New Materialism Meets Fabrication: A Methodology for Media History

Jentery Sayers and Tiffany ChanUVic English | MLab @jenterysayers | @tiffchan29 University of Arizona | 12 May 2016

github.com/uvicmakerlab/earlyWearablesKit

Prototyping the Past

1) Demands methods and perspectives from across disciplines

2) Is not always futurist, nor restricted to forecasting

3) 3-D media are not more persuasive than 2-D media

4) Direct access to physical materials neither resolves absence nor guarantees certainty

Prototyping the Past

5) Resists nostalgia, glorification, or re-enactment

6) Is premised on not replicating history, what not to repeat

7) Tests suspicions by grounding them in fine-grained details

8) Recognizes how many aspects of the technologies we use to reproduce history exceed our control, access, and understanding

Thank You