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Computation finds its way into many corners of our homes and into many of our daily routines. Computational culture is a complicated arrangement of algorithms, circuits, heat management, mined and manufactured materials and human input among other things. This course seeks to address the complexity and impenetrability of computational culture by looking at an overlooked machine which contains computational elements - the washing machine. It addresses questions such as: What kind of power does the washing machine have? What social routines are encoded into the washing machine’s operation? Does a washing machine begin and end with its components, or is it also defined by its link to the electrical grid, the water network, the distribution of ›men’s and women’s work‹, the expansion of the cotton industry? By asking such questions about the washing machine we are also looking at the power flows and encoding methods of the computer, and asking exactly where a machine can be said to begin or end.
This course follows the discipline of Critical Technical Practice, which takes practical work with technical systems as a starting point for critical thinking. During the course students will work through a series of practical activities which introduce the technical systems inherent to the washing machine (electronics, water systems, mechanical suspension, electromagnetism, factory production, washing routines), each of which is accompanied by a theoretical text - drawn from disciplines such as cultural studies, media theory, philosophy, history, feminist theory and engineering - building links between technical structures and concepts and scientific and critical reflection on computational culture. The seminar product is a technical system which forms a commentary on an aspect of culture and society linked to the washing machine. For instance a recipe, a timeline, a mechanism, or an LED sequence. |
