Date: January 19,
2015 at 3:10:19 PM EST
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members]
Mass-market historic computers, display and
interaction
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@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@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
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--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk
PHONE = +44 191 208 7923
FAX = +44 191 208 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell
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Date: January 19,
2015 at 11:49:03 AM EST
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members]
InfoAge Science Center
Hello everyone,
I wanted to mention about the wonderful visit Lee
Vinsel and I had last week to the InfoAge Science
Center, courtesy of Evan Koblentz.
Evan gave us a personal tour of the computer
collection he runs there. It was great to see (and in
many cases, see running) computers that I've only ever
read about (Bendix G-15, PDP-8, Altair, Apple Lisa,
Osborne).
If you're in the New Jersey area, I highly recommend
paying a visit here. I'll be teaching a course on
computer history next year and I'm hoping to arrange to
bring my students. I think they'll get a lot out of
being able to experience these machines in person.
Elizabeth Petrick
Assistant Professor
Federated History Department
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Date: January 19,
2015 at 8:42:11 PM EST
Subject: Re:
[SIGCIS-Members] InfoAge Science Center
Thank you
Elizabeth! We enjoyed hosting you and Lee and are
excited to hopefully show your students too.
On 01/19/2015 11:49 AM,
Elizabeth Petrick wrote:
Hello everyone,
I wanted to mention about the wonderful visit
Lee Vinsel and I had last week to the InfoAge
Science Center, courtesy of Evan Koblentz.
Evan gave us a personal tour of the computer
collection he runs there. It was great to see (and
in many cases, see running) computers that I've
only ever read about (Bendix G-15, PDP-8, Altair,
Apple Lisa, Osborne).
If you're in the New Jersey area, I highly recommend
paying a visit here. I'll be teaching a course on
computer history next year and I'm hoping to arrange
to bring my students. I think they'll get a lot out
of being able to experience these machines in
person.
Elizabeth Petrick
Assistant Professor
Federated History Department
New Jersey Institute of Technology
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This email is relayed from members@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
Date: January 19,
2015 at 8:47:21 PM EST
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members]
Wes Clark @ VCF East
SIGCIS'rs,
...Previously announced that Ted Nelson and Bob Frankston
will keynote the Vintage Computer Festival East this
spring. Now we are very pleased to announce a third major
speech there: Wes Clark.
Thus the latest statistics for VCF East:
- Sixteen technical classes (Friday)
- Three keynotes (Saturday/Sunday)
- Twenty-one exhibits (thirty-plus expected --
Saturday/Sunday)
Full details are at
http://www.vintage.org/2015/east.
We know that some of you respect the artifacts of computer
history. As stated in recent discussions on this list, we
in MARCH / InfoAge Science Center take a "pro-restoration"
stance toward them.
So: Come to VCF East. Leave your necktie and sportjacket
at home. Get your hands dirty with some hardware and code.
Date: January 20,
2015 at 1:54:51 AM EST
Subject: Re:
[SIGCIS-Members] Mass-market historic computers,
display and interaction
Dear James,
There was a conference in 2013 at the London Science
Museum devoted to the question of "Making the history of
computing relevant". A colleague, Helen Stuckey, gave a
paper on behalf of some of the Play It Again team which I
lead. This project is focused on the history and
preservation needs of 1980s microcomputer games from
Australia and New Zealand, so pretty much the mass market
machines you are talking about. In considering the
question of how to present the history of 80s micro games
we have emphasised the role of popular memory, and --
through a web interface that we call the Popular Memory
Archive -- asked the public to share their memories of
particular games and computing generally. User
reflections (and uploads) on what these computers mean and
meant to them are often very animated and frequently much
more entertaining than, say, museum didactics. We have a
nice emerging collection of photos of computers in
domestic interiors, also, dotted throughout the various
parts of the site, with several at
http://playitagainproject.org/contribute
We see the fact that these machines weren't unique but
mass produced and familiar to many as a plus, rather than
a negative -- it means that many people remember them and
can share their memories.
The papers from the London conference were published by
Springer/IFIP so I can't just put it online (another
version is published in the ACM Digital Library at
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2513570
which may be more accessible to those with library
access). I'm also happy to make a copy of our paper
available to anyone who's interested individually -- just
email me off list.
Regards,
Melanie
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