Media Archaeology
A method that excavates forgotten, failed, and obsolete media to question linear narratives of progress and reilluminate the present.
Definition
Media archaeology is a method in media studies that examines neglected, obsolete, and alternative media and their recurring cultural patterns to challenge progress-oriented histories and rethink contemporary media.
Scope
This topic introduces media archaeology as an approach that studies dead and alternative media, recurring topoi, and material apparatuses to write non-teleological media histories. It covers Zielinski's 'deep time' of the media, the recovery of overlooked inventions and imaginary media, and the relation between media archaeology and Foucauldian and Kittlerian thought.
Core questions
- What can obsolete and failed media reveal about media history?
- How does media archaeology challenge narratives of linear progress?
- What are recurring topoi and cyclical patterns in media culture?
- How does the method relate to Foucault's and Kittler's work?
Key concepts
- Dead media
- Deep time
- Topos
- Imaginary media
- Non-linear history
Key theories
- Deep time of the media
- Zielinski's anti-teleological history that seeks the new in the old and the old in the new, attending to singular figures and devices across long timespans.
- Topos study of recurring media motifs
- Huhtamo's approach tracing recurring cultural motifs and clichés that reappear across different media and eras.
- Media archaeology as method
- Parikka's synthesis presenting media archaeology as a diverse toolkit for excavating material media histories and rethinking the digital present.
History
Emerging from the 1990s and 2000s in dialogue with Foucault's archaeology of knowledge and Kittler's materialism, media archaeology was developed by Zielinski, Huhtamo, Parikka, and others. It offered an alternative to celebratory new-media narratives by recovering forgotten devices and recurring cultural patterns, and remains a vital methodology in materialist media study.
Debates
- Method or field?
- Whether media archaeology constitutes a coherent method, a loose set of practices, or an emerging subfield, given the variety of approaches gathered under the name.
Key figures
- Siegfried Zielinski
- Erkki Huhtamo
- Jussi Parikka
- Friedrich Kittler
Related topics
Seminal works
- parikka2012
- zielinski2006
- huhtamoparikka2011
Frequently asked questions
- Why study 'dead' or obsolete media?
- Because forgotten and failed media reveal paths not taken and recurring patterns, helping denaturalize the assumption that current media are the inevitable outcome of progress.
- How does media archaeology relate to Foucault?
- It borrows Foucault's archaeological method of excavating the conditions of discourse, applying it to the material and technical conditions of media.