Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art Method
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Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology into an Art
Method
Garnet Hertz
Jussi Parikka
Leonardo, Volume 45, Number 5, 2012, pp. 424-430 (Article)
Published by The MIT Press
For additional information about this article
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/len/summary/v045/45.5.hertz.html
Access provided by University Of Colorado @ Boulder (13 Jun 2013 16:02 GMT)t h e o r e t i c a l p e r s p e c t i v e
Zombie Media: Circuit Bending abstract
Media Archaeology into an T his text is an investigation
Art Method
into media culture, temporalities
of media objects and planned
obsolescence in the midst of
ecological crisis and electronic
waste. The authors approach
the topic under the umbrella of
Garnet Hertz and media archaeology and aim to
extend this historiographically
oriented field of media theory
Jussi Parikka into a methodology for contem-
porary artistic practice. Hence,
I
media archaeology becomes not
only a method for excavation of
repressed and forgotten media
discourses, but extends itself
n the United States, about 400 million units of visual culture in alternative ways. into an artistic method close to
consumer electronics are discarded every year. Electronic However, we extend media archae- Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture, cir-
cuit bending, hardware hacking
waste, such as obsolete cellular telephones, computers, moni- ology into an artistic method close
and other hacktivist exercises
tors and televisions, composes the fastest-growing and most to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture, that are closely related to the
toxic portion of waste in American society. As a result of rapid circuit bending, hardware hacking political economy of informa-
technological change, low initial cost and planned obsoles- and other exercises that are closely tion technology. The concept
cence, approximately 250 million functioning computers, related to the political economy of of dead media is discussed as
“zombie media”—dead media
televisions, VCRs and cell phones are discarded each year in information technology. Media in revitalized, brought back to use,
the United States [1]. The federal Environmental Protection its various layers embodies memory: reworked.
Agency (EPA) estimates that two-thirds of all discarded con- not only human memory, but also
sumer electronics still work. the memory of things, of objects, of
Digital culture is embedded in an endless heap of network chemicals and of circuits.
wires, lines, routers, switches and other very material things
that, as Jonathan Sterne acutely and bluntly states, “will be
trashed” [2]. Far from being accidental, the discarding and Planned Obsolescence
obsolescence of technological components is in fact integral to The concept of planned obsolescence was first put forward
contemporary media technologies. As Sterne argues, the logic by Bernard London in 1932, as a proposed solution to the
of new media does not mean only the replacement of old me- Great Depression. In London’s mind, consumers that contin-
dia by new media, but that digital culture is programmed with ued to use and reuse devices long after they were purchased
the assumption and expectation of a short-term forthcoming prolonged the economic downturn. His proposal outlined that
obsolescence. There is always a better laptop or mobile phone every product should be labeled with an expiration date and
on the horizon: New media always becomes old. that the government should charge tax on products that were
This text is an investigation into planned obsolescence, me- used past their determined lifespan:
dia culture and temporalities of media objects; we approach
I propose that when a person continues to possess and use old
this under the umbrella of media archaeology, a branch of clothing, automobiles and buildings, after they have passed their
media theory focused on old and dead media devices. In our obsolescence date, as determined at the time they were created,
work, we aim to extend media archaeology into an art meth- he should be taxed for such continued use of what is legally
odology. Hence we follow the work of theorists such as Erkki “dead” [4].
Huhtamo [3] and others who have given the impetus to think
Although London’s proposal was never implemented as a
about the complex materiality of media as technology—from
government initiative, the planning of obsolescence was ad-
Friedrich Kittler to Wolfgang Ernst and Sean Cubitt. Media
opted by product designers and commercial industry: artifi-
archaeology has been known for its innovative work in ex-
cially decreasing the lifespan of consumer commodities—as
cavating repressed, forgotten or past media technologies in
with new fashions that make old clothing appear outdated—
order to understand the contemporary technological audio-
increases the speed of obsolescence and stimulates the need to
purchase. Industrial designers such as Brooks Stevens popular-
ized the dynamic of planned obsolescence in 1954 as instilling
Garnet Hertz (researcher), 5065 Donald Bren Hall, Department of Informatics, University a “desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little
of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3440, U.S.A. E-mail: . URL: .
Lebow further clarified this mandate in 1955:
Jussi Parikka (researcher), Winchester School of Art, Park Avenue, Winchester, Hampshire,
SO23 8DL, U.K. E-mail: . URL: .
