communication +1

Intersectionalities and Media Archaeologies

Introduction

Edited by Zachary J. McDowell and Nathanael Bassett

The contributions in this second issue of our volume continue the theme of exploring media archaeology as a useful approach for communication scholars. The scholars in this volume explore diverse and unique applications of ideas so that we see theory's "questioning of a medium’s paradigmatic logic,” as Chia puts it. In "Virtual Lucidity: A Media Archaeology of Dream Hacking Wearables,” she elucidates the way in which consciousness hacking "instrumentalizes Western dream culture and distances it from historical connections to the numinous.” These connections to the more intangible and ethereal relationships between media and our society are further explored in Davies's "Religious Devices: A Survey of Technologies of Worship,” which examines the contemporary technological artifacts and their social significance in spiritual traditions and communities, from Buddha phones to Scientology’s E-Meters.

Deepening connections between media and the body, Törneman’s “Queering Media Archaeology” connects media archaeological practices with queer theory, bringing body as a medium under a new lens with attention to media’s participation in discursive formation. Shorey and Rosner uncover buried gendered histories of technologies in "A Voice of Process: Re-Presencing," in which they employ "material production to enliven forgotten lives and practices in the present day.” de Genaro and Denani's "Temporalities in Digital Games" inquires into technological relationships as well, addressing materialities and temporalities across different gaming platforms.

Sylvia IV’s "From Archaeology to Genealogy: Adding Processes of Subjectivation and Artistic Intervention” argues for embracing critical and creative practices through which we can reflect on the processes of subjectivation, via critical making and other kinds of engagement with materiality. Lastly, Bhowmik’s “The Battery is the Message: Media Archaeology as an Energy Art Practice” brings together archaeology, ecology, and energy in an examination of the material components and costs of our oft-ignored energy.

Through these examples we see both practice and theory being engaged to not only create knowledge, but to unearth discourses that were otherwise erased from the present. This “histories of the present” are revealed through the diligence and hard work of the scholars in this volume, who we thank for their contributions.