Lathrop Ligueros, Andrea;
(2020)
Resisting Obsolescence: Polaroid Practices in the 'Digital Age'.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis looks at today’s Polaroid practice in order to explore questions of the materiality of media, its agency, and the possibilities of media technologies to challenge and resist processes of obsolescence. By approaching Polaroid from a perspective that encompasses the material and social realm of the practice, and drawing on a 12-month networked ethnography that focused on the online and offline sites the practice inhabits, this thesis looks at the social, material, and cultural meanings of Polaroid in relation to other photographic practices today. Through the analysis of online digital platforms, mainly Polaroid dedicated Facebook groups, and the offline sites where members of Polaroid-centred communities gather (London and Vienna), this thesis explores the way Polaroid as a practice is produced, consumed and circulated. In addition, this research seeks to contribute to the understanding of media technologies not only as transmitters of content but also as enablers of sociality, in a context in which this sociality (and by extension, materiality) is fundamental for the infrastructural maintenance of the practice. By reading Polaroid media technology in terms of both continuity and transformation, and tradition and innovation, this thesis proposes three main arguments. (1) Analogue and digital photographic practices do not stand in opposition to one another but in a supplementary relationship in which each practice informs the other. (2) It is through residual practices and the building of an informal infrastructure that so-called obsolete technologies can continue to intersect the present and challenge assumptions of technological progress. (3) Obsolescence is a mutable, variable category that is not necessarily related to the material dimensions of the media object, but to ideological discourses that see progress through material culture.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Resisting Obsolescence: Polaroid Practices in the 'Digital Age' |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2020. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > VP: Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > VP: Education > Student and Registry Services UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > VP: Education > Student and Registry Services > Academic Services |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10102107 |
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