These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer
See for supplemental files associated with this with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” con-
issue.
sumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things
consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an
ever-increasing pace [6].
Article Frontispiece. Reed Ghazala, an Incantor, a modified, or
“circuit-bent” Speak & Read, 2002, first developed in 1978. In reference to contemporary consumer products, planned
(© Reed Ghazala) obsolescence takes many forms. It is not only an ideology, or
© 2012 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 424–430, 2012 425a discourse, but more accurately it takes Instead of using electronics to explore is possible to insert switches, buttons or
place on a micropolitical level of design: or develop cutting-edge technologies, other devices between these points to en-
difficult-to-replace batteries in personal this approach uses “trailing edge” every- able or disable the effect.
MP3 audio players, proprietary cables day and obsolete technologies as its key
and chargers that are only manufactured resource.
for a short period of time, discontinued The Circuit Bending of
customer support or plastic enclosures (Formerly) New Media
that are glued shut and break if opened Bending Circuits: Circuit bending is an electronic DIY
[7]. In other words, technological ob- The Incantor movement undertaken by individuals
jects are designed as a “black box”—not Reed Ghazala, a Cincinnati-based Ameri- without formal training or approval and
engineered to be fixable and with no can artist born in the 1950s, is a pivotal focused on manipulating circuits and
user-serviceable parts inside. figure in the development of what is changing the taken-for-granted function
termed “circuit bending”: the creative of the technology. The manipulator of
short-circuiting of consumer electron- consumer electronics often traverses
Repurposing Obsolescence ics primarily for the purpose of gener- through the hidden content inside of a
in Contemporary Art ating novel sound or visual output [10]. technological system for the joy of enter-
Despite planned obsolescence, the The technique of circuit bending takes ing its concealed underlayer, often break-
probing, exploring and manipulat- found objects such as battery-powered ing apart and reverse-engineering the
ing of consumer electronics outside of children’s toys and inexpensive synthe- device without formal expertise, manu-
their standard lifespan is a key tactic sizers and modifies them into DIY mu- als or defined endpoint. This approach
in contemporary art practice. Reuse of sical instruments and homemade audio is characteristic of the early-20th-century
consumer commodities emerged within generators. wireless and radio culture, post-World
various art methods of the early avant- Likely the most recognizable example War II electronic culture (especially post-
garde in the early 20th century, from of circuit bending is Ghazala’s Incantor 1970s electronic amateurism), hobbyism
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque’s work series of devices, highly customized or DIY-tinkering that was typified in orga-
with found newspapers in 1912 to Marcel Speak & Spell, Speak & Read and Speak nizations like the Homebrew Computer
Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel of 1913 or his & Math children’s toys that he has built Club [11]. Conceptually the history of
inverted Bedfordshire urinal Fountain since 1978 (Article Frontispiece). The such techniques can be related to no-
of 1917. Media art historical writing has methodology of “bending” the toy in- madic, minor practices in the manner
widely addressed such practices [8], and volves dismantling the electronic device outlined by Deleuze and Guattari, but
hence we will focus on other aspects in and adding components such as switches, also it can be connected to tinkering as
our article. knobs and sensors that allow users to al- a methodology of media archaeological
The mass production of commodities ter and shift the circuit. Ghazala’s Incan- art in the work of such artists as Paul De-
has shifted significantly in the century tor devices completely reconfigure the Marinis, as Huhtamo has noted [12]. In
since Braque, Picasso and Duchamp’s synthesized human voice circuitry within Certeau’s terms, “these ‘ways of operat-
readymade work in the 1910s: Since a a toy to spew out a noisy, glitchy tangle ing’ constitute the innumerable practices
significant “readymade” portion of com- of sound that stutters, loops, screams and by means of which users reappropriate
modities in American society is elec- beats. the space organized by techniques of
tronic, artists have moved to working The process of circuit bending typi- sociocultural production” [13] . Cir-
with and exploring electronics, comput- cally involves going to a second-hand cuit bending is a way of operating that
ers, televisions and household gadgets. store or garage sale to obtain an inex- reminds us that users consistently reap-
Early artistic repurposers of consumer pensive battery-powered device, taking propriate, customize and manipulate
electronics include Nam June Paik, who the back cover of the device off and consumer products in unexpected ways,
rewired televisions as early as 1963 to probing the mechanism’s circuit board. even when the inner workings of devices
display abstract, minimalist shapes. Al- The tinkerer uses a “jumper” wire to con- are intentionally engineered as an expert
though many artists using electronics nect any two points on the circuit board territory. Ghazala’s Incantor is useful as
have focused on exploring the poten- and thus temporarily short-circuits and a tool to remind us of sociotechnical is-
tials of new media forms, others have rewires the device. The battery-powered sues in contemporary society, including
approached using electronic commodi- device is powered on during this process, planned obsolescence, the blackboxing
ties in the spirit of assemblage, bricolage, and the individual listens for unusual of technology and the interior inacces-
readymade or collage: as an everyday sound effects that result from probing. sibility of everyday consumer products.
