Benedict de Spinoza: A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works (1994)

This anthology of the work of Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) presents the text of Spinoza’s masterwork, the Ethics, in what is now the standard translation by Edwin Curley. Also included are selections from other works by Spinoza, chosen by Curley to make the Ethics easier to understand, and a substantial introduction that gives an overview of Spinoza’s life and the main themes of his philosophy. Perfect for course use, the Spinoza Reader is a practical tool with which to approach one of the world’s greatest but most difficult thinkers, a passionate seeker of the truth who has been viewed by some as an atheist and by others as a religious mystic.

The anthology begins with the opening section of the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, which has always moved readers by its description of the young Spinoza’s spiritual quest, his dissatisfaction with the things people ordinarily strive for–wealth, honor, and sensual pleasure–and his hope that the pursuit of knowledge would lead him to discover the true good. The emphasis throughout these selections is on metaphysical, epistemological, and religious issues: the existence and nature of God, his relation to the world, the nature of the human mind and its relation to the body, and the theory of demonstration, axioms, and definitions. For each of these topics, the editor supplements the rigorous discussions in the Ethics with informal treatments from Spinoza’s other works.

Edited and translated by Edwin M. Curley
Publisher Princeton University Press, 1994
ISBN 0691000670, 9780691000671
280 pages

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#public_life: Digitale Intimität, die Privatsphäre und das Netz (2011) [German]

Immer mehr Menschen äußern sich im Internet nicht nur zu politischen Fragen, sondern auch zu ihrem Konsumverhalten oder ihren sexuellen Vorlieben, sie zeigen das Innere und Äußere ihrer Wohnung, lassen uns an den kleinen und großen Dingen ihres Lebens teilhaben. Gleichzeitig wird es durch die entsprechende Software immer leichter, Nutzerprofile zu erstellen, die den Menschen durchsichtig machen und marktförmig. So oder so: Die Grenzen zwischen dem Privaten und dem Öffentlichen verschwimmen, die Sphären durchdringen einander. Bleiben bei diesem Prozess die Persönlichkeitsrechte und das Politische auf der Strecke?

Die Beiträge im vorliegenden Sammelband #public_life untersuchen vor dem Hintergrund der digitalen Drift die Bedeutung von Privatheit und Öffentlichkeit heute. Die Gegensätzlichkeit der Positionen, die an Privatsphäre und Kontrollanspruch festhalten oder das Zeitalter von Post-Privacy ausrufen, scheuen sie dabei nicht.

Mit Beiträgen u. a. von Clive Thompson, Danah Boyd, Helen Nissenbaum, Daniel J. Solove, Malte Spitz, M. Ryan Calo, Francesca Schmidt, Jan Schallaböck und Michael Seemann.

Editor: Simon Edwin Dittrich
Publisher: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, Berlin, April 2011
Schriften zu Bildung und Kultur series, Nr. 8
ISBN 978-3-86928-052-3
128 pages
Licensed under Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE

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Lisa Gitelman, Geoffrey B. Pingree (eds.): New Media, 1740-1915 (2003)

Reminding us that all media were once new, this book challenges the notion that to study new media is to study exclusively today’s new media. Examining a variety of media in their historic contexts, it explores those moments of transition when new media were not yet fully defined and their significance was still in flux. Examples range from familiar devices such as the telephone and phonograph to unfamiliar curiosities such as the physiognotrace and the zograscope. Moving beyond the story of technological innovation, the book considers emergent media as sites of ongoing cultural exchange. It considers how habits and structures of communication can frame a collective sense of public and private and how they inform our apprehensions of the “real.” By recovering different (and past) senses of media in transition, New Media, 1740-1915 promises to deepen our historical understanding of all media and thus to sharpen our critical awareness of how they acquire their meaning and power.

Contributors:
Wendy Bellion, Erin C. Blake, Patricia Crain, Ellen Gruber Garvey, Lisa Gitelman, Geoffrey B. Pingree, Gregory Radick, Laura Burd Schiavo, Katherine Stubbs, Diane Zimmerman Umble, Paul Young.

Publisher MIT Press, 2003
Media in Transition series
ISBN 0262072459, 9780262072458
271 pages

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Therese Tierney: Abstract Space: Beneath the Media Surface (2007)

This visually stunning, conceptually rich and imaginative book investigates the cultural connection between new media and architectural imaging. Through a range of material, from theoretical texts to experimental design projects, Tierney explores notions of what the architectural image means today.

Within the book’s visually imaginative design framework, Abstract Space engages discourses from architecture, visual and cultural studies to computer science and communications technology to present an in-depth multi-media case study. Tracing a provisional history of the topic, the book also lends a provocative and multivalent understanding to the complex relations affecting the architectural image today.

Publisher Routledge, 2007
ISBN 0415415101, 9780415415101
208 pages

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Andrew Barry: Political Machines: Governing a Technological Society (2001)

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kuda.org (eds.): The Continuous Art Class, The Novi Sad Neo-avant garde of the 1960’s and 1970’s (2005) [Serbian/English]

Although characterised by local specificities the Novi Sad Neo-Avantgarde of the 1960′s and 1970′s has been treated like other Eastern European arts. Other than a few exceptions, it has not been the focus of scholarly research. This is closely related to the social framework in which the artistic practice was carried out, as well as to the obstacles this social context engendered. Together these help to illustrate the impact of youth movements during that time, the geopolitical position and internal affairs of Yugoslavia, particularly within the local context of Vojvodina and Novi Sad.

The book is published on the occasion of “The Continuous Art Class” exhibition in Novi Sad, from the November 18th to the December 3rd, 2005. The exhibition is part of the longterm project “The Continuous Art Class”, and contextualizes project of research of this specific period. The other texts in the publication include: Media Ontology – Mapping of Social and Art History in Novi Sad by kuda.org, Relay as a New Economy of Scale by Katherine Carl, Collective Cultural Practices, Between the Sentiment and Functionality of Creative Communities by Branka Ćurčić, as well as arists, works, video documentation, referent literature presented at the exhibition. All texts are published bilingually, in Serbian and English language.

Translation: Orfeas Skutelis, Nikolina Knežević
Editorial series: kuda.read
Publisher: Revolver, Archiv für aktuelle Kunst, Frankfurt am Main
ISBN 3-86588-222-6
Published under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.

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Henry Jenkins, David Thorburn (eds.): Democracy and New Media (2003)

Digital technology is changing our politics. The World Wide Web is already a powerful influence on the public’s access to government documents, the tactics and content of political campaigns, the behavior of voters, the efforts of activists to circulate their messages, and the ways in which topics enter the public discourse. The essays collected here capture the richness of current discourse about democracy and cyberspace. Some contributors offer front-line perspectives on the impact of emerging technologies on politics, journalism, and civic experience. What happens, for example, when we increase access to information or expand the arena of free speech? Other contributors place our shifting understanding of citizenship in historical context, suggesting that notions of cyber-democracy and online community must grow out of older models of civic life. Still others consider the global flow of information and test our American conceptions of cyber-democracy against developments in other parts of the world. How, for example, do new media operate in Castro’s Cuba, in post-apartheid South Africa, and in the context of multicultural debates on the Pacific Rim? For some contributors, the new technologies endanger our political culture; for others, they promise civic renewal.

Publisher MIT Press, 2003
Media in Transition series
ISBN: 0262101017, 9780262101011
397 pages

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