Media Archaeology

Dieses Kapitel führt anhand von »Bad Guy« darin ein, wie der Klang von Popmusik analytisch und historisch erschlossen werden kann. Technologien zur analogen und digitalen Musikproduktion, Techniken der Klanggestaltung und konkrete Klänge werden exemplarisch behandelt. Zudem wird der Fokus auf Technologien gelegt, die das Hören von Popmusik prägen und damit Hörtechniken konstituieren.

This contribution examines the special role of the telephone in TWIN PEAKS. It aims to show that the telephone not only plays a crucial role at key turning points in the plot but that the telephone is also self-referential, on the level of the series’ aesthetic self-reflection, in its symbolic function.
The contribution will systematically elaborate on this symbolic function of the telephone, which is artfully intertwined with its plot-driving function, through three aspects: the relation of present/absent (Chap. 2), the establishment of a network of fixed addresses (Chap. 3), and the telephone as a synecdoche for electricity (Chap. 4). The contribution devotes special attention to a neglected character of the series: Lucy, the secretary. As guardian of the telephones Luca becomes the actual reflective figure of the series as a residue of knowledge about a specific form of media technology and architecture.

In this edited collection, the authors all contribute to our collective understanding of how the phonograph, initially a curiosity, quickly became a co-agent in shaping cultural dynamics across the globe. From Rabelais's fantastical parolles gelées or ‘frozen words’ to contemporary acts of musical justice and environmental activism mediated by sound, this book demonstrates that the ability to record sound is not merely a technological breakthrough but a profound intervention in human life. By examining the interwoven concepts of ritual, recorded sound, and remembrance through diverse case studies—from the circulation of Cuban recordings in Congo to the politics of Chinese revolutionary songs and the ethics of Holocaust phonographies—In the Shadow of the Phonograph makes a compelling argument for a global, historically-informed orientation for sound studies. This book, therefore, does not just describe a historical shift; it also models a new interdisciplinary framework for understanding how sound continues to be a resource for reworking memory, forging new narratives, and igniting new practices of belonging. Professor Cloonan's postscript, which concludes the book, will offer a final reflection on the lasting and complicated shadow that the phonograph and its successors continue to cast over our auditory world and the study of its history.

15 sekund slave je interaktivna umetniška inštalacija, ki obraz naključno izbranega obiskovalca galerije povzdigne v umetniški objekt za 15 sekund. Inštalacija je bila navdahnjena s slavnim citatom Andyja Warhola "V prihodnosti bodo vsi ljudje doživeli svojih petnajst minut slave" 1 kot tudi z njegovim načinom predelave obrazov v slogu pop-art. Inštalacija je sestavljena iz računalnika z zaslonom LCD, ki je uokvirjen in razstavljen kot dragocena slika na steni, digitalnega fotoaparata, usmerjenega v ljudi pred zaslonom in posebej izdelane programske opreme, ki na slikah poišče človeške obraze in jih grafično predela. V tem članku predstavljamo tehnično ozadje inštalacije, še posebej način uporabe metod računalniškega vida v njej.

Nietzsche concibe la genealogía
bajo el postulado de que pensar es pensar quien manda, es decir, pensar quién y cómo se genera el
discurso (Foucault) o el lenguaje mediante el cual, finalmente, se ordena y se obedece y cuya
encarnación funda el cristianismo: «En el principio era el Verbo y el Verbo se hizo carne y habitó
entre nosotros ...» (Juan). No es una simple historia, sino un diagnóstico que exhuma los
mecanismos de obediencia y disciplina inscritos en el discurso y el cuerpo social. La encarnación
del Logos (la Palabra) en el cristianismo funda una moral e impone la obediencia suprema a una
Verdad escrita y codificada, consolidando un esquema de poder que, milenios después, se replica
en la lógica binaria del código digital.

The electrification of colonial cities in Asia (mainly of the British Empire) has been much neglected, although it followed that of European cities almost immediately and copied it closely. In this article, one manifestation of electricity, that of light and the impact it had in eastern cities, is considered more closely. Building on Schivelbusch's seminal work, the article shows on the one hand the deep understanding Schivelbusch has had of the impact light, but also aspects and facets the advent of lighting of the colonial city had in its time.

