Project description:
The Jacquard loom
was one of the first machines to use ‘punched cards’ to control a
sequence of operations to create patterns. This ability to change and
make patterns of the weave by simply changing the cards was a pivotal
conceptual precursor in the history of computing and development of
computer programming.
This ‘mechanic’ eventually inspired Charles Babbage to use ‘punched cards’ to store programmes in what he called an “Analytical Engine” – the beginning of computational machines.
The
historical framework will also extrapolate, investigate and link how
the ‘looming technology’ and the machines inspired the development of
computational machines and computational logic.
This is the current semester project. The post documents the workshop we did for the class on the 'Interpretation of the Punch Cards.'
FYI:
And before I begin. Meet the awesome people in my team:
> Kshitij Vyas (the textile guy)
> Sana Rai (the musician: https://soundcloud.com/sana-rai-1)
> Shrankhla Narya (the engineer: http://shrankhla-narya.in/), and of course, there is me!
The process:
1
Part 1: Understanding the various aspects of
a punch card
Brainstormed on our understanding of a punch card.
The work was broken into four main categories:
·
The basic principles
·
The codification
·
The organizing
·
And finally its applications
Challenges:
· Arranging a workshop for people who are also
researching on the same topic seemed futile.
·
There seemed to be too much theory and less of practical stuff that
we could execute.
2.
Part 2: Redefining the brief
We brainstormed on the key features for the workshop. So decided to implement three aspects:
> DIY: Hands-on experience.
> Translate the principles into something familiar: Refer to examples that are familiar/contemporary.
And most importantly have fun: While we were
working, at some point it became more of an assignment than something we
do/wanted to do. So it was decided to work primarily because we wanted to play, experiment and explore.
3.
Idea: Encoding and decoding something
familiar like music etc.
So part one of the project involved making a simple punch card reader.
