Abstract

This study examines computing material culture, as it was developed from the 19th century, onwards. A series of case studies on selected computing artefacts from the computing collection of the Science Museum in London, is creating the argument on the demonstration agenda that it is followed from technological museums, in preserving contemporary electronic artefacts.
The essay continues in the identification of social meanings that computing artefacts can hold in the opposition of an approach based on technological progression. The historic background of each artefact and the lives or their inventors are being examined for an interpretation which aims to be multi-dimensional and not always technology-oriented.
Other aspects such as the enchanting qualities created by the performance of obsolete technology contribute to a dialogue on the function and relative value of computing artefacts and the impacts of those aspects on computing devices that have become museum exhibits.
The notion of the authenticity of computing artefacts is also subject of discussion, as some of them that are subjects of this research, are reproductions, or placed in an artificial “authentic” environment.
All these topics raise the emergence of historical archaeology as part of the demonstrative agenda of the technological collections, in preserving human-oriented meanings of computers and a more critical approach to technology.

Keywords
Computers, Archaeology, Material Culture, Enchantment, Authenticity, Commodity Fetishism, Surveillance, Technological Museums

Contents

INTRODUCTION
LITERATURE REVIEW
METHODOLOGY
THE BABBAGE DIFFERENCE ENGINE
Charles Babbage: a computer pioneer
The Analytical Engine
The construction of a contemporary Difference EngineNo.2
The Victorian Technology
The Difference Engine No.2 as a museum exhibit
Re-enchantment: now and then
Alone, against a growing bureaucracy
THE 1930’S PUNCHED-CARD OFFICE
Herman Hollerith, census and tabulators
Punched-card technology on display
Digging the office
Card meanings…
…and alternatives
A holistic interpretation
THE FERRANTI-PEGASUS COMPUTER
20th century warfare and computing technology
A 1950’s vacuum tube computer
The mind behind Pegasus
The oldest working computer in the world
The restoration of Pegasus
Pegasus performing
Museum Interpretation
Alternative Approaches
TOWARDS MODERN COMPUTING
Cray 1A and Supercomputing
Seymour R. Cray: the father of supercomputing
Integrated circuits
Inside Cray 1A
The aesthetics of Cray
A meaningful interpretation
PERSONAL COMPUTER: AN ACCIDENTAL MACHINE
PC’s as museum objects
Apple I & II
The Macintosh: a computer for ‘the rest of us”
Commercialising the personal computer
Commodity Fetishism
DISCUSSION
The concept of the Universal Machine
The individual thought
The social impetus of computing
The fortuity of computing
Authenticity and Enchantment
Aesthetics and commodity fetishism reconsidered
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY