1st Edition
The Routledge Companion to Media Technology and Obsolescence
While so many books on technology look at new advances and digital technologies, The Routledge Companion to Media Technology and Obsolescence looks back at analog technologies that are disappearing, considering their demise and what it says about media history, pop culture, and the nature of nostalgia. From card catalogs and typewriters to stock tickers and cathode ray tubes, contributors examine the legacy of analog technologies, including those, like vinyl records, that may be experiencing a resurgency. Each essay includes a brief history of the technology leading up to its peak, an analysis of the reasons for its decline, and a discussion of its influence on newer technologies.
About the Contributors
Preface
Mark J. P. Wolf
Acknowledgments
Paper Slips: The Long Reign of the Index Card and Card Catalog
Peter Krapp
From Hero to Zero: The Rise and Fall of the Slide Rule as the Calculating Tool of Choice
Peter M. Hopp
The History of Punched Cards – Using Paper to Store Information
Robert S. Wahl
A History of the Electrical Signal: From the Atlantic Telegraph Cable to the Quest for Artificial Intelligence
David Hochfelder
The Life, Death, and Rebirth of the Typewriter
Richard Polt
The Lure of the Ticker
Braxton Soderman
The Overhead Projector: Visuality and Materiality
Josh Zimmerman, Judd Ethan Ruggill, and Ken S. McAllister
Flammable Workhorse: A History of Nitrate Film from the Screen to the Vault
Amanda McQueen
Farewell to the Phosphorescent Glow: The Long Life of the Cathode-Ray Tube
Mark J. P. Wolf
The Moviola and Other Analog Film Editing Machines
Lori Landay
Analog Audio Synthesis: Oscillations, Traces, and Trajectories
Peer D. Bode
Armchair Harmonics: Radio Remote Controls and the Historical Persistence of Push-Buttons
Brent Strang
Standardized Film Leaders
Matt Soar
Vinyl, Vinyl Everywhere: The Analogue Record in the Digital World
Richard Osborne
Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away: The Rise, Fall, and Digital Rebirth of Kodachrome Film
M. M. Chandler
Shake It Like a Polaroid Picture: The Rise and Fall of an Analog Social Medium
Sheila C. Murphy
Hollywood in a Box: Time-shifting, Rental, and Videocassettes
Joshua Greenberg
Projecting Play: The Give-A-Show Projector and Children’s Audiovisual Media Toys of the Mid-20th Century
Meredith A. Bak
Parakeets, Morse Code, The Roar of the Crowd: The Fading Signal Of The Modem
Anne C. Deger
Illuminating Obsolescence: Eastman Kodak’s Carousel Slide Projector & The Work of Ending
Paige Sarlin
"Poor Black Squares": Afterimages of the Floppy Disk
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Video Game Cartridges: The History of Durable, Removable, and Portable Software
Michael Thomasson
Digital Data Demise — Obsolete Digital Data Formats
Gary Locklair
Laserdiscs — On the Way to a Digital Video Future
Stephen Mamber
Perfect Sound Forever? How the Compact Disc Sowed the Seeds of Its Own Demise
Jason Curtis
Hello Again: An Untimely Requiem for the Flip Phone
Paul Benzon
HD DVD Technologies
John Reid Perkins-Buzo
Appendix: Timeline of Technological Obsolescence
Mark J. P. Wolf
Biography
Mark J. P. Wolf is Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin. His books include Abstracting Reality: Art, Communication, and Cognition in the Digital Age (2000), The Medium of the Video Game (2001), Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics, and New Media (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader (2003), The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond (2007), The Video Game Theory Reader 2 (2008), Myst & Riven: The World of the D’ni (2011), Before the Crash: An Anthology of Early Video Game History (2012), the two-volume Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming (2012), Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation (2012), The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies (2014), LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon (2014), Video Games Around the World (2015), the four-volume Video Games and Gaming Culture (2016), Revisiting Imaginary Worlds: A Subcreation Studies Anthology (2016), Video Games FAQ (2017), The World of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (2017), and The Routledge Companion to Imaginary Worlds (2018).
