Friedrich Kittler – Alan Turing. Computers as Intelligence Service

This text is a translation of an essay first published in the book Unsterbliche. Nachrufe, Erinnerungen, Geistergespräche (München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2004). Media theorist Friedrich Kittler recalls the important stages in the biography of computer pioneer Alan Turing and connects them to an archeological quest tracing computer technology back to its military origins: the computer being first of all a war technology in the aid of ‘secret services’.

Alan Turing – World War II – secret service – military technology

Gijs van Oenen – Cybernetics as Myth and Enlightenment. A Reflection on Adam Curtis’s Documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

Van Oenen offers an extensive review of a documentary in three parts by British film maker Adam Curtis which has been broadcast recently (May-June 2011) on BBC television. Curtis analyses the different ways in which cybernetics and computers became a model for thinking within different fields: economics, politics as well as ecology. Acknowledging the sharpness of Curtis’s analysis and his inventiveness in interweaving different narrative layers and juxtaposing images, Van Oenen also criticizes the ‘enlightened’ point of view which is at the core of this documentary.

Adam Curtis – computer history – ecology – capitalism

Dirk Van Hulle – Digital Rough Work

This essay discusses the effects of the introduction of the computer on writing and the production of text. In order to understand these effects Van Hulle considers two preceding ‘writing cultures’: hand writing and typescripts. Through various examples he discusses the changes brought about by the digital age and its preceding stages, in textual and literary production on the one hand and, on the other, in archival and documentary practices concerning literature (and texts).

Text genesis – typewriter – history of writing – digital texts

Daniël Robberechts – Diaries 1968-1969

This is the publication of a part of Flemish author Daniël Robberechts’s diary. More precisely it is the first part Robberechts wrote on a newly arrived apple-computer (‘the MAChine’, as he calls it). In his diary Robberechts constantly reflects on the problems and opportunities that go with working on a computer.

Daniël Robberechts (1937-1992) – computer – writing

Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau – Conversations with Jef Cornelis and Pol Hoste on IJsbreker no. 20: computer art

These two interviews conducted by Koen Brams and Dirk Pültau with Jef Cornelis and Pol Hoste discuss one specific episode of a revolutionary live programme called IJsbreker, which was broadcast on Flemish television during the years 1983-1984. The theme of this particular episode is computer art. Cornelis was the deviser of the programme while Hoste operated as its invisible ‘voice’. These two interviews can be considered as sequels to an in-depth interview with Cornelis published in the issue of May 2011 in which he discussed the development of the programme and its first four episodes.

Jef Cornelis – liveness – television

Guido Goossens – Conversation with Suchan Kinoshita. The Computer as an instrument

This interview discusses the use of computers in the work of visual artist Suchan Kinoshita, from her initially critical attitude towards the use of computers in a theater context, to her use of the computer in recent installations, these mostly inspired by her interest in chance operations and (unpredictable) processes.

Computer – Suchan Kinoshita – visual arts

Erwin Jans – Kaspar’s Ipad. Conversation with director Guy Cassiers and video designer Arjan Klerkx

This interview discusses the role of the computer and digitally steered technology in the context of Guy Cassiers’s theatre work. Arjan Klerkx is Cassiers’s partner for light and image design.

Guy Cassiers – Arjan Klerkx – theater & multimedia

Pieter T’Jonck – Flashing thoughts, hard working computers. Conversation with Stéphane Beel on the architect and the computer

Pieter T’Jonck talks with Flemish architect Stéphane Beel about the way his architecture office dealt with the transition from drawing table to computer. The interview addresses the consequences for the organisation of work, the aesthetic qualities of buildings and the possibility of archiving. An important thread through the conversation is the tension between the computer drawing and the hand made sketch.

Stéphane Beel – architecture

Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau – Art & Archive. Conversation with Joëlle Tuerlinckx

This in-depth interview with Belgian artist Joëlle Tuerlinckx discusses her archival practice, both in the strict sense and as a dimension of her art. It also discusses the impact of the digital age on her archival practice.

Art historical archives – Joëlle Tuerlinckx