New Media Art - History - Vannevar Bush

Bush is possibly one of the most influential scientists of his time. If you turn back the clock on any aspect of information technology you will see Bush’s influence indeed he is one of a small number of extremely important figures in the development of new media technologies (Zachary, 1997)

Vannevar Bush was born in Chelsea Massachusetts on March 11 1890 and died in June 30 1976. An American scientist, he was educated at Tufts College and joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at MIT in 1919 (Wikipedia, 2004)

In the 1930’s Bush was a professor of electrical engineering at MIT. He designed what were back then the world’s most powerful computers, the room sized mechanical devices that were no where near as sophisticated as are substantially smaller desk top computers.

Indeed Bush was so forward thinking that in the 1940’s when these computers were replaced with digital ones Bush envisaged a personal information machine that would store and retrieve not just all essential human knowledge, but its owner’s specific memory, a theory not unlike the one underpinning the personal computers of today.

Also in the early 1940’s (during World War II), Bush was a chief scientific advisor to Fanklin Roosevelt and director of the government’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (Packer, 2000). In this position he led the drive to build the first atomic bomb. He also conceived the National Science Foundation and the Advanced Research Projects Agency, helping to guarantee the US’s supremacy in cutting edge technology(Zachary, 1997).

Bush’s historic 1945 Atlantic Monthly article “As We May Think� was and still is a foundation text for many scientists as well as an inspiration, it was because of this article that Bush is often hailed as the conceptual creator of hypertext (Malone, 1997). The article describes a device that Bush calls the Memex – the memex was theoretically designed to solve the then considerable problem of information overload by enhancing human memory. Indeed his concept of the memex bore a striking resemblance to the personal computer (Zachary, 1997). Bush described his invention as “A device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility� indicating what would become hypertext in the future, an integral part of multimedia technology.

In addition to the Memex, Bush invented several types of machines including the Differential Analyser; an analog computer that could solve differential equations, the profile tracer and the justifying typewriter (Malone, 2002).

Vannevar Bush is often called the Godfather of the information age; indeed his contribution to the evolution of the computer ranges far and wide (Packer, 2000). Although Bush’s description of the memex has long been hailed as the inspiration for the creation of hypertext and even the internet, technology today still hasn’t realized the potential expressed in Bush’s article ‘As We May Think’. Bush’s contribution to the development of new media is undeniable and he is considered a pioneer of multimedia technology and the broad chronology of Multimedia Art.

References & Further Reading:

(2004). ‘Vannevar Bush,’ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, [Online], Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush [2004, October, 26]

Malone, E. (2002) ‘Foreseeing the Future: The legacy of Vannevar Bush,’ Boxes and Arrows, [Online], Available: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/foreseeing_the_future_the_legacy_of_ vannevar_bush.php [2004, October, 24].

Packer, R. (2000). ‘Vannevar Bush –Memex (1945),’ Multimedia – From Wagner to Virtual Reality, [Online], Available: http://www.artmuseum.net/w2vr/timeline/Bush.html [2004, October, 26].

Zachary, G.P. (1997). ‘The Godfather,’ Wired News, [Online], Available: http://www.wired.com/wired/archives/5.11/es_bush.html?pg=3&topic [2004, October, 12].

Lauren Porter 12:25, 9 Sep 2004 (EST)

Lauren Porter 10:00, 29 Oct 2004 (EST)