This article discusses issues related to the origins of media culture by concentrating on the invention of the kaleidoscope, and the early debates it incited. The kaleidoscope was invented by the Scottish scientist David Brewster and first publicly announced in 1817. This article is the first published element of a broader research project that discusses the changing meanings attached to the kaleidoscope during the past two hundred years. The author approaches the topic from a media archaeological perspective. Beside the material (...) kaleidoscopes, attention is paid to what the author calls “discursive kaleidoscopes” – the traces the kaleidoscopes left in cultural and textual traditions. (shrink)