معرفی
Lori Emerson is a Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Media Studies Department at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she also serves as the Founding Director of the Media Archaeology Lab. She is Faculty Director of the Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance program and leads the “Other Networks” research cluster that documents and experiments with networks outside of what’s now called “the internet.”
Dr. Emerson’s research focuses on uncovering crisis points in past media—points at which there was the possibility, never fully realized, for technologies to become “other” than what they are now. She works to undo established narratives of how contemporary technologies came to be by examining artists’ and writers’ experiments with network technologies. As part of her research, she has become an amateur radio operator with the callsign KF0LCB.
Her current research cluster, “Other Networks,” includes multiple book projects, articles, and hands-on workshops that explore networks that preceded or exist outside the internet. Through the Media Archaeology Lab, she and Dr. libi striegl host events, write recipes and pamphlets on “other networks,” and run an asynchronous book club. Their work is supported by the College of Communication, Media, Design, and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Dr. Emerson’s publications reveal a consistent focus on media archaeology, the history of computing, and alternative technological pathways. Her recent work has increasingly centered on pre-internet telecommunications networks and how artists have experimented with these systems. She has documented Canadian cable TV networks like NABU, early computer bulletin board systems, and other forgotten network technologies, arguing that “the net has never been neutral” and that understanding these historical alternatives can help us reimagine the future of networks.
- Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook (2025)
- THE LAB BOOK: Situated Practices in Media Studies (2022)
- Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound (2014)
Through the Media Archaeology Lab, Dr. Emerson has developed numerous workshops and educational materials on building alternative networks, including recipes for creating mini FM transmitters and mesh networks. She actively engages with the public through social media platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon using the #othernetworks hashtag, sharing insights about historical networks and practical approaches to creating alternatives to corporate internet infrastructure.
