[tr?id=166148367275777&ev=PageView&noscript=1] #[1]Jacobin

[tr?id=166148367275777&ev=PageView&noscript=1] #[1]Jacobin - Feed

Jacobin

* [2]Subscribe
* [3]Magazine
* [4]Donate
* [5]Catalyst

*
*
*
*

The Lost History of Socialism’s DIY Computer

*
*
* Login
*

* [6]Subscribe
* [7]Back Issues
* [8]Donate
* [9]Store

* [10]Magazine
* [11]Blog
* [12]Catalyst

* [13]About
* [14]Contact Us
* [15]Advertise

____________________ Search Icon

Email ____________________
{{ errors.email }}
Password ____________________
{{ errors.password }}
{{ error }}
Forgot password? (BUTTON) Log in
← Back
Enter email to receive password reset link ____________________
{{ forgot_errors.email }}
{{ forgot_error }}
(BUTTON) Submit
{{ forgot_success }}

[16]Our new issue on infrastructure is out now. Subscribe today to get
it in print!

08.02.2020
* [17]Europe

* [18]Science and Technology
* [19]History

*
*
*
*

The Lost History of Socialism’s DIY Computer

By
[20]Michael Eby

The Galaksija computer was a craze in 1980s socialist Yugoslavia,
inspiring thousands of people to build versions in their own homes. The
idea behind them was simple — to make technology available to everyone.

Voja Antonić and his colleague Jova Regasek (left) putting together the
Galaksija prototype in 1983.

The new issue of Jacobin is out now. [21]Subscribe today and get a
yearlong print and digital subscription.

[22]Did Elites Really Take Over Identity Politics?

[23]John-Baptiste Oduor

[24]Workers in the Sky

[25]Sara Nelson

[26]Crypto Can’t Build a Better Internet

[27]Fraser Watt

[28]When the Mob Tried to Whack Dennis Kucinich

[29]Tim Gill

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a political anomaly.
Ruled by a Communist Party but spurned by the Eastern Bloc following
the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, this [30]federation of six republics was
held together under Tito’s banner of an inter-ethnic, inter-religious,
and international “brotherhood and unity.” Subsequent to its
repudiation by the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia bootstrapped its
geopolitical precarity into a Herculean effort to chart a middle course
between the two world superpowers.

Along with Egypt, Ghana, India, and Indonesia, the country founded the
Non-Aligned Movement, a patchwork of developing nations aspiring to
chart a decolonial “third option” of formal neutrality during the Cold
War. This constituted one of the few genuine anti-authoritarian,
anti-imperial international alliances of the twentieth century.
Yugoslavia’s unique geopolitical situation and its infrastructural
autonomy constituted the fertile ground upon which the seeds of the
country’s national identity were planted.

The fast-track growth of defense stockpiles and industrial facilities
after the war, and especially after Yugoslavia was expelled from the
[31]Cominform in 1948, necessitated nothing less than a logistics
revolution. Robust calculating machinery was essential for the
comprehensive real-time monitoring of vast quantities of commodities in
production and exchange. Moving to fill this demand, a local computing
industry began to bloom.

Dr. Rajko Tomović — a roboticist instrumental to the invention of the
world’s first five-fingered artificial hand — worked alongside teams of
mathematicians and mechanical engineers at the Institute for Nuclear
Sciences, Vinča, and Belgrade’s Telecommunication and Electronics
Institute, Mihajlo Pupin (later the Mihajlo Pupin Institute) to develop
manufacturing techniques using local instruments and local parts. The
rise in living standards throughout the 1960s and 1970s introduced a
need for the ever-more widespread adoption of bookkeeping computers in
bureaucracy. Yugoslavia became a technological pressure cooker,
incubating an idiosyncratic computer culture that flowered due to
intense institutional support.

