Ellen Ullman: Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology (2017)

“The last twenty years have brought us the rise of the internet, the development of artificial intelligence, the ubiquity of once unimaginably powerful computers, and the thorough transformation of our economy and society. Through it all, Ellen Ullman lived and worked inside that rising culture of technology, and in Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective.

When Ellen Ullman moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and went on to become a computer programmer, she was joining a small, idealistic, and almost exclusively male cadre that aspired to genuinely change the world. In 1997 Ullman wrote Close to the Machine, the now classic and still definitive account of life as a coder at the birth of what would be a sweeping technological, cultural, and financial revolution.

Twenty years later, the story Ullman recounts is neither one of unbridled triumph nor a nostalgic denial of progress. It is necessarily the story of digital technology’s loss of innocence as it entered the cultural mainstream, and it is a personal reckoning with all that has changed, and so much that hasn’t.”

Publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017
ISBN 9780374534516, 0374534519
viii+306 pages
via andre

Video talk (54 min, 2017)

Reviews: J.D. Biersdorfer (New York Times, 2017), Jessica Bennett (Elle, 2017).

Publisher
WorldCat

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code {poems} (2012)

An anthology of poems written in source code.

Works by Aaron Broder, Alejandro Corredor, Álvaro Matías Wong Díaz, Andrew Couch, Andrew Parker, Antonio Moujadami, Atanas Bozdarov, Attila Palfalusi, Aymeric Mansoux, Bacchus Beale, Ben Englisch, Brad Sorensen, Bram De Buyser, Bruno Herbelin, Carrie Padian, Chris Adams, Chris Boucher, Cosima Dipalma, Dan Brown, Dane Hillard, Daniel Bezerra, Dave McKellar, Dave Mezee, David Berry, David Cantillon, David Devanny, David Homes, David Sjunnesson, Dean M Kukol, Dom Slatford, Ed Schenk, Elena Machkasova, Erik Knechtel, Giulio Presazzi, Gorenje Smack, Guilherme Kerr, Iris Dunkle, Irtaza Barlas, Izzy Edwards, Jake Forsberg, James Grant, Jason Kopylec, Jason Rowland, Jasper Speicher, Jeffrey Knight, Jennifer Mace, Jerome Saint-Clair, Jesse Pascoe, Joaquim d’Souza, John Dale, John McGuiness, John Saylor, Jolene Dunne, Jon Bounds, Jon Coe, Jonny Plackett, Jose Portelo, Josh Fongheiser, Joshua Reisenauer, Jot Kali, Ken Hubbell, Kenny Brown, Lans Nelson, Lutalo Joseph, Magda Arques, Marc van der Holst, Marco Triverio, Marcus Ross, Mario Sangiorgio, Mark Whybird, Mary Alexandra Agner, Matias Chomicki, Matt Painter, Matthew Painter, Matthew Perkins, Matthew Ward, Michael Cheung, Michael Fall, Mikey Hogarth, Nancy Mauro-Flude, Nataliya Petkova, Nemesis Fixx, Nicholas Starke, Nick Daly, Pall Thayer, Paul Illingworth, Peter Schonefeld, Petroula Sepeta, Rafael Romero, Ramsey Nasser, Rena Mosteirin, Renato Fabbri, Ricardo Sismeiro, Richard Fletcher, Richard Littauer, Roger Donat, Ruggero Castagnola, Ryan Christiansen, Ryan Kabir, Shani Naeema, Shawn Lawson, Signe Breum, Soon Van, Suhail Thakur, Sylke Boyd, Terek Ertman, Thibault Autheman, Thomas Braun, Thomas Pellegrini, Tobby Cheruthuruthil, Ubaldo Pescatore, V Nels, Vilson Vieira, Viviana Alvarez Chomón, William Dupré, William Linville, Wolf Herrera, Xtine Burrough, Yann van der Cruyssen, and Yves Daoust.

Edited by David Gauthier, Jamie Allen, Joshua Noble, and Marcin Ignac
Publisher Ishac Bertran, [Barcelona], Sep 2012
Second edition, Oct 2012
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unported License
xii+67 pages
via aaaaarg

Book website
Publisher

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Taeyoon Choi: Poetic Computation Reader (2017)

This online book discusses code as a form of poetry and aesthetic while raising ethical questions associated with it. It is based on Taeyoon Choi’s lectures at the School for Poetic Computation, an independent school he co-founded in New York City.

Edited by Hannah Son
Designed by HAWRAF
Published 2017

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Source code on Github