Downgraded & Upcycled: A Museum Studies Seminar Exhibition About Legacy Media

A Polaroid photograph from the 1970s of a child's first day of kindergarten, a 1960s instructional filmstrip on nutritional food groups, a baby-boomer's slides from a honeymoon in Niagara Falls, and a VHS tape from the 1980s of the Phil Donahue daytime talk show -- these are all are all moments captured on "legacy media." Legacy media refers to formats considered out of date or moving towards obsolescence, such as VHS tapes, floppy discs, and photographic film, as well as old modes of communication such as broadcast television, radio, and print journalism. In the past decade, we have experienced the rise of “new media” including social media platforms, podcasts, virtual reality, digital games, and online news site, which have permeated every aspect of our lives- which raises the question of how we will preserve our cultural heritage in the digital age.

     The exhibition looks at forms of legacy media as material, as document, and as repository. Students in this exhibition will work with legacy media such as VHS tapes to create installations for museum visitors to manipulate, as a means of considering the role such media has played in creating collective memories of our society and personal memories. The exhibition asks visitors to consider the responsibility of museums and archives to preserve the stories and information that have been recorded on legacy media as well as sustainability issues regarding these materials.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website