Free standard shipping on all orders
  • Visa
  • Master Card
  • American Express
  • Apple Pay
  • Google Pay
  • JCB

Museums and the History of Computing: Objects, Narratives and Practice book cover

1st Edition

Museums and the History of Computing Objects, Narratives and Practice

Edited By Simone Natale, Petrina Foti, Ross Parry Copyright 2025
132 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

132 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

132 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Museums and the History of Computing examines the critical role that cultural organizations, such as museums and galleries, play in shaping ‘digital heritage’: the cultural heritage surrounding computer technology. Focusing on digital technologies as objects and practices that museums collect, exhibit, and preserve for the future, this book highlights how and why museums play a crucial role... Read more

List of figures viii

List of contributors ix

Acknowledgments xvi

Introduction: museums and the history of computing 1

SIMONE NATALE

PART I

Lives narrated through computer history 11

1 Unseen connections: exhibiting the global stories of cellular telephony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History 13

JOSHUA BELL

2 Lives on shelves: constructing histories of computer in the museum store 24

SIMONA CASONATO

Provocation no. 1: imparting the history of ‘intangible things’ 35

MAI SUGIMOTO

PART II

The life inscribed on computer technology 37

3 Restorations, replicas, and emulations in a museum of computing 39

MARTIN CAMPBELL-KELLY AND MARK PRIESTLEY

4 Social media enters the museum: collecting WeChat at the Victoria and Albert Museum 49

NATALIE KANE, CORINNA GARDNER, AND JUHEE PARK

Provocation no. 2: all of this belongs to us 59

ANDREA LIPPS

PART III

Living computing history collections 61

5 Mediators, media, and meaning: curating digital objects at the Science Museum 63

TILLY BLYTH AND RACHEL BOON

6 Unsettling the narrative: quantum computing in museum environments 74

PETRINA FOTI

Provocation no. 3: why is the computer different? 82

KIMON KERAMIDAS

PART IV

Lived practice of computing history 85

7 The CHM stack: experimentation for digital and computing heritage 87

DAVID C. BROCK, HANSEN HSU, DAG SPICER, AND MARC WEBER

8 Beyond point and click: calling out expediency in museums’ histories of computing 98

LISA McGERTY

Provocation no. 4: decolonizing computing histories in museums 108

LARA RATNARAJA

Index 111

Biography

Simone Natale is an associate professor at the University of Turin, Italy, and an editor of Media, Culture and Society. He is the author of Deceitful Media: Artificial Intelligence and Social Life after the Turing Test (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Petrina Foti is a museologist and scholar focused on the rise of digital information and technology and the resulting impact on both museums and the wider world. She is the author of Collecting and Exhibiting Computer-based Technology: Curatorial Expertise at the Smithsonian Museums (Routledge, 2018).

Ross Parry is a professor of museum technology at the University of Leicester, and the inaugural Director of its Institute for Digital Culture. He is co-founder the UK’s Museum Data Service, and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Media and Communication (Routledge 2019).

Add to Cart