The article aims to excavate the room of the film director, in the realm of ephemeral and everyday life, by focusing on scrapbooks. It begins with the belief that, to focus attention on these kinds of materials can offer a better understanding of certain, crucial nodes of film production and development practices; and furthermore that it can unveil elements of the theory and methodology of writing the history of film production and development. For instance, the use of ephemeral media as meta-history, where the “maker” leaves traces of his/her productive activity. This article focuses on a constellation of material traces that emerge when excavating the private archive of Dino Risi, held by his son, Marco Risi. It is a relevant occasion to open a cultural and anthropological perspective on the very early stages of the film storytelling.

Contrairement aux interprétations anthropocentriques du Cantique des
cantiques qui lisent ses références non humaines comme des métaphores
descriptives d’un couple humain, cet article propose de lire cet gencement
poétique à partir des concepts de « rhizome » et de « visagéité » théorisés par les philosophes Gilles Deleuze et Félix Guattari. Ce paradigme de lecture permet de mieux valoriser l’hybridité interespèce propre aux visages des amants. La lecture rhizomique du Ct permet de décloisonner les frontières des identités humaines, animales, végétales, minérales et architecturales. La fécondité de cette approche herméneutique est illustrée avec le motif particulier du « pommier » (Ct 2,3-6 ; 7,7-9 ; 8,5). Ultimement, cette expérience de lecture montre les limites du cloisonnement anthropocentrique de « la nature » et plaide pour une meilleure prise en compte de la multiplicité et de l’interconnectivité de la vie par la poésie biblique.

Conceived as a word/image essay, Reasons to Kill a Poet takes a critical look at how creativity and its derivatives are being mobilized as key concepts of neoliberalism, functioning to repress forms of oppositional creativity through structures of discursive, and embodied, policing and punishment. At the same time, counter-hegemonic “creativity” persists, and the essay foregrounds particular exemplary works by writers, including Chilean musician and poet Victor Jara, Estadio Chile (1973); US-based Black journalist, writer and activist Mumia Abu Jamal, Teetering on the Brink: Between Life and Death (1991); and Ugandan queer activist, researcher, and poet Stella Nyanzi, No Roses from My Mouth (2020) These writings are juxtaposed with visual images to create a third space between word and image, and elicit historical resonances on such questions as What is the relationship between social and artistic critique and experimentation? How are their creativities conceived, posited and enacted as anti-capitalist and anti-governmental formations? What threat does radical creative work pose to the common sense of any period, but particularly to the forms of authoritarian impunity that characterize the neo-liberal present?

This paper examines pornography as both a cultural artifact and a technological driver, tracing its evolution from early daguerreotype imagery through contemporary AI-generated content. Drawing on media ecology theory (McLuhan), Actor-Network Theory (Latour), phenomenology of technology (Ihde), and feminist film theory (Mulvey), this analysis positions pornography not merely as content but as infrastructure that shapes technological adoption patterns. The central argument posits that pornography functions as a vanguard technology, consistently pushing the boundaries of media innovation while simultaneously revealing society's evolving relationship with desire, authenticity, and consent. The emergence of deepfakes and AI-generated pornography represents a paradigmatic shift from representational to generative media, inaugurating what I term an "algorithmic sexual economy" that fundamentally destabilizes traditional notions of intimacy, embodiment, and human agency. This interdisciplinary study concludes that contemporary AI-driven pornography serves as a critical site for negotiating posthuman ethics, forcing society to reconceptualize consent, identity, and the boundaries between authentic and synthetic intimacy.

Computers and photography has a long and complicated relationship throughout the years. With image processing and manipulating capabilities advance on the computer front, photography rebirthed itself with the digital cameras and digital imaging techniques. Development of interconnected social sharing networks like Instagram and Twitter, feeds to the photographers/users thirst to show off their momentaneous "been there/seen that-capture the moment/share the moment" instincts. One other unlikely front emerged as image processing power of the consumer electronics improved is "video game worlds" in which telematic travellers may shoot photographs in constructed fantasy worlds as if they travel in real life. While life like graphics manufactured by the computers raise questions about authenticity and truthfulness of the image, the possible future of the photography as socially efficient visual knowledge is in constant flux. This article aims to reflect on today's trends in "in-game photography" and tries to foresee how this emerging genre and constructed realities will transpose on to the post-truth condition as a means of photographical data and re-evaluation of truth.

