Reading Commentary
In Temporality and the Multimedia Archive, Wolfgang Ernst
In In Temporality and the Multimedia Archive, I appreciated Ernst’s thoughtful take on media archaeology – the field of function and poetry through digital archiving. I also believe that the form of a digital archive greatly informs the content showcased. He also discusses the dynamic nature of these spaces, an active archive rather than a static one. Archives these days are can also be increasingly banal, and provides a larger overview of a person or era, rather than an interest in every separate artifact. More than data back-ups or clones of existing sources, they are authored by the archivist, who should consider a variety of user experience types. While his content is interesting, his writing style is not very accessible and could be simplified to push forward his claims.