Join us for a public talk with Dr. Jentery Sayers titled “Remaking Old Media across the Disciplines” in the CDSC Spring Series Thursday, April 7, from 3:30 — 5:30 p.m. in the CDSC (Holland Libraries, 4th Floor).
During this talk, Dr. Sayers will address the challenges we face when conducting archival research. Scholars primarily interested in old media frequently encounter devices that no longer work or existed only as illustrations, fictions, or one-offs. Even when component parts or photographs are available, it is incredibly difficult to determine how this became that in a particular moment. Indeed, absences will always persist. Rather than studying such uncertainty at a remove, Dr. Sayers details methods for prototyping absences in the historical record, with implications for thinking about materials and meaning across the arts, humanities, and sciences. Based on laboratory research conducted at the University of Victoria, Dr. Sayers draws from three examples of remaking old media—wearable technologies from the 1860s, magnetic recording devices from the 1890s, and various optophones from the twentieth century—to demonstrate how prototyping the past affords unique approaches to examining the contingent relations between the past and present. This talk is concluded by outlining why transdisciplinary approaches to prototyping matter for historical research as well as for the ethics and cultures of contemporary design.
No registration is required for this event.
