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Please join us Monday, April 28th:<br><br>
<br><br>
<div align="center"><font size=4><b>STS Colloquium joint with Comparative
Media Studies, MIT <br><br>
</font><font size=4 color="#0000FF">Strategies of Estrangement: Automata,
Exhibition, and Claude Shannon's Epic Theater of Science<br>
<br>
</font><font size=4>Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, Northwestern University
and MIT (Visiting)<br><br>
4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095 <br><br>
<br>
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In the decade following World War II the construction, theorization, and
display of working automata experienced a robust resurgence in the United
States and Europe. Focusing on the work of Bell Labs engineer
Claude Shannon, this talk traces these machines' performances across
three postwar theaters of science: interdisciplinary laboratories,
interdisciplinary conferences, and popular media (newspapers, weeklies,
television). By examining how these performances adapted 19th century
urban exhibition practices for postwar scientific and suburban audiences,
this talk casts light on how changing spaces for public and scientific
dialogue impacted the public roles available to scientists and their
instruments alike. These performances also point toward a history
of "speculative computing," based on the subordination of
calculating machines' logical and mathematical powers to more spectacular
roles in producing public proofs, popular entertainment, and visions of
the future. <br>
<br>
Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan is a doctoral candidate in the Screen
Cultures Program at Northwestern University, and a visitor in MIT's HASTS
Program. He has also been a research fellow at Northwestern
University's Center for Art and Technology and the Pompidou Center's
Institute of Research and Innovation. <br><br>
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Debbie Meinbresse<br>
STS Program, MIT<br>
617-452-2390<br>
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