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@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Is the man playing the computer - like an instrument? Or is he playing with the

The man appears slightly bored, pretending not to be aware of his own performance, exploring the limited freedom offered to him by the machine, which tirelessly repeats the melody again and again, infinitely. We are watching a breakthrough moment in human-computer interaction: the computer is doing what the man wants. But still, the man can only want what the machine can do.

The fantasy of easy, natural interface between man and a computer is captured in a diagram by Andrey Yershov in 1964 titled the 'director agent model of interaction'. The man is meant to be in charge. But [look at the diagram](https://machinelistening.tumblr.com/post/635556111569862656/the-yershov-diagram-1963-as-early-component-of). We can start anywhere we like. Information cycles around and around, in a constant state of transformation from sound to voltage to colored light to wet synapses. All of these possibilities are contained in the schematic figure of the arrow. Which is the director here? And which the agent? The diagram itself cycled between the pages of different publications, including The Architecture Machine, a 1970 book by Nicholas Negroponte [^Negroponte]. Negroponte had set up the Architecture Machine Group at MIT in 1967, which eventually led to his creation of the [MIT Media Lab](https://www.media.mit.edu/).
The fantasy of easy, natural interface between man and a computer is captured in a diagram by Andrey Yershov in 1964 titled the 'director agent model of interaction'. The man is meant to be in charge. But [look at the diagram](https://machinelistening.tumblr.com/post/635556111569862656/the-yershov-diagram-1963-as-early-component-of). We can start anywhere we like. Information cycles around and around, in a constant state of transformation from sound to voltage to colored light to wet synapses. All of these possibilities are contained in the schematic figure of the arrow. Which is the director here? And which the agent? The diagram itself cycled between the pages of different publications, including The Architecture Machine, a 1970 book by Nicholas Negroponte.[^Negroponte] Negroponte had set up the Architecture Machine Group at MIT in 1967, which eventually led to his creation of the [MIT Media Lab](https://www.media.mit.edu/).

A state of the art, light grey machine is sitting on a white desk. A camera is pointed at it, focused on it. The camera zooms out to reveal a young, white man. Why are we seeing this moment? Why is the camera there to witness it? Judging by the DECstation, the year is probably 1992 or 1993, the location is definitely the MIT Media Lab, and we are looking through a small window into the "demo or die" culture that Negroponte famously instigated there. Demos could excite the general public and impress important visitors. They could attract corporate and government money. The colossal "machine listening" apparatus that we know today has its roots in thousands of demos like this one.



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