Constant (eds.): Tracks in Electr(on)ic Fields (2009) [English/French/Dutch]
Filed under book | Tags: · design, floss, graphic design, internet, online video, open source, privacy, software, surveillance, web 2.0
Publication contains texts and images from Verbindingen/Jonctions 10: Tracks in electr(on)ic fields festival, organised by Constant VZW in Brussels in 2007. Its design by OSPublish won a 2009 Fernand Baudin prize.
Edited by Constant featuring Clementine Delahaut, Laurence Rassel and Emma Sidgwick
Publisher Constant, Association for Art and Media, Brussels, 2009
Free Art Licence
332 pages
PDF, PDF (74 MB)
Source files
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger: Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · facebook, internet, memory, myspace, privacy, surveillance, web 2.0
Delete looks at the surprising phenomenon of perfect remembering in the digital age, and reveals why we must reintroduce our capacity to forget. Digital technology empowers us as never before, yet it has unforeseen consequences as well. Potentially humiliating content on Facebook is enshrined in cyberspace for future employers to see. Google remembers everything we’ve searched for and when. The digital realm remembers what is sometimes better forgotten, and this has profound implications for us all.
In Delete, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger traces the important role that forgetting has played throughout human history, from the ability to make sound decisions unencumbered by the past to the possibility of second chances. The written word made it possible for humans to remember across generations and time, yet now digital technology and global networks are overriding our natural ability to forget–the past is ever present, ready to be called up at the click of a mouse. Mayer-Schönberger examines the technology that’s facilitating the end of forgetting–digitization, cheap storage and easy retrieval, global access, and increasingly powerful software–and describes the dangers of everlasting digital memory, whether it’s outdated information taken out of context or compromising photos the Web won’t let us forget. He explains why information privacy rights and other fixes can’t help us, and proposes an ingeniously simple solution–expiration dates on information–that may.
Delete is an eye-opening book that will help us remember how to forget in the digital age.
Publisher Princeton University Press, 2009
ISBN 0691138613, 9780691138619
237 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-9-23)
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