Matthew Fuller: How To Be a Geek: Essays on the Culture of Software (2017)

“Computer software and its structures, devices and processes are woven into our everyday life. Their significance is not just technical: the algorithms, programming languages, abstractions and metadata that millions of people rely on every day have far-reaching implications for the way we understand the underlying dynamics of contemporary societies.

In this innovative new book, software studies theorist Matthew Fuller examines how the introduction and expansion of computational systems into areas ranging from urban planning and state surveillance to games and voting systems are transforming our understanding of politics, culture and aesthetics in the twenty-first century. Combining historical insight and a deep understanding of the technology powering modern software systems with a powerful critical perspective, this book opens up new ways of understanding the fundamental infrastructures of contemporary life, economies, entertainment and warfare.

In so doing Fuller shows that everyone must learn ‘how to be a geek’, as the seemingly opaque processes and structures of modern computer and software technology have a significance that no-one can afford to ignore. This powerful and engaging book will be of interest to everyone interested in a critical understanding of the political and cultural ramifications of digital media and computing in the modern world.”

Publisher Polity, 2017
ISBN 9781509517152, 1509517154
x+233 pages

Publisher
WorldCat

HTML

Timothy Druckrey (ed.): Electronic Culture: Technology and Visual Representation (1996)

“A rich compilation of essays by some of today’s leading theorists and media critics, this book gathers a series of explorations into diverse forms of visualizations in a cultural environment wired into the global network. With its emphasis on the impact of the digital revolution in the late 20th century and the historical context in which it arose, Electronic Culture could not be more timely or relevant.”

Texts by Vannevar Bush, Martin Heidegger, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Jean-Louis Comolli, Kathy Rae Huffman, Lev Manovich, Vilém Flusser, N. Katherine Hayles, Siegfried Zielinski, Slavoj Žižek, Friedrich Kittler, Sherry Turkle, Pierre Levy, Hakim Bey, Adilkno/Geert Lovink, Critical Art Ensemble, a.o.

Preface by Allucquère Rosanne Stone
Illustrations by Critical Art Ensemble
Publisher Aperture, New York, 1996
ISBN 0893816787, 9780893816780
447 pages

Review: Andreas Broeckmann (Leonardo, 2000).

WorldCat

PDF (155 MB)

Helen Pritchard, Eric Snodgrass, Magda Tyźlik-Carver (eds.): Executing Practices (2017–)

“This collection brings together artists, curators, programmers, theorists and heavy internet browsers whose practices make critical intervention into the broad concept of execution. It draws attention to their political strategies, asking: who and what is involved with those practices, and for whom or what are these practices performed, and how? From the contestable politics of emoji modifier mechanisms and micro-temporalities of computational processes to genomic exploitation and the curating of digital content, the chapters account for gendered, racialised, spatial, violent, erotic, artistic and other embedded forms of execution. Together they highlight a range of ways in which execution emerges and how it participates within networked forms of liveliness.”

Contributors: Roel Roscam Abbing, Geoff Cox, Olle Esvik, Jennifer Gabrys, Franciso Gallardo, David Gauthier, Linda Hilfling Ritasdatter, Brian House, Yuk Hui, Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard, Peggy Pierrot, Andy Prior, Helen Pritchard, Audrey Samson, Kasper Hedegård Shiølin, Susan Schuppli, Femke Snelting, Eric Snodgrass, Winnie Soon, Magda Tyżlik-Carver.

Publisher Autonomedia, New York, 2017
Data Browser series, 6
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 Unported License
ISBN 9781570273216
279 pages

New version
Publisher Open Humanities Press, Nov 2018
Data Browser series, 6
Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 Unported License
ISBN 9781785420566
310 pages

Review: Monika Szűcsová (Computational Culture, 2021).

Book series
Publisher (2018)

PDF, PDF (2017, 24 MB, updated on 2017-4-10)
PDF, PDF (2018, 12 MB, added on 2018-11-28)
EPUB, EPUB (2018, 21 MB, added on 2018-11-28)