Timm Rautert’s Image-Analytical Photography is a photographic declaration of independence. It was clearly formulated in the years between 1968 and 1974—partially during Rautert’s studies atthe Folkwang School of Design in Essen. In a cycleof fifty-six works, Rautert unfolds a broad panorama of photographic materiality and pictoriality in which he leaves behind “photography as pictorial creation” (in the sense of vivid composition) promoted by his teacher Otto Steinert at the time, and instead tries to grasp photography as a complex medium of image and communication.

Wprowadzenie. Dominujące teorie świadomości koncentrują się na korze mózgowej, pomijając serce jako pierwotny oscylator życia. Tymczasem embriologia pokazuje, że serce powstaje i podejmuje rytmiczną aktywność wcześniej niż mózg, a jego spiralny rozwój (pętlowanie) odzwierciedla archetypiczny wzór dwubiegunowej spirali. Cel. Artykuł proponuje model serca jako "łona istnienia", w którym integrują się: embriologia (RVOT jako ustnik kierujący przepływ ku centrum mostka), fizjologia rytmu (HRV, HEP, MCG), oraz fizyka (teorie Orch OR Hameroffa i Penrose'a, twistory). Metody. Model obejmuje: (i) embriologiczne obrazowanie 3D i modelowanie spirali pętlowania serca, (ii) badania 4D-flow MRI kierunku przepływu w RVOT, (iii) korelacje między rytmami serca a percepcją interoceptywną (HRV, EEG-HEP, MCG), (iv) testy serca jako oscylatora koherentnego w duchu Orch OR. Oczekiwane wyniki. Przewiduje się: (i) potwierdzenie spiralnego ruchu góra-dół ↔ dół-góra w embriogenezie, (ii) zbieżność przepływu z osią mostka, (iii) wzrost koherencji HRV/HEP w warunkach skupienia na centrum mostka, (iv) utrzymanie efektów mimo VR-flip jako dowód na źródło somatyczne, a nie wizualne. Wnioski. Serce można rozumieć jako biologiczne łono istnienia, w którym biologia, fizyka i duchowość spotykają się w jednym punkcie. Symbol 6-9 i archetyp Serpens Duplex odzwierciedlają spiralny ruch życia -zejście i powrót, materię i ducha. Integracja badań nad RVOT, rytmami serca i teoriami fizyki kwantowej otwiera perspektywę nowej naukinauki rytmu i serca.

Screening Exercises V-VIII è un ciclo di proiezioni, incontri e seminari che si concentrano sulla proiezione cinematografica come centro della ricerca artistica di alcuni artisti contemporanei e come elemento specifico e strutturale del cinema rivelando la connotazione performativa che può avere l’atto della proeizione.

Screning Exercises V-VIII ha visto tre giorni di proiezioni e incontri con gli artisti Claudio Caldini, Gaëlle Rouard e Andrea Saggiomo; e vedrà un seminario conclusivo con il ricercatore e assistente curatore della Collezione film del Centre Pompidou Enrico Camporesi.

Spanish translation of my book 3D.

Este libro propone una nueva mirada sobre la historia
de los medios ópticos y visuales, poniendo el foco en lo que el
autor denomina la “imagen técnica transplana”. Desde el siglo
XIX hasta el siglo XX, estas imágenes —que incluyen la estereoscopia,
la holografía, la imagen lenticular y otros subtipos
híbridos— han permitido explorar el espacio y las estructuras
de los objetos de manera inédita, superando las limitaciones
de la fotografía, el cine o la televisión.
A través de un enfoque metodológico innovador, el
autor reconstruye la historia de estas imágenes técnicas como
un palimpsesto de saberes ópticos simultáneos, mostrando su
influencia en la ciencia, la ingeniería, la medicina, la industria
militar y, también, en el arte contemporáneo. Este recorrido
revela no solo su función práctica, sino también su impacto estético
y conceptual en la representación del espacio moderno.
Una obra imprescindible para quienes buscan comprender
cómo las imágenes técnicas han transformado nuestra manera
de ver, conocer y crear.

