The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age by David M. Berry Reviewed by Jussi Parikka, Leonardo Reviews.

“Probably no one who reads Leonardo publications needs to be convinced of the centrality of software for modern art, culture, or academia. Yet, outside these circles, I think there is demand for such books as David Berry’s The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. At times, software studies still gets some of the crowd squirming in their seats in academic conferences, and either slightly worried or bemused reactions from representatives of more established academic disciplines. Surely code cannot be read and written like Shakespeare, appreciated the way you do Milton or object of such cult as Austen – or the cinephilic attachment in film studies to certain genres and films?” Continue >>

Also see Furtherfield’s review.

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Preservation of Complex Objects Symposia (POCOS) :: October 11-12, 2011 :: The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK :: Online registration.

Preservation of software art presents challenges in many fronts, including complex interdependencies between objects; time-based and interactive properties; and diversity in the technologies and practices used for development. This exciting two-day symposium will provide a forum for participants to discuss these challenges, review and debate the latest developments in the field, witness real-life case studies, and engage in networking activities. The symposium will promote discussion on such topics as: Continue reading

Network as Material: An Interview with Julian Oliver by Taina Bucher, Furtherfield.org: Continue reading

Programmed Visions Software and Memory by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, MIT Press:

New media thrives on cycles of obsolescence and renewal: from celebrations of cyber-everything to Y2K, from the dot-com bust to the next big things — mobile mobs, Web 3.0, cloud computing. In Programmed Visions, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun argues that these cycles result in part from the ways in which new media encapsulates a logic of programmability. New media proliferates “programmed visions,” which seek to shape and predict — even embody — a future based on past data. These programmed visions have also made computers, based on metaphor, metaphors for metaphor itself, for a general logic of substitutability.

Chun approaches the concept of programmability through the surprising materialization of software as a “thing” in its own right, tracing the hardening of programming into software and of memory into storage. Continue reading

The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age by David M. Berry, Palgrave Macmillan:

The Philosophy of Software is a critical introduction to the subject of code and software, and develops an understanding of its social and philosophical implications in the digital age. The book has been written specifically for people interested in the subject from a non-technical background and provides a lively and interesting analysis of these new media forms. Software is a tangle, a knot, which ties together the physical and the ephemeral, the material and the ethereal, into a complete system that can be controlled and directed. However, software exceeds our ability to place limits on its entanglement, for it has in the past decade entered the everyday home through electronic augmentation that has replaced the mechanical world of the twentieth century. Continue reading

Turkish and Other Delights | Burak Arıkan by Elizabeth Wolfson, art:21.

“Burak Arıkan is a busy guy. When we met in Istanbul two months ago to discuss his work, he had recently returned to the city from a net art conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was preparing to leave for a human rights conference in Senegal the next day, and already had upcoming trips to China and Mongolia scheduled. In addition to his own art practice, which explores the aesthetics of data and networks as a creative medium, Arıkan conducts workshops, teaching students both how to conceptualize their own visual networks and to use the complex programs that render those networks visible, and is also active with various human rights organizations in Turkey. Most recently, he has been busy preparing new work for the Hüseyin Alptekin retrospective that will serve as the inaugural exhibition at SALT, opening on April 9th, that uses his visual mapping technique to explore aspects of Alptekin’s work and biography…” More >>

Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life by Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodge:

After little more than half a century since its initial development, computer code is extensively and intimately woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. From the digital alarm clock that wakes us to the air traffic control system that guides our plane in for a landing, software is shaping our world: it creates new ways of undertaking tasks, speeds up and automates existing practices, transforms social and economic relations, and offers new forms of cultural activity, personal empowerment, and modes of play. In Code/Space, Rob Kitchin and Martin Dodge examine software from a spatial perspective, analyzing the dyadic relationship of software and space. The production of space, they argue, is increasingly dependent on code, and code is written to produce space. Continue reading

Electrofringe 2011 :: September 29 - October 3, 2011 :: Newcastle, Australia :: Call for Proposals — Deadline: March 31. Continue reading

The Widget Art Gallery is little virtual gallery-room inside a widget. Download the zip file, double click on it and it will install itself directly into your dashboard (OSX only). Every two months, The Widget Art Gallery hosts a solo digital art exhibition related to the site-specific contest; directly at your house, comfortably on your PC at your leisure. Artworks proposals are welcome to chiarapassa [at] gmail.com.