A Geology of Media

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy
Cover of the book A Geology of Media by Jussi Parikka, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jussi Parikka ISBN: 9781452944579
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: March 27, 2015
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Jussi Parikka
ISBN: 9781452944579
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: March 27, 2015
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

Media history is millions, even billions, of years old. That is the premise of this pioneering and provocative book, which argues that to adequately understand contemporary media culture we must set out from material realities that precede media themselves—Earth’s history, geological formations, minerals, and energy. And to do so, writes Jussi Parikka, is to confront the profound environmental and social implications of this ubiquitous, but hardly ephemeral, realm of modern-day life.

Exploring the resource depletion and material resourcing required for us to use our devices to live networked lives, Parikka grounds his analysis in Siegfried Zielinski’s widely discussed notion of deep time—but takes it back millennia. Not only are rare earth minerals and many other materials needed to make our digital media machines work, he observes, but used and obsolete media technologies return to the earth as residue of digital culture, contributing to growing layers of toxic waste for future archaeologists to ponder. He shows that these materials must be considered alongside the often dangerous and exploitative labor processes that refine them into the devices underlying our seemingly virtual or immaterial practices.

A Geology of Media demonstrates that the environment does not just surround our media cultural world—it runs through it, enables it, and hosts it in an era of unprecedented climate change. While looking backward to Earth’s distant past, it also looks forward to a more expansive media theory—and, implicitly, media activism—to come.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Media history is millions, even billions, of years old. That is the premise of this pioneering and provocative book, which argues that to adequately understand contemporary media culture we must set out from material realities that precede media themselves—Earth’s history, geological formations, minerals, and energy. And to do so, writes Jussi Parikka, is to confront the profound environmental and social implications of this ubiquitous, but hardly ephemeral, realm of modern-day life.

Exploring the resource depletion and material resourcing required for us to use our devices to live networked lives, Parikka grounds his analysis in Siegfried Zielinski’s widely discussed notion of deep time—but takes it back millennia. Not only are rare earth minerals and many other materials needed to make our digital media machines work, he observes, but used and obsolete media technologies return to the earth as residue of digital culture, contributing to growing layers of toxic waste for future archaeologists to ponder. He shows that these materials must be considered alongside the often dangerous and exploitative labor processes that refine them into the devices underlying our seemingly virtual or immaterial practices.

A Geology of Media demonstrates that the environment does not just surround our media cultural world—it runs through it, enables it, and hosts it in an era of unprecedented climate change. While looking backward to Earth’s distant past, it also looks forward to a more expansive media theory—and, implicitly, media activism—to come.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Curse of a Winter Moon by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Roots of Our Renewal by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book The Parasite by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Grace Above All by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book For All Waters by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book The Long Take by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Two Lessons on Animal and Man by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Aspirational Fascism by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Debt to Society by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book A Burnt Child by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Chromographia by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book From Utopia to Apocalypse by Jussi Parikka
Cover of the book Stone by Jussi Parikka
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy