[iDC] shelf life

Sun Nov 18 13:29:15 UTC 2007

I'm following the 'Shelf Life' discussion with great interest.  One  
always
knew that a lot of "New Media" was absolutely bound to become "dead  
media,"
but I'm always moved by the immediate, hands-on human toll when
some sci-fi tinged futurist prognostication becomes  everyday reality.

I'm sorry that we lack the discussion by magic-lantern slide painters
when early cinema began destroying their craft.  For a field of art  
and craft
to have its technical underpinnings die beneath it is not a new problem.
I know it's a little intrusive one, but allow me to bomb the list  
with one fragmentary
piece of the "Master List of Dead Media," which was compiled ten  
years ago.

This is just the stuff of immediate "multimedia" "new-media"  
"net.art" relevance;
it doesn't go into dead photography, ink-based media, sound recordings,
and so on.

This list never got anywhere within gasping distance of encyclopedic  
completion;
about the time I gave this project up, the pace of media death   
accelerated
radically.  I rather suspect it would take an outfit with the brains,  
funds and
muscle of the Pacific Film archive just to *keep count* of the stuff  
that's
dying nowadays.

Bruce Sterling
http://blog.wired.com/sterling

ELECTRICAL TRANSFER OF SOUND AND IMAGE

(Dead Telephony)
The AT&T Nipkow disk picturephone (1927),
Gunter Krawinkel's video telephone booth
(Germany 1929), Reichspost picturephone (Germany 1936),
AT&T Picturephone,  AT&T Videophone 2500, etc

(Dead Mechanical Television)
Baird Television; Baird Noctovision; Baird Telelogoscopy;
The General Electric Octagon; the Daven Tri-Standard
Scanning Disc; the Jenkins  W1IM   Radiovisor Kit,
the Jenkins Model 202 Radiovisor,  Jenkins Radio Movies;
the Baird Televisor Plessey Model,  the Baird Televisor
Kit; the Western Television Corporation Visionette

(Dead Color Television Formats):
Baird Telechrome, HDTV, PALplus letterbox format, etc.

(Dead Interactive Television)
Zenith Phonevision, the first pay-per-view TV service
(1951).
Cableshop

AT&T wirephoto (1925)

DEAD DIGITAL NETWORKS

Teletext, Viewtron, Viewdata, Prestel, The Source, Qube,
Alex (Quebec), Telidon (Canada), Viatel and Discovery 40
(Australia), the ICL One-Per-Desk, etc.

Dead bulletin board system networks:
RIME, ILink, FrEdMail, OneNet, SmartNet, InfoLink,
WWIVnet,
NorthAmeriNet, etc.

DEAD STILL-IMAGE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES

The stereopticon, the Protean View, the  Zogroscope, the
Polyorama Panoptique,  Frith's Cosmoscope,  Knight's
Cosmorama, Ponti's Megalethoscope (1862),   Rousell's
Graphoscope (1864), Wheatstone's stereoscope (1832), dead
Viewmaster knockoffs.

Medieval  and renaissance magic-glass conjuring.
Alhazen's camera obscura (1000 AD),
Wollaston's camera lucida (1807).
Magic lantern, dissolving views

Phantasmagoria:  Robertson's Fantasmagorie,
Seraphin's Ombres Chinoises, Guyot's smoke apparitions,
Philipstal's phantasmagoria,  Lonsdale's
Spectrographia, Meeson's phantasmagoria, the optical
eidothaumata, the Capnophoric Phantoms, Moritz's
phantasmagoria, Jack Bologna's Phantoscopia, Schirmer and
Scholl's Ergascopia, De Berar's Optikali Illusio,
Brewster's catadioptrical phantasmagoria,
Pepper's Ghost, Messter's Kinoplastikon.

Biddall's Phantospectraghostodrama and similar
"fairground bogeys."

Riviere's Theatre d'Ombres (Paris 1887-1897).

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION TECHNOLOGIES

Joseph Plateau's phenakistiscope (1832), Emile Reynaud's
praxinoscope,  Ayrton's thaumatrope  or "magic  disks"
(1825), Stampfer's  stroboscope, William George Horner's
zoetrope or "wheel-of-life" (1834), L. S. Beale's
choreutoscope  (1866), the viviscope, Short's Filoscope,
Herman Casler's mutoscope and the "picture parlor" (1895),
the Lumiere Kinora viewer and Kinora camera, the
fantascope, etc.

Dead cinematic devices, including but not limited to:
Muybridge's zoogyroscope, E J Marey's chronophotographe
and fusil photographique,  George Demeny's Phonoscope,
Edison  kinetoscope (1893),  Anschutz's Electro-
Tachyscope, Armat's vitascope, Rudge's biophantascope,
Skladanowsky's  Bioscope, Acre's kineopticon, the
counterfivoscope, the  klondikoscope, Paul's theatrograph,
Reynaud's Theatre Optique,  Reynaud's Musee Grevin Cabinet
Fantastique, Lumiere cinematographe,  Kobelkoff's Giant
Cinematographe, Lumiere Cinematographe Geant (1900), the
vitagraph, Paul's animatograph, the vitamotograph, the
Kinesetograph,  Proszynski's Oko, the Urbanora, the Prague
Laterna Magika.

The Sony Videomat coin-op video recorder booth (1966)

Abel Gance's Polyvision multiple-screen silent cinema.

The Chiu-mou-ti Hsing-wu-t'ai (Shanghai 1920s)

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND
TECHNOLOGIES

the Photo-Cinema-Theatre sound film system (1900),
Gaumont's Chronophone (1910), Messter's Biophon (1904),
The Mendel-Walturdaw cinematophone (1911), The Jeapes-
Barker Cinephone (1908), Hepworth's Vivaphone (1911),
Edison kinetophone (1913),  Ruhmer's Photographon optical
sound recorder (1901), the synchronoscope,  the
cameraphone, phonofilm, the graphophonoscope,
the  chronophotographoscope, the biophonograph,
DeForest Phonofilm (1923), Warner Bros/ Western Electric
Vitaphone (1926),   Fox  Movietone (1927), Vocafilm,
Firnatone, Bristolphone, Titanifrone, Disney's Cinephone,
Hoxie / RCA Photophone (1928), General Electric
Kinegraphone (1925),  Cinerama (1951), CinemaScope (1952),
Natural Vision (1952), Todd-AO, Super Panavision 70,
Ultra Panavision 70, etc.

The Scopitone.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, IMMERSIVE

Raoul Grimoin-Sanson's Ballon-Cineorama ten-projector
circular screen  (1900)

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL
Odorama, Smell-O-Vision (1960), Aromarama (1959) etc.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND, SMELL,
IMMERSIVE
Morton Heilig's Sensorama.

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, "3-D"

Devignes's stereoscopic zoetrope (1860)
Stereoscopic phenakistoscopes: Seller's Kinematoscope
(1861), Shaw's stereoscopic phenakistiscope (1860)
Bonelli and Cook's microphotograph stereo-phenakistiscope
(1863), Wheatstone's stereoscopic viewer (c. 1870)

3-D projection systems:  d'Almeida's projected 3-D magic
lantern slides (1856), Heyl's Phasmatrope (1870),
Grivolas's stereoscopic moving  pictures (1897),
the Fairall anaglyph process (1922),
Kelly's Plasticon (1922), Ives and Leventhall's
Plastigram, aka Pathe Stereoscopiks, aka Audioscopiks, aka
Metroscopix (1923,1925, 1935, 1953), Teleview (New York
1922),  polarized light stereoscopic movies (1936),
Ivanov's parallax stereogram projector (Moscow 1941),
Savoy's Cyclostereoscope (Paris 1949),  the Telekinema
(London 1951), Space Vision (Chicago 1966).

