18 May Does it Take More Courage to be a Cybernetician Than to be a Gunman?
Eden Medina (Informatics, Indiana University)
Tuesday, May 18 / 4:30 PM
Seminar Room, 6046 HSSB
From 1971 to 1973 Chilean and British engineers, working under the direction of the pioneering British cybernetician Stafford Beer, built a computer network to help make Chile’s socialist revolution a reality. The team called the system Cybersyn. It is arguably the most ambitious application of cybernetic ideas to date. In this talk Professor Medina will present material from her forthcoming book Cybernetic Socialism, which tells the history of Project Cybersyn. She will argue that this unusual case study broadens our historical understanding of computers, cybernetics, and revolution. She will then discuss how this history has inspired members of the art community and present her own work transforming the Cybersyn story into an installation at ZKM Center for Digital Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Prof. Medina received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the MIT Doctoral Program in the History and Social Studies of Science and Technology and holds degrees in electrical engineering and women’s studies from Princeton University. Medina’s research uses technology as a means to understand historical processes. Her recent work addressed the history of information technologies in Latin America and the role these technologies played in creating new forms of governance and the advancement of state ideological projects.
Sponsored by the Department of Media, Arts and Technology and the Arts Research Initiative.