But computers were expensive. The average price of an Iskradata 1680,
Sinclair ZX81, or Commodore 64 — standard consumer-grade systems, found
across the country’s government offices, accounting firms, and
university science labs — exceeded by many times the monthly salary of
the average Yugoslavian worker. Compounding this hurdle were the tight
restrictions imposed by the country on imports of any item costing
greater than 50 Deutschmarks; that limit was well under the amount
needed to buy an 8-bit microcomputer produced anywhere on the
continent. As a result, throughout the 1970s computer ownership,
experimentation, and programming were the domain of an educated and
well-to-do select few Yugoslavian youths.

Often, members of local art, music, and literary movements like the New
Tendencies, the Novi Val (New Wave), and science fiction scenes would
pool their money in order to collectively acquire a machine.

But Yugoslavia’s cultural tradition of self-taught expertise endured.
While on holiday in Risan, Montenegro in the early 1980s, amateur radio
and digital electronics enthusiast Voja Antonić devised the basic
conceptual schema for an elementary microcomputer. Antonić was already
a reputed engineer; in the past, he had developed Arbitar, an official
timing system used on several Balkan ski contests, as well as an
interface for transferring frames from monochrome monitors to 16 mm
film. On his Montenegrin vacation, Antonić read the application manual
for a new line of single-chip CPUs produced by the RCA Corporation. It
gave him an idea. Rather than using a sophisticated and pricey video
controller, Antonić wondered if it might be possible to construct a
computer whose 64×48 block graphics were wholly generated using just a
cheap Zilog Z80A microprocessor—a CPU readily available in electronics
stores throughout Yugoslavia.

On returning home, Antonić tested his idea, finding it worked nicely.
The effect of his critical intervention was twofold: it reduced the
computer’s overall price and streamlined its design. More importantly
than this, though, was the fact that the schematic was so simple, users
could assemble the computer themselves.

A long-standing commitment to open hardware and open software allowed
Antonić’s invention to ripple across the country. It precipitated a
minor computer revolution, activating a multiplicity of subcultural
actors—programmers, gamers, DJs, musicians, and fanzine collectors—who
each coagulated around his machine’s novel combination of collectivity,
autodidacticism, and technophilia.

Around the time of Antonić’s discovery, Dejan Ristanović—journalist,
computer programmer, and wunderkind of the Rubik’s Cube—wrote a
favorably received article on computing for a Yugoslavian science
fiction and popular science magazine called Galaksija. Shortly after
that article’s publication, Galaksija’s editor-in-chief, Jova Regasek,
received a reader request that the magazine dedicate an issue entirely
to computers. Though initially skeptical, Regasek tasked Ristanović
with spearheading this project. At precisely this time, Antonić was
looking for a place to publish the diagrams for his new DIY “people’s
computer.” Though Antonić had bundles of home computing monthlies like
Elektor from Germany and BYTE from the United States—foreign
publications that were expensive to procure—accessibility was
essential; SAM Magazine in Zagreb was a domestic periodical, but after
a mutual friend connected him with Ristanović, the project found its
home in Galaksija.

The special issue was titled Računari u vašoj kuć i (“Computers in Your
Home”). A thick portion of it was devoted to Antonić’s computer: it
included not solely the diagrams, but also comprehensive instructions
for assembling the circuity, store locations for purchasing makeshift
equipment, mail-order addresses for obtaining built-it-yourself kits,
and channels through which to order accessory parts legally from
abroad. Ristanović and Antonić settled on the naming the project after
the magazine—Galaksija—and no one involved thought that readership for
the issue would exceed Galaksija’s regular print run of 30,000 copies.
But the response was extraordinary: Regasek ended up needing four
reprints to cover the joltingly high demand for each preceding
out-of-print run. Antonić recalls the trio chatting casually one day
before the issue’s release, speculating as to how many readers would
actually try and make a Galaksija; he remembers guessing a maximum of
50 hardcore hobbyists. But, after a total distribution of 120,000
copies, the magazine had received over 8,000 direct letters from
enthusiasts who had built their own Galaksijas.

