– on going
Acrylic plate, copper wire, string, book glue, metal,
all “I” – words from the various SF novels
Core Rope Memory, also known as “LOL Memory” (Little Old Lady Memory), was a form of ROM (Read-Only Memory). This data storage medium was manufactured in the 1960s by women in NASA’s production facilities using a manual weaving technique. It was used in NASA’s early space programs, particularly in the Apollo guidance computer.
LOL Memory – The ship who sang (2018)
Acrylic plate, copper wire, string, metal, All “I” words from the book The Ship Who Sang (Anne McCaffrey, 1969)
6 part, 30 x 22 x 1 cm each
Naho Kawabe’s work The Ship Who Sang links a literary subject with a largely overlooked, feminized aspect of technological history: The numerous “I”s that are attached to the wall objects are cut out from the science fiction novel series The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey (1969). Meanwhile the delicate metal meshwork on the acrylic plates refers to “LOL Memory” (Little Old Lady Memory) – a computing history term for hand-woven memory structures produced in the 1960s by women working in NASA’s manufacturing programs for the Apollo and Mars missions. Copper wires were woven into a precise grid that stored information – an early form of technical programming as a manual weaving practice. Margaret Hamilton, known as the “Rope Mother,” was one of the first software engineers to use this method. Her efforts made spaceflight from Earth possible in the first place.
At exactly the same time, Anne McCaffrey sent the protagonist Helva of her science fiction novels into space: the brain of the young woman becomes the cybernetic control center of a spaceship. Helva is no longer clearly a woman nor a machine – so what, then, is the “I”?
Kawabe addresses the contrasts between fiction and reality: while a disembodied brain becomes a control center, female, embodied labor remains invisible.
Text: Marina Ćurčić-Šarac
Books, cut out of the “I”:
„The Ship Who Sang“ (Nanne McCaffery, 1969)
„Love is the Plan The Plan is Death“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1973)
„And I awoke and found me here on the cold hill’s side“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1972)
„The Girl who was plugged in“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1974)
„The Women men don’t see “ (James Tiptree Jr, 1973)
„Houston, Houston, do you read?“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1976)
„We who stole the dream“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1978)
„And I awake and found me here on the cold hill’s side“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1972)
„With delicate mad hands“ (James Tiptree Jr, 1981)
Exhibitions: Galerie Nanna Preußners, Hamburg (DE) / Waitingroom, Tokyo (JP) / Konya 2023, Fukuoka (JP) / gkg, Bonn (DE) / Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL) / Deusches Auswanderhaus, Bremerhaven (DE)
