Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age (review)

Ceruzzi, Paul E.

doi:10.1353/tech.2006.0061

Cited by 7 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Fiber crafts occupy a pivotal role in the history of technology innovation (Plant, 1995). For example, the punch cards used in early computers were inspired by the Jacquard loom, which utilized punch cards to program fabric patterns (Essinger, 2004;Fernaeus et al, 2012;Harlizius-Klück, 2017;Plant, 1995). A lesser known but equally compelling example of the connection between weaving and computing is the core rope memory used in the Apollo mission computers and produced by women who wove wires around magnetic ferrite cores (Rosner et al, 2018).…”

Section: Fiber Crafts As a Promising Context For Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the one hand, the domestic associations of fiber crafts have been utilized as strategic tools to prevent women and other non-dominant populations from entering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (e.g., Bix, 2014). On the other hand, fiber crafts-particularly weaving, a traditional indigenous and domestic craft-have been recognized for their connections with computation (e.g., Essinger, 2004;Maynard et al, 2005) and as a precursor of the earliest computers with the Jacquard loom (e.g., Plant, 1995). Thus, strengthening the connections between fiber crafts and computing has the potential to expand computational cultures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Surprisingly, despite the historical role of fiber crafts as precursors to and components of the earliest computers (Essinger, 2004;Fernaeus et al, 2012;Harlizius-Klück, 2017;Plant, 1995), fiber crafts are noticeably underrepresented in computer science education (Kafai et al, 2010). It remains underexplored how materials, such as fiber crafts, actively materialize the performance of computer science concepts and, thus, drive domain learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing crafts

Keune

2022

Journal of the Learning Sciences

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Background: Fiber crafts occupy a vital position in technology innovation and present a promising space for computer science education, which continues to face lopsided participation. It remains unclear whether and how fiber crafts can become a context for computational learning and what role different materials play with the risk to miss computational approaches that could broaden computational cultures. Methods: Fusing constructionist and posthuman perspectives, this study analyzed how middle school students performed computational concepts while weaving and manipulating fabric and how the craft materials drove what could be learned computationally in these contexts. Findings: Present the fiber crafts as a context for performing computational concepts (i.e., variables, conditionals, functions) and that the materials play a role in what can be learned computationally. While weaving drove computing as the performance of automation, fabric manipulation required speculative and physical three-dimensional modeling as computational. Contribution: The paper presents fiber crafts as a promising context for computational learning and theorizes the ongoing material as material syntonicity, contributing a material direction to fostering more inclusive and sustainable computing cultures.

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Section: Fiber Crafts As a Promising Context For Computingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing crafts

Keune

2022

Journal of the Learning Sciences

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“…You just let it spin and wait for the address on you put into the latches to match the address on the drum and then read out the data to a register. 14,15 But how to build the address comparator? Particularly out of NOR gates.…”

Section: Drum Roll Please! 61 Rotating Drummentioning

confidence: 99%

Optoelectronic NOR gates and rotating drum memory illuminate logic

Vogel¹

2019

Fifteenth Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2019

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Optically routed NOR gates using LED and phototransistors have previously been shown by the author to be capable of building all manner of sequential and combinatorial logic gates. Using scissor cut flexible silicone light pipes, logic circuits can be rapidly built and debugged without the use of an oscilloscope or logic probes. An optoelectronic rotating memory has also been developed leveraging a popular "construction toy system" for the structure and mechanism. The capability to build lookup tables and finite state machines greatly expands the possibilities for developing an innovative hands on digital logic education curriculum for middle through high school students.

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“…In looking again to the past, HCI researchers are re-evaluating gendered work -such as the manual work of women that wove the core memory for the Apollo mission and were responsible for creating the invaluable technology for re-writable memory [204]. Similarly, Jacquard looms and their punch-card patterns are increasingly viewed as predecessors to the Analytic Engine (an early computer) [67]. HCI researchers are also looking to textile fabrication for, for example, how their tools can inform and expand current interaction design paradigms beyond desktop computers [68].…”

Section: Gendered Legacies Of Textile Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

E-textile Learning Scaffolds: Supports for Novices Learning E-textile Concepts and Techniques

Jones¹

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Electronic textiles (e-textiles) combine the conductive properties of metallic threads with increasingly small computers and microcontrollers to create textiles that are interactive. E-textiles enable new opportunities such as devices that are strong yet flexible, and the ability to use more accessible crafting tools and materials. They also allow technology to blend into the textiles we have in our lives, such as those on our bodies and in our homes. In education, e-textiles are incorporated into curriculums for how they can increase participation in physical computing, while also enabling new creative and expressive applications. Yet blending the fields of physical computing and textiles is not simple, since each has its own culture of terminology, design and prototyping practices, tools, techniques, and methods of documentation.The goal of this thesis is to support beginners in learning the hybrid craft of e-textiles with e-textile learning scaffolds. Rather than building e-textiles from scratch, e-textile learning scaffolds are activities for supporting novices as they learn e-textile concepts and practice the tacit aspects of the craft. One central research question runs throughout the projects in this thesis: "How can we scaffold e-textile ideation and experiential learning with tangible objects and activities?" This thesis contributes five studies, each providing a tangible scaffold or activity, or scaffolding recommendations, for teaching e-textiles in courses or workshops. The design of these i learning scaffolds focused on how they could be accessible to educators by prioritizing reproducibility, re-use, and low-cost.• To my supervisor: Thank you for being there for all the twists and turns this PhD has taken and for your guidance along the way.• To my committee members, publication co-authors, and peer reviewers: Taking the time to read someone's work and provide feedback is always a gift. Thank you! • To my study participants: Thank you so much for providing your time and expertise to this research. I have learned so much from my time spent with all of you. • Most of the work in this thesis happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. A big thank you to my friends and family who helped me through this incredibly difficult time. • To the PhD student who reads this, since only PhD students spend time reading other thesis documents: I hope you find joy in your thesis journey -wishing you all the best! vii Ubiquitous computing Computers that are 'ubiquitous' in our environment, i.e. distributed and within all objects [301]. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) The area or "zone" where learning can occur. If a task is too hard, an individual will become frustrated, and equally if a task is too easy an individual will not learn anything [96].

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Jacquard's Web: How a Hand-Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age (review)

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing crafts

Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing crafts

Optoelectronic NOR gates and rotating drum memory illuminate logic

E-textile Learning Scaffolds: Supports for Novices Learning E-textile Concepts and Techniques

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