Media Archaeology

A.Y. 2024/2025
9
Max ECTS
60
Overall hours
SSD
L-ART/06
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with a general knowledge of the conceptual framework and the critical and theoretical tools of media archaeology, characterized by an interdisciplinary methodology that combines philosophy and critical theory with anthropology, the theory and history of cinema and media, and the history of technology. Through the in-depth analysis of selected case studies, the goal of the course is to reframe past, contemporary, or emerging media through an investigation of the dispositifs that anticipated them, as well as through an account of the genealogical processes and epistemic constructs that have informed their becoming. The course will particularly emphasise interrupted or dead-end paths, that have been neglected or overlooked from the institutional history of media and will pay special attention to the bodily techniques that the interaction with media implies. Through an archaeological approach to media and dispositifs, the course aims to offer a critical contribution both to further studies of media dynamics, and to future activities in the professional fields of multimedia design and communication.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students
- will have developed awareness of the non-linear and discontinuous character of the history of media, becoming familiar with some of the methodologies proper to media archaeology
- will be able to identify connections between contemporary media and the media of the past, as well as to explain the relationship between the emergence of ideas and concepts in a certain historical epoch and the evolution of technologies and dispositifs

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:
- put into practice a set of tool to analyse the history of media phenomena and to critically discuss the dominant media trend in history through alternative genealogical trajectories
- tackle different types of sources for an archaeological investigation of media (literary texts, audio-visual materials, optical and technological apparatuses)
- apply the conceptual framework addressed by the course to a critical analysis of contemporary media culture, relying upon the examination of the case studies
- employ the notions acquired in various professional contexts of communication, especially those concerned with the design, project, and management of media processes
Single course

This course can be attended as a single course.

Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
Unit A (20 h; 3 CFU): What is media archaeology (methodology, practices, science and pseudoscience)
Unit B (20 h; 3 CFU): Embodied Media archaeology: gestures, body, and "optical" media
Unit C (20 h; 3 CFU): Media archaeology and sound studies

Doing media archaeology means trying to understand the hyper-technological, hypermediated and virtual present from a series of nodes of the past. It means observing the long life of media by bringing out certain concepts and figures of mediation: the screen surface, the role of the body, simulation effects, the materiality of devices. The first two modules will be devoted to the archaeology of optical media (photography, cinema, video), while the third module focuses on sound media and artistic practices, particularly in relation to audiovisual production. Using key concepts such as listening, noise, feedback, appropriation, obsolescence and archive, a range of experimental transmedia experiences in the contexts of music, film and electronic arts will be analysed.
Prerequisites for admission
None
Teaching methods
Lectures, discussions, analysis of artworks and devices, visual materials of contemporary digital culture, collective discussion.
Teaching Resources
Slides and suggested readings will be accessible on the Team "Archeologia dei media", Channel 2023-2024, codice: 8aqe3g0 and on the Ariel site.

Bibliography

UNITS A,B
A. C. Dalmasso, B. Grespi (a cura di), Mediarcheologia, Cortina, Milano 2024, pp. 417.
Course notes (articles and related materials will be uploaded on Teams)

UNIT C
R. Catanese, Bill Morrison, Decasia: The State of Decay. L'alchimia della rovina, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2023, pp. 105
M.T. Soldani, Made in U.S.A. L'opera dei Sonic Youth tra indie e pop, video e cinema, Mimesis, Milano-Udine 2024, pp. 128

Not attending students are also required to study:
F. Casetti, Schermare le paure. I media tra proiezione e protezione, Bompiani, Milano 2023, pp. 273.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Oral exam testing the knowledge of the texts in the syllabus and the acquired skills, with a particular focus on concepts and case studies.
The exam program of A.Y. 2023-2024 can be taken until the February 2025 roll call and no later, thereafter (i.e. from May 2025) it will only be possible to take the program of A.Y. 2024-2025.

The evaluation corresponds to:
- knowledge level of the theoretical frameworks;
- ability to apply concepts to case studies;
- making judgments;
- ability to argue with conceptual and linguistic precision.
L-ART/06 - CINEMA, PHOTOGRAPHY AND TELEVISION - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor: Grespi Barbara
Professor(s)
Reception:
On Monday from 15.00 to 18.00 (please send me an email at least a day before).
Dipartimento di filosofia, second floor, and/or Teams (ONLY ON TEAMS in October and November 2023)