This op'ed (English version) for The Monde reminds us that artificial intelligence is part of a long human history, as a form of technological animism, typical of modernity. It concludes that we should replace faith with skepticism and critical examination.

Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) im Rahmen der Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder innerhalb des Exzellenzclusters Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective -EXC 2020 -Projekt-ID 390608380.

A new CfP for a special issue of Feminist Media Histories (University of California Press), guest edited by me and Veronika Hanakova:

💿 Title: Feminist Archaeologies of Desktop Media
⏰ Deadline for abstracts: October 28, 2025

As media scholars and video essayists intrigued by formats that simulate the experience of navigating a computer (or smartphone) screen, we’re opening up this issue as a space to collectively explore how “desktop media” have engaged with and shaped the evolution of the graphical user interface.

We’re especially interested in how the desktop – as interface, metaphor, and media form – has been (or could be) denaturalized and reimagined through feminist, queer, and anti-racist perspectives.

This issue invites contributions that think across desktop cinema, computer history, media archaeology, and gender studies, and we welcome both written articles and video essays.

Join us in conversation, and in collaboration with the fabulous editorial team at Feminist Media Histories, led by Jennifer M. Bean.

This article examines the little-known colour film experiments of
the Synchromists, an avant-garde group founded in the 1910s by US
painters Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell. It focuses
on the Synchrome Corporation, a company founded by MacdonaldWright in Los Angeles in the 1920s to develop new colour film techniques. Through an analysis of archival material, including unpublished letters between Macdonald-Wright and Russell, and patents, I trace and contextualise the Synchromists’ efforts within the
political and industrial dynamics of the interwar period and examine
Macdonald’s subversive approach to film as a technological and
ideological construct.
Drawing on recent developments in format studies, media archaeology, and machine epistemology, I use this case study as an invitation
to re-evaluate the existing concepts of ‘visual music’ and ‘intermedia’
that have been adopted to discuss early experimental film. The
methodological model I propose highlights the interconnectedness
of technical innovation, industrial ambition, and artistic modernism,
in an attempt to enrich our understanding of early experimental film
history.

This article examines the little-known colour film experiments of
the Synchromists, an avant-garde group founded in the 1910s by US
painters Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell. It focuses
on the Synchrome Corporation, a company founded by MacdonaldWright in Los Angeles in the 1920s to develop new colour film techniques. Through an analysis of archival material, including unpublished letters between Macdonald-Wright and Russell, and patents, I trace and contextualise the Synchromists’ efforts within the
political and industrial dynamics of the interwar period and examine
Macdonald’s subversive approach to film as a technological and
ideological construct.
Drawing on recent developments in format studies, media archaeology, and machine epistemology, I use this case study as an invitation
to re-evaluate the existing concepts of ‘visual music’ and ‘intermedia’
that have been adopted to discuss early experimental film. The
methodological model I propose highlights the interconnectedness
of technical innovation, industrial ambition, and artistic modernism,
in an attempt to enrich our understanding of early experimental film
history.

This issue investigates the layered temporalities, shifting modalities, and evolving infrastructures of tele-visions – a plural, hyphenated term designating the spectrum of remote viewing technologies that have shaped, and continually reshape, how images travel and appear across distances. From early optical telegraphs and nineteenth-century electromagnetic signal relays to today’s ubiquitous digital environments, these systems condition how we think about, imagine, and experience the televisual. One element emerges as a particularly fruitful entry point into the archeology of tele-visions: the wireless. In many ways, the integration of Hertzian waves into telecommunications at the close of the nineteenth century marked an epistemic shift – a profound reordering of the technical, perceptual, and conceptual frameworks through which reality is organised and understood. The present issue explores the historical, technical, and artistic dimensions of that transformation, which, beyond the mere absence of cables, ushered in a new media paradigm whose political, philosophical, and environmental ramifications continue to be redefined with each successive wave of wireless innovation.

This chapter traces the techno-epistemological relevance of Project Cybersyn's processes of production quantification at factories, the transmission of that data, and the road towards their computation. By unfolding a media- archaeological analysis, these pages discuss archival documents showing that from the depths of Project Cybersyn’s technologies of transmission and computation, new correlations of forces and strategies of organization emerge. In sum, this text provides concrete evidence on how a media archaeology of Project Cybersyn unravels the media-genealogical scope of this case.

*[High-resolution images available in the Open Access book, following the DOI link above]

Bahattin Öztuncay and Özge Ertem, eds. Ottoman Arcadia: The Hamidian Expedition to the Land of Tribal Roots (1886). Exh. cat. Istanbul: ANAMED, 2018. 180 pp. Cloth $62.95 (9786052116487). Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED), Istanbul, Turkey, May 10–September 30, 2018.

This article details how the conceptualization of digital imaging becomes a catalyst for Hsu che-Yu and Chen Wan-Yin’s experimental documentaries. In these works, personal histories are layered against their imbrication with the publicized history of Taiwan, such as zoo animal spirit rites, Henry Liu’s assassination, as well as the home of a famed agricultural ‘terrorist’. What they have done is to use the idea of the digital as metonymic and metaphoric fig-ures. This is more effectively done by deploying digital technologies in a necessarily poor manner. Hito Steyerl famously defends the poor images in the age of nationalized canons and compelled circulation. Poor images are worth defending because they escape from the protected vaults of capitalized cultures. I argue, similarly, that it is time we think about a defense of ‘poor digitality’. By poor, what I mean is not an inept application or incompetent execution. What I mean, instead, is a rudimentary view into the infrastructure of digital world-building: wiring, scanning, motion captures, and the piece-by-piece scaffolding of a plausibly realistic vision. That affect re-mobilizes events and their causal emplacement in narration – to make history buzz in the course of superimposing the personal onto the eventful as an experimental procedure.

This videographic essay explores the star wipe-a long-dismissed and oft-ridiculed editing transitionas an emblem of marginal and forgotten media artifacts. By examining its historical use across various forms of media, from classic television and feature films to online ephemera, we reveal how this seemingly trivial transition embodies complex intersections of technology, memory, and aesthetic value. [in]Transition is a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Open Library of Humanities.

This text presents key insights from my interview with Paolo Tavares about Des-Habitat, a critical project that re-reads and reworks the influential Brazilian modernist magazine Habitat, once edited by Lina Bo Bardi. In our conversation, Tavares discusses how Habitat appropriated indigenous and vernacular objects as symbols of modernity, while obscuring the colonial histories that made such appropriations possible. By mapping every instance of non-Western representation in the magazine’s history, Des-Habitat reveals how modernist aesthetics were shaped through a process of cultural expropriation and erasure. Rather than a critique of Bo Bardi’s work, the project extends her critical legacy by reframing what was left outside the frame — the colonial violence and dispossession that underpinned modernism in Brazil. The interview situates Des-Habitat within current debates on decolonizing architectural discourse, cultural institutions, and historiography, highlighting its relevance as both an archival and activist intervention today.

This dissertation argues that creepypasta constitute the new
media space of horror for Generation Z, assuming a general function
in their relationship to the occult in the digital age. These fictional legends
told in the first person mythologise childhood objects –video games, TV
shows– while revisiting ancient practices such as spiritualism and oral
tradition. Based on media archaeology, this research examines how
creepypasta metamorphose digital platforms into haunted places, fusing
nostalgia with collective terror. These stories reflect contemporary
technological anxieties, highlighting a conflicting relationship between
enthusiasm and fear of technological evolution. These familiar objects
are transformed into vectors of fear to frighten Generation Z.

