Nick Montfort (2003) and others have talked about a phenomenon called “screen essentialism,” which can translate to a privileging of our visual experiences shaping our understanding of “the digital.” From this, we see a continuing rhetoric that frames digital materiality around issues of design or software, while eliding inscription and hardware. Similarly, as we copy/paste, add/delete, sync and log on/off, we focus on “ephemerality,” often at the same time embracing an immaterial understanding of “the cloud.” In this session we’d like to take a step back in order to better understand “the digital” by exploring readings that approach digital technology materially and as historical and cultural artifacts in order to move beyond the screen and better answer the question “what is the digital?” —James Hodge and Josh Honn
Details
Friday, February 14, 2014 – 10am-noon
Kaplan Seminar Room, Kresge Hall
For more information contact Josh Honn.
Recommended Readings
- Lisa Gitelman, “Media as Historical Objects” (2006)
- Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Awareness of the Mechanism” (2008)
- Jussi Parikka, “The Geology of Media” (2013)
Optional Reading
- Jussi Parikka, “Dust and Exhaustion: The Labor of Media Materialism” (2013)