Output details

Computer

This research for this book explores the design history of the production, representation, and consumption of computing technology to provide a social and cultural history of our relationship with computers. The research was partly funded through a small grant of just over £4,000 received from the British Academy to visit California and Tokyo to visit archives, interview designers and manufacturers, and source primary material as elements of a personal research methodology.

The book therefore contains a significant amount of original research, some of which has also been presented in closely related papers and articles. These include Atkinson, P., ‘Actor Networks and the Development of the Home Computer’, in Hackney, F. et al (eds) Networks of Design, BrownWalker Press, 2009, pp. 219-224 ISBN 978-1-59942-906-9; and Atkinson, P (2008) ‘Upwardly Mobile: the role of fashion and image in the development of mobile computing’, Proceedings of the IFFTI 2008 Conference, Melbourne, Australia.

This and other related publications in this area led directly to Atkinson being appointed a member of the International Advisory Board for the permanent exhibition ‘Revolution’, at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California in 2009/10, contributing to the section on the Development of Minicomputers and Mobile Computing. As a result, elements of his research have been directly used in the information panels for exhibits [See www.computerhistory.org/revolution/credits ].

Computer has been positively reviewed in the Guardian newspaper, New Yorker Magazine, The Journal of Design History, Public Understanding of Science and other places. These reviews can be seen in the evidence, and excerpts can be found on the publisher’s website at http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/results.asp?SF1=series_exact&ST1=OBJEKT&DS=Objekt&SORT=sort_title. The book has also been cited in academic articles as listed in the evidence.