An extensive literature review undertaken at the outset of this endeavor revealed that the current status of interactive visual systems development, implementation and sustenance has evolved from theory and research that is neither especially pluralistic nor synergistic. There exist two distinct systems design approaches: 1. the largely positivistic and functionally guided approaches derived from the realm of information technology (IT), and 2. the incorporation of the more qualitatively based, aesthetically and experientially guided approaches derived from the realm of dynamic interaction design. The authors hypothesized that this paradigmatic schism required a new approach that could bridge fundamental gaps in knowledge and understanding between visual interaction designers and IT professionals. They further hypothesized that achieving this goal would enhance the usability and usefulness of many types of interactive visual systems. The authors created a theoretical, pluralistic process model comprised of aesthetic and positivist design characteristics of interactive visual systems.The model consisted of a process framework and a typology of design characteristics that depicted how aesthetic and positivist design characteristics affect each other. They then tested the hypothesis that diverse individuals perceive design characteristics in interface construction across paradigms by conducting a small-scale visual experiment on 105 participants. This hypothesis was formed by combining an aesthetic visual design approach with a functional, systems-based approach. This experiment strongly confirmed the hypothesis; it affirmed the efficacy of using this type of pluralistic research typology and framework to better inform designers and IT researchers and practitioners who are challenged to design dynamic, interactive visual systems.

In this interview, scholar–curator Bryan Norton discusses new forms of planetary-scale image-making with artist–researcher Asia Bazydrieva (Geocinema) and media theorist Jussi Parikka. While collaborating with Bazdyrieva during the production of Geocinema’s ‘Making of Earths’, a documentary exploring the Digital Belt and Road Initiative in China, Parikka wrote a new book, Operational Images: From the Visual to the Invisual (2023). In this study, Parikka suggests that the forms of image-making explored in ‘Making of Earths’ press against the very borders of the visible, possessing a long history with drastic political and social consequences. Drawing on the history of satellite imagery, drone footage and climate models, both Parikka’s and Bazydrieva’s work present fecund modes of artistic and scholarly engagement with the contemporary creation and dissemination of what Harun Farocki called ‘operational images’ in his audiovisual work from the early 2000s. In this conversation, Bazdyrieva, Norton and Parikka discuss the ever- increasing ubiquity of these types of images in order to highlight their role in planetary-scale computation systems, the production of scientific knowledge and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

This paper describes work undertaken by the VERA project to investigate how archaeologists work with information technology (IT) on excavation sites. We used a diary study to research the usual patterns of behaviour of archaeologists digging the Silchester Roman town site during the summer of 2007. Although recording had previously been undertaken using pen and paper, during the 2007 season a part of the dig was dedicated to trials of IT and archaeologists used digital pens and paper and Nokia N800 handheld PDAs to record their work. The goal of the trial was to see whether it was possible to record data from the dig whilst still on site, rather than waiting until after the excavation to enter it into the Integrated Archaeological Database, (IADB) and to determine whether the archaeologists found the new technology helpful. The digital pens were a success, however, the N800s were not successful given the extreme conditions on site. Our findings confirmed that it was important that technology should fit in well with the work being undertaken rather than being used for its own sake, and should respect established work flows. We also found that the quality of data being entered was a recurrent concern as was the reliability of the infrastructure and equipment.

Über das Spektakel mechanischer Attraktionen. Die kulturelle Spezifik des Mechanischen Theaters

Der Beitrag untersucht das Mechanische Theater als eigenständige Aufführungsform innerhalb der populären Kultur des 19. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere im Kontext mitteleuropäischer Jahrmärkte. Anhand überlieferter Artefakte – Puppen, Bühnenbilder, Mechanismen und Werbematerialien – argumentiert der Autor, dass das Mechanische Theater weder als primitive Vorstufe des Kinos noch als bloße Variante des Puppenspiels verstanden werden sollte. Vielmehr handelt es sich um ein autonomes Genre mit eigener ästhetischer und technologischer Logik. Diese Aufführungen erzeugten die Illusion von Leben ohne menschliche Darsteller, basierend auf präzise choreografierten Bewegungen mechanischer Figuren und Szenerien. Der Artikel hinterfragt die binäre Unterscheidung zwischen „live“ und „medial vermittelt“ und beleuchtet die kulturelle Relevanz des Mechanischen Theaters innerhalb der wettbewerbsorientierten Attraktionskultur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Im Zentrum steht das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Illusion und der bewussten Offenlegung der zugrunde liegenden Mechanik.