VisiDep 3-D Television

DEAD MULTIPLE-IMAGE, PERSISTENCE-OF-VISION, SOUND,
ARCHIVAL

Dead video:   Baird Phonovisor wax videodisk
(1927), Ives/Bell Labs Half-Tone Television (1930s)
Eidophor video projector (1945),
Westinghouse Phonovid vinyl video (1965), PixelVision,
Polavision, Philips Laservision videodisk, Panasonic HDTV
(1974), McDonnell Douglas Laserfilm Videodisc (1984),
analog HDTV (1989), RCA SelectaVision CED videodisk,
Telefunken Teldec Decca TeD videodisk, TEAC system
videodisk, Philips JVC VHD/AHD videodisk

Dead videotapes: Ampex Signature I (1963),
Sony CV B/W  (1965), Akai 1/4 inch B/W & Colour (1969),
Cartivision/Sears (1972)
Sony U-Matic (197?), Sony-Matic 1/2" B/W (197?)
EIAJ-1 1/2" (197?), RCA Selectavision Magtape (1973)
Akai VT-100 1/4 inch portable (1974),
Panasonic Omnivision I (1975),
Philips "VCR" (197?), Sanyo V-Cord, V-Cord II (197?)
Akai VT-120 (1976), Matsushita/Quasar VX (1976)
Philips & Grundig Video 2000 (1979),
Funai/Technicolor CVC (1984)
Sony Betamax

DEAD VIRTUALITIES

Physical display environments (non-immersive):
Dioramas (no sound), de Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon
(sound and lighting) (1781), the Stereorama, the
Cosmoramic Stereoscope.

Mechanical drama:
Japanese karakuri puppet theatre
Heron's Nauplius.
Dead thrill rides.

Immersive physical display environments
Panoramas, Poole's Myriorama, the Octorama, the
Diaphorama, Cycloramas, the Paris Mareorama (1900).

Defunct digital VR systems.

DEAD DATA-RETRIEVAL DEVICES AND SYSTEMS

accountant tally sticks
Card catalogs: The Indecks Information Retrieval System,
Diebold Cardineer rotary files, etc.

Peek-a-Boo Index Cards: Aspect Cards,
Optical Coincidence Cards, and Batten Cards;
Keydex,  Termatrex, Minimatrex, Omnidex, Findex,
Selecto, Sphinxo, Sichtlochkarten, Ekaha, Vicref,
Find-It, Brisch-Vistem and Trio Index Cards.

Polish Index Card Cryptography.

Microfiche cards:  Microcite Microfiche Index Cards;
Jonkers' Minimatrex  Microfiche Index Cards

Vannevar Bush's Comparator and Rapid Selector
Scott's Electronium music composition system

DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (MECHANICAL)

Extinct computational platforms:

abacus (circa 500BC Egypt, still in wide use)
saun-pan computing tray (200 AD China)
soroban computing tray (200 AD Japan)
Napier's bones (1617 Scotland),
William Oughtred's slide rule (1622 England)
and other slide rules,
Wilhelm Schickard's calculator (1623 ?)
Blaise Pascal's calculating machine (1642 France)
Schott's Organum Mathematicum (1666)
Gottfried Liebniz's calculating machine (1673)
Charles Babbage's Difference Engine (built 1990s) (1822
England)
Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (never built) (1833
England)
Scheutz mechanical calculator (1855 Sweden)
The Thomas Arithmometer
Hollerith tabulating machine (1890)

DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (ELECTRONIC, ANALOG)

Vannevar Bush differential analyzer (1925 USA)

DEAD COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (DIGITAL)

The Cauzin Strip Reader (archival)

Extinct game platforms:
The Video Brain (1975?) Fairchild/Zircon "Channel F"
(1976), Bally Astrocade (1977),  RCA Studio II (1977),
Emerson Arcadia (1978), Imagination Machine (1980),
ColecoVision (1982), Entex Adventurevision (1982),
Zircon Channel F II (1982), Mattel Aquarius (1983),
Ultravision Arcade System (1983), Nintendo Famicon (1983),
Nintendo Entertainment System (1985),  Sega Master System
(1986) Konix Multi-System (1989), NEC Turbo-Grafx 16
(1988), Actionmax Video System, Adam Computer System,
Atari: 2600/5200/7800,  GCE Vectrex Arcade System,
Intellivision I/II/III, (aka Tandyvision One,  Mattel
Entertainment Computer System, Super Video Arcade, INTV
System III/IV, Super Pro System) Odyssey, Commodore, APF,
Spectravision, Tomy Tutor, etc.

DEAD BINARY DIGITAL COMPUTERS

Konrad Zuse's Z1 computer (1931 Germany)
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (1939 USA)
Turing's Colossus Mark 1 (1941 England)
Zuse's Z3 computer (1941 Germany)
Colossus Mark II (1944 England)
IBM ASCC Mark I  (1944 USA)
BINAC (Binary Automatic Computer) (1946-1949 USA)
ENIAC  (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
(1946 USA)

Dead mainframes.

Dead personal computers:

Altair 8800, Amiga 500, Amiga 1000, Amstrad
Apple I, II, II+, IIc, IIe, IIGS, III
Apple Lisa, Apple Lisa MacXL, Apricot
Atari 400 and 800 XL, XE, ST,
Atari 800XL, Atari 1200XL, Atari XE
Basis 190, BBC Micro, Bondwell 2, Cambridge Z-88
Canon Cat, Columbia Portable
Commodore C64, Commodore Vic-20, Commodore Plus 4
Commodore Pet, Commodore 128 CompuPro "Big 16,"
Cromemco Z-2D, Cromemco Dazzler,
Cromemco System 3, DEC Rainbow, DOT Portable, Eagle II
Dragon System Dragon 32 and Dragon 64
Epson QX-10, Epson HX-20, Epson PX-8 Geneva
Exidy Sorcerer, Franklin Ace 500, Franklin Ace 1200
Fujitsu Bubcom 80,
Gavilan, Grid Compass, Heath/Zenith, Hitachi Peach
Hyperion, IBM PC 640K, IBM XT, IBM Portable
IBM PCjr, IMSAI 8080, Intelligent Systems Compucolor
and Intecolor, Intertek Superbrain II
Ithaca Intersystems DPS-1, Kaypro 2x
Linus WriteTop, Mac 128, 512, 512KE
Mattel Aquarius, Micro-Professor MPF-II
Morrow MicroDecision 3, Morrow Portable
NEC PC-8081, NEC Starlet 8401-LS,
NEC 8201A Portable, NEC 8401A,
NorthStar Advantage, NorthStar Horizon
Ohio Scientific, Oric, Osborne 1, Osborne Executive
Panasonic, Sanyo 1255, Sanyo PC 1250
Sinclair ZX-80, Sinclair ZX-81, Sinclair Spectrum
Sol Model 20, Sony SMC-70, Spectravideo SV-328
Tandy 1000, Tandy 1000SL, Tandy Coco 1, Tandy Coco 2
Tandy Coco 3, TRS-80 models I, II, III, IV, 100,
Tano Dragon, TI 99/4, Timex/Sinclair 1000
Timex/Sinclair color computer,
TRW/Fujitsu 3450, Vector 4
Victor 9000, Workslate
Xerox 820 II, Xerox Alto, Xerox Dorado, Xerox 1108
Yamaha CX5M
etc. etc. etc.

Dead Personal Digital Assistants.
Apple Newton.

Dead computer languages.
Fortran I, II and III, ALGOL 58 and 60, Lisp 1 and 1.5
APT, JOVIAL, SIMULA I and 67
JOSS, SNOBOL, APL

Dead operating systems.
CP/M, CP/M-86
DEC RSTS/E
Fujitsu E-35
GO Penpoint
Sharp FDOS
MSX
Newton OS

Dead Internet techniques.  --- 1998