Media Archaelogy and Videogames
In today's world, the rapid development of technology has opened worlds of vast information and entertainment that are instantly accessible at the touch of a button. The relationships created in this way not only involve those we interact with online or via gaming, but also our own perception, the mental imagery we create and the apparatus we use to access these. A researcher who truly wants to understand the past of a medium cannot only work with historical imagery or archival footage. There must also be a consideration of the technologies used in the past; the technology used to create historical imagery and archival footage. This is the point of study for media archaeology; where the researcher studies the specific technological devices used in the past to create media from the past and how this developed and its relationship to technology today.
Media archaeology is a field of study that involves theories and methodologies to address media history in unconvenitonal ways. Elements of repetition and variation are used to determine relationships between past and present media technologies. In this essay, recent medial archaeological waves in European and U.S. media studeis are examined in terms of its hardware materiality and time-critical focus, as wella s software and platform studies in their relationship to videogames.
The Nature of Media Archaeology
Part of media archaeology is investigating the concept of "new media" and where the starting point of this new media lies as opposed to "old" or traditional media (Huhtamo and Parikka, 2011, p. 1). The "new media" today are considered to be things like the Internet, digital television, interactive multipmeida, virtual reality, mobile communicaiton, and video games. These have spawned research areas such as network analysis and software studies. Network economies and new media as ways of seeing are investigated in all their divergent areas and experiences. In addition, philosophies and languages have been identified as these pertain to what we regard as the new media today. What is interesting about this is the many focus points that researchers may choose from when investigating the new media and their points of origin. Some, for example, focus on the social and psychological aspects of the new media, while others would investigate the economical or ideological aspects.
In video gaming, for example, an economic aspect might consider the revenues that innovative factors within various versions of the same game might bring in. Many researchers have investigated the psychological effects of playing violent games such as Grand Theft Auto on the young mind. In terms of social aspects, it is interesting to investigate the demographic who is allowed to purchase and play games such as Grand Theft Auto when the age restriction is clearly delineated as no persons under 18. Indeed, many teenagers from as young as 11 and 12 play this game, which can lead to further social study of the kind of parent who would allow his or her child access to such potentially harmful gaming.
According to Huhtamo and Parikka (2011, p. 1), many of these studies tend to disregard the past that led to the current manifestation of gaming and the new media. One reason for this is the complexities and challenges offered to researchers looking for opportunities to study the new media. Hence, the past has been considered as somewhat irrelevant in untangling the inherent intricacies of the new media today. For many researchers therefore, the new media have been considered as a phenomenon that is somewhat "timeless" and can be explained and resolved from within itself.
The authors point out, however, that there has begun to appear in the research a new regard for the importance of the past in the new media. More historically oriented research has appeared with increasing fequency; something the authors are inclined to greet "with a cheer." This phenomenon is what has become known as "media archaeology," in which the past of media and its technology has been used to inform the study of its current manifestations.
Parikka and Ernst (2012) further implicate that media archaeology is not so much about old forms of media recordings, such as silent film or black and white television, but is more focused on the devices used to record these ancient images. It is aboutu "how stories are recorded" rather than about "telling stories" or "counterhistories. Theh physicla media and the processes and durations used are at issue. In other words, the focus of such study is object-centered.
Responsibilities of a Critical Thinker in a Contemporary Society Some thinkers consider critical thinking to be solely a type of mental skill, devoid of any moral value; it is often utilized to rationalize prejudice and to promote self-interest. While moral integrity is understood as good heartedness, it is also susceptible to manipulation to satisfy vested interests in the same way as responsible citizenship can be manipulated. The human mind, regardless of
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