For most of the year the museum offers protection of its collections under glass, ancient computer systems, and alternative digital artifacts on living computer systems: Museum + Lab were available for visitors to play games, code, and learn themselves.
Currently, it was on display at the South Seattle museum that would house Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s collection of ancient computer and web technology, and at least some of its pieces will go up for auction.
The museum closed its doors in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and did not reopen.
Located in an industrial-looking beige development on First Road South, the museum first opened in 2012 and was recognized for its hands-on presentations. Allen, an avid collector and philanthropist whose future work also culminated in the founding or backup of such Seattle establishments as the Museum of Pop Culture and Cinerama, died in 2018 from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He had expressed his intention to donate a major part of his wealth by signing a giving agreement in 2010 and later some part of his wealth was auctioned.
The late Rich Alderson, a former senior engineer at the museum, worked intensively with Allen and offered his personal selection of computer systems and mainframe systems at Allen’s company, Vulcan.
Alderson used to be some of the first crowd in the challenge that eventually turned into the museum. Before the museum existed, Allen had a web page called PDPplanet.com, which detailed his selection of mainframes and minicomputers from the Virtual Appliance Company. Allen approached Alderson and his colleagues and asked if they thought crowds would come to the gathering’s physical museum.
Alderson said, “We started exploring that question and in 2008 we changed the name of the website to livingcomputers.org and began the process of turning his personal collection into something that could be displayed in a museum that people could come inside. Can come and touch and use.” ,
The museum opened in October 2012, with tables of ancient computers that could be interacted with, and construction continued for the next 8 years.
In 2016 the museum added a second floor focusing on digital phenomena, self-driving automobiles, robotics and new generation including computer-generated artwork and tracks. The museum also added tutorial laboratories in addition to temporary exhibitions.
Margaret Middleton, a flamboyant clothier, created such stories for the museum in 2017. Her brief performance, “Barbie Gets with the Program”, told a story about women in computing from the nineteen sixties to today using toy computers designed for Barbie dolls and the real machines they operated on. Were completely based.
Middleton wrote in an email to The Seattle Times that the collection was a celebration of femininity, women and laptop engineering, and that Living Computers: Museum + Labs recalled that scene.
Middleton wrote, “The LCM is the only museum client I have worked for that not only allowed visitors to use the collection’s objects but also encouraged them, a real display of confidence in the museum’s visitors who pointed out That the collection was really for them.” “I was sad to see the museum close – it was such an inspiring model.”
Alderson has mixed feelings regarding the finale. He continued painting at the museum until 2020, when it closed due to the pandemic. Alderson said the organization initially planned to reopen in the future, but that did not happen.
“By June 1, 2020, all of us engineers except the engineering manager were laid off. The archivist stayed on for about another year, just completing documentation and so on, and then he was let go,” Alderson noted.
Museum staff were initially told to prepare for a 12 to 18-month shutdown, which Alderson considered changing to a two- to three-year shutdown.
“The heartbreaking thing is that the museum will never reopen,” he said.
It is not yet clear how many or which of the museum’s items will be auctioned. However, one piece of ancient computing equipment that is on display at the market is the museum’s DEC PDP-10: a 1971 KI-10 laptop – one of the laptops on which Allen and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates developed their programming talents. Refined.
Alderson recalled working with Allen and former engineering supervisor Robert Michaels on that laptop before the museum formally opened.
“Paul came sometimes because he could. One evening at 5 o’clock when I was debugging things he came over, and sat down, and the three of us sat there until about 9 o’clock,” Alderson mentioned. “He ordered pizza, and we had a great time debugging.”
Alderson said he was unsure how Allen would feel about the museum’s closing.
Alderson noted, “It was always one of his happy places.” “It’s hard to say how he’ll react.”
public sales are coming back
From computing equipment to historical paperwork, items from Allen’s estate are auctioned off at the 3 nearest Christie’s America locations., In line with the lack of information, the auction will drag out the playing field q4 and focus on other topics:
- First: History of Computing, an online sale on September 12
- Pushing boundaries: Ingenuity going public on September 10
- Over the Horizon: Artworks of Opportunity, a web-based sale on September 12.
The auction includes pieces that highlight Allen’s interests in generation, dimensional exploration, and art, such as a signed letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ed White’s Gemini spacesuit, and Chesley Bonesteel’s painting, “Titan “Saturn as seen”. ,
Christie’s auction venue has held hour-long auctions of Allen’s pieces, including the 2022 auction, which was the region’s most successful single-owner high-quality artwork auction ever, raising $1.62 billion .
Mark Porter, chairperson of Christie’s America, said in an interview with The Times that such auctions allow people to get a glimpse into the mind of a nation’s personalities through their possessions, as well as Allen’s philanthropic efforts. Also respects their needs and death.
“Many of the auctions we present are charitable in nature, and they are some of our best sales,” Porter said. “Honoring the legacy of collectors and the collections that come to us is what we love to do, and I think it’s what we do best.”
When asked about the museum and the decision to equalize the price of its pieces, a representative of Vale Crew, Allen’s company formerly called Vulcan, wrote in a comment to The Times that parts of Allen’s estate The auction honors the honor of the founder. If necessary, loss of life.
The commentary noted, “Paul planned to turn things around after his death and, as we’ve said before, Paul dedicated the bulk of his wealth to philanthropy.” “All estate administration efforts – including the General One auction, from which the estate’s proceeds will be dedicated to philanthropy – are in accordance with Paul’s wishes, his estate plan and fiduciary principles.”
The comment did not specify which charities the proceeds would go to.
According to Vale Crew, one of the museum’s key artefacts was purchased through the non-profit group SDF.org, specifically the museum’s ancient replica artefacts. Emulated methods are fashions of ancient computer systems and operating methods that provide the consumer with methods to run hours as if their device were the device itself.
Christie’s web page recently listed only four pieces in its preview for the auction, and the full catalog is no longer offered. A hyperlink on Christie’s web page allows sign-up for e-mail updates.
It is unknown what will happen to the museum’s other items, including objects and units that were previously donated.
In an email to The Times, Gordon Stimson, a member of the Seattle unfashionable-computing crowd, wrote that others are worried about the opportunity in their donated pieces and unsure whether they will be auctioned. After the announcement, a crowd gathered to touch the museum.
“At least one of our members is trying to get his donated item back for this very reason – no response from the board yet, but it’s been a while.” Stimson wrote.
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