Retro Engineering and Alternative Histories: Possible Road Toward Media Archaeological Reconstruction

Retro-Engineering and Alternative Histories: Possible Roads toward Media Archaeological Reconstruction

Leonardo April 2017, Vol. 50, No. 2, Pages: 192-193

Posted Online April 6, 2017.

(doi:10.1162/LEON_a_01388)

©2017 ISAST

Morgane Stricot

PAMAL (Preservation & Art—Media Archaeology Lab), Higher School of Art, Avignon, France. Email: morgane.stricot@gmail.com.

Abstract:

This article gives insight into research on media archaeological reconstruction of media and digital artworks. This experimental approach, illustrated by two practical cases, results in a duplication of the artworks within their original machines and languages. Based on retro-engineering, this approach is becoming a way to investigate the known, unknown and alternative stories by and for the machines, the goal being to produce archives, witnesses of the machines’ related history and inherent imaginary.