This panel is a proposal for a speculative past that functions in the contemporary: imagine if technological knowledge, scientific apparatuses, key figures, and narratives defining the history of media, new forms of living, and subjectivity stemmed from a different time and geographical region. What if, as the steampunk movement devised a Victorian futurism, we place this speculation in media archaeologies of the Middle East? And through existing and imagined sources, fabricate an alternative archive for contemporary art and design, queer and feminist subjectivities, and political imaginaries? This conversation responds to current discussions in Gulf futurism, Arabfuturism, and political imaginaries of a Neo-Ottoman revival, situating technological histories and issues of cultural heritage in an alternative geopolitical horizon.