Oftentimes the very limitations of a technological device are what
allow for its expressive capacities to surface. Antonić’s microcomputer
contained only 4K bytes of program memory — a veritable
drop-in-the-bucket compared to any laptop today. Owing to this
restriction, the system could only display three splendidly playful
one-word error messages: users received a “WHAT?” if their BASIC code
had a syntax error, a “HOW?” if their requested input was
unrecognizable, and a “SORRY” if the machine exceeded its memory
capacity. The 4K EPROM — erasable programmable read-only memory—was
packed so tight that some bytes had to be used for multiple purposes;
through this hack, Antonić says, his firmware now stands as proof that
it is possible to use more than 100% of program memory.

The innards of the machine reflected the social milieu under which it
thrived. No two Galaksijas looked alike: in addition to the organic
imprecision that necessarily accompanies the untried, error-prone
action of neophyte circuit tinkerers, the assembly kits shipped without
a case. This omission became the stimulus for users to get creative;
many designed their own. Individualized designs often reflected the
aesthetic overlap of these new computing revolutionaries with the
subcultures around New Wave and sci-fi. And, like other computers of
the day, cassette tape was Galaksija’s main storage system. While most
other machines would automatically run a program after loading the tape
— a primitive anti-copy protection — Antonić’s commitment to open
source meant that he had no desire to protect anything. After loading a
program, users would have to type a “RUN” command to make it go. That
extra step, though subtle, acted as a deterrent to programmers imposing
any copy protection upon their work; the tape could just as easily be
straightforwardly input as it could be edited or duplicated en masse.
Free play was implicitly encouraged: the sharing, collaboration,
manipulation, and proliferation of software was built into Galaksija’s
very operation.

A computing enthusiast since 1979, Zoran Modli caught wind of Galaksija
after the publication of Computers in Your Home. As host and DJ of
Ventilator 202—a renowned New Wave radio show on Serbia’s Radio Beograd
202 — Modli was something of a minor celebrity in Yugoslavia. This was
the period in which the compact cassette tape had begun to usurp the
12-inch vinyl record as the listening medium of choice for audiophiles;
portable pocket recorders like the Sony Walkman were in the ascendant.
Sensing an opportunity in this media shift, Regasek called Modli one
day in the autumn of 1983 with a pitch for a radically new Ventilator
segment. Because all the day’s computers, including Galaksija, ran
their programs on cassette, Regasek thought Modli might broadcast
programs over the airwaves as audio during his show. The idea was that
listeners could tape the programs off their receivers as they were
broadcast, then load them into their personal machines.

An overnight sensation, this DJing practice quickly became a staple on
Modli’s show. In the ensuing months, Ventilator 202 broadcast hundreds
of computer programs. During the hour, Modli would announce when the
segment was approaching, signaling to his listeners that it was time
for them to fetch their equipment, cue up a tape, and get ready to hit
record. Fans began to write programs with the expressed intention of
mailing them into the station and broadcasting them during the segment.
Those programs included audio and video recordings but also magazines,
concert listings, party promotions, study aids, flight simulators, and
action-adventure games. In the case of games, users would “download”
the programs off the radio and alter them—inserting their own levels,
challenges, and characters—then send them back to Modli for
retransmission. In effect, this was file transfer well before the
advent of the World Wide Web, a pre-internet pirating protocol.

During the mid-1980s, Yugoslavia entered a period of profound political
and social uncertainty; several bloody wars and an economic spiral put
an end to New Wave culture and the vibrant computing scene. By then,
import restrictions and tariffs were relaxed, and Western-made
computers were welcomed into the country by consumers, corporations,
and government bodies alike. For a brief time, pre-assembled versions
of Galaksija were mass manufactured, finding a place in classrooms at
some of Yugoslavia’s high schools and universities. In 1995, Antonić
threw away all five of his personal Galaksija prototypes because by
that point, he laments, simply no one cared.

