[ecrea] Media Archaeology PhD course in Montreal in May

# ENGL 603: Media Archeology
May 23-27, 2017
3 credits

Link: http://residualmedia.net/classes/

## Course Description
What is media archaeology? As Jussi Parikka describes, it is a subfield 
of media history that scrutinizes contemporary media culture through 
investigations of past media technologies and creative media practices. 
Media archaeology takes a special interest in recondite and forgotten 
apparatuses, practices and inventions. At an historical moment when our 
own media technologies become obsolete with increasing rapidity, the 
study of residual forms and practices provides valuable context for 
analysis, and perhaps the possibility for the emergence of something new.

This course deals with the theory, current practice, and possible 
trajectories of media archaeology as a discipline. Our object of study 
will be the research collection of the new Residual Media Depot of the 
Media History Research Centre at the Milieux Institute. Work will 
consist of a mix of writing, thinking, talking, and hands-on encounters 
with materials from the collection, according to student skills and 
interests.

## Course Structure
This intensive one-week graduate course (5 days, Tuesday 23 May - 
Saturday 27 May 9 am - 5 pm inclusive) will run for the second time this 
year. It will consist of approximately 20 graduate students (PhD level 
preferred), approximately half from Concordia and half from elsewhere. 
Dr. Darren Wershler (CURC in Media & Contemporary Literature, Concordia) 
will lead the course, with special guests Dr. Jussi Parikka (Winchester 
School of Art) and Dr. Lori Emerson (University of Colorado Boulder) .

### Morning Seminar
During the actual course, mornings will follow a seminar model. Course 
members will receive their reading packages digitally in early May, and 
they will be expected to arrive ready to discuss this material. We will 
make frequent use of breakout groups of various kinds, concept mapping 
and daily individual blog posts to structure our conversation. In order 
to provide further context, all seminar members will also spend time 
locating media examples for in-class screenings in order to provide 
further contextual information.

### Afternoon Projects
Afternoons will consist of work time for an individual or collective 
project in applied media archaeology. Students must propose their 
project before being accepted to the course (see APPLICATION PROCESS, at 
the end of this document). Students will have access to the Depot 
collection, some support from Research Assistants, plus any other 
necessary supplies that Milieux can provide (after a student is 
accepted, the instructors will determine what we can supply and what 
students will have to supply themselves). Projects might include, but 
are not limited to, the following:

        - visual studies of the collection’s hardware
        - readings of boxes, manuals and other textual materials
        - platform studies of individual consoles in the collection
        - media archaeologies, genealogies or geologies of particular 
consoles
        - software studies of particular programs supported by the 
Depot’s machines
        - modding of a particular console (either supplied by the 
student or purchased for them to work on while here)
        - experiments with the Depot's upscaling and signal processing 
equipment and displays
        - fieldwork (e.g. a trip to the old Coleco factory, which is 
now an office loft, or trips to local retro stores, or arcades)
        - white papers on the use of particular equipment in the Depot 
(e.g. how to set up RF consoles like the Atari 2600 or 5200 for 
classroom use)
        - databasing the Depot collection (now underway)
        - use the collection to test media-archaeological theory 
against real technology
        - build an emulator, like a Retropie
        - build an upscaler or a Supergun (a home-made console that 
plays old arcade boards)
        - do some online bibliographic work around retro media 
collections, archives and labs

Students will have access to a full range of Milieux workspaces and 
equipment during this period.

## Readings
Readings will be circulated before the course begins (and after all 
students are accepted). All seminar participants will arrive having 
completed the readings in advance. The readings themselves will consist 
in part of major texts from media archaeology, material media studies, 
cultural technique theory and articulation theory, and in part of new 
work that the instructors are preparing.

## Evaluation
Eligible students will receive 3 credits for this course. They will be 
graded according to the standard Concordia grading scale, based on the 
quality of their writing before and during the course (40% - about 6000 
words in total, in the form of detailed academic blog posts), 
contributions to discussion during the morning seminar (30%), and the 
afternoon project work (30%).

## Application Process
Interested students should submit a short (500-750 word) statement 
outlining their field of study, a few sentences on their projected 
doctoral project, and a description of how this course fits into their 
intellectual program. Students should also describe the nature of the 
afternoon project they would like to tackle during the course. 
(Instructors will be available to help successful applicants to develop 
these projects before and during the course itself.)

Please send all applications to 
(d.wershler /at/ concordia.ca)<mailto:(d.wershler /at/ concordia.ca)> ASAP.


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