Platform, Software and Code Studies

Schedule

Session 1: Preliminaries

Preliminary discussion and setup. Obtain the readings for session 2 promptly.

Session 2: Platform studies, I

  • Complete: Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost, Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
  • Begin: Lisa Nakamura, Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 4, Epilogue

Session 3: Platform studies, II

  • Complete: Lisa Nakamura, Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet (chapters specified above)
  • Complete: Lisa Nakamura, “Indigenous Circuits: Navajo Women and the Racialization of Early Electronic Manufacture”
  • Complete: Nick Srnicek, Platform Capitalism

Session 4: Platform studies, III

  • Complete: Dan Schiller, Digital Depression: Information Technology and Economic Crisis, Introduction, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 9

Session 5: Software studies, I

  • Begin: Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command, Introduction; chapters 2, 4, 5; Conclusion
  • Begin: Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux, Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames, Introduction; chapters 1, 3, 5, 6

Session 6: Software studies, II

  • Complete: Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command (chapters specified above)
  • Complete: Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux, Metagaming (chapters specified above)

Session 7: Software studies, III

  • Complete: Federica Frabetti, Software Theory: A Cultural and Philosophical Study

Session 8: Software studies, IV

  • Begin: Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty, Preface and sections 1–33, 51–77
  • If necessary, we can also extend discussion of Federica Frabetti, Software Theory into this session

Session 9: Software studies, V

  • Continue: Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (sections specified above)
  • Complete: David Golumbia, The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism

Session 10: Software studies, VI

  • Complete: Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (sections specified above)
  • Begin: Ellen Ullman, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents

Session 11: Fiction and memoir, I

  • Complete: Ellen Ullman, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents
  • Begin: Ellen Ullman, The Bug: A Novel

Session 12: Fiction and memoir, II

  • Complete: Ellen Ullman, The Bug: A Novel
  • Complete: Douglas Coupland, Microserfs

Session 13: Code studies, I / fiction and memoir, III

  • Complete: Mark C. Marino, “Critical Code Studies” (in Electronic Book Review)
  • Begin: Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian Bogost, Jeremy Douglass, Mark C. Marino, Michael Mateas, Casey Reas, Mark Sample, Noah Vawter, 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  • Begin: Ellen Ullman, Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology, parts 1, 2, 4, 5
  • Share proposals for final essay

Session 14: Code studies, II / fiction and memoir, IV

  • Complete: Montfort et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  • Complete: Ellen Ullman, Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology (parts specified above)

Session 15: Epilogue / Final essay

  • Complete: Friedrich A. Kittler, “There Is No Software”
  • Complete: Friedrich A. Kittler, “Protected Mode”
  • Present a preliminary 12-minute conference-paper length draft of your final essay