ABSTRACT

This essay offers insights to late German film historian Thomas Elsaesser’s pioneering teaching methods in the field of media archaeology at the beginning of the 21st century. It looks into Elsaesser’s original approach of teaching cinema history at the University of Amsterdam and discusses some of his key conceptual and educational tools such as the epistemic 1900–2000 juxtaposition, the hermeneutics of astonishment, and the S/M dispositifs of non-theatrical cinema. Different from the materialist-machinic method proposed by new media scholars, Elsaesser’s media-archaeological approach takes its cue from early cinema studies that serve as a concrete example of going ‘against the grain’ of traditional film historiography, dismantling its various tales of progress, or false teleologies. Later in his career, Elsaesser would think of media archaeology as a symptom of the various crises in the field of film studies with respect to the notions of progress, narration, and representation. The essay also discusses some of Elsaesser’s more experimental and playful teaching projects, involving locative media, GPS technology, and HyperCard interface design. The overall aim is to pay tribute to Elsaesser’s important role in establishing media archaeology as an academic discipline.

摘要

本文为已故德国电影历史学家托马斯·艾尔赛瑟 (Thomas Elsaesser) 在 21 世纪初在媒体考古学领域开创性的教学方法提供了见解。它探讨了 Elsaesser 在阿姆斯特丹大学教授电影史的原始方法，并讨论了他的一些关键概念和教育工具，例如 1900-2000 年的认知并列、惊讶的解释学和非戏剧电影的 S/M 配置. 与新媒体学者提出的唯物主义机器方法不同，埃尔塞瑟的媒体考古方法从早期电影研究中获得启示，这些研究是传统电影史学“逆水行舟”的具体例子，拆除了其各种进步故事，或虚假的目的论。在他职业生涯的后期，Elsaesser 认为媒体考古学是电影研究领域中关于进步、叙事和再现等概念的各种危机的症状。这篇文章还讨论了 Elsaesser 的一些更具实验性和趣味性的教学项目，包括定位媒体、GPS 技术和 HyperCard 界面设计。总体目标是向 Elsaesser 在将媒体考古学确立为一门学科方面所发挥的重要作用表示敬意。