Tomorrow, Today

2024
Digital video with sound
8 minutes

Tomorrow, Today juxtaposes 1950s product promotional films from appliance and computer manufacturers with original footage of the all-female programming team of ENIAC, one of the world's first computers. Touting "efficiency," "accuracy," "convenience," "control," "automation," and "progress," narrators from both the appliance and computer promotional films promise to deliver the world of "tomorrow, today." Meanwhile, the dominance of women in the technology industry was poised to decline as post-war society pushed them back into the domestic sphere, calling into question what constitutes "women's work." Tomorrow, Today was commissioned for a solo exhibition at the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum in 2024.

Music/sound by Nathan Melsted.
Early computer footage courtesy of the Computer History Museum.