Ranjodh Dhaliwal

(Travel Fellow, 2020-21)

Ranjodh Dhaliwal

Travel Fellow

Rendering: On Graphics, Architectures, and Computational Cultures

Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal is pursuing a PhD in English, with a Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies, at the University of California, Davis. His research lies at the intersections of science and technology studies, critical media theory, and science fiction studies. His dissertation, Rendering, investigates the maps, sketches, plans, and diagrams in the history of computing to ask how ideology becomes computational. Infusing a media-oriented study of computer architecture into the cultural history of computer graphics, this project studies these virtual-material translations and narrates a history of the computer as a rendering machine.

At the Linda Hall Library, Ranjodh will be studying the conversations and debates around early computing architecture by perusing AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) documents from 1950s to 1970s. Additionally, searching for records of early computer graphic system standards, he will also be looking at ANSI documents from the 1970s.