In December of 2012, these guests from Iceland and Great Britain (Forma Arts & Media) visited the Computer History Museum to take pictures with real, operating IBM 1401 equipment.
In 2005, the avant-garde Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson
created a symphony dedicated to the 1401 called "IBM 1401: A User's Manual."
It's the only computer-dedicated symphony I know of written by a human and
played by humans. Jóhann
is now collaborating with the renowned American film-maker Bill Morrison to
create a musical and visual homage to the vintage 1401, featuring an expanded
version of his symphony. Here is a compelling five-minute
promotional trailer for the project, filmed at in our CHM 1401 restoration lab
in December, featuring
Jóhann, Bill, and Robert Garner: http://vimeo.com/57378793
 |
| Jóhann Jóhannsson (composer of 1401 symphony) |
 |
| Their people talking to our people (Bob Erickson, Ron Williams and Frank King) |
 |
| Planning |
 |
| Our printer talking to their camera |
 |
| John Hollar chatting with Jóhann Jóhannsson (composer of 1401 symphony) |
 |
| Bill Morrison (film director), John Hollar (CHM CEO), Dave Metcalfe (Forma Arts & Media), Jóhann Jóhannsson (composer of 1401 symphony) |
 |
| On camera interview with Bill Morrison |
Pointer to info/background on Johann's 1401 symphony:
http://www.ausersmanual.org/
The 1401 symphony's four movements are labeled "1401, 1403, 1402, and 729". In a 2007 interview on NPR's The World, Johann described the piece as a homage to his father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, IBM's CE for the 1401 and Iceland's first computer. At the 1401's decommissioning farewell ceremony in 1971, he had recorded some popular Icelandic symphonic music via the 1401 AM radio program (which we having runing on our 1401s), five notes of which Johann used in his composition, along with the recorded voice from an old instructional maintenance tape for an IBM 421 Tabulator. In the NPR interview, Johann expresses his feelings about the 1401 symphony: " It's about this nostalgia for old machines, this a sort of tecno-nostolgia in a way, and also a kind of respect for the ancient. If a piece of technology has become redundant, it doesn't necessarily loose its worth."
More info here: http://ibm-1401.info/Movies-n-Sounds.html
The 1401 symphony's four movements are labeled "1401, 1403, 1402, and 729". In a 2007 interview on NPR's The World, Johann described the piece as a homage to his father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, IBM's CE for the 1401 and Iceland's first computer. At the 1401's decommissioning farewell ceremony in 1971, he had recorded some popular Icelandic symphonic music via the 1401 AM radio program (which we having runing on our 1401s), five notes of which Johann used in his composition, along with the recorded voice from an old instructional maintenance tape for an IBM 421 Tabulator. In the NPR interview, Johann expresses his feelings about the 1401 symphony: " It's about this nostalgia for old machines, this a sort of tecno-nostolgia in a way, and also a kind of respect for the ancient. If a piece of technology has become redundant, it doesn't necessarily loose its worth."
More info here: http://ibm-1401.info/Movies-n-Sounds.html
No comments:
Post a Comment