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
Wolfgang Ernst: Digital Memory and the Archive (2012)
Filed under book | Tags: · archive, art, communication, computing, culture, data, history, information, internet, knowledge, machine, media, media archeology, media studies, media theory, memory, photography, radio, sound, storage, technology, television, temporality, time
“In the popular imagination, archives are remote, largely obsolete institutions: either antiquated, inevitably dusty libraries or sinister repositories of personal secrets maintained by police states. Yet the archive is now a ubiquitous feature of digital life. Rather than being deleted, e-mails and other computer files are archived. Media software and cloud storage allow for the instantaneous cataloging and preservation of data, from music, photographs, and videos to personal information gathered by social media sites.
In this digital landscape, the archival-oriented media theories of Wolfgang Ernst are particularly relevant. Digital Memory and the Archive, the first English-language collection of the German media theorist’s work, brings together essays that present Ernst’s controversial materialist approach to media theory and history. His insights are central to the emerging field of media archaeology, which uncovers the role of specific technologies and mechanisms, rather than content, in shaping contemporary culture and society.
Ernst’s interrelated ideas on the archive, machine time and microtemporality, and the new regimes of memory offer a new perspective on both current digital culture and the infrastructure of media historical knowledge. For Ernst, different forms of media systems—from library catalogs to sound recordings—have influenced the content and understanding of the archive and other institutions of memory. At the same time, digital archiving has become a contested site that is highly resistant to curation, thus complicating the creation and preservation of cultural memory and history. ”
Edited and with an Introduction by Jussi Parikka
Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2012
Volume 39 of Electronic Mediations
ISBN 0816677670, 9780816677672
265 pages
Reviews: Liam Cole Young (Reviews in Cultural Theory, 2013), Peter Ward (Information & Culture, 2014).
For more from Wolfgang Ernst see Monoskop wiki.
Comment (0)John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid: The Social Life of Information (2000)
Filed under book | Tags: · botnet, business, economy, information, knowledge, management, technology
“Drawing from recent research and practical examples across a range of organizations, The Social Life of Information dispels many of the futurists’ sweeping predictions that information technology will obliterate the need for everything from travel to supermarkets to business organizations to social life itself. The authors examine the potential and limitations of technology with regard to intelligent software agents, the automated home office, business reorganization for innovation, knowledge management and work practices, the paperless society, and the digital university. Arguing eloquently for the important role human sociability plays in the world of bits, Brown and Duguid present an optimistic look beyond the simplicities of information and individuals. They show how a better understanding of the contribution that communities, organizations, and institutions make to learning, knowledge, and judgment can lead to the richest possible use of technology in our work and everyday lives.”
Publisher Harvard Business Press, 2000
ISBN 0875847625, 9780875847627
256 pages