A Seminar by Erkki Huhtamo (Prof. of Design Media Arts, UCLA) “Media, Motion and Transportation: An Archaeological Investigation”

Erkki Huhtamo (Professor at Design Media Arts, UCLA)

“Media, Motion and Transportation: An Archaeological Investigation”

Media communications and transportation have traditionally been considered associated but separate areas. The former is immaterial: its messages travel at high speeds, while the bodies of the dispatchers and receivers remain stationary. The latter is material: bodies travel by walking or mounted in vehicles serving as ”extensions” (Marshall McLuhan). Countless artifacts are transported in similar ways by trains, trucks, container boats and cargo planes.

This lecture will look at such developments from a media archaeological perspective. It asks: is there anything we can learn by relating these issues with earlier contexts where the relationship of media technology and transportation technology has been probed, applied and fantasized about? From the present, the talk will travel back in time, and finally return to the contemporary moment, hoping to have at least discovered new questions. The central question is: does media culture’s past help us explain where it is heading?

Language: English with Japanese interpretation.

Date: December 15, 2018  15:00-17:30（Open 14:30）

Location: Kyoto University Inamori Center, Grand Seminar Room 3F

Registration Required

This seminar is for anyone who is interested.

Please send us an email with “Erkki Huhtamo Seminar” in the subject line, your name and your affiliation (if any) at :

kokoro-sem@mail2.adm.Kyoto-u.ac.jp

Sponsored by Kyoto University’s Kokoro Research Center

2018/11/15