Georgia Magazine - June 2023 - 26

Around GEORGIA
Longtime volunteer " Typewriter Tom " Rehkopf often brings vintage typewriters
from his personal collection for special hands-on exhibits. At right is one of only
300 remaining Enigma coding machines from World War II.
Continued from page 25
traces the development of technology over human history.
The timeline, which won a 2021 Indigo Design Award, a global
graphic-design contest, is a pictorial history of major technological
developments and how they connect to art, pop culture,
computing and games. Aerospace and transportation developments
soar across the top of the wall-mounted display, while
" heroes and sheroes " from toys and games are at floor level to
delight the littlest visitors.
Because there is so much to see and read, there are plans to
publish the information digitally and in book form, says Elaine
Pelaia, the museum's director of operations.
Complementing the timeline are physical artifacts that
will bring back memories for many visitors, including transistor
radios, old calculators, a View-Master, a Speak & Spell toy and
early digital devices such as Commodore 64 and Radio Shack
TRS-80 computers, an Atari 2600 and a Nintendo Game Boy.
A Hayes modem on display has a button that plays its screeching
connection sound-something that Pelaia says fascinates
children and causes adults to cringe in remembrance.
Across the room, similar interactions play out in the Retro
Gaming Corner, where players can brush up on arcade, Atari
and Nintendo classics such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
" We have benches there where we thought the parents
would sit and watch their kids play, " Pelaia says. " But what we
see is kids sitting there watching their parents. "
26 Georgia Magazine June 2023
The museum frequently invites guests to try out the old
punch-card technology that was used to keep records
and process data in the 20th century.
History and art
The CMoA puts a focus on the " arts " aspect of STEAM,
working pieces of art into all exhibit areas, including a painting
of Seymour Cray, the father of supercomputing, and an original
print of Andy Warhol's " Moonwalk " in the Apollo 11 exhibit.
Along the museum's back wall is a complete collection of
BYTE magazine covers. Pelaia noted that the earliest covers
of the magazine, which was published from 1975 to 1998,
featured original art, while covers in the early 1990s showcased
photographs, reflecting the publication's shift from a hobbyist
magazine to a business journal. Two original illustrations by
artist Robert Tinney hang next to the covers that featured them.
One highlight of the museum is a 1936 Enigma machine
in near-perfect condition. The Enigma was used by the
Germans in World War II to encode communications
between military leaders. Historians believe that if British
codebreakers-led by mathematician and computer scientist
Alan Turing-had not broken the code, the war would have
lasted for several more years.
" We have one of 300 remaining Enigma machines still
in existence, " Pelaia says. " It represents the beginnings of
cybersecurity. "
More than 70 supercomputers are on display, including a
Pixar Image Computer and one of the largest collections of Cray
supercomputers in the world. Youngblood says many visitors
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Georgia Magazine - June 2023

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