# Media Archaeology [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_archaeology) ( 1990s – present ) ## Description Media archaeology, the history of projection, and moving panoramas — a methodology, developed by theorists including [[Erkki Huhtamo]] and [[Siegfried Zielinski]], that excavates obsolete, marginal, and imagined media technologies to complicate linear histories of cinema and visual culture. ## Key Tags #media-archaeology #projection #pre-cinema ## Essential Works - [[Illusions in Motion]] - Erkki Huhtamo's media-archaeological history of the moving panorama and related spectacles - Parikka, Jussi. *What Is Media Archaeology?* - foundational methodological overview of the field - Zielinski, Siegfried. *Variations on Media Thinking* - "deep time" media archaeology methodology ## Details ### Key Theorists - [[Erkki Huhtamo]] - coined "topos study" within media archaeology; author of *Illusions in Motion* - [[Siegfried Zielinski]] - theorized "deep time" media archaeology, or an-archaeology, of media - Jussi Parikka - methodological synthesizer of the media archaeology field - [[Laura U. Marks]] - *Enfoldment and Infinity* traces new media art's unfolding/enfolding aesthetics back to classical Islamic art and philosophy ### Exemplary Practitioners %% none yet %% ### Related Concepts - [[Flicker and Entoptics]] - shares a history of projection and optical media - [[Vision]] - shares a history of optical instruments and projection technologies that condition and construct vision ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Associated Movements or Institutions - [Media Archaeology Lab](https://www.mediaarchaeologylab.com/) - University of Colorado Boulder research lab of working obsolete media devices, founded by Lori Emerson ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Altice, Nathan. _I Am Error: The Nintendo Family Computer / Entertainment System Platform_. First MIT Press paperback edition. Platform Studies. The MIT Press, 2017. Blassnigg, Martha, Gustav Deutsch, and Hanna Schimek, eds. _Light Image Imagination_. Amsterdam University Press, 2013. [https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt45kdxn](https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt45kdxn). “CHAPTER 12 Designing and Revealing: Some Aspects of a Genealogy of Projection Some Aspects of a Genealogy of Projection from Light Image Imagination on JSTOR.” Accessed April 29, 2025. [https://www-jstor-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/stable/j.ctt45kdxn.16?seq=1](https://www-jstor-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/stable/j.ctt45kdxn.16?seq=1). Huhtamo, Erkki. _Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles_. 1st ed. Leonardo. The MIT Press, 2013. [https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9228.001.0001](https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9228.001.0001). Huhtamo, Erkki. “The Spell of the Catoptric Television. Media Archaeology, Topos Study, and the Traces of Attention.” In _Image - Action - Space_, with Moritz Queisner, Kathrin Friedrich, and Luisa Feiersinger. De Gruyter, Inc, 2018. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110464979-003](https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110464979-003). Parikka, Jussi. _What Is Media Archaeology?_ Polity Press, 2012. Kahn, Douglas. _Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in the Arts_. Univ of California Press, 2013. Talbot, Stuart. _‘The Perfectionist Projectionist’: Philip Carpenter, 24 Regent Street, London_. no. 88 (2006). Valiaho, Pasi. _Projecting Spirits: Speculation, Providence, and Early Modern Optical Media_. 1st ed. Stanford University Press, 2022. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631946](https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631946). Zielinski, Siegfried. “Designing and Revealing: Some Aspects of a Genealogy of Projection.” In _Variations on Media Thinking_. University of Minnesota Press, 2019. Zielinski, Siegfried. _Variations on Media Thinking_. University of Minnesota Press, 2019. [https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/monograph/book/70331](https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/23/monograph/book/70331). “UMA_MediaArchaeology_Handout.” n.d.