Cultures of Obsolescence

Daniel M. Abramson, Tufts University, USAHanjo Berressem, University of Cologne, GermanyBill Brown, University of Chicago, USAKathleen Fitzpatrick, New York University, USAJohn Durham Peters, University of Iowa, USAJani Scandura, University of Minnesota, USAMaryAnn Snyder-Körber, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, GermanyAlexander Starre, Free University of Berlin, GermanySusan Strasser, University of Delaware, GermanyWilliam Uricchio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

• Introduction: Thinking Out of Sync: A Theory of Obsolescence; Babette B. Tischleder and Sarah Wasserman Prelude: The Obsolescence of the Human; Bill Brown PART I: HISTORY 1. Rags, Bones, and Plastic Bags: Obsolescence, Trash, and American Consumer Culture; Susan Strasser 2. Architectures of Obsolescence: Lessons for History; Daniel M. Abramson PART II: MEDIA AND THE DIGITAL AGE 3. Proliferation and Obsolescence of the Historical Record in the Digital Era; John Durham Peters 4. Replacement, Displacement, and Obsolescence in the Digital Age; William Uricchio 5. The Future History of the Book: Time, Attention, Convention; Kathleen Fitzpatrick 6. The Pleasures of Paper: Tethering Literature to Obsolete Material Forms; Alexander Starre PART III: AESTHETICS 7. The Horror of Details: Obsolescence and Annihilation in Miyako Ishiuchi's Photography of Atomic Bomb Artifacts; Jani Scandura 8. The Poetics of Patination in William Gibson; Hanjo Berressem 9. Untimely: Obsolescence, Late Modernism, and the View Out of Giovanni's Room; MaryAnn Snyder-Körber

"Is planned obsolescence a conceptual paradox? How do we reconcile our era's impatience for the outmoded with our equally strong attachment to fantasies of endurance, be they about things or people? What is the place of the human in an age of obsolescence? This volume addresses these pressing questions and more. Each essay in this collection is a gem, and collectively they do the important work of expanding the conversation about the question of obsolescence beyond the realm of the technological to those of art, culture, environment, and politics" - Anne Anlin Cheng, Professor, English and the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University, USA"This fascinating collection rethinks the meaning of obsolescence, from its historical relation to consumer capitalism and environmental blight to the ambivalent sentiments toward progress, tradition, fashion, and decay that inform its meanings in contemporary art, media, and material culture. A must-read for anyone interested in the intertwined itineraries of humans and things." - Lynn Spigel, Professor, Screen Cultures, Northwestern University, USA and author of Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America