From: Humanist Discussion Group >
Date: August 30, 2013, 2:13:15 AM CDT
To: >
Subject: [Humanist] 27.302 what difference a kitchen computer?
Reply-To: Online seminar for digital humanities >

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 27, No. 302.
Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London
www.digitalhumanities.org/humanist
Submit to: humanist@lists.digitalhumanities.org

Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 08:08:13 +0100
From: Willard McCarty
Subject: the curious return of the kitchen computer

Some time ago, in the house of friends in the New South Wales bush, I was introduced to the idea of a computer in the kitchen. I don’t know to what extent they use the old desktop machine while cooking, but for looking things up during an ongoing discussion over the dinner table or in the sitting room, it seemed perfect. Then, later back home in London I began using my iPad for consulting recipes rather than printing them out. This iPad, whose role in my research has been usurped by a newer model, seemed perfect as a permanent fixture as my kitchen computer. I discovered that mounting brackets of various kinds are abundant, so as soon as the one I selected arrives, this old iPad will be installed as one.

Somewhere along the line I ran across the Honeywell Kitchen Computer of the 1960s, described and discussed by Paul Atkinson, “The Curious Case of the Kitchen Computer: Products and Non-Products in Design History”, Journal of Design History 23/2 (2010): 163-79. The iPad is a very different piece of kit, but the early sighting of an essential role for computing, in an environment where menus are essential, provides a good example of function before form.

What are the differences made by a computer replacing a recipe book? I would think that the convenience, allowing a threshold to be crossed, of drawing upon recipes from around the world would have a considerable if subtle and slow effect. What others might there be?

Comments?

Yours,
WM