Gigantological Investigations: an Archaeology of Public Media Displays Erkki Huhtamo a Public Lecture sponsored by Modern Culture & Media with the support of the Malcolm Forbes Center for Culture and Media Study curation and co-sponsorship by the Interrupt Festival, Literary Arts Program McCormack Family Theater, Monday Oct 20, 5:30pm
AbstractPublic media displays have been neglected by media studies. A giant screen in an urban environment may be an imposing sight, but it hardly merits more than a glance from the passers-by. Why spend time researching and theorizing it? This lecture presents some reasons by developing an archaeology of public media displays. It discusses their origins in trade-signs, billboards, outdoor magic lantern projections, "sky-signs" and cloud projections. It pays attention to the emergence of discursive giant screens in the writings of Albert Robida, Jules Verne, and others. Finally, the lecture discusses some of the ways in which artists from László Moholy-Nagy to Rafael Lozano-Hemmer have contributed to the development of public media displays and the discourses surrounding them. |