“In a field near Sandwich in Kent, Alan Gibbs, a local model maker, is firing up his steam engine. Its chimney is coughing out irritated little clouds of smuts and its pistons are bobbing up and down,” Charlotte Higgins reports for The Guardian.
Higgins reports, “At a table, curator Rob Tufnell is using an Apple Mac powered by the engine. For this is the Steam Powered Internet Machine: the latest deeply eccentric project from Turner-prizewinning artist Jeremy Deller and his collaborator Alan Kane. ‘We were thinking about something that connects the industrial revolution and the digital revolution,’ said Deller. Kane added: ‘They are worlds apart but there’s also a proximity. The steam age and the digital age are not so far apart.'”
“There’s a marvellous impracticality to the machine. But it does work,” Higgins reports.
Full article with photo here.
Exhibition info: http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions.cfm?&id=38
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gandalf” for the heads up.]
How about running windows on a Mac, that’s almost as eccentric, and it crosses a huge time span.
Wow, only us English could come up with a cray-zeee idea like that. Whoop-di-do.
But inbred americans can come up with crazy ideas like the windows OS.
i WANT that picture as my desktop image! Anyone know of a hi-res version anywhere?
Aren’t most power stations essentially just big steam engines?
This is what happens when computers and hillbillies cross paths.
“There’s a marvellous impracticality to the machine. But it does work.”
So, the mac is impractical in that it is an overpriced machine with an obscure OS, but it does work if you click the little button.
Come visit my website and send me hate mail! I’ll respond if my gorgeous Dell laptop doesn’t crash first!
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Thanks to my swiss buddy Tanod for the heads up! (he’s shy)
Only two good things came out of England: The Beatles an the USA! Thanks Limeys!!
“There’s a marvellous impracticality to the machine. But it does work”
Isn’t that what the Brits said about dentistry tools?
“How about running windows on a Mac, that’s almost as eccentric, and it crosses a huge time span.”
You kids today…
Nah. Boot MS-DOS 6.22 on your Mac. Then I’ll be impressed.
Posted by Biscuit:
“Wow, only us English could come up with a cray-zeee idea like that. Whoop-di-do.
But inbred americans can come up with crazy ideas like the windows OS.”
Where do you think the practice of inbreeding originated?
You get one guess.
Just think, in 150 years, some guy will think it’s clever to “link” the digital revolution with the (whatever) revolution by powering a Mac Plus with an anti-matter power generator.
And others will comment on how stupid that it is…
hey, brits and yanks, we are all fanboys here, play nice lol
Now THAT is vaporware!
…and it’s smokin’ fast!
Now serving steamed clams and an iMovie. Life is good.
“Hippies, hippies… they want to save the world but all they do is smoke pot and play Frisbee!”
– Eric Cartman, “Southpark”
MW: indeed!
yeah… but is it quiet?
it still doesn’t generate as much heat as the old power books!
But how fast is its internet connection?
That will help Michael Dell blow off some steam….
Thats in violation with Apple’s environmental policy!
But what powers the wireless keyboard and mouse?
And it still can’t run Photoshop natively?!
I’d be more impressed with a steam powered Google.
Steam? Fuggitaboutit!
<a >Harness the sun, chillens.</a>