Reclaiming the Future with Old Media

Book Chapter

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/book_chapters/h415pb87z

Abstract

In this piece Emerson first unpacks why and how the past keeps getting eclipsed by an ever-receding future we seem to have little to no control over. She then proposes six interrelated values we might take from old media: slow, small, open, cooperative, care, and failure. All six values are intentionally opposed to: ungrounded speculation; early adoption in the name of disruption, innovation, and progress; and convenient quick-fixes. Rather than recapitulate these same logics and claim her argument is wholly new or groundbreaking, and contrary to those who have been named as participating in the “dark side of DH” with practices that are “rooted in technocratic rationality or neoliberal economic calculus,” she instead gathers together tactics that many DH community members have already embraced and reframe them in relation to recovering past media traditions for the sake of a reimagined future.

Creator