oh my, July!
Hello, friends of the lab! We hope you're staying cool, wherever you are... even the basement is getting toasty these days. We have some biggish news bits and some fun and neat things for you this time around!
The 2025/26 Practitioner-in-Residence Cohort has concluded!
Isaac Io Schankler (@eyesack@bsky.social or @io@merveilles.town or @piesaac) spent a week at the lab working with the Apple IIGS and the Yamaha CX5M Music Computer. They installed a new stereo sound card in the IIGS, were able to retrieve some data from floppies for the Yamaha, and had some fun mangling sound files with a freeware program on the Macs called thOnk_0+2. They also were able to hop on to our beloved 1190.radio to do a little guest DJ-ing and talk a bit about their project and work in general.
Relatedly, the 2026/27 Practitioner-in-Residence call is open!
Applications are due July 22! We're keeping it very open this time around, and looking for proposals that engage with the concept of Creative Misuse while making use of the items available in the lab collection. The full call is attached, and you can apply via the form here. Feel free to reach out with any questions!
We're having a book release party!
Jazmyn Crosby visited us last summer for a while and ended up publishing the really lovely Other Networks: Interspecies Communication Operations Manual. We're co-hosting a two-location and also livestreamed event for it - you can stop by the main lab at 1320 Grandview Ave., at Big Ramp in Philadelphia, and on our twitch channel on Thursday, July 16 from 4:30-7:30pm our time (UTC-6) (6:30-9:30pm Philly time). On our end we'll have some snacks on the porch, copies of the Interspecies Communications Operations Manual available for a donation, Jazmyn will give a little talk, and we'll have some other activities. In Philly, Jazmyn also has an exhibition titled Teleplasm Hotline showing. And checking in over livestream we'll be doing some demos and audio listening time. Plus, it's a rare chance to visit the lab during evening hours!
MAL is in Monoskop
We've got another place for you to keep up with things that happen in the lab if you're interested - especially lab-related publications, press, and exhibitions. You can find that entry at monoskop.org/Media_Archaeology_Lab. Enjoy!
Take more of our stuff please...
Lori and libi continue to clean and organize in the lab, and so there is another pile of stuff for free on the porch. There's a wide range of bits and things, and the pile will continue to get additions as we're cleaning and deaccessioning too-broken or duplicate items. If you happen to be by the lab, check out the pile and see if you want anything.
We're still looking for volunteers!
If you want to volunteer with the lab, please fill out our interest form: forms.gle/3i2fnu3J92nYnF766. We're always looking for folks who can host open house hours; we're also hoping to find some folks to take on repair projects at home right now - we keep finding half-finished repair jobs that got set aside as we're cleaning and we'd love it if some of them got adopted. (Say hi to Chris and Eric, our Friday volunteers wearing their matching MAL shirts.)
As always, you can find us on some of the socials (Mastodon, bluesky, instagram) and you can check our neocities page for calendars.
Thanks for reading!
🌈MAL