Sand Tables: The Archaeology of a Platform

Matthew Kirschenbaum will discuss the sand table as a media platform in the most literal sense, ancient and elemental. About this event Many wargamers will have heard of sand tables, at least as part of the collective lore. The original von Reisswitz Kriegsspiel was played on a sand table before it migrated to other formats. Hobby legends like Jack Scruby, Don Featherstone, and Gary Gygax all had sand tables, and flaunted them as status symbols. But a sand table is also a media platform in the most literal sense, ancient and elemental. As a twentieth century source explains, a sand table is “simply a box mounted on trestles to a convenient height, or a curbed table, partially filled with sand.” Common in military settings, sand tables have also been used to teach the blind, train wilderness firefighters, facilitate therapy for trauma victims, and illustrate stories to children. Today there is a direct line from this seemingly modest technology to augmented reality and other tangible media devices. Part media history, part military history, and part material cultural archaeology, this talk excavates the history of this ancient, elemental platform. it also seeks to use sand tables to reshape questions made commonplace by the digital: these include the nature of interactivity, touch as an interface, and the embodied basis of perspective. Besides wargaming, it will be of interest to persons working in media studies, visual studies, and material culture.