Spektakl bez aktorów - o mechanicznych teatrach XIX wieku

Artykuł poświęcony jest teatrowi mechanicznemu – formie widowiska popularnej w XIX wieku, zwłaszcza na jarmarkach Europy Środkowej. Autor analizuje zachowane artefakty (lalki, dekoracje, mechanizmy, plakaty) i dowodzi, że teatr mechaniczny nie był jedynie prymitywnym poprzednikiem kina ani odmianą teatru lalek, lecz stanowił odrębną formę przedstawieniową, opartą na własnej logice estetycznej i technologicznej. Teatry te operowały ruchem, inscenizacją i przestrzenią, tworząc iluzję życia bez udziału aktorów. Artykuł podważa binarny podział na przedstawienia „na żywo” i „zapośredniczone”, proponując ujęcie teatru mechanicznego jako widowiska opartego na precyzyjnie zaprogramowanej choreografii obiektów. Szczególny nacisk położono na napięcie między iluzją a demaskacją mechaniki oraz na znaczenie tej formy jako elementu konkurencyjnej kultury atrakcji XIX wieku.

A Spectacle Without Actors: On the Mechanical Theatres of the 19th Century

This article explores mechanical theatre as a distinct performative genre within 19th-century popular culture, particularly in the context of Central European fairgrounds. Drawing on surviving artifacts—puppets, scenic backdrops, mechanisms, and promotional materials—the study argues that mechanical theatres were not mere precursors to cinema or variants of puppet theatre, but rather autonomous forms of performance with their own aesthetic and technological logic. These shows produced the illusion of life without human actors, relying instead on precisely programmed choreographies of animated objects. The article challenges the conventional binary between “live” and “mediated” performance and emphasizes the cultural relevance of mechanical theatre within the competitive visual economy of 19th-century attractions. At its core, the study highlights the tension between illusion and mechanical revelation as key to the audience's experience.

Tra le pratiche grafiche ‘non convenzionali’, attorno alla metà del secolo scorso, negli ambienti della cinematografia d’avanguardia,
si diffuse quella di disegnare direttamente sulla pellicola, con le tecniche più diverse, costruendo film in cui si faceva spesso ricorso
all’astrazione figurativa. Tra i film di questo genere più riusciti, si trova Begone Dull Care, opera di Norman McLaren realizzata col
contributo di Evelyn Lambart, in cui – con un tratto spiccatamente visionario e facendo ricorso alle tecniche più diverse – si costruisce
un’animazione perfettamente sincronizzata con la musica scritta appositamente dal pianista jazz Oscar Peterson. Dopo avere
preso in considerazione la vicenda della realizzazione del film, nella nota che segue si esaminano i lavori cui McLaren fa riferimento
per costruire il suo linguaggio grafico, maturo e sorprendente, e le diverse forme di connessione che l’autore ha instaurato tra la
musica e le immagini, mostrando come in molti casi queste superino la costruzione, pur velata, di una qualsiasi forma di notazione
musicale, evitando così la banale corrispondenza diretta tra suoni e immagini, spingendosi nella direzione della realizzazione di
sequenze di immagini astratte compiutamente visionarie.

Dans un remarquable texte inédit (une conférence donnée en 1926 à la Maison des Centraux), Grémillon établit une passerelle entre l'esprit du réalisme poétique tel qu'il apparaît chez Griffith, puis dans les films impressionnistes français, jusqu'aux réalisateurs des grandes oeuvres des années 30. Deux ans avant sa première tentative majeure, Grémillon montre sa compréhension profonde des possibilités expressives proposées par Griffith dans Le Lys brisé, possibilités que les meilleurs cinéastes français des années 20 ont exploité occasionnellement et que lui-même s'efforcera de réaliser au cours des trois décennies suivantes. Grémillon distingue d'abord Le Lys brisé pour son économie de moyens. «C'est une satisfaction que de trouver une oeuvre où des moyens purement cinématographiques portent l'expression à un maximum d'intensité (...). Ce qui nous frappe devant Le Lys brisé, c'est une expression profondément humaine obtenue par des moyens simples et étonnement équilibrés (...). Pour la première fois, rien n'était inutile, sans valeur photogénique.»1 Ce n'est pas étonnant d'entendre Grémillon louer la «valeur photogénique» et «les moyens purement cinématographiques», quand on sait que ce sont des slogans critiques créés par les ciné-clubs qu'animaient Delluc, Epstein et Ricciotto Canudo. Dans le même esprit, il applau¬ dit le film tout en dénigrant «la moralité idiote» de l'histoire qu'il compare à une sorte de livret sur lequel Griffith a composé une musique visuelle magnifiquement expressive.

