PAGE, 1-71 (1969-1985, 2004-2014)
Filed under magazine | Tags: · art history, computer art, computing, history of computing, history of technology, media art, media history, united kingdom
“PAGE is the bulletin of the Computer Arts Society.
The Computer Arts Society was one of the most influential British computer art groups. It was founded in 1968, followed by an inaugural exhibition, Event One, in March 1969 at the RCA. George Mallen, Alan Sutcliffe and Lansdown set up CAS as an offshoot of the British Computer Society, to further the use of computers by artists. CAS flourished through the 1970s and early 80s.
PAGE was initially published from April 1969 until 1985 and was named after the concept of paging (the use of disk memory as a virtual store which had been introduced on the Ferranti Atlas Computer). It featured major British and international computer artists and hosted some fundamental discussions as to the aims and nature of computer art. Its first editor was Gustav Metzger, thereby establishing from the beginning an association with the avant-garde. Metzger was ‘excited’ to discover CAS and ‘people coming together’ as he had ‘felt quite isolated.’ As early as 1961, Metzger had stated that ‘…the artist may collaborate with scientists, engineers.’ As many members were outside of London or overseas, PAGE was an important disseminator of information.”
Publisher Computer Arts Society, London
PDFs (1969-1985 & 2004-2014, updated on 2017-12-2)
PDFs (1969-1985)
John Zerzan, Alice Carnes (eds.): Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant? (1991)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, communication technology, computing, critique, history of technology, marxism, silicon valley, technology
“The rich array of commentators in this anthology looks at the way technology is waven into the fabric of our lives, and asks: is this what we really want? Questioning Technology is sharp, eloquent, and provocative.
Some of the writers fully intend to shake us up. Russell Means’ essay “Fighting Words on the Future of the Earth” is an inspired case in point. Some suggest solutions: Carolyn Merchant’s “Death of Nature” advocates a restructuring of our priorities in favor of decentralization, “soft” and labor-intensive technologies, and simpler lifestyles. All the contributors face the consequences of our technology-dependency unflichingly and often wittily.
Questioning Technology is an impassioned plea for us to think before we act – and to know that we can, if we want to, ‘unplug ourselves.'”
Publisher New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, Santa Cruz, CA, and Gabriola Island, BC, 1991
ISBN 0865712042, 9780865712041
222 pages
PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-8-4)
Comment (0)Boris N. Malinovsky: Pioneers of Soviet Computing (1995–) [RU, EN]
Filed under book | Tags: · computing, cybernetics, history of computing, history of science, history of technology, soviet union, technology
Boris N. Malinovsky’s Pioneers of Soviet Computing is the English language version of his earlier Russian language The History of Computing in Personalities (in Russian: История Вычислительной Техники в Лицах). Partly technical history and partly a memoir, it is the only existing first person account of the birth of modern computing in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. It chronicles the life and work of renowned Soviet computer scientists S.A. Lebedev, V.M. Glushkov, N.P. Brusentsov, I.S. Brook, and many others. It describes numerous indigenous and original Soviet computer hardware projects from the end of the Second World War through the decades that followed, interlaced with commentary on the Soviet political and social systems that constrained rapid and free technological advancement. In addition, this work reviews the various Russian and Ukrainian computing schools ranging from the highly philosophical cybernetics and artificial intelligence to the applied defense computing institutions supporting the military and weapons enterprises. The epic effort to mass produce the Unified System (ES) series of computers – based on the IBM 360 design – is described in depth, along with the political and bureaucratic intrigue and personal and technological struggles that accompanied.
Subjects: Soviet Union, USSR, Electronic Computing, Science, Defense, MESM, BESM, ES, Elbrus, Setun, Cybernetics, Control Computers, Ternary.
Publisher KIT, Kiev, 1995
ISBN 5770761318
384 pages
English edition
Edited by Anne Fitzpatrick
Translated by Emmanuel Aronie
Editorial consultant: Kate Maldonado
First published in 2006
Published electronically by SIGCIS, 2010
Creative Commons license BY-ND 3.0
Authors (via Internet Archive)
Publisher (EN)
via Aymeric Mansoux
Istroiya vychislitelnoy techniki v litsach (Russian, 1995, HTML, added on 2015-1-13)
, Pioneers of Soviet Computing (English, 2nd ed., 2006/2010)