ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

CTRL ALT SHIFT. Expériences, Knowledge, Activism, Methods - 3

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

CTRL-ALT-SHIFT are modifier keys: when pressed in combination with other keys, they change their function to create keyboard shortcuts. The specific action performed by these depends on the context of the programmed system in which one works. Likewise, this symposium proposes cases from the history of computing and asks how they result in a shift of perspective, an alternate reading or a more activist attitude aimed at change, historically or historiographically. We explore cases that raise critical questions about existing narratives. We seek out activist attitudes; developments that counter common perceptions; practices which rely on the imaginative power of ideas and their failures; material cultures and their effects on our methods.

The symposium is organized in four sessions, each considering a specific category: Exériences (E), Knowledge (K), Activism (A), Methods (M).

1) CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E
Expérience is a French word that translates both as "experience" and "experiment"; it can refer to insights gained from doing something; it can also refer to a test or trial.

2) CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+K
A knowledge system structures and organizes the ways through which knowledge is accessed, modified, stored, shared and transmitted.

3) CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+A
Activism and Policies: actions to make a difference in society, politics, economics or the environment towards a perceived common good.

4) CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+M
Method refers to any procedure for attaining a result (algorithm, methodology) or any systematic ordering or arrangement (cfr. systematicity, taxonomy).

How are these categories used and modified when applied in a computational setting? What insights can we gain from them for the broader history of science?

CTRL ALT SHIFT is supported by the DHST/DLMPST Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC). The interdisciplinary stance of HaPoC is reflected here by bringing together a diverse group of researchers in terms of background, career stage and methodological perspective.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Elizabeth Petrick, Rice University

Individual Presentations

• State Knowledge and the Performance of (Dis)ambiguity - Martin Eiermann, UW-Madison

• Abandoning the Pseudocommons - David Schmudde, Beyond the Frame

• Digital Cassandras: A Prehistory of the Techlash - Mar Hicks, University of Virginia

• Free Software, Cypherpunks and the Creation of the 1980s "User" - Liesbeth De Mol, CNRS - Université de Lille

Session Organizers

• Liesbeth De Mol, CNRS - Université de Lille

• Elisabetta Mori, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona