![]() The idea of an automatic music machine came from bell towers in Europe, where a rotating barrel would move hammers to strike tuned bells in rhythm to produce music. The music box developed in three distinct stages. In this paper, I will operate a ‘broken’ music box to explore the relationship between timekeeping, the music box, and the insights that malfunctioning objects can offer. While the music box became obsolete much faster than the other two, its trajectory illustrates the difficulties of a multimedia archive. ![]() Though the music box is, on the surface, considered a novelty gimmick or children’s toy, its development can be traced in relation to revolutionary inventions like the mechanical clock and the steam engine. I would like to apply this approach to the media object of a music box. These scholars approach media archeology outside of a historically linear and narrative model. ![]() Friedrich Kittler points out how observing time in frequency notations made the phonograph possible, Ernst discusses the Eigenzeit of media systems, and Garnet Hertz and Jussi Parikka note the repurposing of “zombie” media-obsolescent media with the potential to be ‘resurrected’-to complicate the temporalities of technologies, nature, and history. ![]() The notion of counting, mathematics, and time is essential in several media archaeology approaches. ![]()
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