Switching Codes

Thinking Through Digital Technology in the Humanities and the Arts

Thomas Bartscherer, Roderick Coover, Thomas Bartscherer, Roderick Coover

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780226038315, 9780226038308
• eBook ISBN: 9780226038322
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art General

 

Half a century into the digital era, the profound impact of information technology on intellectual and cultural life is universally acknowledged but still poorly understood. The sheer complexity of the technology coupled with the rapid pace of change makes it increasingly difficult to establish common ground and to promote thoughtful discussion. 

Responding to this challenge, Switching Codes brings together leading American and European scholars, scientists, and artists—including Charles Bernstein, Ian Foster, Bruno Latour, Alan Liu, and Richard Powers—to consider how the precipitous growth of digital information and its associated technologies are transforming the ways we think and act. Employing a wide range of forms, including essay, dialogue, short fiction, and game design, this book aims to model and foster discussion between IT specialists, who typically have scant training in the humanities or traditional arts, and scholars and artists, who often understand little about the technologies that are so radically transforming their fields. Switching Codes will be an indispensable volume for anyone seeking to understand the impact of digital technology on contemporary culture, including scientists, educators, policymakers, and artists, alike.

INDEX

Aaron (computer program), 173–75, 179, 182n5

Abbey, Edward, 213–14

Abe, Sumiyoshi, 97, 99

Abt, Theodor, 297n2

ACM Multimedia Special Interest Group (SIG), 109

Adobe After Effects, 215

aerodynamics, study of, and bird flight, 134

agents: agent-based models in social sciences, 22; “animated pedagogical agents,” 25; autonomous, 5, 235–36; software agents, 82, 106, 108, 112

Agre, P. E., 180, 181n1

Ajax, 129

Aldus Manutius, festina lente (proverb), 5

Alexander, Frederick Matthias, 114, 115

Alexander Technique, 115

algorithms: in creation of art, 220, 227, 230; and data analysis, 30, 59n4, 108, 121; Digg, 48–49; feature extraction, 110; genetic, 152, 157; Google PageRank, 27; hierarchical generate-and-test, 44; index-extrapolation, 51; latent semantic analysis, 96; learning, 117; machine-learning, 47, 51, 153; mechanical inductive, 148; prediction, 116; problems within “Google Hell,” 96; reasoning, 127; replicability in research, 21

Allen, Amy, 97

Allen’s interval algebra operators, 118

Altaweel, Mark R., 22

Altman, I., 171, 181n1

Amara, Roy, 23

Amarel, Saul, 145

Amduat, 286

Analytical Engine, 140

Anderson, Chris, 58n1, 86n10

Anderson, Ross, 28

architecture, 276, 283

Aristotle, 4–5, 142, 148, 149–51, 155, 157–58, 176; on biology and natural science, 142, 157–58; copying of texts of, 66–67; on induction, 149–51; on nature of the human, 4

art, artwork, 5, 8; and artistic influence, 304; aura of, 277, 280–84, 286, 303; contemporary, 199–216 passim (Coover), 218–36 passim (Shaw), 239–45 passim, 249–74 passim (Hill), 299–300; conservation and restoration of, 275–97 passim, 302; and context, historical, 172; and context of physical display, 275–77, 281–88; created...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• I. Research, Sense, Structure
• II. Ontology, Semantic Web, Creativity
• III. Panorama, Interactivity, Embodiment
• IV. Re/presentations: Language and Facsimile
• Epilogue: Enquire within upon Everything
• Notes
• List of Contributors
• Index