Published Resources Details

Conference Paper

Author
Connell, Matthew
Title
Computers as Historical Artefacts
In
Sustaining Heritage: Second International and Thirteenth National Engineering Heritage Conference and NSW Railways Seminar
Imprint
Engineers Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, 2005, pp. 78-82
ISBN/ISSN
085825820X
Url
https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.068110177752876
Abstract

'One of the most remarkable things about computers is that their essential nature transcends technology.' Hillis, W. D. (1988) The Pattern on the Stone, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, p viii. Computers pose a problem for traditional collection based museums in a number of ways, not the least because unlike other artefacts, one of the definitive aspects of a computer is not 'object'. To really understand the computer and to preserve its essence, we need to consider the software, programs and data. But to do so usually implies that machines must be restored to working order. The extraordinary rate of development and subsequent obsolescence, instability of some electronic and computer components, and availability of system specific expertise, all contribute a reluctance by museums to take this approach. A partial solution to this problem may come from a non traditional approach that draws on a unique feature of the computer itself.

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260