Reinvigorate your inner nerd at this retro-computing exhibit

Modern computer interfaces are swiftly being reduced to glossy touchscreen slabs, distancing us from the inner workings of devices we use every day. Kimon Keramidas, director of the Digital Media Lab at the Bard Graduate Center in New York, is offering a refresher on how we got here by "bringing the clunk back." From the pleasing clack of mechanical keyboards to blister-inducing Atari joysticks, he curated a collection of computing history and put it on display at the school's Focus Gallery in an exhibit called "The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing."

With the help of Bard students and the programming expertise of Jonathan Dahan, Keramidas even resurrected a few classics, giving visitors the chance to go hands-on. We'll have more in-depth coverage about the exhibit and how it came into being, but for now we've put together a virtual tour so you can get your retro fix without delay. There's an interactive web app, too, which surfaces some of the hidden connections between the items in the collection. Guests can join the discussion and provide even more context by adding their own stories on the site about how these devices influenced their lives. The Interface Experience exhibit opens today and will run through July 19th.

[Image: Daniel Orren for Engadget]