Art Out of Order: Jack Burnham, the 1970 Software Show, and the Aesthetics of Information Systems.

In 1970, curator Jack Burnham debuted the lavish exhibition Software at the Jewish Museum in New York. Conceptual artists displayed information-oriented pieces, while technical experts deployed computers, image-making, and multimedia technology in their works. Burnham's goal was to showcase contemporary techniques of computer-based command and control, allowing viewers to respond in real time to the "programmatic situations" artists presented. While critics dismissed Software as a technical and aesthetic disaster, today it stands as a touchstone for efforts to integrate technology with artmaking. This article takes us back to Software's gallery spaces and Burnham's aim of showcasing the potential of interactivity and "real-time systems." More broadly, it situates Software as a provocation to a public unfamiliar with computer technology yet at the threshold of a new postindustrial era, where the power and performative aspects of computing would predominate.

Amateur scientists, the international geophysical year, and the ambitions of Fred Whipple.

The contribution of amateur scientists to the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was substantial, especially in the arena of spotting artificial satellites. This article examines how Fred L. Whipple and his colleagues recruited satellite spotters for Moonwatch, a program for amateur scientists initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in 1956. At the same time, however, the administrators with responsibility for the IGY program closely monitored and managed--sometimes even contested--amateur participation. IGY programs like Moonwatch provided valuable scientific information and gave amateurs opportunities to contribute actively to the research of professional scientists. Moonwatch, which operated until 1975, eventually became the public face of a vast satellite-tracking network that expanded the SAO's global reach and helped further Whipple's professional goals. Understanding amateurs' interactions with the professional science community enables us better to understand the IGY as a phenomenon that enlisted broad participation and transcended traditional boundaries between professional and amateur scientists.