Please join us Monday, April 28th:
STS Colloquium joint with Comparative Media Studies, MIT
Strategies of Estrangement: Automata, Exhibition, and Claude
Shannon's Epic Theater of Science
Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, Northwestern University and MIT (Visiting)
4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095
In the decade following World War II the construction, theorization,
and display of working automata experienced a robust resurgence in
the United States and Europe. Focusing on the work of Bell Labs
engineer Claude Shannon, this talk traces these machines'
performances across three postwar theaters of science:
interdisciplinary laboratories, interdisciplinary conferences, and
popular media (newspapers, weeklies, television). By examining how
these performances adapted 19th century urban exhibition practices
for postwar scientific and suburban audiences, this talk casts light
on how changing spaces for public and scientific dialogue impacted
the public roles available to scientists and their instruments
alike. These performances also point toward a history of
"speculative computing," based on the subordination of calculating
machines' logical and mathematical powers to more spectacular roles
in producing public proofs, popular entertainment, and visions of the future.
Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan is a doctoral candidate in the Screen
Cultures Program at Northwestern University, and a visitor in MIT's
HASTS Program. He has also been a research fellow at Northwestern
University's Center for Art and Technology and the Pompidou Center's
Institute of Research and Innovation.
Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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