LoveLetters_1.0
MUC=Resurrection. A Memorial.
David Link



Shows:

ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, April – August 2009
"Fun With Software", Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, 25 Sep – 21 Nov 2010
"An das Gerät!", Halle 14, Leipzig, 1 May – 26 September 2010
ACC Gallery, Weimar, 17 Oktober 2010 – 2 January 2011
Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin, 2 June 2012 – 8 September 2012
dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel, 9 June 2012 – 16 September 2012
Heinz-Nixdorf-Forum, Paderborn, Germany, 24 October – 18 November 2012
Microwave Festival, Hong Kong City Hall, 9 – 18 Nov 2012
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art ACCA, Melbourne, AU, 15 Dec 2012 – 3 Mar 2013
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media YCAM, Yamaguchi, Japan, 6th July – 29th Sep 2013
"The Imitation Game", Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, 13 February – 5 June 2016


(Click images to enlarge.)
David Link, LoveLetters_1.0 David Link, LoveLetters_1.0
From August 1953 to May 1954 strange love-letters appeared on the notice board of Manchester University’s Computer Department:

HONEY SWEETHEART
        YOU ARE MY DEVOTED EAGERNESS. MY COVETOUS HUNGER ATTRACTS YOUR WINNING ARDOUR. YOU ARE MY AFFECTIONATE YEARNING: MY ANXIOUS HEART: MY CRAVING PASSION.
                                YOURS FONDLY
                                           M. U. C.


The acronym M.U.C. stood for “Manchester University Computer”, the earliest electronic, programmable and universal calculating machine worldwide; the fully functional prototype was completed in June 1948 and was based on Williams tubes as means of volatile storage. One of the very first software developers, Christopher Strachey (1916–1975), had used the built-in random generator of the Ferranti Mark I, the first industrially produced computer of this kind, to generate texts that are intended to express and arouse emotions.

(Click images to enlarge.)
David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0

“LoveLetters_1.0” consists of two parts. In the installation, the visitor interacts with a functional replica of the Ferranti Mark 1, which conveys an impression of the different components and the functionality of the first computer. By executing the original code of Strachey’s software, it continuously generates loveletters. These are projected on a large screen at another location, in public space, where everybody can read it. A monitor in the installation allows to observe the remote projection.

David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0

If the visitor manages to compose his or her name on the switches of the console using the five-bit code the machine was originally programmed in (Baudot), the loveletter will carry this signature. “LoveLetters_1.0” allows people to publicly adress algorithmically generated loveletters to each other.

David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0

Once a day, at a randomly selected moment, the machine autonomously reads out loud a loveletter on the megaphones mounted on the outside wall of the exhibition venue and prints it on the reconstructed Creed 7 teleprinter from 1931. (This machine helped organising the British response to Hitler’s threats.) When somebody successfully enters his name, the Mark 1 plays “God Save the Queen” on the “hooter” (loudspeaker). The loveletters generated can be downloaded from the project’s website or be copied onto a usb stick on site.

David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0  David Link, LoveLetters_1.0

On the electronic tabloid display, the visitor can investigate the historical background of the first computer by studying authentic documents and photos of the time. The lab notebook of one of its main constructors, Geoff Tootill, is presented alongside the maintenance engineers’ logbook from July 1951, all the manuals for the machine (Turing 1952, Prinz 1952) and several sets of photos.


dOCUMENTA notebook: Machine Heart – Das Herz der Maschine. dOCUMENTA 13: 100 Notes – 100 Thoughts, No. 037 (Ostfildern, 2012).


Produced by Kunststiftung NRW; ZKM, Karlsruhe.

Love-letters archive