Events
List of Events
The Living Machine: The Magic Lantern and Transnational Knowledge in Tokugawa Japan – Lewis Bremner History and Philosophy of Science University of Cambridge
This talk provides an examination of how intellectuals in Japan understood the magic lantern as a technology. It starts in the 1770s, when the instrument was first recorded in the country, and focuses on a group of scholars seeking to understand the complex mechanism of the human eye. Until the mid-1770s, this organ had been mostly understood to be a flat, two-dimensional disc. These scholars’ novel idea that the magic lantern represents a basic mechanical model of workings of the…
“New” Normals: A Cultural History of Norms in Music, Media, and Technology – Amy Skjerseth, Assistant Professor of Popular Music University of California, Riverside
How much in your life is preprogrammed? Presets, or default settings on technology that condition their use, are everywhere, from microwave popcorn buttons to predictive text and Instagram filters. But while presets facilitate the quick, efficient production of tasks or art, they simultaneously reinforce economic, political, and social norms. In this talk, interdisciplinary scholar Amy Skjerseth asks what presets allow and deny in media, music, and technology. She explores several case studies across media history to show how artists re-program…