Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ch. 1. Introduction: toward an archaeology of media archaeology / Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka -- Pt. 1. Engines of/in the imaginary -- Ch. 2. Dismantling the fairy engine: media archaeology as topos study / Erkki Huhtamo -- Ch. 3. On the archaeology of imaginary media / Eric Kluitenberg -- Ch. 4. On the origins of the origins of the influencing machine / Jeffrey Sconce -- Ch. 5. Freud and the technical media : the enduring magic of the wunderblock / Thomas Elsaesser -- Pt. 2. (Inter)facing media -- Ch. 6. The "baby talkie," domestic media, and the Japanese modern / Machiko Kusahara -- Ch. 7. The observer's dilemma : to play or not to play / Wanda Strauven -- Ch. 8. The game player's duty : the user as the gestalt of the ports / Claus Pias -- Ch.9. The enduring ephemeral, or the future is a memory / Wendy Hui Kyong Chun -- Pt. 3. Between analog and digital -- Ch. 10. Erased dots & rotten dashes-how to wire a head for a preservation / Paul deMarinis -- Ch. 11 Media archaeography-method & machine versus history & narrative of media / Wolfgang Ernst -- Ch. 12. Mapping noise : techniques and tactics of irregularities, interception and disturbance / Jussi Parikka -- Ch. 13. Objects of our affection : how object-orientation made computers a medium / Casey Alt -- Ch. 14. Digital media archaeology : interpreting computational processes / Noah Wardrip-Fruin -- Ch. 15. Afterword : media archaeology and re-presencing the past / Vivian Sobchack.

This book introduces an archaeological approach to the study of media - one that sifts through the evidence to learn how media were written about, used, designed, preserved, and sometimes discarded. Edited by Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka, with contributions from internationally prominent scholars from Europe, North America, and Japan, the essays help us understand how the media that predate today’s interactive, digital forms were in their time contested, adopted and embedded in the everyday. Providing a broad overview of the many historical and theoretical facets of Media Archaeology as an emerging field, the book encourages discussion by presenting a full range of different voices. By revisiting "old" or even "dead" media, it provides a richer horizon for understanding "new" media in their complex and often contradictory roles in contemporary society and culture.