Photography

Secrets of ENIAC, 2004

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was among the very first computers. Built at Penn from 1942 to 1946, its work was the most prosaic imaginable: calculating missile ballistics and later helping with the design of the hydrogen bomb. Looking back now, with every facet of society permeated by super-fast, ultra-miniaturized, all-but-invisible computers, the ENIAC seems ludicrously clunky and primitive. But this is where it all began.

For someone who came of age in the second half of the computer revolution, the thing that astonishes about ENIAC is its physicality. It is a machine in the most literal sense, built from huge metal boxes, massive cables, thick copper wires joined by gobs of solder, panels full of dials, bank upon bank of vacuum tubes. Looking again, the second surprise is the beauty and intricacy of its individual parts. A single vacuum tube, responsible for just one numeral in a decimal ring counter, contains a thicket of wires, planes, and baffles. If you peer very closely, a microcosm of strange and enigmatic scenes begins to unfold.

These images of ENIAC express the wonder I felt when, as a child, I came to understand what a computer truly is: not just a calculating machine, but a tool for amplifying imagination, making it possible to weave structures of pure abstract symbols and see them rendered as concrete things, real places.

Voyages of Discovery, 2003–2005

This ongoing series is an investigation of simple, dynamic, physical processes and the ways they metamorphose, gather meaning, and reveal hidden treasures under the scrutiny of the camera.

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Contact Information

e-mail:
www.benjaminpierce.net
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Selected Exhibitions

Solo

2006
Recent works, Burrison Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2004
Secrets of ENIAC, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Permanent Collection

Group

2006
Photo Exhibition, Muse Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Juror: Stephen Perloff

2005
December Photo Show, Minerva Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Richard Turiccki

Tribute (in honor of Becky Young), Addams Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Gabe Martinez

2003
Circle Show, Philadelphia Cathedral, Philadelphia, PA
Curator: Elizabeth Doering

Student Photography Exhibition, Addams Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2002
Student Photography Exhibition, Addams Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA