Ele Willoughby, PhD
Work in progress on a commissioned scientist portrait: polymath Claude Elwood Shannon (1916 – 2001). A mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the “father of information theory,” he did a wild variety of things. Because of his impact on information theory, and the application of Boolean algebra including some binary in my portrait was important. His master’s thesis in electrical engineering showed that we could use electrical circuits to 🧵
Apr 4 at 1:39pmWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD1d ago
encode Boolean algebra and construct any logical numerical relationship. This is how digital circuits and computers encode everything they do as zeroes and ones. Rather than a random sequence I made the 0s and 1s the standard ASCII codes for his name (though some of the digits are obscured by his head). The binary alludes to his mathematics, computer science and information theory so I also wanted to represent some of his hands on engineering and the playfulness in his work. So… 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD1d ago

I included the maze, and the electromechanical mouse Theseus (named after the Ancient Greek hero who found his way out of the labyrinth)! With his wife Betty, he built this learning machine in 1950. Theseus was built to search through the adjustable maze for a target, then successfully re-find the target is placed at any position in the maze. This whimsically named mouse was the first artificial learning device.

#linocut #printmaking #sciart #histsci #compsci 🧵3/3