Today was our fourth day at SFPC. We were with Ingrid Burrington. She talked to us about the history of computing, network architecture(in a physical/material sense), the Westbeth building, and looking at the evolution computing as an industrial process.
Tired today.
Long commute is long. Stayed up too late. Glad to be moving to Bed Stuy this weekend - it will be a better train and a shorter walk to the train station.
I enjoyed Ingrid’s session with us today. She espouses that the internet is a physical thing. Even code exists on a material basis.
Her 4-session class is called Architectural History of Computing. Click the link for the github repo and class materials.
From the class description:
“In this class, we’ll explore how and where we live with computers, and the different spatial politics of computation. The course will do a sort of “Powers of Ten” approach, first moving up the scales to look at massive superstructures of computation and then zooming in to look at the raw materials within consumer electronics–and the landscapes required to obtain those raw materials. We’ll do one field trip day to see some relevant sites in New York City and one in-class science project (a dissection).”
I look forward to reading her new book as well:
Ingrid gave us homework: keep a computation diary. She left it up to us to decide what this means. Maybe I will do mine about my relationship with the MacOS Terminal.
For lunch: fried chicken, mashed potatos and pasta salad from the DAG grocery store around the corner.
For dinner: ?. Thinking about buying a microwave for SFPC. Would be convenient and good for saving moneyyyy.
Looking forward to tomorrow, which is an off day.
Good day!