What is a recording? Why does its manipulation lead to a redefinition of listening - "écoute" - (and consequently of music, if we have music in mind) ? A handwritten annotation on the text of a conference preserved in the IMEC archives reveals the full complexity of Pierre Schaeffer's thinking. A “spiral” way of thinking, in his own words.

Session Title: FAIR Periodicals: What Does It Really Mean to 'Digitize' a periodical?

Panel titles:
1. FAIR Design: Metadata Strategies for Image-Driven Periodicals.
2. From OCR to AI: New Challenges and Tools in Text-Image Based Periodical Data Processing.
3. FAIR Infrastructures for the Past: Digitizing Institutional Archives and Heritage.

Periodical studies, an inherently interdisciplinary field spanning linguistics, literature, history, and cultural studies, offers a strong framework for engaging with digital humanities. Yet, as more humanities projects focus on digitization and the development of databases, digital archives, and open-access infrastructures, the challenges and opportunities of digitizing periodicals are often overlooked by scholars from non-digital humanities disciplines.
Drawing on case studies of 19th- and 20th-century Italian periodicals, this panel seeks to explore the tools and methodologies used in digitization projects, as well as the development of digital infrastructures that comply with the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). Specifically, we are interested in projects that not only facilitate access to these materials but also contribute to transforming them into digital heritage.
Spanning three panels, the panel brings together diverse approaches to the digitization of periodicals. The first session focuses on institutional archives, examining both successful efforts and the practical challenges of reconstructing historical contexts through infrastructures that aim to comply with FAIR principles. The second explores visual and design-oriented periodicals, highlighting metadata strategies that not only align with FAIR standards but also grapple with the complexity of representing image-based knowledge. The final session shifts to computational tools and large-scale data analysis, investigating how technologies from OCR to AI can support—or complicate—the processing of multimodal periodical corpora. Together, these sessions offer a layered perspective on what it truly means to make periodicals Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable in practice.

Este estudo reflete sobre a necessidade de “desocidentalizar” o campo da comunicação, explorando algumas propostas teóricas do Sul Global. A pesquisa contextualiza a importância de valorizar perspectivas comunicacionais não ocidentais e analisa a sua aplicação prática visando a promoção de uma compreensão mais inclusiva do fenômeno comunicacional. A metodologia envolve uma revisão bibliográfica e discussão teórico-reflexiva, explorando as oportunidades de adotar essas perspectivas em estudos de comunicação. Teoricamente, fundamenta-se em debates sobre hegemonia e colonialismo nas ciências sociais, destacando a relevância de uma abordagem comunicacional que reconheça a diversidade epistemológica e contribua para uma compreensão mais equitativa e contextualizada do campo.

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: desocidentalização; comunicação; diversidade; estudos decoloniais; Sul Global.

Unkonventionelles Rechnen bezeichnet eine zumeist interdisziplinär ausgerichtete Forschungsrichtung, in der neue und alternative Methoden und Technologien für die Rechentechnik erschlossen werden. Die Nutzung von Techniken der Photonik, der Nanotechnik, des Quantencomputing oder auch von analogen Spezialprozessoren sind Beispiele für Unkonventionelles Rechnen. Die große Herausforderung aus Sicht der Technischen Informatik besteht darin, frühzeitig die Chancen und Möglichkeiten innovativer Technologien aufzugreifen und nicht nur für quantitative, sondern insbesondere für qualitative Verbesserungen für zukünftige leistungsfähigere Rechner-und Prozessorarchitekturen zu nutzen. Umgekehrt können neue in der Informatik entwickelte Architekturkonzepte wieder auf die Entwickler von Technologien zurückwirken. Im Artikel wird diesbezüglich ein Schwerpunkt auf die Nanotechnik, speziell die Nanoelektronik, gelegt.