Charlie Gere: Digital Culture. 2nd ed. (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · arpanet, counterculture, cybernetics, cyberpunk, digital culture, facebook, fluxus, neoliberalism, technology
From our bank accounts to supermarket checkouts to the movies we watch, strings of ones and zeroes suffuse our world. Digital technology has defined modern society in numerous ways, and the vibrant digital culture that has now resulted is the subject of Charlie Gere’s engaging volume.
In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. After tracing the historical development of digital culture, Gere argues that it is actually neither radically new nor technologically driven: digital culture has its roots in the eighteenth century and the digital mediascape we swim in today was originally inspired by informational needs arising from industrial capitalism, contemporary warfare and counter-cultural experimentation, among other social changes.
A timely and cutting-edge investigation of our contemporary social infrastructures, Digital Culture is essential reading for all those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
Edition 2
Publisher Reaktion Books, 2009
ISBN 1861893884, 9781861893888
240 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-7-24)
Comment (0)Douglas Rushkoff: Media virus!: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture (1996)
Filed under book | Tags: · counterculture, cyberpunk, media culture, memes, popular culture
Bold, daring, and provocative, Media Virus! examines the intricate ways in which popular media both manipulate and are manipulated by those who know how to tap into their power. Douglas Rushkoff shows that where there’s a wavelength, there’s a way to “infect” those on it – from the subtly, but intentionally, subversive signals broadcast by shows like “The Simpsons,” to the O.J. media frenzy surrounding the Nicole Brown Simpson murder case, chase, and trial. What does it all mean? Unless you’ve been living in a cave that isn’t cable-ready, you’re already infected with the media virus. But don’t worry, it won’t make you sick. It will make you think.
Publisher Ballantine Books, 1996
ISBN 0345397746, 9780345397744
Length 344 pages
Keywords and phrases
memes, meta-media, Ren & Stimpy, counterculture, smart drugs, Beavis and Butt-head, Negativland, L.A. Law, zines, Futureculture, Swamp Thing, Rodney King, Amy Fisher, Genesis P-Orridge, cyberpunk, Ice-T, flyposters, R. U. Sirius, Willie Horton, NYPD Blue
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John Markoff: What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (2005)
Filed under book | Tags: · 1960s, computing, counterculture, history of computing, history of technology, technology
“An unparalleled history of how technology and the counterculture came together in the 1960s, created the cult of the personal computer, and shaped today’s Silicon Valley.
Most histories of the personal computer industry focus on technology or business. John Markoff’s landmark book is about the culture and consciousness behind the first PCs—the culture being counter– and the consciousness expanded, sometimes chemically. It’s a brilliant evocation of Stanford, California, in the 1960s and ’70s, where a group of visionaries set out to turn computers into a means for freeing minds and information. In these pages one encounters Ken Kesey and the phone hacker Cap’n Crunch, est and LSD, The Whole Earth Catalog and the Homebrew Computer Lab. What the Dormouse Said is a poignant, funny, and inspiring book by one of the smartest technology writers around.”
Publisher Viking Adult
ISBN 0670033820, 9780670033829
336 pages
PDF (updated on 2012-7-25)
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