http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/12/the- ... t-machine/

"Two Brits struggling for an artistic concept to connect the "industrial revolution to the digital revolution" somehow settled on this contraption, and have garnered a good bit of attention. The demand for the spectacle has become so large that the creators, Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane, are touring through Kent and Margate over the next month to show off their machine; it can also be seen at the Turner Contemporary. Be sure to stop by if you can, because who knows when you'll next get to see a steam engine facilitate [internet] access."


http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0 ... 36,00.html




"In a field near Sandwich in Kent, Alan Gibbs, a local model maker, is firing up his steam engine. Its chimney is coughing out irritated little clouds of smuts and its pistons are bobbing up and down.

At a table, curator Rob Tufnell is using an Apple Mac powered by the engine. For this is the Steam Powered Internet Machine: the latest deeply eccentric project from Turner-prizewinning artist Jeremy Deller and his collaborator Alan Kane. "We were thinking about something that connects the industrial revolution and the digital revolution," said Deller. Kane added: "They are worlds apart but there's also a proximity. The steam age and the digital age are not so far apart.""


http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhib ... cfm?&id=38

"Turner Contemporary is currently working with acclaimed artists Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane to develop a Steam Powered Internet Machine.

Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane's practice is based within one of 'social sculpture' - creating situations as much as objects - to engage with broad and diverse audiences and traditions.

Steam Powered ComputeInternet Machine will make a literal link between the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s and the current Information Age within a working model by combining the chief engines of both the steam engine and the computer. "

My first computer was a Mac SE-- I used to say that it meant "Steam-Electric", but I guess it's not a joke anymore....

Wow, I need to pass this on to my coworkers at Apple.

Thanks, John.

Kelly

I kept wishing Apple would release a subclass of the G series computer with an "s" in the middle so I could get a Gs4. :o)