the ENIAC girls double CD was just released and is available at Maria de Alvears world edition label.
The transposition of two Letters by five placeings will be sufficient for 32 Differences and by this Art a way is opened, whereby a man may expresse and signifie the intentions of his minde, at any distance of place, by objects ... capable of twofold difference onely. (Francis Bacon 1623)
With preliminary researches and tryout-versions reaching back to my residency in Los Angeles in spring 2015, ENIAC girls started appearing in different shapes from 2016 on. In the form of an electro-acoustic solo performance, ENIAC Girls tells - in an intriguingly abstracted way - some of the stories around the early days of computer development in the USA, focusing mainly on the group of young women that programmed the ENIAC computer between 1946 and 1948. ENIAC was the first fully functional computer based on purely electronic components. Without any precedence to their task, these girls had to invent the basics of computer programming by just doing it. Mixing composed and improvised parts, historical voice recordings and electronic music, ENIAC girls creates a captivating concert installation experience.
In winter 2016 i developed an orchestral version, featuring 2 percussion players and a Hammond B3 electric organ. The premiere was on January 17th 2017 at the Stadtgarten in Cologne. The cast: Rie Watanabe _ orchestral percussion, Florian Ross _ Hammond B3, Dirk Rothbrust _ orchestral percussion, Heinrich Baumgart _ live typing, Udo Moll _ composition, synthesizers, electronics.
2018 i produced a Radio version of ENIAC girls for Deutschlandfunk Kultur - it was premiere broadcasted on 1st June 2018. It received the special achievement award of the jury at the International Radio Festival Prix Marulic by Croatian Radiotelevision HRT.
Today companies like Google, which have grown up in an era of massively abundant data, don’t have to settle for wrong models. Indeed, they don’t have to settle for models at all. ... Out with every theory of human behaviour, from linguistics to sociology. Forget taxonomy, ontology, and psychology. Who knows why people do what they do ? The point is they do it, and we can track and measure it with unprecedented fidelity. With enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.
(Wired Magazine 16.07.2008)
photos taken at the premiere of the orchestral version - january 17th 2017 Stadtgarten Köln - by Fati Baghaturia