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Winner of the 2009 Richard J. Finneran Award from the Society for Textual Scholarship, the 2009 George A. and Jean S. DeLong Prize from the Society for the History of Authorship, and the 16th annual MLA Prize for a First Book.
A blog in support of the book from the MIT Press by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum.
Winner of the 2009 Richard J. Finneran Award from the Society for Textual Scholarship, the 2009 George A. and Jean S. DeLong Prize from the Society for the History of Authorship, and the 16th annual MLA Prize for a First Book.
"Mechanisms is at the cutting edge of second generation scholarship on digital media and electronic literature. After the first generation's inflated claims and broad generalities, Mechanisms leads the way with precise, rigorous analysis both of the nature of digital media and of important works created in networked and programmable platforms. An essential work for anyone interested in the electronic literature, digital arts, and culture in the digital age."
--N. Katherine Hayles, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
"Very few scholars have a precise understanding of the symmetries and asymmetries that define the relation of paper-based and digital technologies. Now when we need that kind of understanding, we are weathering a perfect storm raised by the long neglect of philological discipline, on one hand, and avoidance of any practical understanding of computerized resources on the other. Kirschenbaum's lucid book engages trenchantly with these important and pressing matters. It will wake its neighbors up."
--Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
"At last in Kirschenbaum's Mechanisms we have our tactical plan for thinking inside the black box of digital media, for moving past 'screen studies' to a new take on electronic media informed by deep understanding of technological practices of inscription and storage. Kirschenbaum introduces a fresh and enlightening dichotomy, that of the interplay of formal and forensic inscription. This dichotomy becomes the raw material for cutting the key to a new critical apparatus for unlocking studies of digital media."
--Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections, Germanic Collections, and Film & Media Collections, Stanford University Libraries
"Kirschenbaum's book is the most rigorous, cohesive, historically informed, materially grounded, and theoretically interesting treatment of textual artifacts in the age of digital mutation that I have yet encountered. The book introduces completely new materials and unique archival and site-specific research within an innovative methodological framework blending the new textual scholarship with the equally new discipline of digital forensics. Mechanisms is destined to be a landmark work for the field of digital textual studies in the same way that Lev Manovich's Language of New Media was for the digital arts and new media fields."
--Alan Liu, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
--N. Katherine Hayles, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles
"Very few scholars have a precise understanding of the symmetries and asymmetries that define the relation of paper-based and digital technologies. Now when we need that kind of understanding, we are weathering a perfect storm raised by the long neglect of philological discipline, on one hand, and avoidance of any practical understanding of computerized resources on the other. Kirschenbaum's lucid book engages trenchantly with these important and pressing matters. It will wake its neighbors up."
--Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
"At last in Kirschenbaum's Mechanisms we have our tactical plan for thinking inside the black box of digital media, for moving past 'screen studies' to a new take on electronic media informed by deep understanding of technological practices of inscription and storage. Kirschenbaum introduces a fresh and enlightening dichotomy, that of the interplay of formal and forensic inscription. This dichotomy becomes the raw material for cutting the key to a new critical apparatus for unlocking studies of digital media."
--Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections, Germanic Collections, and Film & Media Collections, Stanford University Libraries
"Kirschenbaum's book is the most rigorous, cohesive, historically informed, materially grounded, and theoretically interesting treatment of textual artifacts in the age of digital mutation that I have yet encountered. The book introduces completely new materials and unique archival and site-specific research within an innovative methodological framework blending the new textual scholarship with the equally new discipline of digital forensics. Mechanisms is destined to be a landmark work for the field of digital textual studies in the same way that Lev Manovich's Language of New Media was for the digital arts and new media fields."
--Alan Liu, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
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3 comments:
Just finished your book. I believe it is important and useful for moving beyond the screen, so to speak.
What would you say, at a minimum, are the "essentials" for those trained in, say, English departments and teaching undergraduates, to know about new media to teach, theorize, and assess it?
And, what are your top recommended sources for such knowledge (besides, of course, Mechanisms?
Think in terms of well-meaning but Johnny-come-lately interest in really taking "new media" seriously, especially in first- and second-year rhetoric and writing courses.
Think also in terms of not just theory but also nitty-gritty core knowledge such as your accessible explanation of how hard drives work.
Thanks.
Drew M. Loewe
Hi Drew,
Thanks for the comments (and for breaking the ice).
The single best recommendation I think I can offer is Charles Petzold's Code:
http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/
There's also good stuff, including "nitty gritty" on how databases work, etc. in Blackwell's Companion to Digital Humanities (pricey, but available online in its entirety for free):
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companion/
Finally, I'd say keep an eye on the new wave of books being published under the rubrics of software studies, platform studies, and critical code studies. All of these "movements" (if you will) are deeply invested in the materiality of computation as it shapes and informs new media. Look for Matthew Fuller's Software Studies reader, out this spring from MIT, as well as Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost's forthcoming book (also MIT) on the Atari 2600. A little further down the road, Noah Wardrip-Fruin's Expressive Processing (MIT again), which he's currently posting in draft over on the GrandTextAuto blog for review.
If Mechanisms makes a partial contribution alongside of these other works, then I'll be very pleased.
Let me also recommend my brief "Hamlet.doc" essay, published this past summer in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/free/v53/i50/50b00801.htm
Last note: the way you phrased your question, I think you're interested in more than "just" a reading list. So let me turn the question back to the blog: what does one need to know about new media in order to teach it?
Matt:
Many thanks for the response and for the resources. I look forward to chewing on the question you ask about what one must know about new media to teach it and to seeing others' responses to it.
Drew
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