www.deadmedia.org — From cuneiform tablets to carrier pigeons to the ordinary typewriter, the tools and systems of human communication keep changing and ultimately rendering themselves obsolete, leaving artifacts that may or may not be worth preserving in New Media. The archives of a listserv that obsesses about dead and soon to be dead media and media languages, from the platforms of early computer games, to Victorian era “flower language”. Also speculates about the relative permanence of electronic and digital storage and transmission mediums.
www.viridiandesign.org — This link is to the archives of the Viridian Green design movement, launched on the cusp of the 21st Century by author/lecturer Bruce Sterling. It’s core premise is that artists, engineers, scientists (social and “hard”) as well as politicians, cops, and ordinary civilians, need to begin thinking about creating sustainable lifestyle products (from cars and homes to radios and clothing) that are less (or not) dependent upon fossil fuels. A challenging proposition to make ecological rectitude beautiful and sexy to a global consumer base.
Rock’s Backpages — The online library of Rock & Roll. Original archives penned by the pioneers and young tyros of rock and pop criticism, with reviews and interviews from the 1960s to the present. Searchable by membership subscription. An all-star roster of writers and editors from England and the U.S.