[Commlist] CfP Technostalgia. Afterlives of 80s-90s’ Digital Technologies

      *Technostalgia*


      *Afterlives of 80s-90s’ Digital Technologies*

*June 19, 2026 (9.30 am to 4.00 pm)*

*Les Rotondes, Luxembourg City *

**

While digital technologies are dominated by acceleration, constant 
upgrades and equally irreversible obsolescence, nostalgia for past 
technologies is at the same time increasingly present and productive. 
Nostalgia persists – and even thrives – as a site of imagination, 
memory, cultural production, creativity and maintenance. This one-day 
conference seeks to explore how digital and computing pasts are 
remembered, revived, and reimagined. Technostalgia stands at the 
intersection of personal memory and collective practices, intertwining 
affects, communities, cultures, heritage, markets and ideologies. 
Whether through the emulation of obsolete systems, the storytelling of 
early computing experiences, the maintenance of vintage hardware, the 
emulation of videogames and dead formats, the aesthetic strategies of 
retro interfaces and design, a market of “geek” artifacts, activities of 
communities related to retro-computing or the demo scene, technostalgia 
opens a fertile ground for analysing both “restorative” and “reflective” 
relations to past IT technologies (Van der Heijden, 2015 
<https://mediarep.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/4df62f4d-f767-4ec1-9c5b-8f387e86fe31/content?utm_source=chatgpt.com>). 
It invites us to discuss the role of “techno-melancholia” (Fickers, 2009 
<https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/en/publications/tuning-in-nostalgic-wavelengths-transistor-memories-set-to-music>), 
memories, different expressions of contemporary nostalgia (Fantin, Fevry 
and Niemeyer, 2021) 
<https://www.septentrion.com/fr/book/?GCOI=27574100484050>and digital 
nostalgia (Niemeyer in Becker and Trigg, 2024 
<https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003364924-45/digital-nostalgias-katharina-niemeyer?context=ubx&refId=375674a2-fd19-4653-b849-ff2065eda5ee>), 
maintenance and heritagisation, remembrance and restoration (Van Dijck 
and Bijsterveld, 2009 
<https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/35295?show=full>), as 
well as some“desired return to an ideal past” (Pinch and Reinecke, 2009 
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt45kf7f>).

To analyse the specificities of technostalgia when related to IT, 
computing and digital artifacts of the 80s and 90s, we welcome proposals 
from researchers, artists, archivists, designers, curators, and 
practitioners engaging with its multiple dimensions and addressing one 
or several of the following topics:

*(1) Narratives *

Nostalgia in Personal and Collective Narratives of Computing History

The Role of Oral Histories in Preserving Digital Heritage

Use of “Nostalgic Practices” for and by Research

**

*(2) Practices and Communities *

Practices and Communities of Vintage Hardware, Retro Computing, ...

Relationships between Communities, Companies and Institutions

Revival of the Past: Virtual Machines, Emulators, Digital Preservation

The Labor and Challenges of Maintaining Dead or Outdated Systems

*(3) Politics*

Techno-conservatism**and Technostalgia as Ideological Tool**

Retro as Resistance and Low-tech Movements

*(4) Market*

The Business of Retro Design and Vintage Revival

The Ecosystem of Retro Tech Market

Maintenance and Recycling


      *Submission Guidelines*

Please submit a proposal (in English) including:

Title of your presentation

Abstract (max. 400 words)

Short bio (max. 100 words)


      to (technostalgia /at/ uni.lu) <mailto:(technostalgia /at/ uni.lu)>by November
      30, 2025.

Notifications of acceptance are expected before December 20.

The conference organizers will provide coffee breaks and lunch, and 
there is no fee. Accommodation and travel remain at the own charge of 
participants, although we may exceptionally provide some support on request.

*Local organisers *

CD-Hist Team : https://www.uni.lu/c2dh-en/research-projects/cd-hist/ 
<https://www.uni.lu/c2dh-en/research-projects/cd-hist/>

Fred Pailler, Valérie Schafer and Alina Volynskaya

*Scientific Committee *

Susan Aasman (University of Groningen)

Sandra Camarda (C^2 DH, University of Luxembourg)

Andreas Fickers (C^2 DH, University of Luxembourg)

Stefan Krebs (C^2 DH, University of Luxembourg)

Katharina Niemeyer (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Benjamin Thierry (Sorbonne University)

/This conference is organised within the frame of the CD-Hist project 
(2024-2026) conducted at C^2 DH and supported by the FNR 
(C23/SC/18097856). /

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