Is there a geology of media, a geology of technology? Investigating media culture from an alternative angle, Jussi Parikka addresses the geopolitics of media with an eye on the minerals and energy that condition our technological culture. The talk weaves together issues of theory and contemporary media arts as investigations of how media and visual culture contain this fundamental dimension of materiality, of rare earths and material infrastructures of long duration. The Anthropocene will be addressed through discussion of electronic waste and the residual impact of media technological chemistry.

Jussi Parikka is Professor of Technological Culture & Aesthetics at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. He is Docent in Digital Culture Theory at University of Turku, Finland and the author & editor of several books on digital culture and media theory, including the media ecology-trilogy: Digital Contagions (2007), and a 2nd revised edition forthcoming 2016), of Insect Media (2010) and most recently A Geology of Media (2015).

Michelle Henning (Chair) is Associate Professor in Photography and Cultural History in the London School of Film, Media and Design, and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Digital Cultures Research Centre. Her latest book is Museum Media (2015).

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