| This thesis examines the cultural history of instant replay video technologies and techniques. It approaches this subject by looking at the technological, social, and economic environments in which video appeared in the late 1950s, and the commercial adaptations of its use in the 1960s. Based on primary research in engineering and broadcasting archives, and a survey of popular and trade press from the time, this project analyzes the development of video technology as a means of "timeshifting" network programming and its subsequent adaptation as a means of automation, evidence production, and self-improvement. This project also traces the conceptual and cultural history of the "instant" and the "replay" as phenomena that developed within and around practices of sports spectatorship in the late 19th century and early 20th century. This thesis concludes by describing how localized forms of timeshifting extended and accelerated established forms of machine-mediated management and helped to popularize nascent forms of cybernetic management based on personalized feedback loops. |
