We are delighted to announce the publication of /Aesthetic Programming:
A Handbook of Software Studies/ by Winnie Soon and Geoff Cox.
Like all Open Humanities Press books, /Aesthetic Programming/ is
available for free:
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/aesthetic-programming/
/Aesthetic Programming/explores the technical as well as cultural
imaginaries of programming from its insides. It follows the principle
that the growing importance of software requires a new kind of cultural
thinking — and curriculum — that can account for, and with which to
better understand the politics and aesthetics of algorithmic procedures,
data processing and abstraction. It takes a particular interest in power
relations that are relatively under-acknowledged in technical subjects,
concerning class and capitalism, gender and sexuality, as well as race
and the legacies of colonialism. This is not only related to the
politics of representation but also nonrepresentation: how power
differentials are implicit in code in terms of binary logic,
hierarchies, naming of the attributes, and how particular worldviews are
reinforced and perpetuated through computation. Using p5.js, it
introduces and demonstrates the reflexive practice of aesthetic
programming, engaging with learning to program as a way to understand
and question existing technological objects and paradigms, and to
explore the potential for reprogramming wider eco-socio-technical
systems. The book itself follows this approach, and is offered as a
computational object open to modification and reversioning.
Web: http://aesthetic-programming.net
Repository: https://gitlab.com/aesthetic-programming/book
‘Instructive, imaginative and accessible, this is an introduction to
programming like no other. /Aesthetic Programming/ opens up the thinking
in software in a vivid, critical and creative manner; it is a book full
of procedural pleasures and witty algorithms that also poses a
remarkable set of questions about contemporary digital life.’
- Matthew Fuller, Professor of Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University
of London
‘Skilfully moving across the instructional, the pedagogic, and the
critical, Aesthetic Programming makes an expansive contribution to
computational thinking. Engaging with programming from a practice-based
approach, this illuminating text demonstrates how critical aesthetics
can transform programming. Recipe book, code library, poetic manual,
convivial instructional, and primer to computing imaginaries all
assemble into this compelling and indispensable addition to software
studies.’
- Jennifer Gabrys, Chair in Media, Culture and Environment, University
of Cambridge
Author Bios
Geoff Cox likes not to think of himself as an old white man from a
parochial island but is clearly in denial. Thankfully other aspects of
his identity are more ambiguous and fluid. Research interests lie
broadly across the fields of software studies, contemporary art
practice, cultural theory, and image politics, reflected in his academic
position as Associate Professor and co-Director of the Centre for the
Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University, UK, and
Adjunct Associate Professor, Aarhus University, DK.
Winnie Soon was born and raised in Hong Kong, increasingly aware of, and
confronting, identity politics regarding its colonial legacy and
postcolonial authoritarianism. As an artist-coder-researcher, she/they
is interested in queering the intersections of technical and artistic
practices as a feminist praxis, with works appearing in museums,
galleries, festivals, distributed networks, papers and books.
Researching in the areas of software studies and computational
practices, she/they is currently Associate Professor at Aarhus
University, Denmark.
Best, Gary, David and Sigi
(Open Humanities Press)
--
Gary Hall
Professor of Media
Director of the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Faculty of Arts & Humanities,
Coventry University:
http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/postdigital-cultures
http://www.garyhall.info
Latest:
Book: A Stubborn Fury: How Writing Works in Elitist Britain:
http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/a-stubborn-fury/
Chapter: ‘Postdigital Politics’, in Cornelia Sollfrank, Shuhsa Niederberger and
Felix Stalder, eds, Aesthetics of the Commons:
https://www.diaphanes.com/titel/aesthetics-of-the-commons-6419
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