[SIGCIS-Members] Mass-market historic computers, display and interaction

James Sumner james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk
Mon Jan 19 12:10:19 PST 2015


Dear all

I've found the various discussions of computer restoration projects and 
visitor interpretation in recent days very useful. I'd be interested to 
hear from listmembers on a related question:

For the collection following up on the Science Museum's recent 
"Interpreting the Information Age" conference, I'm currently working up 
a short paper on the problem of how to represent, to museum-goers and 
other general audiences, the history of computing machines which were 
*not* iconic, one-of-a-kind, or of obvious stand-out physical or 
technical interest -- in particular, mass-produced boxes and clone 
designs which were (often drearily) familiar to large user populations 
in their day, yet will nevertheless mean little to most people today 
without interpretation. My key question is how to make the machines not 
only intelligible, but interesting. Much of the answer I want to give 
revolves around the expected "look at how they were used", but I also 
want to give some attention to how to keep the nature of the machines in 
the picture.

In particular, I'd be keen to hear people's experience of providing 
hands-on access to machines, in ways that are not possible for older, 
rarer and more valuable survivals (or, indeed, painstakingly engineered 
and authentic re-creations). There are, of course, quite a few museums 
and display collections internationally that include working models of 
representative machines -- I'm interested to hear of people's 
experiences of the practicalities, and in particular of interaction with 
audiences who *don't* remember the machines from "first time around". 
Please drop me an email if you would be happy to discuss.

All best
James


On 18/01/2015 17:02, Andrew Russell wrote:
> Dag’s email made me think of fascinating work in media archaeology, digital humanities, and related areas by scholars such as Matt Kirschenbaum (see his book _Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination_), Lori Emerson (http://mediaarchaeologylab.com/ at CU-Boulder), Andreas Fickers (playing with ‘Experimental Media Archaeology’ at Univ. Luxembourg), and others.
>
> There are some clear differences between these scholars and the types of computer restoration projects mentioned below - for example, Kirschenbaum and Emerson are both in English Departments and link their work to cultural theory in ways that the Science Museum and Computer History Museum do not.  But there are also some clear areas of overlapping interest, especially a deep appreciation for machines (and their ‘materiality’) and the value that comes from preserving and working closely with them.
>
> To respond to Dag’s question, I think this is an incredibly valuable area of work.  There’s a lot more to say about this -- in part because it is linked to the discussion triggered by Tom Haigh’s recent CACM column on the “tears of Knuth” -- but I’ll restrict myself to two observations for now:
> - if we broaden the scope of inquiry from “computers” to “media technologies,” we will find many more areas of intersection between museum professionals and academics who identify not strictly as “computer historians” but instead as media historians, media scholars, etc. (scholars such as Mara Mills and Lisa Gitelman come to mind).  Jen Light described some of this overlap in her SIGCIS keynote address in Dearborn, and I hope we’ll hear much more about this at future SIGCIS workshops.
> - I bet that antiquarians, hobbyists, and museum experts working with cars and trains have put a lot of thought into the value of restoration and the extent to which they interact with academics.  This is familiar territory for SHOT members, to put it mildly.  To put this another way: I wonder if Wolfgang Schivelbusch likes going to railroad museums, and if staff at those museums know about or appreciate his work?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andy
>   
>
>
>
>> On Jan 18, 2015, at 10:20 AM, Brian Randell <brian.randell at newcastle.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Dag:
>>
>> Though I wouldn’t call them actual restorations, I think the Science Museum’s construction of Babbage’s No 2 Difference Engine, and the late Tony Sale’s of the Colossus Mk 2, were wonderful examples of what I understand is called “experimental archaeology”, up there with the Chateau de Guedelon (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10440300), and as such of *unquestionable* value.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Brian
>>
>> On 16 Jan 2015, at 19:09, Dag Spicer <dspicer at computerhistory.org> wrote:
>>
>>> New piece today by the BBC on computer restorations, including the Computer History Museum’s IBM 1401 (1959).
>>>
>>> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30546592
>>>
>>> I’d be interested in hearing from SIGCIS members about their perception of the value of doing these kinds of things…
>>>
>>> Dag
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dag Spicer
>>> Senior Curator
>>> Computer History Museum
>>> Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
>>> 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard
>>> Mountain View, CA 94043-1311
>>>
>>> Tel: +1 650 810 1035
>>> Fax: +1 650 810 1055
>>>
>>> Twitter: @ComputerHistory
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>>
>> --
>> School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
>> NE1 7RU, UK
>> EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
>> FAX = +44 191 208 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
> _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members




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