Edoardo Rovida: Machines and Signs: A History of the Drawing of Machines (2013)

“This volume addresses the cultural, technical and ethical motivations of the history of drawing of machines and its developments step by step. First it treats drawings without any technical character; then the Renaissance with its new forms of drawing; the 18th century, with orthographic projections, immediately used by industry; the 19th century, including the applications of drawing in industry; and the 20th century, with the standardization institutions and the use of the computer. The role of historical drawings and archives in modern design is also examined.

This book is of value to all those who are interested in technical drawing, either from an artistic, from a design, or from an engineering point of view.”

Publiher Springer, 2013
Volume 17 of History of Mechanism and Machine Science series
ISBN 9400754078, 9789400754072
247 pages

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Adrian Mackenzie: Transductions: Bodies and Machines at Speed (2002)

“What do the patented data structures embedded deep in the code of an online computer game or the massively complicated architecture of the latest supercomputer used to simulate nuclear explosions have to do with culture, life or meaning? Why does technology attract such wildly differing responses – from fervour to boredom to distrust?

Transductions explores these questions by drawing on science and technology studies, contemporary critical theory and corporeal theory. An exploration of complex technologies such as online computer games, genomic databases and the global positioning system reveals how the borders between bodies and machines, between what counts as social and what counts as technical, are no less diverse and complicated than culture itself. Indeed, they constitute a crucial dimension of contemporary culture. Through a critical analysis of the widely accepted notion that technology speeds everything up, Transductions argues that there are only ever differences in speed. The question for us now is how can such differences be represented?”

Publisher Continuum, London and New York, 2002
Technologies: Studies in Culture & Theory series
ISBN 082645884X
231 pages

Reviews: Matthew Fuller (Convergence, 2003), Kim Toffoletti (Culture Machine).

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See also Fibreculture Journal’s issue on “Trans” (2011) co-edited by Mackenzie.

Takehiko Hashimoto: Historical Essays on Japanese Technology (2009)

A collection of papers the author published from 1992 to 2008 on a variety of topics about the history of Japanese technology, from the end of the Edo period to the present.

Publisher The University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy
Collection UTCP series, Vol. 6
ISSN 1881-7637
213 pages

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