history of computing – loriemerson

sister labs // Signal Lab & Media Archaeological Fundus

For years now, I’ve been yearning to go to Berlin to visit two labs that have the closest kinship to my own Media Archaeology Lab: the Signal Lab, run by Stefan Höltgen, and the Media Archaeological Fundus, founded by Wolfgang Ernst and now also run by Stefan. I finally got my chance to tour both labs in early […]

by Lori Emerson

graduate seminar on media archaeology | media poetics

Starting tomorrow I get to teach, for the first time, a graduate seminar on Media Archaeology alongside what I call “media poetics,” or the writerly practice of exploring the limits and possibilities of given reading/writing technologies. While we will do conventional reading writing in a seminar setting, our class will also do hands-on experiments in […]

by Lori Emerson

radio interview on media archaeology

On Tuesday October 1st, I was fortunate enough to have the chance to talk about Reading Writing Interfaces (coming out from University of Minnesota Press in June 2014) as well as my work with the Media Archaeology Lab live on the radio with Marcus Smith on BYU Radio. This was my first experience with what […]

by Lori Emerson

In-Progress Catalog of the MAL’s Holdings

With heartfelt thanks to my research assistant Caitlin Purdy and to Kyle Bickoff, a graduate student here at CU Boulder, the Media Archaeology Lab now has a nearly complete catalog of all its holdings. The catalog is clearly still a work-in-progress and, other than the just the organizational challenges in the document itself, the next […]

by Lori Emerson

Media Archaeology and Digital Stewardship

I was fortunate to have the chance to think through the relationship between the field of media archaeology, the Media Archaeology Lab, and digital preservation/stewardship thanks to this interview with Trevor Owens on the Library of Congress blog, The Signal, called “Media Archaeology and Digital Stewardship: An Interview with Lori Emerson.” The invitation to talk […]

by Lori Emerson

photos of the Media Archaeology Lab’s holdings

The Media Archaeology Lab was fortunate to have a visit this week from Kevin Kane, a talented student at the University of Colorado Boulder, who took a series of photos of some of the MAL’s holdings. We are working on compiling a complete, detailed catalogue of the lab’s complete holdings – until then, hopefully these […]

by Lori Emerson

MLA 2013 Special Session: Reading the Invisible and Unwanted in Old & New Media

[February 2013: I’ve posted an extended version of my MLA 2013 paper here.] Below is the description for the MLA ’13 special session panel that Paul Benzon, Mark Sample, Zach Whalen, and I will present on in January. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue together issues related to Media Archaeology. * Media studies […]

by Lori Emerson

the Apple Mac | a life in computing

Keith Moore has been the Archeological Media Lab‘s most generous donor and a consistent contributor to a series of guest blog posts that I’m calling “a life in computing” on the history of computing from the perspective of folks who have actually worked in the computer industry since the 1970s. Here he touches on his […]

by Lori Emerson

the lab’s latest addition: Compaq Portable III “laptop”

Thanks to a very generous donation by Wade Peterson, the Archeological Media Lab is now the proud owner of a Compaq Portable III “laptop” from, I believe, 1987 – a year which was heralded “the year of the laptop.” This early version of a portable computer weighs in at a mere 20 pounds and, as […]