and standing reserve, or Heideggerian If an interesting result is found, the con- As a way of operating, circuit bending
bestand, of available raw materials [9]. nections are marked for modification. It is an aspect of digital culture that does
Fig. 1. A blackboxed system processes input into output without Fig. 2. When a blackboxed system is broken, output stops.
the user’s knowledge of the interior functionality of the system. At this point, the black box becomes depunctualized.
(© Garnet Hertz) (© Garnet Hertz)
426 Hertz and Parikka, Zombie MediaFig. 3. The interior of a blackboxed system is expert territory and Fig. 4. Despite being expert territory, portions of the non-user-
tends not to be user serviceable. (© Garnet Hertz) serviceable interior of the blackbox system can be manipulated
and bent by non-experts. The authors propose that both computer
hardware and historical archives can be bent. (© Garnet Hertz)
not easily fit under the term “new me- searching for elements that set it apart for many media archaeological artists,
dia”; the customized, trashy and folksy from mainstream technological excite- such as DeMarinis, Gebhard Sengmüller
methodologies of circuit bending recall ment and hype, but not always connect- and a more recent wave of young artists
historical practices of reuse and serve ing such ideas to political economy or such as Institute for Algorhythmics who
as a useful counterpoint to envisioning ecology. are interested in concrete sonic archae-
digital culture only in terms of a glossy, With wide implications for media ar- ologies of contemporary media.
high-tech “Californian Ideology” [14]. chaeological methodology, the concept Circuits are what define modernity
We find Ghazala’s explorations similar in of the archive is increasingly being re- and our IT-oriented condition. Circuits
spirit to media archaeology and propose thought not as a spatial place of history, inside radios, computers and televisions
a stronger articulation of media archaeol- but as a contemporary technological cir- are only one face of circuitry. The cir-
ogy as an art methodology—and further- cuit that redistributes temporality. This cuits we can open up from their plastic
more not only an art methodology that is how Wolfgang Ernst suggests theorists enclosures are only relays to wider, more
addresses the past, but one that expands and artists rethink media archaeology: abstract circuits in terms of cables and
into a wider set of questions concerning not only as an excavation of the past, but lines, of electromagnetic radiation and
dead media, or what we shall call zombie as an intensive gaze on the microtempo- wireless transmission. The air is filled
media—the living dead of media history ral modulations that take place in com- with waves of “disembodied” informa-
[15] and the living dead of discarded puterized circuits of technology [16]. tion technology, and culture is perme-
waste that is not only of inspirational This alternative sense of technological ated with circuits of political economy.
value to artists but signals death, in the temporality is closer to engineering Hence, it would be an important project
concrete sense of the real death of nature diagrams and circuits than to the his- to write a media archaeology of circuits.
through its toxic chemicals and heavy torian’s hermeneutic interpretation of The circuit, not the past, is where media
metals. In short, what gets bent is not
only the false image of linear history but
also the circuits and archive that form the What does a media archaeology of
contemporary media landscape. For us,
“media” is approached through the con- consumer objects look like when, instead
crete artifacts, design solutions and vari-
ous technological layers that range from of going back in time to media history,
hardware to software processes, each of
which in its own way participates in the we go inside a device?
circulation of time and memory. Media
is itself an archive in the Foucauldian
sense, as a condition of knowledge, but documents. By technological temporal- archaeology starts if we want to develop
also as a condition of perceptions, sensa- ity we understand how technology itself a more concrete design-oriented version
tions, memory and time. In other words, is not only of time, but itself has its own of how we can think about recycling and
the archive is not only a place for system- time in which it functions. Drawing di- remediation [18] as art methods.
