Emma De Vries: Going Postal Goes Viral Epistolary Imaginations in Media Art

Through a series of curious cases, Emma de Vries presents her research into the simultaneous dis- and reappearance of the letter in contemporary culture. The lecture traces epistolary imaginations in Media Art, and relates these to fears and fantasies around the cultural consequences of media-technological change.

Emma de Vries is a PhD researcher at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (The Netherlands). In her project Postdating the Post: Examining (Neo) Epistolary Practices in Contemporary Culture, she combines a background in philosophy and literary theory, with a strong interest in media studies and art criticism. During the academic year 2015-2016 she researches at the Design and Media Arts department at UCLA and metaLAB at Harvard, as a Fulbright Scholar and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Fellow.