Tag Archives: Derrida

Fina Project Proposal

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The archive reveals, or unveils an apocalypse different than the one described in the scriptures; although we conflate the term apocalypse with the end of times, it can mean very different things. Rather than times coming to an end, it births a new “uncovering”, or sheds light onto a new revelation. In this instance, the archive exhibits human nature to: categorize, label and preserve writings that may be considered of literary merit. And, through the different modes of media, wether analogical or digital, we worship and reproduce different ways of seeing. This raises the question–why do we need to classify, codify and archive media? And, how does the reproduction of power operate within the realm of different ideological systems within politics and institutions?  

Grounded in different theoretical frameworks such as Derrida’s Archive Fever and Althusser’s theory of interpellation, this project seeks to explore how the archive, wether digital or analogical, functions as systems of control and conservation. The archive will be analyzed as a product of culture and time, operating as a system that reflects the dominant ideology of the time in which it was written. 

David Foster Wallace’s This is Water serves as a framework to reconsider our perception and awareness by deconstructing the choices we make in worshipping different modes of media; the way in which we engage with it allows us to engage with the world differently than what we know–challenging our beliefs and ideas; to encourage critical thinking and awareness. 

The Archive

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I never viewed books under the framework presented; books as a quantitative and qualitative objective measures–books for me, for the most part, are a vessel of knowledge and entertainment; I have never viewed books as an archive– specifically how archival records interject with different modes of medium– physically and digitally. In this instance the archive is defined or categorized as “a place in which public records or other important historic documents are kept. Whether in a library museum or an online database”. This allows to not look at records but understand the perplexities of the history and the science behind the book– not merely at the content of the book but as an artifact, as a medium. Echoing Derrida’s scholar take on the archive. Derrida deconstructs the archive, the notion of archiving and scrutinizing a meditation on time and technology– both factors interjecting on how the archive has transmogrified. The archive are not merely process of keeping documents boxed up but demonstrate a relationship between the different modes of inscription and the technological advancements of the time period the records were written. Such processes, laudable yet problematic. As mentioned earlier, qualitative measures analyze books for its content and meaning, exhibiting the relationship between time and values; on the other hand, the quantitative measure seeks to find patterns across literary records– both metrics seek to accomplish to understand the archive. Furthermore, this archive duality demonstrates how digitalization shapes and reconstructs our perception regarding the permeance of objects. It guides our thinking through an “extended meditation… on time and technology”. Just as the archive shift from paper to screen, its contents become widely accessible yet unstable– bouncing between the different modes of medium online. The traditional standard of the archive carries from within its original content matter– annotations, missing pages, highlights; the online archive loses those privileges, yet privileges accessibility and equity– facilitating the process for those who seek it. The archive operates in a spectrum, constantly being redefined as our understanding changes.

Bouncing between word, text, and the signifieds– Josue Martin

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The impression given by the “new media” is somewhat enigmatic– acting as a binary with what the old media constitutes– meditating in the intricacies of time and technology and, allows us to deconstruct the relationship between these two processes (thanks Derrida). In Derrida’s Archive Fever, A Freudian Impression, he is concerned with the archive– a term that has various meanings; one that is concerned with two topics–the principles of nature or history and physical and historical processes. Both principles and concepts shelter themselves as he mentions, “The concept of the archive shelters in itself, of course, this memory of the arkhe. But it also shelters itself from this memory which it shelters: which comes down to saying also that it forgets it” (Derrida 2). The paradox described by Derrida where the archive both shelters and forgets resonates with Dr. Pressman’s emphasis regarding “new” and “old media”. The terms “new” and “old media” are not fixed but shift as they are social-culturally adaptive– meaning that their definition is relative to the time period in which they are being discussed as media itself is not linear nor stable. For example, let us remember the beeper— in its time, it was a revolutionary method of communication that made other communication devices “old”. And, it is now a system that is considered obsolete– demonstrating that newness is not an absolute but contingent on new modes of inscription. This is further illustrated by Bolter’s and Grusin’s writings, “comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media”. The paradox described in the archive demonstrates the conventions of recursive media/ life cycles– we preserve to forget and forget to preserve, deconstructing two mutually formative processes that demonstrate how different modes of media are concerned with social-cultural values rather than its materialistic characteristics. This suggests that media is not linear nor fixed but adapts and evolves by reinscribing new modes of inscription that surpasses its predecessors– not materialistically but shifting its focus from a cultural paradigm.