word salad and the digital
On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 4:05 AM, David Berry <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi > > I hope you don't mind my announcing my new book *Critical Theory and the > Digital* which explores the contemporary landscape related to > computational technology and argues for an approach that revitalises > critical theory in light of current questions over cryptography, critical > technical practice and related notions of critical digital humanities and > code work. I think that some of the subscribers to this list might find the > arguments articulated in the book of some interest. > > http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/critical-theory-and-the-digital-9781441166395/ > > This Critical Theory and Contemporary Society volume offers an original > analysis of the role of the digital in today's society. It rearticulates > critical theory by engaging it with the challenges of the digital > revolution to show how the digital is changing the ways in which we lead > our politics, societies, economies, media, and even private lives. In > particular, the work examines how the enlightenment values embedded within > the culture and materiality of digital technology can be used to explain > the changes that are occurring across society. > > Critical Theory and the Digital draws from the critical concepts developed > by critical theorists to demonstrate how the digital needs to be understood > within a dialectic of potentially democratizing and totalizing technical > power. By relating critical theory to aspects of a code-based digital world > and the political economy that it leads to, the book introduces the > importance of the digital code in the contemporary world to researchers in > the field of politics, sociology, globalization and media studies. > > Some blurb: > > "'Adorno will not be your Facebook friend.' Instead of lamenting the > cultural elitism of the Frankfurt School, David Berry reopens critical > theory's conceptual toolbox with a renewed curiosity. These days the > theorist is no longer a prophet who ponders the world divorced from the > materiality of communication. It is not enough to merely explore the > technosphere, there is an urgency to radically question digital > technologies. In this age of conflict, the neoliberal consensus culture is > taken to task by critical theory David-Berry-style. In line with the > info-activism of Wikileaks and Snowden, Berry instructs us how to read the > black box that dominates our everyday lives and helps us to develop a new > vocabulary amidst all the crazes, from speculative realism to digital > humanities." - Geert Lovink, Media Theorist, Amsterdam > > "Berry's timely book engages with a broad range of topics that define our > digital culture. It guides us to the political materiality of software > culture with excellent insights. Importantly, this book updates critical > theory for the digital age." - Dr Jussi Parikka, Winchester School of Art, > author of What is Media Archaeology? (2012) > > "In this lucid, learned and highly original book Berry confronts the > nature of digital knowledge in society through the re-invigorated lens of > Critical Theory asking how we can regain control of the knowledge > structures embedded in the digital technologies that we increasingly rely > upon in daily life." - Michael Bull, author of Sound Moves: iPod Culture > and Urban Experience > > "Critical Theory and the Digital offers an important new addition to > critical theory that explores questions raised by the digital in light of > the work of the Frankfurt school. Providing an accessible and critical > appraisal of the digital world we live in today, the book argues that > critical praxis must today be rethought in light of digital technologies > and the affordances that are made available to state, corporate and civil > society actors. The book offers both a theoretical and a political > contribution: the former through its exploration of how the digital can be > read, written, and hacked critically; the latter through its discussion of > how the digital can be transformed by political action and the organisation > of digital resistance." - Christian De Cock, University of Essex, UK > > "Unlike many media studies scholars who refer to the Frankfurt School's > critique of the cultural industries only to show its inapplicability to the > open source world of the digital age, David Berry accomplishes the > remarkable feat of re-instating that critique for the new brave world that > is afforded by digital technology. Easily moving between Heidegger, Adorno > and Stiegler, Berry mobilizes a formidable array of theoretical resources > in aid of what he calls 'iteracy', an emerging competence in tracking the > contexts in which 'being digital' is continually formed and re-formed. The > result is a milestone in both critical theory and the digital humanities." > - Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, Department of > Sociology, University of Warwick, UK > > "Bringing dialectical critique to digital culture, David Berry replenishes > the legacy of the Frankfurt School in order to devise strategies to live > within and against the real-time streams of computational capitalism. > Fusing critical theory with the political economy of social media (think > Facebook and Twitter), the surveillance paranoia of NSA, the wild party of > Hacklabs, the secret autonomy of cryptography, and the accelerated economy > of algorithmic trading, Berry registers the contours of the black box that > defines digital labour and life." - Ned Rossiter, Institute for Culture > and Society, University of Western Sydney, Australia > > Best > > David > > > > > --- > > Dr. David M. Berry > Reader > > Silverstone 316 > > School of Media, Film and Music > University of Sussex, > Falmer, > East Sussex. BN1 8PP > > http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/125219 > > > -- > Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations > of list guidelines will get you moderated: > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. > Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at > [email protected]. >
-- Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at [email protected].
