Evolution

<p>Scripting involves an ambiguity. First it indicates a directive as in the commands of scripture; or in the disappointment that an apparently spontaneous happening was in fact scripted. This engages a familiar outlook on computing: code is language operating in a prescriptive register. Additionally however scripting also hints towards the materiality of graphic inscription such as the traces expressed in the written form of a manuscript. The</p><p>history of computing presented here is situated at the joints of these two senses. Working between them prompts an archaic image of the computer far removed from advanced technologies of electronic machinery. It instead suggests its deep historical heritage in clerical labor affording a perspective on computation as a manual incorporated and lived activity-that is as the product of scribes.</p>