An archaeological approach to photography -
media archaeology, focusing on
medium as mode of engagement;
also serving as notes for Archaeography - the class.
- the term ‘medium’ has usually referred to an institutional agency of communication, such as TV, or the materials and methods used in the production of an artwork, such as oil on canvas
- digital fungibility, the fluid manner in which visual material, for example, is turned into animation, photographic print, painting, digital video grab, movie, photographic transparency and so on, means that specific agencies and materials/methods are increasingly less important as a way of distinguishing and understanding cultural/communicative works
- this directs attention instead to forms of mediation - the ways people engage with cultural works and thereby with those agencies which make and distribute the works
- this notion of Modes of Engagement offers a more accurate and useful way to categorize the format and placement of cultural works in public and private arenas
a materialist view of photography
questioning the emphasis upon medium as mode of representation
redefining medium as mode of engagement
this prompted, not least, by the rapid pace of change in new digital media
a key component of an archaeographical mode of engagement concerns
relationships between past and present
