Computational Culture, a Journal of Software Studies, Issue Four (2014)
Filed under journal | Tags: · computing, database, facebook, filesharing, networks, social media, software, software studies
“What marks much of the work presented in this issue of Computational Culture is its endeavour to pay more analytically precise attention to socio-technical formatting of the present, based on a common assumption that the specificities of computational forms are fundamentally constitutive of that present.” (from the Editorial)
With articles by Paul Dourish, Irina Kaldrack and Theo Röhle, Benjamin Grosser, Dennis Tenen and Maxwell Foxman, Alex Taylor, Jasmin Fisher, Byron Cook, Samin Ishtiaq; comments by Geert Lovink, Mark Marino; and a review section.
Editorial group: Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey, Olga Goriunova, Graham Harwood, Adrian Mackenzie
Published in November 2014
Open Access
ISSN 2047-2390
Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey: Evil Media (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, art, artificial intelligence, business, code, computing, data, database, event, governance, information, interaction, interface, knowledge, labour, language, machine, management, market, media, media theory, memory, military, networks, philosophy, political theory, politics, power, programming, software
“Evil Media develops a philosophy of media power that extends the concept of media beyond its tried and trusted use in the games of meaning, symbolism, and truth. It addresses the gray zones in which media exist as corporate work systems, algorithms and data structures, twenty-first century self-improvement manuals, and pharmaceutical techniques. Evil Media invites the reader to explore and understand the abstract infrastructure of the present day. From search engines to flirting strategies, from the value of institutional stupidity to the malicious minutiae of databases, this book shows how the devil is in the details.
The title takes the imperative “Don’t be evil” and asks, what would be done any differently in contemporary computational and networked media were that maxim reversed.
Media here are about much more and much less than symbols, stories, information, or communication: media do things. They incite and provoke, twist and bend, leak and manage. In a series of provocative stratagems designed to be used, Evil Media sets its reader an ethical challenge: either remain a transparent intermediary in the networks and chains of communicative power or become oneself an active, transformative medium.”
Publisher MIT Press, 2012
ISBN 0262304406, 9780262304405
235 pages
Review: Nicholas Holm (Media Int’l AU, 2013), Neural (2013).
Evil media on Monoskop wiki
PDF (updated on 2024-4-13)
HTML (added on 2015-8-28)
See also YoHa, et al., Evil Media Distribution Centre, 2013.
Comments (2)Rachel Law & McKenzie Wark: W.A.N.T: Weaponized Adorables Negotiation Tactics (2013)
Filed under book | Tags: · data, database, information, networks, surveillance
“The art of digital living in the PRISM era. An illustrated book for art, tech & theory fans.
What is data? How do we perceive the difference between data and information? How do we define the size, shape and scale of a network? Where do we even begin? These are the fundamental questions we are trying to address in W.A.N.T.
Digital living is under an onslaught of Weaponized Adorables. They are coming for you. You will be mugged in the bright alleys of your dreams by the teddy bear horde. What you can deploy on your side is your own W.A.N.T, or Weaponized Adorables Negotiation Team. This little manual we will introduce you to them, they are like a set of superheroes ready to fight on this digital terrain.” (from the project’s Kickstarter page)
Published via Kickstarter
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 3.0 License
80 pages
via Marcell Mars