atic keeping of documents, but is itself a rectly from Foucault, media archaeology Yet, there is a special challenge for
condition of knowledge. In this text, we is for Ernst monumental, not narrative: work that takes as its object a concrete
place a special emphasis on hardware, It focuses more on the real technologi- opening up of technologies. The inner
even if we do not wish to claim that it is cal conditions of expressions than on the workings of consumer electronics and in-
the only aspect about media we should content of media. Hence, Ernst is not formation technologies are increasingly
consider. interested in alternative media histories concealed as a result of the development
(in the vein of for example Huhtamo or of newer generations of technologies, a
Siegfried Zielinski), or even in imaginary feature that is characteristic of recent
Media Archaeology as media that challenges mainstream dis- decades of technological culture. What
Bending Circuitry courses of media technology [17], but in does a media archaeology of consumer
The political economy of consumer capi- concrete devices through which we can objects look like when, instead of going
talism is a media archaeological problem understand the nature of temporality in back in time to media history, we go in-
as well. Media archaeology has been suc- contemporary electronic and digital cul- side a device?
cessful in presenting itself as a method- ture. For Ernst, media archaeology starts Once developed and deployed widely,
ology of lost ideas, unusual machines from the media assemblage—a device technical components are understood
and re-emerging desires and discourses that is operational. This is also the case by users as objects that serve a particu-
Hertz and Parikka, Zombie Media 427Fig. 5. Phases of media positioned in reference to political economy: New Media and Media Archaeology are overlaid on Gartner Group’s
Hype Cycle and Cumulative Consumer Adoption Curve diagrams, graphic representations of the economic maturity, adoption and business
application of specific technologies [31]. (© Garnet Hertz)
lar function: an electronic toy makes a of in terms of its millions of transistors, stead, one box hides a multitude of other
sound when a button is pressed, a tele- circuits, mathematical calculations and black boxes that work in interaction, in
phone makes a telephone call, a com- technical components. Black boxes are various roles, in differing durations. As
puter printer outputs a document when the punctualized building blocks from Bruno Latour notes, it is often when
requested. The inner workings of the which new technologies and infrastruc- things break down that a seemingly inert
device are unknown to the user, with the tures are built [21]. system opens up to reveal that its objects
circuitry of the device like a mysterious A black box, however, is a system that is contain more objects, and actually those
“black box” that is largely irrelevant to not technically understood or accessed, numerous objects are composed of rela-
using it (Fig. 1). It is only an object with and as a result these technologies are tions, histories and contingencies.
a particular input that results in a spe- often completely unusable when they Consider Latour’s methodological ex-
cific output; its mechanism is invisible. become obsolete or broken. Once the ercise as an art methodology for media
From a design perspective, the technol- input/output or desired functionality of archaeology:
ogy is intentionally created to render the device stops working, it is often un-
the mechanism invisible and usable as a fixable and inaccessible for modification Look around the room. . . . Consider
how many black boxes there are in the
single, punctualized object. for most individuals. Unlike a household room. Open the black boxes; examine
Punctualization refers to a concept in lamp that we can fix with replacement the assemblies inside. Each of the parts
Actor-Network Theory [19] that is used light bulbs, many consumer electronic inside the black box is itself a black box
to describe bringing components to- devices have no user-serviceable parts, full of parts. If any part were to break,
how many humans would immediately
gether into a single complex system that and the technology is discarded after it
materialize around each? How far back
can serve as a single object. We refer to breaks (Fig. 2). The depunctualization, in time, away in space, should we re-
the disassembly of these single objects as or breaking apart of the device into its trace our steps to follow all those silent
“depunctualization”—which is a practice components, is difficult due to the highly entities that contribute peacefully to
that shows a circuit of dependencies and specialized engineering and manufactur- your reading this chapter at your desk?
Return each of these entities to step 1;
infrastructures [20]. ing processes used in the design of the ar- imagine the time when each was disinter-
Blackboxing, or the development of tifact: Contemporary electronic devices ested and going its own way, without be-
technological objects to a point where are intentionally built so that users will ing bent, enrolled, enlisted, mobilized,
they are simply used and not understood discard them, and their obsolescence is folded in any of the others’ plots. From
which forest should we take our wood?
as technical objects, is a requirement of clearly planned (Fig. 3).
