'Retrocomputing' Exhibit Showcases the Dynamic History of the Personal Computer

Thu, 19 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Retrocomputing, a new exhibit in Vanderbilt’s Science and Engineering Library, showcases the remarkable series of breakthroughs that took place during the early days of personal computing. All members of the Vanderbilt community are invited to learn about and interact with the vintage computers from the 1970s and 1980s.

The exhibit was curated by Clifford Anderson, associate university librarian for research and digital strategy and professor of religious studies. During the spring 2022 semester, Anderson co-taught CMA 1001: Retro-Computing with Lutz Koepnick, Max Kade Foundation Chair in German studies and professor of cinema and media arts. The course invited students across disciplines to explore the world of retrocomputing by taking a deep dive into the Apple II computer and MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor.

“Retrocomputing, or the exploration of obsolete computers as platforms for contemporary creative expression, has been rising in prominence among both academics and the public,” Anderson said. “I’m equally excited about this campus exhibit, which invites visitors to explore the origins of personal computers and consider how older platforms shaped our cultural perceptions of computing.”

Vanderbilt to Host NEH-Supported Institute on Digital Humanities

Mon, 02 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Scholars from across the United States and abroad will be at Vanderbilt University June 9-20 to improve their skills in building projects in the digital humanities. The XQuery Summer Institute: Advancing XML-Based Scholarship from Representation to Discovery will be led by Clifford B. Anderson, director for scholarly communications at the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt.

During the two-week session, twelve participants will learn how to build projects in the digital humanities using the programming language XQuery and an open source XML database called eXist. The institute is among the Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities supported by the Office of Digital Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Our goal is to help digital humanists take the next step in their work,” Anderson said. “We want them to reach the full scholarly potential of encoding documents in machine readable format by teaching them how to query and analyze those texts computationally.”

Teaching | Clifford B. Anderson

'Retrocomputing' Exhibit Showcases the Dynamic History of the Personal Computer

Vanderbilt to Host NEH-Supported Institute on Digital Humanities