ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the ideas underlying concept of a media archaeological laboratory within a museological context and in the concrete setting of the Media Archaeology Lab (MAL). The founding idea of the MAL is that encountering the otherness of media technologies on display, and experimenting with them, will give visitors new insights that further provoke reflections on their contemporary media environment. The chapter identifies the different associations connected with reminiscence and the different themes connected with reflections. The MAL as a knowledge-producing facility is clearly a work-in-progress. The tactile hands on encounters elicited two kinds of knowledge: reminiscences and reflections. Most of the immediate responses of participants are reminiscences and only a few of them move beyond simple reminiscence to the reflexive and interpretative forms. Participation has become a ‘floating signifier’ and it is often regarded as inherently beneficial without considering the concrete participatory practices and their impact on participants.
