Art in the Rear‐View Mirror

Media‐archaeological research is a form of armchair travel, but it cannot be practiced in an anarchic fashion. This chapter focuses on the peculiar nature of creating a certain kind of technological art. To be worth being identified as media‐archaeological, an artwork must evoke earlier media in one way or another. Such works can be treated as “metacommentaries” on media culture, its motifs, its structures, and its ideological, social, psychological, and economic implications. There has been an extraordinary amount of interest in media‐archaeological approaches among female artists. One could argue that this must have something to do with the parallels between media archaeology, feminist theory, and women's history. In general terms and with respect to individual differences between approaches, technologies, and cultural traditions, it can be suggested that the media‐archaeological turn has something to do with an overarching, partly uncontrolled and troubling transition that is underway in media culture.