Eyebeam x CSNYC: The Slowest Computers on Earth

Kaho Abe and Ramsey Nasser, media artists and teachers, run the Playable Fashion Afterschool Program for high schoolers in collaboration with Eyebeam in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. With support from CSNYC, Kaho and Ramsey are running a workshop for teachers on a module from their program called “The Slowest Computers on Earth.” Two teams of participants will form into two “computers” competing to execute code as fast and as correctly as possible. These computers use pen and paper for memory, a grid of sponges for a screen, human minds and bodies as processing units, and a simple turing-complete assembly language as their instructions. A stack of printed code will be given to each team to execute, and clock speeds in Hertz will be measured and reported.

This embodied exercise aims to foster a visceral understanding of computation in the abstract. By not involving actual computers, the exercise avoids the distractions of contemporary operating systems and programming languages, and instead focuses on the underlying concepts that are timeless and platform-agnostic. By running this exercise before teaching actual programming, Kaho and Ramsey aim to give students a foothold into reasoning about what the machine is actually doing when it is executing their code. Following the workshop, participants will discuss how an exercise like this can be incorporated into existing computer science curricula.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IN ORDER TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, YOU MUST ALSO REGISTER VIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S EVENT PAGE (https://generalassemb.ly/education/eyebeam-presents-the-slowest-computers-on-earth/new-york-city/30580).