<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Folks - <div><br></div><div>Here’s a nice article, from Rebecca Rosen of The Atlantic, about a project by the artist (and my Stevens colleague) Jeff Thompson. </div><div><br></div><div><div>What You Learn About Tech From Watching All 456 Law & Order Episodes</div><div><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/what-you-learn-about-tech-from-watching-all-456-em-law-order-em-episodes/283603/">http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/02/what-you-learn-about-tech-from-watching-all-456-em-law-order-em-episodes/283603/</a></div></div><div><br></div><div>I thought of SIGCIS when I read these paragraphs in the article: </div><div><br></div><div>---------</div><div><p><em>Law & Order</em>, 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 <em>the</em> 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. I<span style="font-size: 16px;">t'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."</span></p><p>Additionally, unlike other crime procedurals, <em>Law & Order,</em> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI_effect">in contrast with <i>CSI</i></a>,
tends to give a pretty realistic portrayal of our technological
capabilities. Thompson said there are really only two exceptions to
this: the classic "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxq9yj2pVWk">zoom and enhance</a>"
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." </p>
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</div><p>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.</p></div><div>---------</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Andy</div></body></html>