ARTCHAE. For a Media Ar(t)chaeology of Telepresence

Authors

Barbara Grespi (ed)
University of Milan, Italy
ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9133-3251
Miriam De Rosa (ed)
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3803-4295
Maria Teresa Soldani (ed)
University of Milan, Italy
ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2480-4391
Lorenzo Lazzari (ed)
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0936-943X
Keywords: Media Archaeology, Telepresence, Video Art, Feminist Media Studies, Visual and Sound culture

Synopsis

Much of contemporary media entails forms of telepresence. Interaction and perception across physical distance today underpin both everyday media—such as mobile phones and teleconferencing platforms—and simulation-based media, including immersive and extended realities, which consistently incorporate a live component. ARTCHAE traces the roots of these processes to the electronic arts from the 1960s to the early 1980s—video art, installation art, and sound art—where mediated presence first became a site of experimentation, while simultaneity, embodied interaction, and self-recognition were already challenged. Combining analyses of media artworks by leading international scholars with interviews of prominent artists and curators, ARTCHAE proposes an ar(t)chaeology: a genealogical inquiry into telepresence grounded in the early insights of artists, particularly overlooked women, who explored the ways tele-media reconfigured private and public spaces, the mediation of the Self, and collective participation.

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Author Biographies

Barbara Grespi, University of Milan, Italy

Barbara Grespi is Full Professor at the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti,” University of Milan, where she teaches Theories of the Moving Image and Media Archaeology and coordinates the XR-Lab in the frame of EXT—Extended Reality Research Center. Her research has explored the non-ocularcentric dimensions of optical media—from photography to extended realities—focusing especially on gestural practices. Among her publications: Il cinema come gesto (Aracne, 2017), Figure del corpo (Meltemi, 2019), and the co-edited volumes Harun Farocki (Mimesis, 2017), Apparizioni (Aracne, 2018), Bodies of Stone in the Media, Visual Culture, and the Arts (Amsterdam University Press, 2020), Mediarcheologia (Raffaello Cortina, 2023), and Il postfotografico (Einaudi, 2024).

 

Miriam De Rosa, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Miriam De Rosa researches and teaches Media Archaeology, Visual Cultures and Artists’ Film at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where she serves as an Associate Professor and leads the MA Economy and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities. She also coordinates the IMACS network and sits on the NECS steering committee. Her last monograph is Camille Henrot: Notes on Desktop Cinema (Mimesis 2024).

Maria Teresa Soldani, University of Milan, Italy

Maria Teresa Soldani, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor in Media Archaeology at the University of Milan and in Visual Culture Studies at Università Telematica San Raffaele Roma. She was Research Fellow at the University of Milan – within the ARTCHAE project – and the University of Bologna. She has published the monographs Naked City (Quaderni di CinemaSud, 2013), Made in USA (Mimesis, 2024), and co-edited special issues of journals and books, including Cronofagia e media (Meltemi, 2024). She is Associate Editor of G|A|M|E. The Italian Journal of Game Studies, member of the directorial board of “Afterimage” book series (Aracne), and of the international research group “Musical Lives on Screen.”

Lorenzo Lazzari, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Lorenzo Lazzari is currently a Post-Doc Research Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and an independent curator. His academic and curatorial research moves at the intersections of contemporary art, cinema, urban studies, and forms of dissent. He recently published the monograph Rivendicazioni in videotape for Carocci Editore.

Book cover of Artchae
Published
March 19, 2026
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