Dead Media Project
Working Notes arranged by category
This highly flawed index (in both concept and execution) immediately
shows just how stupid it is to try to classify media in any way.
Which of course makes the job even more interesting. The only
definition for media I can come up with is "a method or artifact
for storing or generating or transmiting human sensory stimulus"
which is so broad it means nothing. Any less and some damned thing
gets left out. There has been some discussion of this, see the meta-historical
Notes for some further thoughts.
So in this futile attempt to categorize "dead media"
I try to stick things in vague categories derived from the human
senses. But even this fails as you will see. This is one of those
tasks where I discourage suggestions and encourage action; if you
can come up with a better scheme (which means: email me an edited
copy of this HTML index file!) by all means do so.
Here is the list of new, uncategorized
Notes most recently submitted to the list. They will later be
hand-placed in this index.
Most recent update:
4 January 2001
TABLE OF CATEGORIES:
- VISUAL CATEGORIES: Media that appeals directly to
the human eye, essentially, for the generation or transmission or
storage of visual images. The idea is that images are moved/stored
via analogy rather than symbolically; eg. photography. Visual "data"
such as text or writing is probably contained in the SYMBOLIC
categories.
- SYMBOLIC CATEGORIES: Media that transmits sensory
data after some transformation, such as schemes to store or send
writing abstractly as symbols, rather than in toto.
- AURAL CATEGORIES: In general, things that move audible sounds in place and/or time.
Somehow it seems there should be many more of these than there are.
- PHYSICAL CATEGORIES: A seemingly simple category, but fraught with dangers.
- as-yet UNCATEGORIZABLE CATEGORIES
Categorized dead media Notes
As-yet unclassified
"Childrens" media
Mechanical calculating or measuring (is this media?!)
Anachronisms
18th/19th century contrivances with foolish names (usually inventor ego-stroking)
Electrical/electronic aural
Electrical/electronic symbolic information systems including codes
Electrical/electronic tele-communications (non-internet)
Electrical/electronic visual
Electrical/electronic writing systems (broadly defined)
Obviously foolish technology misuse (aka boy-with-hammer syndrome)
Historical revisionism
Metahistorical
23.8 Definitions and Connections
23.9 Definitions and Connections
24.6 Dead Media 1897: The Consumer Context
30.6 Age-Specific Media
37.9 Media History as Contingency
44.8 Dead Media Collectors
Victims of Moore's Law
Non or pre-computer technological symbolic machinery
Non-electrical/electronic aural
Non-electrical/electronic visual
Pre-industrial-age communication
Physical transport "media" (movement of objects)
Writing systems (NOTA)
- 34.4 Barlow's Potatograph
- 40.1 Bibliocadavers
- 02.5 Copy Press, the Hektograph, Edison's Electric Pen, Zuccato's Trypograph, Gestetner's Cyclostyle, Dick-Edison Mimeograph, Gammeter aka Multigraph, Varityper, IBM Selectric
- 24.4 Edison Electric Pen Stencil
- 13.2 Edison Electric Pen, pneumatic pen, magnetic pen, and foot-powered pen
- 18.5 Popular fiction formats
- 24.5 Poster Stamps
- 33.1 Ramelli's Book Wheel
- 33.2 Ramelli's Book Wheel
- 40.8 Spirit Duplicators
- 26.2 Tattoos as media
- 18.6 library card catalog
- 18.7 library card catalog
Not 'dead media'
Money
Electronic computers and calculators
- 19.1 Baby Mark I Computer
- 11.0 CHIPS: Dead Software, Dead Platforms
- 01.7 Comparator; Rapid Selector
- 36.8 Computer Game Designer Dies Young, But Outlives Own Games
- 28.3 Computer Game Emulators
- 08.3 Computer Games Are Dead (Part 1)
- 08.4 Computer Games Are Dead (Part 2)
- 08.5 Computer Games Are Dead (Part 3)
- 08.6 Computer Games Are Dead (Part 4)
- 27.1 Computer Jukebox
- 14.8 Computer Museum History Center; the Adidas Micropacer, the Whirlwind flight simulator, the Apricot Xi, the Cray NTDS
- 48.5 Computer media becomes obsolete
- 41.4 Dead Binary Digital Computer (The Manchester Small Scale Experimental Machine--"The Baby")
- 21.9 Dead Computer Operating Systems
- 18.8 Dead Digital Documents (Part One)
- 18.9 Dead Digital Documents (Part Two)
- 29.8 Dead Digital Documents
- 32.4 Dead Digital Documents
- 11.3 Dead Personal Computers and Typewriters: Some Recommended Books
- 00.5 Dead Personal Computers
- 00.6 Dead computational platforms, dead mainframes, and their dates
- 00.9 Dead computer languages
- 03.7 Dead memory systems
- 37.1 Dead supercomputers become furniture
