We tend to think of the “digital” as a singular, monolithical period in media history….yet, there are actually many phases of the digital/electronic, as this interactive media exhibition explores. Each phase has its own particularities that are connected to the specificity of the hardware, software, and other contextually and materially-specific aspects. Although interactive media technology has “evolved” since the 1990s, the featured projects are still considered some of the most sophisticated early creative approaches to digital interactivity. Collectively, the Media Archaeology projects have covered a diverse range of interactive artworks from the 1990s-early 2000s, and a broad cultural range spanning from Europe and the Balkans, to Asia, the U.S. and Australia! These projects help provide a much more nuanced and layered impression of “digital cinema” through an examination of some of its now almost forgotten earlier phases (in addition to our study of other early electronic media, including 1960s-90s computer films in class). The website’s design aesthetic pays tribute to the experimental and DIY ethos of the turn-of-the-century emerging interactive arts culture. This website, as a collective project, provides an alternative self-sustainable low-budget and low-tech curatorial, historiographical, and media archaeological model.

Thank you to all the students for their hard work and enthusiasm for this experimental project. Special thanks to all the featured artists and cultural institutions who contributed their work. Thanks to Ina Cajulis, Ethan Gates, Greg Helmstetter, Ann Harris, and the Cinema Studies and MIAP department for emulating the collection so that more people can access this invaluable anthology of early interactive digital works. Special thanks to all the featured artists and cultural institutions who contributed their work. For more details on the process, visit Ethan’s blog post and a follow-up new DIY emulation tutorial by Xulun Luo. Visit the Credits page for a complete list of everyone who contributed to the virtual exhibition and physical showcase. ~ Prof. Marina Hassapopoulou

Download the catalog for the physical showcase:

Artist statement for the map design by Zhongwen Li:

How should one approach an artifact? According to Foucault (the originator of the term “archaeology of knowledge”), historiographical methodology transforms the monuments of the past into documents, while the archaeological method conversely turns documents into monuments to study the construction of memory created by their arrangement. It could also be said that within an artifact lies a dual dynamic: one involves an inward inquiry into content, separating an image from its background to singularize; the other concerns the possibilities of locating it within a knowledge structure, binding the image to a stable context. 

The grid pattern seems to visually embody this Gestaltian description: it presents both the possibility of viewing the segmented figures and a crisscrossed background in the same pattern.This dual dynamic extends to different uses of the grid as well: in the digitization of images, the grid reduces continuity to discrete pixels, while in archaeological sites, a grid system records the artifact’s background and its relations with other objects on a map.  

Balancing this dual potential of an artifact or grid is key to the media archaeology practice. Thus, we analyze media artifacts individually, seeking interpretation, while also rearranging and organizing them to form collective themes. In fact, it is through the interaction of these two dynamics that our project progresses continuously.  Based on these considerations, I chose the grid pattern as the primary visual element for the project and applied it on the designing of the interface art, to integrate our guiding concepts, artistic style, and practical needs of the project.