The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Digital pioneers will finally be celebrated
Event will look at how Dundee women played huge role in home computer boom
Dundee’s pivotal role in the home computing boom of the 1980s will be celebrated at an open air extravaganza in Camperdown Park next month.
Developed by Sir Clive Sinclair, the humble ZX Spectrum may be primitive by today’s standards but helped popularise home computing across the UK.
In Dundee, where they were made, they helped inspire a generation of game makers who would help turn the city into the international hub of game design it has become.
The first computer made at the former Timex factory was the ZX81 but it was the two models that followed it – the ZX Spectrum 16k and 48k – that captured the public’s imagination.
Spectrums were made in Dundee until the company was sold to Amstrad in 1986 and production transferred abroad.
A unique digital art project will catalogue the memories and experiences of the army of Dundee women behind the legendary computers.
Abertay University researcher Mona Bozdog is coordinating Generation ZX(X), which will feature hours of interviews with 11 female former factory workers, geo-tagged around the city’s Camperdown Park.
Beginning at Camperdown House, participants can walk around the park using a mobile phone app to listen to clips at specific locations.
The evening promenade on Friday May 4 is part of an ongoing research project that investigates the connections between performance and video games.
It has been timed to coincide with this year’s 25th anniversary of the Timex strikes – one of the most important moments in Dundee’s industrial heritage.
Starting at 7.30pm, the walk will take around an hour, culminating in an event at the former Timex factory, now owned by JTC Furniture Group, on nearby Harrison Road, where archive pictures and footage donated by the McManus Museum, DCT Media and STV will be projected on to the side of the building.
The projections will include vintage pictures from within the factory, longlost snaps from staff nights out and film footage of a visit to Timex from Sir Clive Sinclair to mark the manufacturing of the one millionth ZX Spectrum computer.
A series of games related to the Timex story will be available to play on site in classic arcade-style cabinets, created by Abertay University staff and a student team, Retrospect Games (see left).
Mona said the production of the ZX Spectrum at Timex played a vital role in the birth of Dundee’s games industry.
She added: “The women of Timex who brought us those computers are the hidden figures of the games industry.
“When you walk to the former Timex Camperdown building there is nothing at all that attests that this legendary computer which marked the beginning of the UK’s home computers scene was made there.
“And it was built by these incredible, hard-working women, most of whom never realised what an impact they have made on Dundee’s video games development and education scene.
“I just wanted this project to be a thank-you, from our generation to the women of Timex who, through their labour, contributed to Dundee’s future in video games.”
In addition to input from former workers, Mona recorded a series of interviews with today’s games industry legends to accompany the projection displays.
At the end of the event programme there will be choir performances from female Dundee singing groups, organised by Alice Marra.
Tickets are available at eventbrite. co.uk/e/generation-zxx-tickets