In which quarry should we let the stones
infrastructure and technological develop- Within the framework of media ar- quietly rest? [22]
ment. A computer system, for example, chaeology, it is important to note that
is almost incomprehensible if thought there is not simply one black box. In- For the arts, objects are never inert
428 Hertz and Parikka, Zombie Mediabut consist of various temporalities, rela- media production. The black boxes of The digital realm is an avant-garde to the
tions and potentials that can be brought the historical archive and consumer extent that it is driven by perpetual in-
novation and perpetual destruction. The
together and broken apart. Things break electronics are cracked open, bent and built-in obsolescence of digital culture,
apart everyday anyhow—especially high modified (Fig. 4). the endless trashing of last year’s model,
technology—and end up as inert objects, the spendthrift throwing away of batter-
dead media, discarded technology. Yet, ies and mobile phones and monitors and
dead media creeps back as dangerous
Media Archaeological mice . . . and all the heavy metals, all the
toxins into the soil, or alternatively as Time: Time of the toxins, sent off to some god-forsaken
Chinese recycling village . . . that is the
zombie media recycled into new assem- Living Dead digital avant-garde [28].
blies. According to Ernst, media archae- We now want to bring these various com-
ology is less “about dead media, but . . . ponents together: planned obsolescence, Hence, this archaeology of tinkering,
media undead. There is an untimeliness the material nature of information and remixing and collage would not start
of media which is incorporated here” electronic waste. Planned obsolescence from Duchamp and the historical avant-
[23]. Hence, there is a distinct difference was introduced as the logic behind con- garde, but from opening up the screen,
between Wolfgang Ernst and the Dead sumer technology cycles, embedded in the technology.
Media Project of Bruce Sterling, which a culture of material information tech- Media archaeological methods have
in a different way addresses forgotten nologies that in themselves should in- carved out complex, overlapping, multi-
media and the obsolete. Zombie media creasingly be understood as a source of scalar temporalities of the human world
is concerned with media that is not only chemicals, toxic components and other in terms of media cultural histories, but
out of use, but resurrected to new uses, residue left behind after their media in the midst of an ecological crisis a more
contexts and adaptations. function has been “consumed.” The re- thorough non-human view is needed. In
alization that information technology this context, bending media archaeology
is never ephemeral and therefore can into an artistic methodology can be seen
Archivist/Circuit Bender never completely die has both ecological as a way to tap into the ecosophic poten-
For the figure of the artist, technical and media archaeological importance. tial of such practices as circuit bending,
media has meant nods towards both Information technology in the form of hardware hacking and other ways of
engineering as well as the archive, as its material assemblages also has a dura- reusing and reintroducing dead media
Huhtamo has noted: tion that is not restricted to its human- into a new cycle of life for such objects.
The role of the artist-engineer, which centered use value: media cultural ob- Assembled into new constructions, such
rose into prominence in the 1960s (al- jects and information technology have materials and ideas become zombies
though its two sides rarely met in one an intimate connection with the soil, the that carry with them histories but are
person), has at least partly been sup- air and nature as a concrete, temporal also reminders of the non-human tem-
planted by that of the artist-archaeologist
[24].
reality. Just as nature affords the build- poralities involved in technical media.
ing of information technology—con- Technical media may process and work
Yet, methodologies of reuse, hardware sider how, for example, gutta-percha at sub-phenomenological speeds and fre-
hacking and circuit bending are becom- was an essential substance for insulating quencies [29], but it also taps into the
ing increasingly central in this context 19th-century telegraphic lines or how temporalities of nature—thousands of
as well. Bending or repurposing the ar- columbite-tantalite is an essential mineral years of non-linear and non-human his-
chive of media history strongly relates to for a range of contemporary high-tech tory [30].
