Making Core Memory: Design Inquiry into Gendered Legacies of Engineering and Craftwork Daniela K. Rosner1, Samantha Shorey2, Brock Craft1, Helen Remick3 1Dept. of HCDE 2Dept. of Communication 3Seattle, WA University of Washington University of Washington
[email protected] Seattle, WA Seattle, WA {dkrosner, bcraft}@uw.edu
[email protected] ABSTRACT This paper describes the Making Core Memory project, a design inquiry into the invisible work that went into assem- bling core memory, an early form of computer information storage initially woven by hand. Drawing on feminist tradi- tions of situated knowing, we designed an electronic quilt and a series of participatory workshops that materialize the work of the core memory weavers. With this case we not only broaden dominant stories of design, but we also reflect on the entanglement of predominantly male, high status labor with the ostensibly low-status work of women’s hands. By integrating design and archival research as a means of cultural analysis, we further expand conversations on design research methods within human-computer inter- action (HCI), using design to reveal legacies of practice Figure 1: Close up view of the Core Memory Quilt. elided by contemporary technology cultures. In doing so, this paper highlights for HCI scholars that worlds of hand- broadened, too. From establishing the Jacquard loom as a work and computing, or weaving and space travel, are not precursor to the Babbage Analytical Engine [66] to re- as separate as we might imagine them to be. calling that the first “computers” were young women [11,19,31,40], gendered narratives of craftwork and engi- Author Keywords neering both haunt and inform HCI’s ideas of technological Woven memory; gendered labor; craft; handwork; compu- belonging, participation, and differentiation [44].