H2PTM (2009) O’Gorman

From Hypertext Theory to Applied Media Theory

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H2PTM'09 Paris Titre From Hypertext Theory to Applied Media Theory Auteurs Marcel O’Gorman Affiliations (i) Critical Media Lab, Department of English University of Waterloo, Hagey Hall of Humanities Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, CANADA marcel@uwaterloo.ca Dans actes du colloque H2PTM 2009 Paris publié dans H²PTM09 : Rétrospective et perspective 1989 - 2009

Abstract 

Contemporary critical theorists such as Barthes and Derrida experimented with the formal limitations of print, forecasting new digital modalities. However, the hypertext thorists that followed, in addition to most contemporary media theorists, eschewed formal experimentation to produce a print-oriented mode of discourse. Applied Media Theory (AMT) is a methodology that engages in formal experimentation with new media as a means of generating critical discourses and technologies. This essay identifies a pattern of object-oriented methods in contemporary media theory (Greg Ulmer, Sherry Turkle, Don Ihde), and demonstrates how these approaches might be combined to form a new applied critical practice that intervenes in the formation of digital culture. This approch, which combines digital art practices with research methods in the social science and humanities, is demonstrated in the description of AMT projects underway in the Critical Media Lab at the University of Waterloo.

Keywords

media theory, hypertext theory, critical media, evocative object, epistemological engine, Terror Management Theory, digital art, geocaching, physical computing.