Computers are a Mess: A Talk with CBI Research Fellow Rachel Plotnick
Join CBI Research Fellow Rachel Plotnick on Wednesday, February 11 for her talk "Computers are a Mess: What Hygiene Can Bring to the History of Computing."
Rachel Plotnick, Associate Professor, Cinema & Media Studies, The Media School, Indiana University
Abstract: A drink spilled in the computer keyboard: liquid disaster or mundane mess? This question has echoed throughout the history of computing, becoming ever-more pressing as computation has entered homes and offices and leaked into the wet spaces of bathrooms, beaches, and boardrooms.
This talk traces how the seemingly simple question of whether to drink near a machine has triggered countless user instructions and warnings; spurred office policies and even lawsuits; inspired continual designs for containment and “proofing”; and produced ideas about who can and should use computers. Bringing together sometimes disparate bodies of literature on embodied computing, elemental media, cybersecurity, and maintenance/care/repair.
Plotnick argues for hygiene as an animating concept that captures these dynamics. In negotiations over what counts as “appropriate” hygiene with computing devices, we can glean a broader understanding of how bodies, practices, and environments entangle in different social and historical contexts.
