Jacob Gaboury a 2018 Media Archaeology Lab Resident
Jacob Gaboury, BCNM faculty, was selected to be one of 10 Media Archaeology Lab residents for 2018. As assistant professor of New Media History and Theory, his work explores the history of digital imaging technologies; in fact, his upcoming book Image Objects focuses on computer graphics from 1960 to 1980.
As a resident, Gaboury will take part in MALfunction, a lecture series where one researcher and one artist present their projects, which are tied together by a similar technological theme. Gaboury will discuss his research, "Other Screens," on March 1 alongside artist libi rose striegel.
According to the event page:
Other Screens explores the history of the computer screen as both a hardware object and interface for visual computing that has evolved and transformed over the past seventy years. While today most all screens use the same pixel-based display technology at varying resolutions, historically the computer screen has taken on a wide range of visual forms. From early oscilloscopes and custom graphics workstations to the Vectrex video game console and personal computing CRTs, the computer screen is not a single object or technology but has evolved alongside the fields of computer graphics, digital gaming, and personal computing.
This project takes an inventory of these screen technologies, paying attnetion to their unique material affordances as well as various challenges in preservation, maintenance, and access for researchers. The ultimate goal of the project is an article-length study of the computer screen as interface object, as well as a plan for a lab space at the University of California, Berkeley devoted to a media archaeology of visual interfaces for computing and visual media.
The Media Archaeology Lab is the largest of its kind in North America and a space focused on still-functioning but obsolete technologies from the late 19th century through the 21st century.
See the official website for more information.