[Sci-tech-public] STS/CMS Colloquium by Bernard Geoghegan, Monday April 28 @ 4 pm

[Debbie Meinbresse]

Please join us Monday, April 28th:



STS Colloquium joint with Comparative Media Studies, MIT

Strategies of Estrangement: Automata, Exhibition, and Claude 
Shannon's Epic Theater of Science

Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, Northwestern University and MIT (Visiting)

4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095


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.

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.


Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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