the pioneering works of artists such as devices—so do these devices eventually In conclusion, communications tech-
Paul DeMarinis, Zoe Beloff and Gebhard return to nature [26]. nologies have moved beyond the new
Sengmüller—where a variety of old me- In short, information technology in- media phase and through the consumer
dia technologies have been modified and volves multiple ecologies that traverse commodity phase; much of it is already
obsolete and in an “archaeological
phase.” The practice of amateurism and
Zombie media is concerned with media hobbyist DIY characterize not only early
adoption of technologies, but also the
that is not only out of use, but resurrected obsolescence phase. Chronologically,
digital media has moved from its spec-
to new uses, contexts and adaptations. ulative opportunity phase in the 1990s
through its wide adoption as a consumer
commodity in the 2000s and has now be-
repurposed to create pseudo-historical political economy and natural ecology come archaeological. As a result, study-
objects from a speculative future. [27]. This Guattarian take on media ing topics such as reuse, remixing and
Referring to DeMarinis’s various ecology is connected to an ecosophical sampling has become more important
sound-based projects such as The Edi- stance: an awareness of overlapping ecol- than discussions of technical potentials
son Effect (1989–1993) and Gray Matter ogies feeding into interrelations between (Fig. 5). Furthermore, if temporality is
(1995), Huhtamo has suggested that the the social, mental, somatic, non-organic increasingly circulated, modulated and
notion of the artist-archaeologist can be and animal. Indeed, following Sean Cu- stored in technical media devices—the
approached as a “t(h)inkerer” [25]. In bitt’s lead, we argue that archaeologies diagrammatics and concrete circuits that
the age of consumer electronics, the art- of screen and information technology tap into the microtemporality that is be-
ist can also be seen as an archaeological media should increasingly look not only low the threshold of conscious human
circuit bender and hacker, thus creating at the past, but inside the screen to reveal perception—we need to develop similar
a link between media archaeology and a whole different take on future-oriented circuit bending, art and activist practices
the political agenda of contemporary avant-garde: as an analytical and creative method-
Hertz and Parikka, Zombie Media 429ology: hence, the turn to archives in a 7. For example, Apple’s iPod personal audio players Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization (Cam-
and similar devices are manufactured with no user- bridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), xiii.
wider sense that also encompasses cir- serviceable parts inside, including its battery. After
cuits, switches, chips and other high-tech approximately 3 years of use, the lithium-polymer 21. Albert Borgmann, Holding on to Reality: The Nature
battery will no longer work and the device will need of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (Chicago:
processes. Such epistemo-archaeological University of Chicago Press, 1999), 176. For a rel-
to be either professionally serviced or discarded.
tasks are not only of artistic interest but evant discussion of infrastructure, see “Steps Toward
tap into the ecosophical sphere in un- 8. Diane Waldman, Collage, Assemblage, and the Found an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and Access for
Object (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1992) 17. Large Information Spaces,” by Susan Leigh Star
derstanding and reinventing relations Calvin Tomkins, Duchamp: A Biography, (New York: and Karen Ruhleder, 1996, Information Systems Re-
between the various ecologies across Holt, 1998), 181. On media art historical writing search, Vol. 7, No. 1, 63–92.
subjectivity, nature and technology. concerning the early avant garde, see for example
Erkki Huhtamo, “Twin-Touch-Test-Redux: Media 22. Latour [20] p. 185.
Although arguments concerning Archaeological Approach to Art, Interactivity, and
23. Wolfgang Ernst, personal correspondence with
death-of-media may be useful as a tac- Tactility” in Mediaarthistories, edited by Oliver Grau
Garnet Hertz, 20 October 2009.
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press 2007), 71–101;
tic to oppose dialog that only focuses and Dieter Daniels, “Duchamp: Interface: Turing: 24. Erkki Huhtamo, “Time-Traveling in the Gallery:
on the newness of media, we believe A Hypothetical Encounter between the Bachelor An Archaeological Approach in Media Art.” In Im-
that media never dies: it decays, rots, Machine and the Universal Machine” in Mediaarthis- mersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments,
tories, pp. 103–136. edited by Mary Ann Moser with Douglas McLeod
reforms, remixes, and gets historicized,
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1996), 243.
reinterpreted and collected (see Fig. 5). 9. David Joselit, American Art since 1945 (New York:
Thames & Hudson 2003), 126. Edward A. Shanken, 25. Huhtamo [3].
It either stays in the soil as residue and Art and Electronic Media (London and New York:
in the air as concrete dead media, or is Phaidon, 2009). 26. Gutta-percha is a natural latex rubber made from
reappropriated through artistic, tinker- tropical trees native to Southeast Asia and northern
10. Q. Reed Ghazala, “The Folk Music of Chance Australasia. Columbite-tantalite, or “coltan,” is a dull
ing methodologies. Electronics, Circuit-Bending the Modern Coconut,” black metallic ore, primarily from the eastern Demo-
Leonardo Music Journal 14 (2004) pp. 96–104. cratic Republic of the Congo, whose export has been
cited as helping to finance the present-day conflict
Acknowledgments 11. John Markoff, What the Dormouse Said: How the Six-
in the Congo.
