Tablets, smartphones, computers: all current digital devices (and those that have yet to be invented) have a story that stems from Fibonacci and passes through the likes of Blaise Pascal, Gottfried Leibniz, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, John von Neumann and other glorious ground-breaking mathematicians of automatic calculation. At the dawn of I.T., the integral elements of machinery were physically in plain sight of all the ingenious scientists and courageous inventors and they gradually passed into public use, but what happens nowadays? If the use of digital devices is more widespread than ever, how many of us know truly what happens in those hidden integral circuits underneath the screen of a smartphone or a tablet? Hackpace Festivaletteratura tries to answer this question, filling September with mechanical computers and electronics, logical circuits, Commodore 64 and other wonders of machinery.

Open from 6th - 10th of September, at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Hackspace will be a community space in which one will be able to observe big and little curios, some of which form a part of I.T. history, made available by the Museum of History of I.T. at the University of Verona, and also by some enthusiasts who have witnessed the birth and growth of the computer. However, the surprises don't end there, the interactive part of the installation will also allow you to see in person how microprocessors and transistors work in your devices. Do you have an old, still functioning, but obsolete computer? The Hackspace tech volunteers will take care of it and make it newly (or alternatively) functional, by installing an updated version of Linux for you. You will then have the choice to keep the computer or to lend it for use at the workshops during the festival.

Equally important, there will be the Just do Bit! events spun off from the installation: four theoretical and practical laboratories (each repeated two times a day) which, from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th September will see computer enthusiasts and experts get involved to teach the fundamentals of I.T. All you need to do is sit down and let yourself be guided with a bit of intelligence, good will and a considerable amount of passion for the rudiments of a science that has a few centuries behind it, but many glorious years in front of it.

Here's a list of the events at Santa Maria della Vittoria:

- Thursday 7 (at 10:30 and 16:30): Corrado Bonfanti and Matteo Polettini
COME COSTRUIRE UN CALCOLATORE MECCANICO CON LEGO E BIGLIE
- Friday 8 (at 10:30 and 16:30) - Silvio Henin and Pierluigi Luisi
COME COSTRUIRE I CIRCUITI LOGICI
- Saturday 9 (at 10:30 and 16:30) - Marco Cristanini
COME CHIACCHIERARE CON UN COMMODORE 64
- Sunday 10 (at 10:30 and 16:30) - Stefano Lacaprara

COME DIVENTARE PROGRAMMATORI IN DUE ORE

At Hackspace, perhaps you will not learn how to hack objects in space-time like the protagonist of the irresistible web-movie Kung Fury, but you will certainly be able to discover the true information technician that's inside you and understand what “hacking" really means, much more than those invariable (and improbable) actions from geeks, comedies and spy stories, another which does not denote a healthy and charming scientific practice within reach of all intelligent people.

(caricamento...)