The Mother of All Demos

A day of talks, performances and workshops marking the 50th anniversary of internet pioneer Douglas Engelbart’s original 1968 presentation of the key elements that would shape modern computing. On 09 December 1968 computer visionary and internet pioneer Douglas Engelbart, along with 17 researchers from the Augmentation Research Centre (ARC) at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) gave a public demonstration of computer called the oN-Line System (NLS). The group went on to demonstrate many of the key elements that would shape modern computing: the mouse, hyperlinks, word processing, dynamic file linking, windows, graphical user interfaces, collaborative real-time editors and video conferencing as well as a philosophy of collaboration and knowledge sharing. Later “the demo” would come to be known more formally as "The Mother of All Demos”. To celebrate this seminal moment in the history of computing, Somerset House Studios presents The Mother of All Demos to mark the 50th anniversary of Engelbart’s original demonstration. On Sunday 9th December we’re partnering with the Embodied AudioVisual lnteraction Group (EAVI) from the Computing Department at Goldsmiths and Studios residents Music Hackspace for a day of demonstrations, performances and discussions that respond to the ARC’s demo and look to the future of the computer, communication and interaction. Curated by Jake Charles Rees for Somerset House Studios, in association with Ted Hunt, EAVI and Music Hackspace. Featuring Kassem Mosse, Atau Tanaka, Ted Hunt, Xname, Arthur Carabott, Rachel Falconer, Lauri Love, Susanna Garcia, Tadeo Sendon, Balandino di Donato, Hadeel Ayoub and Andrew Orlowski.