- 28.4 Mattel Intellivision I/II/III, Tandyvision One, Super Video Arcade, Mattel Entertainment Computer System, INTV System III/IV, and Super Pro System
- 28.5 Mattel Intellivision I/II/III, Tandyvision One, Super Video Arcade, Mattel Entertainment Computer System, INTV System III/IV, and Super Pro System
- 47.1 Mechanical Memories (rotating disk, movable pins)
- 12.6 Nintendo Virtual Boy, the Logitech Cyberman 3D mouse, the Nintendo Power Glove
- 19.0 Officially Deleted Digital Documents
- 46.3 Old Hard Drives
- 46.2 Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100
- 49.2 Recycling obsolete computer hardware II (Redundant Technology Initiative)
- 48.9 Recycling obsolete computer hardware
- 45.4 Shoup and Smith on early computer 'paint' systems, NASA Date: Thu, Jan 6, 2000, 07:52 PM
- 26.9 Typewriter Ribbon Tins Revived by Computer
- 42.3 Wind-Up Powerbook
- 42.3 Wind-Up Powerbook
- 03.4 Zuse Ziffernrechner; V1, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z4 program-controlled electromechanical digital computers; the death of Konrad Zuse
Thomas Alva Edison
- 02.5 Copy Press, Hektograph, Edison's Electric Pen, Zuccato's Trypograph, Gestetner's Cyclostyle, Dick-Edison Mimeograph, Gammeter aka Multigraph, Varityper, IBM Selectric
- 24.4 Edison Electric Pen Stencil
- 13.3 Edison Electric Pen, Reed pen, and Music Ruling Pen
- 13.4 Edison Electric Pen
- 14.4 Edison Wax Cylinder
- 16.0 Edison's Vertical-Cut Records
- 46.8 Undead Media - The Edison Stock Ticker
Internet related (tread carefully here)
The magic-lantern and variants
Camera obscura and variants
Panorama (more of a cultural phenomenon than a medium, per se)
Telephony
- 03.2 Phonographic Dolls
- 03.8 Kinetophone; "Kinetophone Project"
- 04.8 Miniature Recording Phonograph, Neophone Records, Poulsen's Telegraphone, Multiplex Grand Graphophone and Photophone.
- 06.8 Popular Science 1932: Naumburg's Visagraph, Electric Eye Linotype, Ordering Music by Phone
- 07.8 PhoneVision
- 09.5 Museum of the Moving Image: Jenkins Radiovisor, Bell Picture Telephone, RGA/Oxberry CompuQuad,
- 09.6 Theatrophone; electrophone
- 09.7 Theatrophone; electrophone
- 10.1 Telephonic Jukeboxes: Shyvers Multiphone, Phonette Melody Lane, AMI Automatic
- 12.4 Theatrophone, electrophone
- 16.2 Flame Organ; Burning Harmonica; Chemical Harmonica; Kastner's Pyrophone
- 16.5 Phonograph History Part 1
- 16.6 Phonograph History Part 2
- 16.7 Phonograph History Part 3
- 25.2 Mobile Cavalry Telephone
- 21.3 Mechanical and string telephony
- 21.5 Mechanical Telephony
- 28.2 Organetta, Organette, Aurephone, Cecilla, Organina Cabineto, Tournaphone, Cabinetto, Melodia, Musical Casket, Gately Automatic Organ, Tanzbar, Seraphone, and Celestina
- 30.7 AT&T Telephotography; AT&T Picturephone
- 31.7 Phonovid Vinyl Video
- 39.2 Flowers's Phonoscribe; Flowers's Phonetic Alphabet
- 43.6 Acoustic telephone
- 45.8 Telegraphone
Photography and non-electrical/electronic still-image recording and reproduction
Pigeons pigeons pigeons!
Pneumatic tubes
Radio
Sirens and large-scale public aural signals
Electronic musical
Telegraphy
- 19.5 Bain's Facsimile Telegraphy
- 38.2 British Foreign Office Abandons Telegrams
- 19.3 Caselli's Pantelegraph (Part One)
- 19.4 Caselli's Pantelegraph (Part Two)
- 20.5 Fire Alarms, Burglar Alarms, Railroad-Signal Systems, Hotel Annunciators, District Messenger Services
- 02.6 Military Telegraphy, Balloon Semaphore
- 02.7 Mirror Telegraphy: The Heliograph, the Helioscope, the Heliostat, the Heliotrope
- 32.9 Optical Telegraphy; Heliography
- 32.0 State-supported dead media; causes of media mortality; Roman relay runners, Mongol horse post, Polybius's fire signals, British Naval Howe Code, Pony Express, Aztec signals, optical telegraphy
- 20.4 Telegraph: Bain's Chemical Telegraph, the telegraph, quadruplex telegraph, House's Printing Telegraph, Hughes's Printing Telegraph, Phelps's Printing Telegraph, Bakewell's Fac Simile Telegraph, Dial Telegraph
- 20.7 Telegraph: Inductive Telegraphy
- 20.3 Telegraph: Morse Pendulum Instrument, Morse Register
- 22.2 Telegraph: Wheatstone's Telegraphic Meterometer; *Scientific American* Dead Media References 1867-1875
- 20.8 Telegraph
- 39.4 Telegraphic Paper Tape; Digital Paper Tape; Baudot Code; Dead Encoding Formats; ILLIAC; TTY
- 17.1 Telegraphy Bibliography
- 25.7 Telegraphy: Cablese, Wirespeak, Phillips Code, Morse Code
- 29.7 Telegraphy
- 22.4 Teleplex Morse Code Recorder
- 05.5 'Writing telegraph;' Gray's Telautograph; military telautograph; telewriter; the telescriber
- 08.0 Union telegraph balloons, Confederate microfilm
Television
Typewriter