"Coal Fired Computers" c/o MUTE

"Graham Harwood and Matsuko Yokokoji (YoHa) build

contraptions that expose and collapse down the productive

chains linking telecommunications media to some of the

raw materials that constitute them.
In this interview with ANTONY ILES, however,

Harwood rejects theoretical discourses

of resistance in favour of a more direct and technical

method of 'action research' which skirts art and politics." p.159.

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

Poster image for YoHa's Coal Fired Computers exhibition, AV Festival, Newcastle 2010

"AI: Though these projects do not work solely within a logic of 'representation' they do, almost as a side effect, produce awful images. I am thinking in particular of the film still from Aluminium and the blackened lung hooked up to a coal fired computer. If the 'contraptions' you make can be thought of as diagrams of socio-technical relations, what are the qualities of the images they produce? To what extent are these images necessary by-products of the processes. GH: We can see the images arising out of the forces that threaten to break the machine, or assemblages arising out of its in-betweenness. Its unfinished nature always requires the imagination of the participant/viewer to finish the job, fill in the details. This is a powerful strategy." p.164.

Source: Iles, A. (2011) Double Negative Feedback. In the mud and blood of networks: an interview with Graham Harwood, MUTE. Spring/Summer, Vol. 3, #1, pp.158-171. 

Image: http://yoha.co.uk/cfc

https://www.metamute.org/editorial/magazine/mute-vol.-3-no.-1-double-negative-feedback

Note 'Anti-disciplinary' in this issue too:

https://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/anti-disciplinary-feedback-and-will-to-effect

Will investigate anti-disciplinary, as this appears to strike a discordant note in nursing in Hodges' model promulgating genericism. A quick check was encouraging leading to MIT Lab, but then disappointing in terms of personnel and resignations - but a lead for the future (inter- multi- transdisciplinary and Hodges' model).

(Yes, second post from this issue of MUTE, a random yet informative purchase. It cost £12.00. Still clearing, boxing, moving ...).

Are the lines open? Is the train running? "Wigan Coal and Iron"

"Nos. 7 and 8 pits were a short distance away from the main colliery and were known as Brookside or New Zealand Pits. No coal was raised at these pits when Wigan Coal Corporation took over, but they were used for pumping and ventilation. Shortly afterwards (in 1931) they were filled up.

Wigan Coal and Iron

 

A very tragic and bizarre accident happened here on 13th April 1945 when Ludovic Berry, a locomotive driver employed by the Coal Corporation, was moving 13 loaded wagons in sidings over the filled up No. 7 shaft which was 12ft. diameter and 400 yd. deep. Suddenly the ground collapsed under the leading wagon which fell into a large cavity followed by the rest of the train and the locomotive at an accelerating pace. The locomotive with all wheels locked by the brakes and the driver still at the controls was dragged into the shaft by the wagons and came to rest wedged in a vertical position with the smokebox uppermost 127 ft. down the shaft. The total length of the train was 283 ft. and there were indications on the rails that the brakes had been applied when the train was 226 ft. from the crater. This crater was 52 ft. long and 34 ft. wide. The body of the driver was never recovered, owing to the dangerous condition of the ground surrounding the cavity." p.181.

 INDIVIDUAL

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 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

Ludovic	| | | ------------------------------------------------------- | | |
(Mr) Berry RIP

D. Anderson, A.A. France (1994) Wigan Coal and Iron. Paperback. Smiths of Wigan.
ISBN 0 9510680 7 5.

Cover image file - Amazon. Cover painting David W. Barrow.

See also:
http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/Collection/ian/2004/page_30.htm

https://www.wiganworld.co.uk/stuff/past1.php

Thanks to Mr Harold Parkinson RIP for the book.