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Academic subfield
Critical code studies (CCS ) is an emerging academic subfield, related to
software studies ,
digital humanities ,
cultural studies ,
computer science ,
human–computer interface , and the
do-it-yourself
maker culture . Its primary focus is on the cultural significance of
computer code , without excluding or focusing solely upon the code's functional purpose. According to Mark C. Marino, it
is an approach that applies critical hermeneutics to the interpretation of computer code, program architecture, and documentation within a socio-historical context. CCS holds that lines of code are not value-neutral and can be analyzed using the theoretical approaches applied to other semiotic systems in addition to particular interpretive methods developed particularly for the discussions of programs.
As introduced by Marino, critical code studies was initially a method by which scholars "can read and explicate code the way we might explicate a work of literature", but the concept also draws upon[
citation needed ]
Espen Aarseth 's conception of a cybertext as a "mechanical device for the production and consumption of verbal signs", arguing that in order to understand a digital artifact we must also understand the constraints and capabilities of the authoring tools used by the creator of the artifact, as well as the memory storage and interface required for the user to experience the digital artifact.
Evidence that critical code studies has gained momentum since 2006 include[
original research? ] an article by Matthew Kirschenbaum in
The Chronicle of Higher Education ,
[5] CCS sessions at the
Modern Language Association in 2011 that were "packed" with attendees,
[6] several academic conferences devoted wholly to critical code studies, and a book devoted to the explication of a single line of computer code, titled 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 .
See also
References
Bibliography
Aarseth, Espen (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature . Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8018-5579-5 .
Eyman, Douglas (2015). Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice . Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
doi :
10.2307/j.ctv65swm2 .
ISBN
978-0-472-90011-4 .
Manovich, Lev (2013).
Software Takes Command . New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
ISBN
978-1-62356-672-2 . Retrieved 6 April 2020 .
Marino, Mark C. (2006).
"Critical Code Studies" . Electronic Book Review .
ISSN
1553-1139 . Retrieved 6 April 2020 .
Montfort, Nick ; Baudoin, Patsy; Bell, John;
Bogost, Ian ; Douglass, Jeremy; Marino, Mark C.; Mateas, Michael;
Reas, Casey ; Sample, Mark; Vawter, Noah (2013).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-01846-3 . Retrieved 30 November 2018 .
Further reading
Berry, David M. (2008).
Copy, Rip, Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source . London: Pluto Press.
doi :
10.2307/j.ctt183q67g .
ISBN
978-1-84964-455-6 .
——— (2011). The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age . Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
doi :
10.1057/9780230306479 .
ISBN
978-0-230-24418-4 .
Black, Maurice J. (2002). The Art of Code (PhD dissertation). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
OCLC
244972113 .
ProQuest
305507258 .
Chopra, Samir; Dexter, Scott D. (2008). Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software . New York: Routledge.
doi :
10.4324/9780203942147 .
ISBN
978-0-203-94214-7 .
Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong (2008).
"On 'Sourcery,' or Code as Fetish" . Configurations . 16 (3): 299–324.
doi :
10.1353/con.0.0064 .
ISSN
1080-6520 .
S2CID
53422082 . Retrieved 5 April 2020 .
——— (2011). Programmed Visions: Software and Memory . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-01542-4 .
Fuller, Matthew (2003). Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software . New York: Autonomedia.
ISBN
978-1-57027-139-7 .
——— , ed. (2008). Software Studies: A Lexicon . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-06274-9 .
Hayles, N. Katherine (2004).
"Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis" (PDF) . Poetics Today . 25 (1): 67–90.
doi :
10.1215/03335372-25-1-67 .
ISSN
1527-5507 .
S2CID
16194046 . Archived from
the original (PDF) on 11 January 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020 .
Heim, Michael (1987).
Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing . New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
ISBN
978-0-300-03835-4 .
Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (2004).
"Extreme Inscription: Towards a Grammatology of the Hard Drive" (PDF) . TEXT Technology (2): 91–125.
ISSN
1053-900X . Retrieved 5 April 2020 .
——— (2008). Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-11311-3 .
Kitchin, Rob ; Dodge, Martin (2011). Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-04248-2 .
Kittler, Friedrich A. (1997). Johnston, John (ed.). Literature, Media, Information Systems: Essays . Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association.
ISBN
978-90-5701-071-2 .
——— (1999). Gramophone, Film, Typewriter . Translated by Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey; Wutz, Michael. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-8047-3232-1 .
Mackenzie, Adrian (2003).
"The Problem of Computer Code: Leviathan or Common Power" (PDF) . Lancaster, England: Lancaster University. Retrieved 6 April 2020 .
——— (2006). Cutting Code: Software and Sociality . Digital Formations. Vol. 30. Oxford: Peter Lang.
ISBN
978-0-8204-7823-4 .
ISSN
1526-3169 .
Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-13374-6 .
Manovich, Lev ; Douglass, Jeremy (2009).
"Visualizing Temporal Patterns in Visual Media" (PDF) . Retrieved 10 October 2009 .
Montfort, Nick ;
Bogost, Ian (2009).
Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-01257-7 .
Wardrip-Fruin, Noah (2009).
Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies . Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
ISBN
978-0-262-01343-7 .