[SIGCIS-Members] Computers on Law & Order

[Andrew Russell]

Folks - 

Here’s a nice article, from Rebecca Rosen of The Atlantic, about a project by the artist (and my Stevens colleague) Jeff Thompson.  

What You Learn About Tech From Watching All 456 Law & Order Episodes
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/what-you-learn-about-tech-from-watching-all-456-em-law-order-em-episodes/283603/

I thought of SIGCIS when I read these paragraphs in the article: 

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Law & Order, Thompson says, is in some ways a perfect artifact for exploring the history of our relationship to computers. For one, the show's run covers what is perhaps the significant period for this relationship, the two decades during which computers arrived at and gradually became central features of our lives. But Thompson says that the show's value is more than that. It's "also the format of the show: It's ripped from the headlines. It's meant to mirror things that are happening right now, to be really reflective of culture."

Additionally, unlike other crime procedurals, Law & Order, in contrast with CSI, tends to give a pretty realistic portrayal of our technological capabilities. Thompson said there are really only two exceptions to this: the classic "zoom and enhance" trick, which works way better on TV than in reality, and the elegance of software such as facial-recognition programs. "The real thing often is really boring looking, or really technical," Thompson says. For the show, they hire a designer who makes software that looks like what your "mom might think facial-recognition software would look like." 

But beyond those little efforts, most of the technology on the show seems to have come as an afterthought. "No one was probably thinking about, you know, what kind of mouse should we use, or where should it go in the room," says Thompson. They just represented whatever was the norm of the time, and, in doing so, documented details of computer history that perhaps no one at the time could have articulated—details that were so commonplace they went totally unnoticed.

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Cheers,

Andy
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