An Annotated List of Alan Turing Year Resources

The useful list of resources below is provided to help organisers of Alan Turing Year activities. The list is growing all the time. If you have information to help to improve its usefulness, please send further information, comments etc. to: pmt6sbc @ leeds.ac.uk

• Andrew Hodges: Mathematical physicist, authoritative writer and speaker on the life and work of Turing. Author of biography Alan Turing: the enigma. Maintains the Alan Turing Home Page, which contains a huge amount of Turing-related information supplementing what is given on this list. Will be much in demand as a speaker on Turing in 2012, but will need to limit commitments due to ongoing research projects. Has already agreed to speak at CiE 2012: Turing Centenary Conference in Cambridge.


• Jack Copeland: Philosopher, speaker, writer, has written/edited a number of books and articles on Turing. Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing, an extensive online archive. Always an interesting and extremely knowlegeable, if at times provocative, speaker. One of his planned ATY events is ACE 2012, successor to the ACE 2000 conference which was the basis for his book Alan Turing's Automatic Computing Engine: The Master Codebreaker's Struggle to Build the Modern Computer.


• Bletchley Park: Important historical connections to Turing, cryptanalysis and the history of the computer, packed with interesting reminders of its World War II decryption history. Hosts the National Museum of Computing. A prime venue for conference and personal Turing-connected trips. Also hosts meetings for up to around 100 participants. Bletchley will be a very busy place in 2012, so the advice is to book your conference trip or event early.


• Sue Black: Founder of the Saving Bletchley Park campaign, and of BCSWomen. Here is a link to a video of one of her talks, given at Europython 2009, with Simon Greenish, Director of Bletchley Park, speaking first. And here is Sue's interview with Aleks Krotoski at the Guardian's Tech Weekly about the successful campaign to buy the Max Newman collection of Turing's papers for their new home at Bletchley Park. Also Sue interviewed on Radio 5 Outriders, and the Europython 2009 Keynote Speech on Bletchley Park given by Simon Greenish (ex- director of Bletchley Park) and Sue (thanks to Mark Cotton for edits).


• Matthew C. Applegate: Musician and researcher into the sound capabilities of computers. Recently performed at Bletchley Park, to standing room only, his composition Obsolete?, using the sounds of the Colossus and other early computing machines. Obsolete? was commissioned by The National Museum of Computing, and supported by the Performing Rights Society Foundation.
  
  A number of musicians have made Turing-influenced recordings:

  • From Newcastle, Mammal Club have "Double Double" (words), introduced by Tom Robinson on his BBC6music show as being about Alan Turing.
  • Baltimore experimental duo Matmos have a tour-only 3" CD For Alan Turing - hopefully re-available for 2012 (see also).
  • Unfortunately Skyscraper, of Song for Alan Turing, broke up in the late 1990s.



• David Link: Artist, theorist, programmer. Maintains the homepage of his Manchester Mark I emulator which currently runs Christopher Strachey's Loveletters program from 1952 in its original form. To quote Andrew Hodges "he is a wonderful presenter as well as a tireless investigator". And here is a clip from a 2004 joint concert by David Link, FM Einheit and Jamie Lidell "ECHOHCE".


• Jonathan Swinton: Maintains an informative website on Alan Turing and morphogenesis. Can speak entertainingly on the topic, as he did at Turing 2004: A celebration of his life and achievements.


• S. Barry Cooper: Lectures and writes on Turing's seminal work on classical computability, including his work related to incomputability and its consequences for how the real world computes. Talked on The Incomputable Alan Turing at Turing 2004: A celebration of his life and achievements. Here is a rather different version, delivered to an audience of 370 at the Courtauld Lecture, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, at the Royal Northern College of Music in February, 2011. He is author of the standard text Computability Theory, and President of the Association Computability in Europe.


• Dennis A. Hejhal: Researcher and lecturer in areas away from the more traditional Turing areas, but his Turing overlap comes in along the avenue of zeta functions and such. And it is his nice article Turing: A Bit Off the Beaten Path in the Mathematical Intelligencer which guarantees his place on this list. This article was edited by Dirk Huylebrouck, who has written and done radio interviews arising from it - and has provided these examples of Turing coverage outside the English speaking world: 1 (in Dutch), 2 (in French), 3 (in Dutch again).


• Solomon Feferman: Ex-student of Alfred Tarski and winner of the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy for 2003, Sol Feferman is a key figure in the proof-theoretic developments arising from Turing's famous 1939 paper. Sol's article Turing in the land of 0(z) (in The Universal Turing Machine. A Half-century Survey, pp. 113-147, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1988) gives a good introduction to his take on Turing. An excellent and thoughtful speaker, of course.


• Christof Teuscher: Author, editor, speaker. Edited the important Springer collection of articles: Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker , and authoritative writer on Turing's Connectionism: An Investigation of Neural Network Architectures. An interesting and lively speaker.


• David Anderson: Researcher, writer and lecturer on the early history of the computer -- particularly concerning the work to build a computer at the University of Manchester immediately after the end of WWII. Has led the development of the Newman Digital Archive, and worked on the Turing Archive for the History of Computing.


