Negative media : erasure and the limits of retention / Ella Klik.
| Author/creator | Klik, Ella author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2026] |
| Description | xi, 209 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Sensing media : aesthetics, philosophy, and cultures of media Sensing media (Series) |
| Contents | Introduction : everywhere, nowhere, right here -- Shaving wax, layer after layer, until there is none -- Cinematography in a time of material crisis -- Randomizing magnetic particles into televisual oblivion -- Typology of purge and the ordering of erratic typewriting -- An imperfect web -- Conclusion : yet something persists -- Afterword : amid erasure, we live. |
| Abstract | "In a world inundated by an endless proliferation of texts, images, and data, the tension between the human desire to preserve and the economic incentive to retain collides with the finite nature of storage and its attendant costs. The impulse to keep everything inevitably confronts material constraints, compelling a reckoning with erasure as a necessity that enables ongoing creation. As this book reveals, such considerations are far from unique to the digital age. Spanning early analog sound recordings to contemporary debates about digital cloud solutions, Negative Media proposes that acts of removal, cutting, deletion, and effacement shape the invention and use of popular storage technologies from the 19th century to the present. Ella Klik invites readers to reconsider how recording mechanisms operate, arguing that negation is not a design flaw but a process intentionally woven into the very fabric of these systems. Through engaging stories, including the accidental deletion of the Apollo 11 moon landing tapes, the book traces a genealogy of undoing that reframes our understanding of media's lifecycle, from production to managing scarcity and abundance. Rather than privileging long-term retention as the primary framework for analysis, Klik navigates through media histories and theories to foreground reuse at a moment where prevailing narratives insist - perhaps too boldly - that nothing can ever truly disappear from the internet"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Klik, Ella. Negative media. Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2026 9781503645271 |
| LCCN | 2025024062 |
| ISBN | 9781503639768 hardcover |
| ISBN | 1503639762 hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781503645264 paperback |
| ISBN | 1503645266 paperback |
| ISBN | electronic book |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | New Books | P91 .K55 2026 | ✔ Available | Want This? |