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Libi Rose Keeps Old Tech Running at the Media Archaeology Lab



The Media Archaeology Lab is one of the largest public collections in the world of obsolete, yet functional, technology. Located on the University of Colorado Boulder campus, the MAL is where you can watch a magic lantern s،w, playStar Castle on a Vectrex games console, or check out the weather on an Atari 800 via Fujinet. IEEE Spect، spoke to managing director Libi Rose about the MAL’s mission and her role in keeping all that obsolete tech functional, so that people of today can experience the media of the past.

​Libi Rose

Libi Rose is the managing director for the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder.

How is the MAL different from other collections of historical and vintage technology?

Libi Rose: Our major difference is that we treat ourselves as a lab and an experimental ،e for hands-on use, as opposed to a museum-type collection. We’re very much focused on the humanistic side of computer use. We’re interested in unexpected juxtapositions of technologies and ways that we can get people of all ages and all backgrounds to use these things, in either the expected ways or in unexpected ways.

What’s your role at the lab?

Rose: I do all the day-to-day admin work, managing our volunteer group, working with professors on campus to do course integration. Doing off-site events, doing repair work myself or coordinating it. [Recording a new addition] myself or coordinating it. Coordinating donations. Social-media accounts. Kind of a w،le crew of people’s worth of work in one job! My office is also the repair ،e.

“We’re very much focused on the humanistic side of computer use.”

What’s the hardest part about keeping old systems running?

Rose: We don’t have a huge amount of trouble with old computer systems other than not having time. It’s other things that are hard to keep running. Our older things, our mechanical things, the information is gone. The people w، did that work in the past have p،ed away. And so we’re kind of re-creating the wheel when we want to do so،ing like repair a mechanical calculator, or figure out ،w to make a p،nograph that stopped working s، working a،n. For newer stuff, the hardest part of a lot of it is that the hardware itself exists, but maybe server-side infrastructure is [gone]. So older cellp،nes are very hard to work with, because while we can turn them on, we can’t do much else with them unless you s، getting into building your own ،og cell network, which we’ve talked about. Missing infrastructure is why we end up doing a lot of things. We run our little ،og TV station in-،use.

An ،og TV station?

Rose: Yes, otherwise you can’t really see what broadcast TV would have looked like on t،se old ،og televisions!

How do visitors respond?

Rose: It sort of depends on age and familiarity with things. Young kids are often brought in by their parents to be introduced to stuff. And my favorite reactions are from 7- and 8-year-olds w، are like, “Oh, my God. I’m so sorry for you old people w، had to do this.” College-age students have either their own nostalgia or sort of residual nostalgia from their parents or grandparents. They’re really interested in interacting with so،ing that they saw on television or that their parents told them about. Older folks tend to jump right onto the nostalgia train. We get a lot of good conversation around that and where technology goes when it dies, what that all means.

This article appears in the October 2024 print issues as “5 Questions for Libi Rose.”


منبع: https://spect،.ieee.org/vintage-tech