Testimonial Media Öffentlichkeit
Miller, Ben (2009)
Published
Abstract
Abstract Testimonial Media By Ben Miller
Testimonial Media explores the ways in which the recording methods and material histories of magnetic and antecedent media have shaped witness accounts of traumatic events. This exploration suggests that a medium's influence reveals itself in the figure of the mediated witness, or witness subject. Reading the figure of the witness subject will show that explanations of survival are contingent upon aspects and of the recording, preservation, and distribution media used in their construction.
This reading necessitates the contemplation of diverse and ambitious witnessing projects, as well as the study of more speculative media that have been applied to the problem of documenting survival. The most historically significant of those projects and technologies are the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project Ex-Slave Narratives, the Fortunoff Archive for Holocaust Video Testimony, Yale's Genocide Studies Program's Cambodian Genocide Project, Eadweard Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope, and Vannevar Bush's Memex.
These projects and technologies, and the contemporary incarnations of the mediated witnesses they produced, were enabled by the development of three figural practices: aggregation, association, and interpolation. Combined, these practices describe the development of the dominant modes of address to traumatic events. Each chapter of this study details one of those figures, and the kinds of witnessing it brought into being.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: TESTIMONIAL MEDIA 1 Digital Memories of Survival 1 CHAPTER ONE: COLLECTIVE MAGNETIC WITNESS 12 Mediated Witnessing 12 Preserving The Witness Subject 18 A Temporary (Magnetic) History 20 Listening to History 24 The Testimedial Dependance 30 "I was born in Lithonia, Georgia..." 38 Continuous Survival 57 The Universal Reference Language of Traumatic Events 67 Conclusion 74 CHAPTER TWO: TRAUMATIZED LOGICS OF ASSOCIATION 76 As They Thought 76 The Logic of Testimony, 2007 77 Memorial Technology, 1945 82 Documents of Policy and Technology 91 A Trojan "All" 98 Fracturing of "All" 103 To Stride, To Think 107 A Mirror with Which to Walk 115 Machinic Therapy 119 An Internal Supplement 122 As We May Mediate 126 CHAPTER THREE: INTERPOLATED FIGURES OF NEAR-EXECUTION 129 Narratives of Survival 129 Rising Up 132 The Body in Time 135 A Digital Zoopraxiscope 138 Le Château, disait-on 157 Aux yeux des Russes 161 The Synthetic Eye 172 WORK CITED 178
About this Dissertation
| School | |
|---|---|
| Department | |
| Degree | |
| Submission | |
| Language |
|
| Research Field | |
| Stichwort | |
| Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor | |
| Committee Members |
Primary PDF
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Testimonial Media () | 2018-08-28 11:17:44 -0400 |
|
Supplemental Files
| Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
|---|