Computers & Society/Front Cover



How can one illustrate the subject "Computers & Society"? One might think of possible alternative names. One might look for other disciplines which seem to cover the same ground. For example, what about looking at Digital Humanities (also known as Humanities Computing or Humanities Informatics

Still Life
The digital photograph entitled Still life conjures up Art. And Art is said to belong to the Humanities, to the Society. "Still Life" is the technical art term used in the English language for the French Nature morte.

Where then is the Computer in the picture?

Did you guess it right?

The picture was taken by a digital camera and the digital image was processed on a computer and then sent up to another computer somewhere. Later that image was grabbed by a computer and then placed in such a way that you can see it on your computer... now!

It captures exactly how we need to see computers in society. Mostly they are invisible, hidden. They are in the background all the time. Indeed they are so common that we rarely think of them just being there.