Dennis Tenen: Plain Text: The Poetics of Computation (2017)
Filed under book | Tags: · book, computation, human-computer interaction, language, literary theory, literature, media, media theory, poetics, software, text, theory, translation
“This book challenges the ways we read, write, store, and retrieve information in the digital age. Computers—from electronic books to smart phones—play an active role in our social lives. Our technological choices thus entail theoretical and political commitments. Dennis Tenen takes up today’s strange enmeshing of humans, texts, and machines to argue that our most ingrained intuitions about texts are profoundly alienated from the physical contexts of their intellectual production. Drawing on a range of primary sources from both literary theory and software engineering, he makes a case for a more transparent practice of human–computer interaction. Plain Text is thus a rallying call, a frame of mind as much as a file format. It reminds us, ultimately, that our devices also encode specific modes of governance and control that must remain available to interpretation.”
Publisher Stanford University Press, 2017
ISBN 9781503601802, 1503601803
x+268 pages
Reviews: N. Katherine Hayles (Critical Inquiry, 2017), Jan Baetens (Leonardo, 2017), James Edward Draney (LARB, 2017), Maisie Ridgway (Textual Practice, 2018).
Comments (2)Stewart Brand: The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1987)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, communication, computer graphics, computing, human-computer interaction, information, media, music, new media, programming, publishing, robotics, science fiction, speech, technology, television
A magical mystery tour through the world of MIT’s Media Laboratory, then headed by Nicholas Negroponte and in its third year of existence. Chapter 11 develops the dictum “information wants to be free.”
Publisher Viking, New York, 1987
ISBN 0670814423
285 pages
Review (Visual Resources, 1989)
Review (AI Magazine, Lee S. Brownston, 1990)
PDF (50 MB, updated on 2014-3-26 to an OCR’d version via Marcell Mars)
Comment (0)Thomas Hermann, Andy Hunt, John G. Neuhoff (eds.): The Sonification Handbook (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · human-computer interaction, sonification, sound, sound design, technology
This book is a comprehensive introductory presentation of the key research areas in the interdisciplinary fields of sonification and auditory display. Chapters are written by leading experts, providing a wide-ranging coverage of the central issues, and can be read from start to finish, or dipped into as required (like a smorgasbord menu).
Sonification conveys information by using non-speech sounds. To listen to data as sound and noise can be a surprising new experience with diverse applications ranging from novel interfaces for visually impaired people to data analysis problems in many scientific fields.
This book gives a solid introduction to the field of auditory display, the techniques for sonification, suitable technologies for developing sonification algorithms, and the most promising application areas. The book is accompanied by an online repository of sound examples.
Publisher Logos Publishing House, Berlin, 2011
OpenAccess book
ISBN 9783832528195
586 pages
via xgz
PDF (single PDF)
PDF (PDF articles, with audio samples)