘actants’, non-human actors that generate and discipline that visualisation within a particular network scopic regime (Jay, 1988). Following Galloway (2004), protocols such as JPEG/EXIF and XML can be seen as generating new scopic texts/practices around archive and openness which underpin 2012 ideologies of legacy and participation. The paper goes on to explore the potential of critical intervention in that regime using Benjamin’s model of writing history developed in The Arcades Project (1999).