Reception: 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: 6:00 p.m.

Media screens are both present and absent, both well known and unknown. Pervasive use makes them ‘vanish.’ We look through them, not at them. Even cracked smartphone screens do not attract attention to their wounded surfaces. The users read messages and “realities” through the cracks which they barely notice. Screens not only disguise themselves; they hide the history of their own becoming. The media archaeologist’s task is to make the screens visible again and to excavate the cultural contexts where they have been used and given meanings - even hundreds of years ago. This lecture is based on the author’s forthcoming book Screenology, or Media Archaeology of the Screen. It demonstrates one possible way of researching screens, suggesting a new approach for media studies.