Dr. Daniela Zetti

The Materiality of Information. History of scientific computer centres and networks

In 2019, I began source-based research into the materiality of the digital with the exploratory study Digital Federalism. The early history of SWITCH and CSCS Manno (1985-1995). Two research teams investigated the early history and co-evolution of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Manno, Ticino, and of the Swiss network for higher education and research (SWITCH) from 1985 to 1995. Results show that the development of (super-)computing and communication is closely connected to changes in academia and public administration by the end of the 20th century.

The two research teams published a special issue on “Digital Federalism” for the Journal of Swiss History. It explores the history of concepts, practices and projects coming from scientific research and public administration that transformed and shaped computer-based communication.

The study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation's (SNF) Digital Lives initiative (fall 2018 – spring 2020). It represented a research collaboration between the IMeG Institute of Media and Journalism at USI Università della Svizzera italiana and the Chair for the History of Technology at ETH Zurich.

Project partners were: Swiss National Supercomputing Centre, Swiss Federal Archives and ETH Scientific IT Services.

My recent research on the topic:

• Felix Mauch, Daniela Zetti: Infrastructuring Flows: Logistics and Networking across Time and Space. In: Christoph Brunner, Mathias Denecke, Beate Ochnser (eds.): Infrastructures of Sense-Making. Techniques, Powers, Operations. Lüneburg: meson press 2025 (forthcoming).
• Herzog né Hoffmann, Christian, Robin Preiss, Daniela Zetti: Digital Sovereignty as an ill-structured (or wicked?) problem. In: Kox, Thomas, André Ulrich and Herbert Zech: Uncertain Journeys into digital futures. Proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2024. Baden-Baden 2024 (forthcoming).
• Friedman, Michael, Daniela Zetti: Paper(s) as a Carrier of Thought. Introduction. In: Special Issue of Technikgeschichte no. 3 (2024) 201-220. doi.org/10.5771/0040-117X-2024-3
• Zetti, Daniela. “Quantum Computing as Imagined Infrastructure.” Technology and Culture 65, no. 4 (2024), 1323–1334. muse.jhu.edu/article/940472