Spectromedial Archaeologies: Bringing the Specters of the Past Back to Listening and Seeing in Para One's Spectre Trilogy

Abstract

The essay investigates the emergence of a new research trend in contemporary auteur cinema, which we will define as spectromedial archaeology. Through a materialist and intermedial perspective, spectromedial archaeology establishes itself as an analytical-theoretical tool capable of deconstructing the technical and aesthetic multi-stratifications of cinematic mediality. Central to this inquiry is the analysis of auteur works that engage in metalinguistic reflection on the evolution of the cinematic apparatus, reactivating genealogical traces of residual languages and obsolete film technologies. Alongside a theoretical framing of the concept and a mapping of crucial historiographical nodes, the study unfolds in three sections: an introductory overview of contemporary auteur cinema (Víctor Erice, Steven Spielberg, Mendonça Filho, etc.), an in-depth exploration of Chris Marker’s pioneering work, and a focused investigation of Para One’s Spectre trilogy, presented as a paradigmatic case. These analyses aim to validate the applicative potential of spectromedial archaeology by identifying the operative physicality of the medial spectrum. While critics have predominantly discussed this spectrum as a sociocultural symbol or narrative archetype, the essay repositions it as an audiovisual energy that surfaces in the present through formal anomalies (temporal contaminations, sound disturbances, and technical hybridizations).