• Robert I. Soare: Leading instigator of the movement to reconnect classical computaility theory with Turing's wide-ranging concern with issues of computability in the real world. The new version of his graduate text, now entitled Computability Theory and Applications is expected to appear in the new CiE/Springer series Theory and Applications of Computability in the run-up to the Turing Centenary celebrations. Author of a number of carefully researched articles on the History and Concept of Computability, with plenty of Turing relevance. Unique lecturing style.


• The Colonnade Hotel: On Sunday 23 June, 1912, Alan Turing was born in Warrington Lodge, a nursing home in Paddington, now refurbished as the Colonnade Hotel. On what would have been Turing's 86th birthday, 23 June 1998, an official Blue Plaque was unveiled there by Turing's biographer, Andrew Hodges.
  In 1935 the hospital was converted into The Esplanade Hotel. Sigmund Freud stayed at the hotel during the summer of 1938 when he was renovating his house in Hampstead.
  Here is the Colonnade brochure.


• Turing's Descendants: Turing had just one PhD student, Robin Gandy, but through Robin has over 100 academic descendants. These include quite a number who can be expected to give interesting talks or writings related to Turing and his legacy - a very partial list (mainly TCAC members): Martin Hyland, Jeff Paris, Philip Welch, Mike Yates, Andrew Pitts, S. Barry Cooper.


• Simon Singh: Author, journalist and TV producer, specialising in science and mathematics. Proud owner of an Enigma machine, which he does lend - see The Enigma Project. And he will give occasional lectures, particularly related to his book The Code Book - The Secret History of Codes and Code Breaking. See his page on the Turing Memorial, and some clips of Simon explaining how the Enigma machine worked.


• John Graham-Cumming: John's petition to No. 10 did more than anything else, and well beyond the UK too, to raise the profile of Turing and draw attention to the Turing Centenary - see his piece in the New Scientist. The promptness and obvious sincerity of the apology to Turing from the Prime Minister only added momentum to the drive for better recognition of Turing's achievements and scientific legacy. We believe that John's initiative and celebrity - he has been doing a great job for Turing in the media - gives him a valuable role in the run-up to 2012.


• Stephen Kettle: Sculptor Stephen Kettle's interest in Alan Turing is brilliantly expressed in his Bletchley Park sculpture of the great man. The one and a half ton life-size statue is made of around half a million individual pieces of Welsh slate, and has attracted a lot of media attention, being featured on a Royal Mail stamp. Stephen is often happy to talk about the thoughts and processes involved in creating his unique work.

  There are, around the world, other artistic commemorations of Turing. For instance, there is the Alan Turing Memorial in Sackville Park, Manchester, by sculptor Glyn Hughes. And there is (see left) the sculpture honoring Turing by sculptor Wayne Chabre, about three feet high, adorning the Computer Science building at the University of Oregon. See more info. from Professor Eugene Luks.
  And there is a large statue of Turing (also left) at the University of Surrey, in Guildford, where Turing's parents lived.
  A painting by Ingrid Zamecnikova from Bratislava, is planned to become a permanent feature of the reconstructed entrance hall of the computer science building of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) from 2012. See the old TCAC Arts and Culture Subcommittee page for other Turing-related images.



• Julian Wagstaff: Composer Julian Wagstaff has written The Turing Test, a chamber opera for 6 voices and 12 musicians. The opera received its first performance on 15th August 2007 as part of a five-night sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The premiere production was cited as a cultural highlight of 2007 by the novelist Alexander McCall Smith in the Daily Telegraph's review of the year. View an excerpt on YouTube. Expect a revival of the opera during the Turing Centenary!


• SALERO Project and the Crucible Studio: SALERO, co-funded by the European Union through the IST programme under FP6 until 2009, was responsible for the Crucible Studio and Helsinki Skaala Opera multimedia Turing Machine opera, based on the life of Alan Turing, and premiered in Helsinki in April 2008; and also for the Turing Enigma chatterbot, whereby "the user can play the role of the cryptologist and engage in discussions with Alan Turing's spirit". For 2012 Crucible plans, contact Mika Tuomola or Tea Stolt. The Turing Machine opera received rave reviews in Finland, and is available for touring in the lead-up to 2012 - contact producer Aija Kelly at Opera Skaala.


• Barry Truax is a composer, and Professor at Simon Fraser University teaching acoustic communication and electroacoustic composition, and specializing in real-time implementations of granular synthesis, often of sampled sounds, and soundscapes. He created Cambridge Street Records in 1985. 2010 saw the world premier in Vancouver of his composition Enigma, The Life and Death of Alan Turing, a music theatre piece in five scenes, written for three singers, a dancer, and six-channel electroacoustic soundscape. He is open to proposals for Alan Turing Year performances.


• Dirk Rijmenants' Cipher Machine Simulations: Dirk maintains a webpage of well-researched historical and technical information about crypto machines, cryptology and free software simulations. There are high-quality images, and - the main Turing interest - a superb collection of information on the Enigma Machine, including a history page, and a free downloadable Enigma Simulator.


