Report of the project Inventions on the edges of history

This firsthand report describes the process and results of a research project, titled “Inventions on the edges of history. Re-signification of Latin American media technologies”, which explores the history of several visual, audio and computation technologies developed in Latin America in parallel with other similar developments in other latitudes. It also analyses the historical and cultural reasons behind the Latin American technologies remaining largely unknown, even as similar technologies made fundamental contributions to nineteenth and twentieth century culture elsewhere. The project also proposes “re-signification” as an alternative and complementary concept to media history and archaeology concepts. The research project, developed between 2007 and 2013 and framed in both theoretical and practical terms, is described in a doctoral dissertation for the Art, Media and Technology programme of the University of California at Santa Barbara.