Film Power, Off the Grid: Electrical Networks and Studio Technologies in Paris, 1904-1925

Presentation by Brian R. Jacobson (Oklahoma State University). Alongside the cameras and projectors sold in typical early film catalogues, in 1911 the French company Gaumont advertised a more revealing, if unexpected “film” device. Gaumont’s redresseurs statiques – static inverters –

Bundled, Buried and Behind Closed Doors: Examining New York City’s Concentrated Internet Infrastructure

Screening by Ben Mendelsohn (The New School). This project consists of an academic paper as well as a ten minute video documentary. I intend to screen the documentary while offering supplemental discussion from my paper. Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street

Why is “Ether” in the “Ethernet”?

Presentation by Peter Schaefer (Marymount Manhattan College). This paper uses a comparative analysis of published appearances of “ether” by computer scientists in the 1970s and physicists in the 1880s.  In 1973, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), computer

Pylon Modernism

Presentation by James Purdon (Jesus College, Cambridge). This paper addresses the cultural resonances of the National Electricity Grid constructed in Great Britain between 1926 and 1933. It will approach the high-voltage grid through the grounded, infrastructural vision of a number