Kristoffer Gansing Transversal Media Practices
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Kristoffer Gansin Kristoffer DISSERTATION KRISTOFFER GansinG : transversal media n ew G m PRACtiCes edia, P edia, Media Archaeology, Art and Technological Development U bli C How do media technologies develop over time? This is a basic proble- s P matic of technological development. In this context, the dissertation ex of forms and heres, Transversal Media Practices does not provide any easy answers but offers the reader a set of tools that points to the imaginary, residual and renewable dimensions of media in our contemporary network culture. The study unfolds through two case-studies. In the first, The World’s Last Television Studio, artists and activists are negotiating the socio- TRANSVERSAL cultural and material changes of the “old” and institutionalised mass P medium of Television. In the second case study, The Art of the Over- ression head, another old medium is engaged: the overhead projector, a quint- media essential 20th century institutional medium here presented as a device for “reverse-remediation” – of rethinking the new through the old. P RA The dissertation follows a methodology of integrated theory and C ti practice where Media archaeology is deployed as an interventionist, C es transversal discipline for cultural analysis and production that investi- gates the problematic of technological development. 978-91-7104-481-5 (print) 978-91-7104-482-2 (pdf) malmö U malmö n iversity2013 malmö UNIVERSITY 205 06 malmö, sweden www.mah.se TRANSVERSAL MEDIA PRACTICES Doctoral dissertation in Media and communications studies Dissertation series: New Media, Public Spheres, and Forms of Expression Faculty: Culture and Society Department: School of Arts and Communication, K3 Malmö University Information about time and place of public defense, and electronic version of dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/2043/15246 CC* Kristoffer Gansing, 2013 Cover Design by Linda Hilfling based on the patents: “Method for making pictures for projection upon screens” by D.J. Williams, 1919. “Method of and means for transmitting signals” by J.L. Baird, 1934. “Transcoding between different dct-based image compression standards” by Jungwoo Lee, 2001. Printed by Service Point Holmbergs, Malmö 2013 Supported by grants from The National Dissertation Council and The Doctoral Foundation. Isbn 978-91-7104-481-5 (print) Isbn 978-91-7104-482-2 (pdf) *This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. KRISTOFFER GANSING TRANSVERSAL MEDIA PRACTICES Media Archaeology, Art and Technological Development Malmö University 2013 Till Sonia och Wilbur (det gamla och det nya) TAbLE of CoNTENT s ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................. 9 2005: AN INTRODUCTION ........................................... 11 Dissertation Year 0 ...............................................................11 1 CONCERNS, QUESTIONS, AIMS ................................ 15 Structure of the Dissertation ....................................................23 2 MEDIA THEORY AND MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGY: HISTORY, MATERIALITY, PRACTICE .............................. 27 Medium/Media Theory: A dispute over materiality? .................32 The Materiality of Network Culture .........................................41 The Historical Turn of (New) Media Theory ..............................53 Laws of Media .................................................................54 Transitions between the old and the new .............................56 Media archaeology ..............................................................60 The New, the Old and the Dead ........................................60 Deep Time and Topoi of Media .........................................61 From Dead to Undead ......................................................63 Archives: Discursive and Technical .....................................65 Media Archaeology and Technological Development ...........67 From Negative to Transversal Ontology ...................................77 3 CONTEXTS AND METHODS........................................ 85 The Alternative Media Context ...............................................85 The Media Art Context ..........................................................88 A Practice-based Approach ...................................................90 Practice-based and Artistic-Research ...................................92 Media- and Communications Research at the Crossroads ..........98 Cultural Production and Practice-based Research ....................102 4 THE WORLD’S LAST TELEVISION STUDIO .....................109 Introduction to Case Study I .................................................110 Structure of the case-study chapter ...................................112 Case methodology .........................................................114 Excavation .........................................................................116 TV-Stop .........................................................................121 Institutionalised and Dissolutionised Dissent .......................124 “Everyone can make tv- tv” – a manifesto and its (counter-) publics ............................................................127 From The World’s Last to the World’s Largest: Everyone Can Make TV (About Bush) and Four More Years .. 137 What is to be done? Dilemmas of a TV Station ..................149 Discussion: The Vanishing Point of tv-tv .............................157 Intervention: TV-Hacknight - Eventualising analogue Switch-Offs and Digital Turn-Ons ..........................................164 Smart encoders and dumb decoders ................................166 “Adieu monde analogue, et Bonjour Monde Digitale!” .......172 Convergence from Below: From The to Your New TV-Signal .. 179 5 THE ART OF THE OVERHEAD .....................................195 Do’s and Don’ts : An Introduction to Case Study II ..................196 Case Methodology ........................................................199 Excavation: Uses and Counter-Uses - A Geneaology of The Overhead Projector ...................................................201 Uses: From Standardisation to Institutionalisation ...............205 Counter-uses: Light-Shows and Expanded Cinema ..............220 Intervention: The Art of the Overhead Festival ........................231 Call for Overheads! .......................................................234 Works produced within and/or presented at The Art of the Overhead 2005-09 ...................................243 Coda to The Art of the Overhead: Imaginary, Residual, Renewable ...........................................258 6 THE MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGICAL GENERIC? ..................265 To Take Some Distance of it All ........................................265 Cybernetics and the doing and un-doing of History ............268 From Generic to Generative ............................................273 7 TRANSVERSAL MEDIA PRACTICES: EMERGING CONCEPTS ............................................277 Excavation: Imaginary, Residual, Renewable .....................279 Intervention: Eventualisation and Reverse-Remediation ........287 8 CHANGING THE CHANGES: A SUMMARY AND SET OF TOOLS ..........................................................295 SAMMANFATTNING ....................................................303 Ansats ...............................................................................303 Kapitel 1: ”Sammanhang, Frågor, Syften” .............................304 Kapitel 2: ”Medieteori och Mediearkeologi: Historia, Materialitet, Praktik” ..............................................305 Kapitel 3: ”Sammanhang och Metoder” ................................308 Kapitel 4: “The World’s Last Television Studio” .......................310 Kapitel 5: “The Art of the Overhead” ....................................312 Kapitel 6: “Mediearkeologins ‘generiskhet’?”.........................314 Kapitel 7 och 8: ”Tvärgående mediepraktiker: Framträdande koncept” och ”Förändring av förändringarna: Sammanfattning och en samling verktyg” ..............................315 REFERENCES ..............................................................319 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is customary to name “the first” last, but I will cut to the chase and name the single most important person to this work here at the very beginning: Linda Hilfling. More than a contributor, Linda has been the most important driving force behind the activities and ideas laid out here and I cannot stress enough how much I owe the joys of my work, life and love to her. This dissertation was written at different locations over a period of seven years. The institutional base has of course always been Malmö University and its School of Arts and Communication a.k.a. K3 (from its Swedish name Konst, Kultur och Kommuni– kation). To say that K3 has played an important role in my personal and professional development would be an understate- ment. I cannot emphasise enough the tremendous support, freedom and challenges that this institution has presented me with during the past 14 years. Among the early supporters and mentors of my work are prof. em. Carl-Henrik Svenstedt who held the (now non- existing) position of artistic director at K3. Svenstedt created the E.A.T. Sweden network that importantly supported the first edition of The Art of the Overhead project. Kathrine Winkelhorn has also been a key person, always offering challenging and thoughtful advice and who provided me with some of my first job opportunities. My main supervisor Bo Reimer has been supportive and engaged throughout and