Part of COMD Creators Studio, the department’s production facilities.
Over its history the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture has gone through many cycles of analogue and digital audiovisual technology. Much of the equipment that was retired still works and sat in corners and cellars. The lab rescues it and makes it usable for research, teaching and artistic production.
It follows the example of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Media Archaeological Fundus at Humboldt University, Berlin, and looks to Jussi Parikka’s idea of using past technologies as a way to understand today’s technological culture.
The lab is not only an archive and not only a production facility. People here open boxes, test devices, identify formats, encode, decode and transfer. Mistakes are allowed, and the results are creative work.
What it does
Research
Hands-on study of obsolete tools, software and platforms, by students and visiting scholars.
Transfer
Conversion of analogue video and 8mm film to digital files, so heritage material can be viewed and studied again.
Workshops
Handling and caring for legacy media, emulation, long-term storage, and repurposing objects.
Open practice
Experiments with free software, interactive installations and exhibitions, including the On Display series.
PEOPLE
THE TEAM
ANDREAS TRESKE
Lab Head
BORAN AKSOY
Co-researcher
MELIH AYDINAT
Co-researcher
ALINUR BAĞCI
Head Assistant
VOICES
FROM THE LAB
I came for the 8mm film and ended up repairing a Super 8 projector. I spent a year transferring the university’s institutional-history tapes — and that’s when it clicked: understanding the analogue is the first step to understanding the digital.
Labeling is everything.
I built my thesis around the Sony editing control unit there, pairing it with Leap Motion gesture control. The lab was a working warehouse: it taught me to store tapes upright, read the manuals, label every cable, and be patient.