Wednesday, 19 December 2018

A Computer of One’s Own

quote [ From December 1st until December 24th we plan to release one article each day, highlighting the life of one of the many women that have made today’s computing industry as amazing as it is: From early compilers to computer games, from chip design to distributed systems, we will revisit the lives of these pioneers. ]

Sorry for the double-post & Medium, but this is a rather cool advent calendar. Thumb is Grace Hopper.
[SFW] [science & technology] [+4 Good]
[by Paracetamol]
<-- Entry / Comment

Franger Sanger said @ 4:46am GMT on 20th December [Score:1 Informative]
I love the title, "A Computer of One's Own". Virginia Woolf would have liked this riff on her essay on how women's writing is suppressed by the need for financial and social independence, lacking in Woolf's time and, for many, still lacking now. If you haven't read the essay, follow the link below. The essay is long, discursive, seemingly casual and breezy at first, but it relentlessly narrows into a sharp critique of class, prejudices and the liberty to write as one pleases.

A Room of One's Own

Some of Woolf's proto-cutup, shifting viewpoint novels like To the Lighthouse or The Waves almost feel like they are written by some compassionate omniscient AI. I think she'd have enjoyed the technological age!

My favourite of the tech pioneers revealed so far is Laurie Spiegel, who is pleasingly having a moment and getting reissued on vinyl and being appreciated as a computer music great. Her music is typically entirely digitally synthesised, programmed rather than composed, and quite hypnotic with the right mindset (with or without chemical assistance).

Here's a link to a download of Unseen Worlds, an album of her later work:

Unseen Worlds




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