Alexander R. Galloway: The Interface Effect (2012)

“Interfaces are back, or perhaps they never left. The familiar Socratic conceit from the Phaedrus, of communication as the process of writing directly on the soul of the other, has returned to center stage in today’s discussions of culture and media. Indeed Western thought has long construed media as a grand choice between two kinds of interfaces. Following the optimistic path, media seamlessly interface self and other in a transparent and immediate connection. But, following the pessimistic path, media are the obstacles to direct communion, disintegrating self and other into misunderstanding and contradiction. In other words, media interfaces are either clear or complicated, either beautiful or deceptive, either already known or endlessly interpretable.

Recognizing the limits of either path, Galloway charts an alternative course by considering the interface as an autonomous zone of aesthetic activity, guided by its own logic and its own ends: the interface effect. Rather than praising user-friendly interfaces that work well, or castigating those that work poorly, this book considers the unworkable nature of all interfaces, from windows and doors to screens and keyboards. Considered allegorically, such thresholds do not so much tell the story of their own operations but beckon outward into the realm of social and political life, and in so doing ask a question to which the political interpretation of interfaces is the only coherent answer.

Grounded in philosophy and cultural theory and driven by close readings of video games, software, television, painting, and other images, Galloway seeks to explain the logic of digital culture through an analysis of its most emblematic and ubiquitous manifestation – the interface.”

Publisher Polity, 2012
ISBN 0745662528, 9780745662527
170 pages

Review: McKenzie Wark (Public Seminar, 2015).

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Flusser’s View on Art: MECAD Online Seminar (2004)

The Vilém Flusser seminar took place in 2004 and was a cooperation between MECAD, Barcelona, and the _Vilém_Flusser_Archive. Presented was a text selection of Flusser’s writings on art. The seminar included also a presentation by Silvia Wagnermaier and a reflection text on Flusser’s theory by Siegfried Zielinski.

via _Vilém_Flusser_Archive

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Albert Kümmel, Erhard Schüttpelz (eds.): Signale der Störung (2003) [German]

Störung und Entstörung. Signale und Nicht-Signale könne die Plätze tauschen. Wo dies geschieht, verändert sich das Medium und wird operabel.

Mit Beiträgen von Friedrich Balke, Heike Behrend, Peter Berz, Ralf Gehrhard Ehlert, Eva Horn, Rembert Hüser, Rudolf Kaehr, Christian Kassung, Ralph Klamma, Peter Krapp, Albert Kümmel, Thomas Lemke, Petra Löffler, Susanne Regener, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Axel Roch, Jan Peter de Ruiter, Dietrich Sawicki, Eckhard Schumacher Erhard Schüttpelz, Luise Springer, Georg Stanitzek, Georg Trogemann und Samuel Weber.

Publisher Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich, 2003
ISBN 3770537467, 9783770537464
378 pages

publisher
google books

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