Bruce Sterling's Dead Media Project is a good place to start: http://www.deadmedia.org/ ----------------- Michael T. Zimmer Doctoral Student, Media Ecology Department of Culture and Communication New York University ----- Original Message ----- From: Jonathan Sterne <jsterne+@pitt.edu> Date: Thursday, March 11, 2004 3:43 pm Subject: [Air-l] failed media

At 12:01 PM -0500 3/11/04, air-l-request@aoir.org wrote:

...

Message: 5 From: "Mattia Miani" <katanankes@yahoo.com> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 21:16:56 +0100 Subject: [Air-l] Re: Air-l digest, Vol 1 #1001 - 8 msgs Reply-To: air-l@aoir.org

Hi all.

Time ago, i believe, someone issued on the list a call for chapters for a book aimed at exploring how forms of new media have failed in the past. An intriguing question. Does anybody know id they came out with the book?> Mattia Miani University of Bologna

Hi Maria,

I have no idea who posted that call. There is a dead media database somewhere online, and failure is an ongoing theme in the history of communication technology. For a good theoretical take, check out John Durham Peters _Speaking Into the Air_ and Briankle Chang _Deconstructing Communication_ (especially the last chapter). Otherwise, I'd recommend any of the classic media histories available -- most of them deal at some length with ulternatives and unrealized plans.

Charles Acland at Concordia is editing a book called _Residual Media_ (in which I have a chapter on computer obsolescence) and I am working on a book about abject moments in the 20th century history of communication technology (pretty US-centric but not exclusively) --

failure, obsolescence, decline, absurdity. There's also an upcoming conference at a school in Florida (forget which one) on media disasters.

Best, --J -- Jonathan Sterne, Assistant Professor Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh http://www.pitt.edu/~jsterne

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