However, a kind of nostalgia for technological obsolescence has emerged
in recent years, and — in addition to encountering old Galaksijas being
sold on the marketplace dearer than many modern laptops — Antonić was
approached by Belgrade’s Museum of Science and Technology several years
ago to participate in an exhibition of pre-millennium computers. For
the occasion he claims to have scavenged and located a forgotten
Galaksija in his attic, one that sits on display in that museum today.
What’s more, a short while ago Antonić was contacted with a similar
request from the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, a few
hours’ drive from his current home in Pasadena, California.

The reason for this resurgent interest in Galaksija is perhaps due to
the fact that this exciting and little-known episode in
computer-science history is pregnant with counterfactual potential.
Galaksija embodies a destratification of today’s technological
hierarchy, a tacit ideological assertion that computing machinery
should be for the masses, cheap and available to everyone, and that
neither money nor technical know-how need be barriers to entry.
Paralleling the Yugoslavian alternative to the bipolar world order, the
Galaksija saga signals to uninitiated technologists that alternative
modes of practice are possible, paths wholly separate from those of
Western manufacturing overlords like IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard,
or Apple.

In this sense, Antonić’s 1983 schematic was more than just a
build-it-yourself microcomputer. Through its virtual capacities for
connectedness — between its circuitry and components as well as between
the agents and forces that shaped it as a cultural phenomenon —
Galaksija stands tall as a monument to a different kind of
technological life, one teeming with exploration, experimentation, and
communitarian spirit.

Share this article

Facebook Twitter [32]Email

Contributors

Michael Eby is a writer and researcher on contemporary art and digital
culture. He lives in New York.

Filed Under

* [33]Europe

* [34]Science and Technology
* [35]History

* [36]Technology
* [37]Yugoslavia

(BUTTON) Remove Icon

Sign up for our mailing list

____________________

This doesn’t appear to be a valid email.
(BUTTON) Submit

Thanks for signing up! →

[38]Already on our list? Get our print magazine for just $20 a year.

ESC

Select a text size

Small

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a political anomaly.
Ruled by a Communist Party but spurned by the Eastern Bloc following
the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, this federation of six republics was held
together under Tito’s banner of an inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and
international “brotherhood and unity.” Subsequent to its repudiation by
the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia […]

Medium

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a political anomaly.
Ruled by a Communist Party but spurned by the Eastern Bloc following
the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, this federation of six republics was held
together under Tito’s banner of an inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and
international “brotherhood and unity.” Subsequent to its repudiation by
the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia […]

Large

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a political anomaly.
Ruled by a Communist Party but spurned by the Eastern Bloc following
the 1948 Tito–Stalin split, this federation of six republics was held
together under Tito’s banner of an inter-ethnic, inter-religious, and
international “brotherhood and unity.” Subsequent to its repudiation by
the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia […]

Further Reading

[39]In These Stunning Images, Ordinary Yugoslav Partisans Captured Their
Revolution on Camera

* [40]Davor Konjikušić

[41]How Yugoslavia’s Partisans Built a New Socialist Society

* [42]Gal Kirn

[43]Smartphones Aren’t the Problem — Capitalism Is

* [44]Nicole Aschoff

[45]The Life and Death of Yugoslav Socialism

* [46]James Robertson

* [47]Subscribe
* [48]Donate

The new issue of Jacobin is out now. [49]Subscribe today and get a
yearlong print and digital subscription.

A journal of theory and strategy published by Jacobin

Sign up for our mailing list

____________________

Invalid email address
(BUTTON) Submit
Thanks for signing up!

* [50]Catalyst
* [51]About Us
* [52]Contact Us
* [53]Advertise
* [54]Privacy Policy
* © 2022

References

Visible links
1. https://jacobin.com/feed/
2. https://jacobin.com/subscribe
3. https://jacobin.com/issue/infrastructure
4. https://jacobin.com/donate
5. http://catalyst-journal.com/
6. https://jacobin.com/subscribe
7. https://jacobin.com/storeissues
8. https://jacobin.com/donate
9. https://jacobin.com/store
10. https://jacobin.com/issue/infrastructure
11. https://jacobin.com/blog
12. http://catalyst-journal.com/
13. https://jacobin.com/about
14. https://jacobin.com/contact
15. https://jacobin.com/advertise
16. https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=INFRASTRUCTURE
17. https://jacobin.com/location/europe
18. https://jacobin.com/category/science-technology
19. https://jacobin.com/category/history
20. https://jacobin.com/author/michael
21. https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=INFRASTRUCTURE
22. https://jacobin.com/2022/05/elite-capture-identity-politics-philosophy-olufemi-taiwo
23. https://jacobin.com/author/john-baptiste-oduor
24. https://jacobin.com/2022/06/workers-in-the-sky
25. https://jacobin.com/author/sara-nelson
26. https://jacobin.com/2022/06/crypto-cant-build-a-better-internet
27. https://jacobin.com/author/fraser-watt
28. https://jacobin.com/2022/06/when-the-mob-tried-to-whack-dennis-kucinich
29. https://jacobin.com/author/tim-gill
30. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/yugoslavia-tito-market-socialism
31. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cominform
32. https://jacobin.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#457a3630272f20263178112d2065092a3631650d2c36312a373c652a2365162a262c24292c3628a7c5dc3665010c1c65062a28353031203763272a213c782d313135367f6a6a2f24262a272c2b6b262a286a777577756a757d6a262a283530312037683c30222a362924332c2468222429242e362c2f2468332a2f2468242b312a2b2c26
33. https://jacobin.com/location/europe
34. https://jacobin.com/category/science-technology
35. https://jacobin.com/category/history
36. https://jacobin.com/tag/technology
37. https://jacobin.com/tag/yugoslavia
38. https://jacobin.com/subscribe/?code=ONTHELIST
39. https://jacobin.com/2020/07/yugoslavia-partisan-photography-red-light
40. https://jacobin.com/author/davor-konjikusic
41. https://jacobin.com/2020/06/yugoslavia-tito-market-socialism
42. https://jacobin.com/author/gal-kirn
43. https://jacobin.com/2020/03/smartphone-society-excerpt-social-media-tech-companies
44. https://jacobin.com/author/nicole-m-aschoff
45. https://jacobin.com/2017/07/yugoslav-socialism-tito-self-management-serbia-balkans
46. https://jacobin.com/author/james-robertson
47. https://jacobin.com/subscribe
48. https://jacobin.com/donate
49. https://jacobinmag.com/subscribe/?code=INFRASTRUCTURE
50. http://catalyst-journal.com/
51. https://jacobin.com/about
52. https://jacobin.com/contact
53. https://jacobin.com/advertise
54. https://jacobin.com/privacy

Hidden links:
56. https://jacobin.com/
57. https://jacobin.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#102f6365727a7573642d447875305c7f636430587963647f6269307f7630437f7379717c79637df29089633054594930537f7d606564756236727f74692d78646460632a3f3f7a71737f72797e3e737f7d3f222022203f20283f737f7d60656475623d6965777f637c716679713d77717c717b63797a713d667f7a713d717e647f7e7973
58. https://jacobin.com/
59. https://jacobin.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#96a9e5e3f4fcf3f5e2abc2fef3b6daf9e5e2b6deffe5e2f9e4efb6f9f0b6c5f9f5fff7faffe5fb74160fe5b6d2dfcfb6d5f9fbe6e3e2f3e4b0f4f9f2efabfee2e2e6e5acb9b9fcf7f5f9f4fff8b8f5f9fbb9a4a6a4a6b9a6aeb9f5f9fbe6e3e2f3e4bbefe3f1f9e5faf7e0fff7bbf1f7faf7fde5fffcf7bbe0f9fcf7bbf7f8e2f9f8fff5
60. http://catalyst-journal.com/
61. https://jacobin.com/