Johan Söderberg: Free Software to Open Hardware: Critical Theory on the Frontiers of Hacking (2011)

Starting from the experiences of hackers developing free software and open hardware, this thesis addresses some key and recurrent themes in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). It poses the question: how are technologies conceptualised, constructed and used in ways that render some aspects of them transparent, while leaving others opaque? This question is complicated by the fact that what is visible and transparent to some will remain opaque to others, depending on the level of technical expertise commanded. The political implications of this stand at the heart of my inquiry. Since technical know-how is unevenly distributed among groups in society, the same concern can be rephrased as follows: How are relations of power and conflict mediated through technology and relations of technical expertise/ignorance? While trying to address this question, the thesis delves into matters of epistemology. Just as programming skills are required for seeing what is going on behind the computer screen, so theoretically informed reflection can be considered necessary for rendering visible social relations not immediately apparent to the casual eye. Discussion of the actions of hackers is therefore combined in this thesis with discussion of the alternative programmes of research which can be applied to the study of these actions. Two programmes of research in particular receive attention: the critical theory of technology and constructivist science and technology studies (STS). Of these two, the relevance of the former tradition is emphasized and its value for research in the STS field defended. The thesis is composed of four articles and an introductory chapter summarizing and encapsulating my concerns. The first article discusses belief in technological determinism among hackers and how this does not necessarily stand in opposition to political engagement. On the contrary, it is common within hacker politics for contending viewpoints to be articulated in relation to seemingly apolitical narratives about technical neutrality and progress. The second article also deals with antagonistic relations at the heart of processes of technological change. It argues that the punitive actions of law enforcement agencies provide a clear indication of the presence of asymmetrical power relations in technological change through, for example, attempts to suppress filesharing inventions. Hackers are negotiating with legal authorities and the mass media, but also amongst themselves, about how to draw the line between the legitimate users and harmful misusers of technology. The third and fourth articles are based on a case study of a group of Czech hardware hackers who invented a wireless network technology for sending data with visible, red light. The challenges faced by these hardware hackers in their attempts to design technical solutions capable of being built by non-expert users are discussed at length in a theoretically-informed fashion.

PhD thesis
University of Gothenburg, Department of Sociology, March 2011
ISSN: 1650-4437
ISBN: 978-91-975442-7-6
68 pages
Creative Commons: Attribution-ShareAlike

more info

PDF
Alternative download

Claire Bishop (ed.): Participation (2006)

“The desire to move viewers out of the role of passive observers and into the role of producers is one of the hallmarks of twentieth-century art. This tendency can be found in practices and projects ranging from El Lissitzky’s exhibition designs to Allan Kaprow’s happenings, from minimalist objects to installation art. More recently, this kind of participatory art has gone so far as to encourage and produce new social relationships. Guy Debord’s celebrated argument that capitalism fragments the social bond has become the premise for much relational art seeking to challenge and provide alternatives to the discontents of contemporary life. This publication collects texts that place this artistic development in historical and theoretical context.

Participation begins with writings that provide a theoretical framework for relational art, with essays by Umberto Eco, Bertolt Brecht, Roland Barthes, Peter Bürger, Jen-Luc Nancy, Edoaurd Glissant, and Félix Guattari, as well as the first translation into English of Jacques Rancière’s influential “Problems and Transformations in Critical Art.” The book also includes central writings by such artists as Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Joseph Beuys, Augusto Boal, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. And it features recent critical and curatorial debates, with discussions by Lars Bang Larsen, Nicolas Bourriaud, Hal Foster, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist.”

Publisher Whitechapel, London, and MIT Press, 2006
Documents of Contemporary Art series
ISBN 0262524643, 9780262524643
207 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2017-6-19)
Academia.edu (added on 2015-5-6)

Dominic Lopes: A Philosophy of Computer Art (2009)

What is computer art? Do the concepts we usually employ to talk about art, such as ‘meaning’, ‘form’ or ‘expression’ apply to computer art?

A Philosophy of Computer Art is the first book to explore these questions. Dominic Lopes argues that computer art challenges some of the basic tenets of traditional ways of thinking about and making art and that to understand computer art we need to place particular emphasis on terms such as ‘interactivity’ and ‘user’.

Drawing on a wealth of examples he also explains how the roles of the computer artist and computer art user distinguishes them from makers and spectators of traditional art forms and argues that computer art allows us to understand better the role of technology as an art medium.

Publisher Routledge, 2009
ISBN 041554761X, 9780415547611
160 pages

review (Joshua Noble, Creative Applications Network)
review (Timothy Binkley, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism)
review (Jim Andrews, CIAC)

author
publisher
google books

PDF (updated on 2013-4-28)