Rather than being a nostalgic collection of “dead media” of the past, assembled in a curiosity cabinet, media archaeology is an…
Rather than being a nostalgic collection of “dead media” of the past, assembled in a curiosity cabinet, media archaeology is an analytical tool, a method of analyzing and presenting aspects of media that would otherwise escape the discourse of cultural history. As ling as media are not mistaken for their mass-media content, they turn out to be non-discursive entities, belonging to a different temporal regime that, to be analyzed, requires an alternative means of description.
Wolfgang Ernst, 2011. “Media Archaeography: Method and Machine versus History and Narrative of Media.” In Media Archaeology: Approaches, Applications, and Implications, edited by Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka, 239-255. Berkeley: University of California Press.