We seek proposals for a small number of original essays to include in Hands On History (eds. John Ellis and Nick Hall), an edited collection focusing on practical and embodied approaches to the history of media technology. The collection explores the relevance of the new methodology of hands on history to the study of media.

The theory/practice ‘divide’ has long bedeviled media studies. But this divide cannot be sustained in the face of new concerns in the field. Studies of gaming and computing emphasize issues that studies of audiovisual media have been able to suppress: questions of the body, of the haptic, of physical engagement, of technologies and their complicated relationship with the humans who use them… or are used by them.