By Faith Talamantez
More than 10 years ago, Writing Program faculty member Patricia Fancher was inspired by Henrick Olsson’s collage art in a museum in New York. The piece centered on Alan Turing, a man famously credited for being one of the early inventors of computers, using different materials found in his archives. Seeing this collage, Fancher recognized the contrasts between both man and machine and body and mind that Turing’s life expressed.
“His life ended up being so much more interesting than I even anticipated,” Fancher said in a recent interview, explaining the early days of her research.
“Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetorics, and Desire in the History of Computing,” by UCSB Writing program faculty member Patricia Fancher.
Now Fancher’s results have recently been published in a book titled “Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetorics, and Desire in the History of Computing,” which explores the role of relationships, sexuality and gender in the computing community during its early years of invention.
Her work was first compiled into a dissertation, but when Fancher began working at UC Santa Barbara in 2014, she knew that there was more to be done.
“What felt like a limitation of the dissertation was that I just had [Alan Turing] as the central figure.” Fancher said. Turing’s story was popularized through the 2014 movie The Imitation Game, which depicted the persecution he experienced throughout his career for being gay, as well as his eventual suicide. Fancher noted that the movie wrongly depicted Turing as lonely and isolated.
She began working on her manuscript, which would go on to examine not only Turing’s life, but also the lives of the women and queer men who supported him. Fancher notes that stories of invention are often problematically told as trials and tribulations overcome by a triumphant lone genius, when the reality is often much more community-based work.
There were a number of women, as well as queer men that Fancher researched alongside Turing, who all played an important role in developing computing and computers.
“By focusing on just him and just his accomplishment, it hides the support structure that is necessary for invention to thrive,” said Fancher. “We only thrive in community.”
Erasing the stories of the communities that have supported invention is harmful, as it removes spaces for creative collaboration, and hides the importance of friendships, she said.
Fancher added that for queer folks specifically, having their networks and communities erased from history creates a vulnerability within the community, and paints them as lonely and sad in an effort to be more palatable for straight people. So, it was crucial for Fancher to be able to bring these stories to life, and create a rounder view of the communities of women and queer men that went into the invention of computing.
A love letter is one of the first forms of AI that was discovered by Writing Program continuing lecturer Patricia Fancher when she researched her book “Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetorics, and Desire in the History of Computing.” Photo by Nicole McCormick
Fancher finished her manuscript at UCSB, and was awarded the Charles Bazerman Endowed Faculty Fellowship for Professional Writing Development in 2023. This fellowship for Writing Program faculty is funded by writing education pioneer Bazerman, a distinguished professor emeritus in the UCSB Gevirtz School of Education. It allowed Fancher to work past the interruptions she faced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had been working on the book since 2019, but then 2020 hit,” she explained.
Given the necessary work of adjusting and redesigning courses for the transition from in-person learning to online, and then slowly moving back in-person, it was hard for Fancher to find time to dedicate to her book.
The Bazerman fellowship gave her an opportunity to take a break from teaching so she could catch up with her manuscript and focus on the editing process, with her editor as well as with peer reviewers. The Bazerman fellowship also gave her time to add to her work.
A photograph of computer pioneer Alan Turing running in a three-mile race at Dorking, England in 1946. Turing Digital Archive, AMT/D/15. 2: image 2–2e
“ChatGPT was introduced one month after I finished the manuscript,” Fancher said. “The editors did allow me to make substantial revisions at that point.”
The surprise of ChatGPT came late in the editing process, but was a necessary inclusion in her book on computing. It allowed Fancher to connect her research into the early years of computing to modern-day advancements. Fancher explained that the first computer generated writing came out in 1952, and was used to create ad lib love letters—a symbolic mixture of computers and emotional expression.
“The way things were back then, is not how they are now,” she said.
Computing was originally seen as women’s work, but its rapid evolution into a lucrative industry increased its attractiveness as a career for all. Fancher says that women and queer people in the computing industry are fundamental, given that they belong to the same communities that invented it. Learning about individuals such as Alan Turing, along with their network of support, advances the importance of community as a part of invention and creativity.
“These historical examples remind us that things were different. The systems and the communities were different. And therefore, they could be again.”
Faith Talamantez is a third year UCSB student majoring in Writing and Literature. She is a Web and Social Media intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.