My writing, performance, and media work are an analysis of Shannon through the lens of media art and science studies. I became interested in Shannons embodiment on the Internet when I did a search for Claude Shannon in the fall of 2002, and found thousands of entries under his name. Why, I wondered, was someone who was so obscure in every day real life (his name is not exactly at everyones lips) so prevalent on the Internet?

Shannon died in February 26, 2001. Perhaps his death became a moment where he was memorialized in the very medium he helped define. I cant help but notice, however, that all the web sites I have seen canonize him and perpetuate a thin history, which hasnt really been examined.

This web site is a critical analysis of that history.

Here are other shannon sightings online: all these make up some of the bits and pieces of the online narrative that makes up Claude E. Shannon in the 21^st Century.

Bell Labs Obituary

http://www.bell-labs.com/news/2001/february/26/1.html

Lucent Technologys web site about Claude Shannon and Information Theory

http://www.lucent.com/minds/infotheory/

MIT Obituary

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2001/shannon.html

Autographs of Computing Giants (including Claude Shannon)

http://www.keller.com/autographs.html

A final note: there are an abundance of Shannon sites with any number of different angles. I advise anyone doing research on Shannon not to take just one source into account. There is always more than one angle on any one history, and that composition of angles makes up the whole picture.

-smiley

November 2003