• Jin Wicked: Jin is a very creative graphic artist from Houston, Texas, who has given us a by-now famous image of Alan Turing (click on it to see a larger version):

  Jin has agreed to non-commercial use of her work for the Alan Turing Year. So feel free to download and use the jpeg file in connection with the 2012 centenary, but please do not amend the image in any way (except for resizing), and keep the signature. You might even credit her, link to her webpage, and donate at her Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break page.

  See the article Alan Turing's Life in a Print by Jin Wicked by Andrew Hodges for more information about Jin and her Turing graphic.



• Daniel Rogers: We have the UK artist Danny Rogers to thank for this fine new portrait of Alan Turing (click on it to see a larger version, 1.5MB):
  Danny has agreed to non-commercial use of his work for the Alan Turing Year. So feel free to download and use the jpeg file in connection with the 2012 centenary, but please do not amend the image in any way (except for resizing). The image should be accompanied by the mention of the permission of the artist for the Alan Turing Year, and "© Daniel Rogers".
  Here is another portrait of Turing (1.5MB) by Danny.
  Prints of Danny's work are available from the Printree Gallery. Originals can be purchased via his current promoter Art Traffic. The artist's own online gallery.


• Online Turing program simulations: There is a wide range of online incarnations of Turing programs. Here are a few caught our attention:
  • Mike Davey's A Turing Machine - In the Classic Style - to be found all over the web ...
  • The Turing Tiles of Ghica and Peter van Emde Boas
  • The Lego Turing Machine from Lego of Doom
  • From artist Roman Verostko we have A Universal Turing Machine Self Portrait - which was later followed by The Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine
  • And - a whole extensive topic in itself - there are the chatterbots, many online, with their practical approach to passing the Turing Test - supported by competitions such as The Chatterbot Challenge and the Loebner Prize competition


• Turing in literature: Many examples, just a selection:
  • Top of the list, of course, is Hugh Whitemore's play Breaking the Code - see The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook page
  • From leading computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou we have Turing (A Novel about Computation) - here's a review from American Scientist
  • Greg Egan's Oracle describes an alternate history featuring Alan Turing and C. S. Lewis (with Greg Egan making a cameo appearance as the young friend "who turned out to have a PhD in algebraic geometry from Cambridge") renamed and re-imagined
  • More to follow ...


• Films related to Turing: The best list is available via the Oslo Turing Centenary Film Series webpage - here is their list, with links to their descriptions and details of how to obtain copies for purchase or rental:
  • Breaking the Code
  • Enigma Secret
  • Decoding Nazi Secrets
  • The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing
  • Enigma
  • The Secret Life of Chaos
  • Decoding Alan Turing (N. American distribution by Frameline - see the director Christopher Racster's webpage)
  • Breaking the Codes: Rise Of Enigma / Triumph Of The Codebreakers (available on Amazon)
  


• Stephen Wolfram, author of A New Kind of Science, is developer of the computer algebra system Mathematica, and is co-founder and majority shareholder in Wolfram Research. Stephen Wolfram's interest in and support for the Alan Turing Year can be seen in his 2010 Turing birthday blog, and his own research carries forward the Turing legacy in a number of ways. Wolfram Research are actively supporting various Turing Centenary events.
  Stephen has plans to visit the UK in 2012, and event organisers are encouraged to contact him directly with speaking invitations. His talks often feature fascinating screen displays and simulations of emergent phenomena, latter-day expressions of the Turing tradition.


• 20th Century Cypher machines: Enigma and Friends offers a broader picture of 20th Century Cypher machines. Collector John Alexander provides talks and presentations based around cypher machines that he brings with him on the day. He can also help with loans of machines for exhibitions.
  John will be speaking at the International Cryptologic Symposium in Charlotte, North Carolina, March 22-24, 2012, and offering some views of his Crypto equipment.
  Contact details for John here.


• The Turing Archive in King's College, Cambridge: The Turing Digital Archive is an invaluable source of mainly unpublished personal papers and photographs of Alan Turing from 1923-1972. But there is nothing to compare with visiting the actual Turing archive at King's and looking at the originals. It is a unique experience to see and touch Turing's original paper and ink, and there might even be something which was missed in the scanning.
  If you want to visit the archive to consult the material you would need to book an appointment. They are open Mon-Thurs 9.30-12.30 and 1.30-5.15, and closed Fridays. To visit the archive, if you've never visited before, you need to take either a letter of introduction from your department and one piece of photo ID, OR two pieces of photo ID.
  Contact: Tracy Wilkinson, Assistant Archivist - tracy.wilkinson @ kings.cam.ac.uk


• Simon Lavington is editor of an authoritative new BCS book on Alan Turing and His Contemporaries: Building the world's first computers. Simon's speciality is the history of British computers from 1945 - 1965, and he is available for talks based on the new Turing book.
  Another unique book of Simon's which is worth tracking down is his A History of Manchester Computers - originally published by the BCS, it is a fascinating glimpse into a bygone world - in which not all the big ideas were mathematical.