ties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry
The authors would like to thank Amelia Guimarin, (New York: Penguin, 2005). Susan Douglas, Inventing 27. Félix Guattari, The Three Ecologies. Trans. Ian Pin-
Tony D. Sampson, Lesley Walters and the three Leo- American Broadcasting, 1899–1922 (Baltimore: Johns dar and Paul Sutton (London and New Brunswick,
nardo manuscript referees for their valuable feed- Hopkins University Press, 1989). NJ: Athlone Press, 2000).
back. Garnet Hertz would like to thank Mark Poster,
Peter Krapp, Cécile Whiting and Robert Nideffer for 12. See Huhtamo [3]. The notion of the tinkerer 28. Sean Cubitt interviewed by Simon Mills, Framed,
feedback on earlier versions on this paper. Hertz is is here apt in terms of its roots in a longer cultural online at .
partment of Informatics at UC Irvine for their con- and the Cultural History of the Irish Traveler (Oxford:
tinued support of this work. Jussi Parikka is grateful Oxford University Press, 2009). 29. Such hidden, partly abstract but completely real
for the feedback from audiences at the University and material “epistemologies of everyday life” are in-
13. Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, vestigated in a media archaeological vein by Institute
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wayne State University De- translated by Steven Rendall (Berkeley, CA: Univer-
troit and Coventry University, where versions of this for Algorhytmics, .
sity of California Press, 2002) xiv.
paper were presented. 30. Cf. Manuel DeLanda, A Thousand Years of Non-
14. In 1995 Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron Linear History (New York: Zone Books, 1997).
coined the phrase “The Californian Ideology” in an
References and Notes essay by the same title that provided a genealogy of 31. For more information on Gartner Group’s Hype
the concept of the Internet as a placeless and uni- Cycle theory, see Jackie Fenn and Mark Raskino,
Unedited references as provided by the authors. versalizing utopia, with information technologies as Understanding Gartner’s Hype Cycles, 2009. Gartner
emancipatory, limitless and beyond geography. See Group.
1. Environmental Protection Agency. Fact Sheet: .
States, July 2008, EPA 530-F-08-014. Manuscript received 9 September 2010.
15. Cf. Charles R. Acland, “Introduction. Residual
2. Jonathan Sterne, “Out with the Trash: On the Fu- Media.” In: Residual Media, edited by Charles R.
ture of New Media.” In: Residual Media, edited by Acland (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, Jussi Parikka is Reader in Media & Design at
Charles R. Acland (Minneapolis: University of Min- 2007), xx. Winchester School of Art. He is the author of
nesota Press, 2007), 17.
Digital Contagions (2007), Insect Media
16. Wolfgang Ernst, “Let There Be Irony: Cultural
3. Erkki Huhtamo: “Thinkering with Media: On the History and Media Archaeology in Parallel Lines.” (2010) and What Is Media Archaeology
Art of Paul DeMarinis,” in Paul DeMarinis/Buried in Art History, Vol. 28, No. 5, November 2005, 582–603. (2012) and co-editor of The Spam Book
Noise, ed. Beirer, Himmelsbach and Seiffarth (Berlin:
Kehrer, 2010), 33–46.
(2009) and Media Archaeology (2011),
17. See Eric Kluitenberg, ed. The Book of Imaginary
Media (Rotterdam: Nai Publishers, 2006). as well as editor of the online living book
4. Bernard London, “Ending the Depression Medianatures (2012).
through Planned Obsolescence” (pamphlet), 1932. 18. Cf. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remedia-
Reproduced by Adbusters magazine, “How Consumer tion: Understanding New Media (Cambridge, MA: The
Society Is Made to Break,” available online at (last search Scientist in Informatics at UC Irvine
modified 20 October 2008). 19. Michel Callon, “Techno-Economic Networks and and is faculty in the Media Design Program
Irreversibility,” in J. Law (ed.), A Sociology of Monsters:
5. Brooks Stevens, lecture at Midland, Minneapolis, Essays on Power, Technology and Domination (London:
at Art Center College of Design. He has shown
in 1954; audio recording available at . is founder and director of Dorkbot SoCal, a
20. For more information, see Bruno Latour, Pan-
6. Victor Lebow, “Price Competition in 1955,” The dora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cam-
monthly Los Angeles–based lecture series on
New York University Journal of Retailing, Volume bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.) See also DIY culture, electronic art and design. More
XXXI, Number 1, Spring 1955, p. 7. Eugene Thacker, “Introduction” to Alex Galloway, info: .
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