For those who work continuously on the border with the near future, it is very healthy to look back, to better understand the present and consider the possible future consequences of heightened consciousness. The new media art, therefore, often flattened by the editors on last minute 'brand new', as the current widespread interest of all that is 'mobile', forgets its roots and its pioneers and mentors, who have dedicated time and often exasperated techniques for the realization of ideas that squarciassero the veil of incaccessibilità of the machines and their unconventional use. Scratch Code is a current exhibition at the gallery in New York Bitforms that collects works made ​​between the fifties and the seventies by artists of the time who used different technologies, all with predominant electronic components, from oscilloscopes modified the software written on punch cards to produce embryonic 'digital film'. Ben Laposky, Tony Longson, Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, Frieder Nake, Tony Pritchett, Peter Vogel and Edward Zajec international artists are selected, each for its own peculiarities of processes adopted and consequent results. Moreover, already the commendable research already done in Hungary (' The History of Media and Sources of the Hungarian Media Art ') and Denmark (' Digitala pionjärer 'in the 2004 edition of Electrohype ), as well as historical studies and social of ' media innovation in the distant past , have brought to light not only management of the means used very similar to the contemporary, but also a direct focus on the idea, rather than on its construction technique, often improvised or modified in transit. In this sense, the errors committed in making a fetish of the new medium, as well as, however, the patient search for new solutions and effective should be an example for people who are now preparing to build sense with digital technologies.