Articulations of Trace: Analogue-Digital Conversion in The Age of Transversal Reproduction

Media increasingly screens itself. To extend the understanding of our media-ontic world, we need to observe inside, behind, and through the medium’s surface effects. The trace of a medium, if followed between the poles of immutable representation and unstable mutable symbolic work, becomes of interest as medium in itself. This thesis highlights articulations of ‘trace’ that traverse assemblages of analogue-digital media couched in network culture and asks: How does the trace of a medium survive transversal analogue-digital media assemblage and what qualities of the trace hold potential in thinking about media cultures and practice?