Uncontainable: Cardboard, Media, Interface

abstract: In the digital era, emphasis on materials associated with computers—silicon, for example—obscures other important materials that have come to frame our experiences of digital practices, technologies, and cultures, ultimately creating a narrower understanding of the material cultures of the digital era. Cardboard, as signifier of e-commerce, logistics, and the mediation of consumer desire, is a material that can broaden definitions of media materialities. Drawing on media studies, cultural studies, and craft studies to analyze the role of cardboard in the digital era, I argue that cardboard is a media interface with adaptable potentials that bridge URL and IRL.