The Computer as Medium

The Computer as Medium PDF Author: Berit Holmqvist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521419956
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 514

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Book Description
Many industrial training applications, educational applications, and of course information applications such as databases and hypermedia are all attempts to communicate, and yet we really don't know much about the computer as a communicative medium. Bringing together a collection of essays presenting such diverse theoretical approaches as general semiotics, linguistics, communication theory, literary and art criticism, sociology, and history, the editors set out to establish and elaborate the role of computer systems as a sign technology. The volume is divided into three main parts, each focused on a different field of semiotic inquiry. "Computer-Based Signs" discusses the special nature of signs produced by means of computers. "The Rhetoric of Interactive Media" deals with codes of aesthetics and composition for the new "elastic" medium of communication: interactive fiction and hypertext. "Computers in Context" analyzes computer technology in the larger cultural, historical, and organizational contexts. Scholars in computer science, cognitive science, organization theory, information and media science, semiotics, communication, and linguistics will find this book invaluable, and as current excitement about hypermedia and electronic books continues to grow, a broader audience including computer artists and literary critics will also find it a useful resource.

The Computer as Medium

The Computer as Medium PDF Author: Berit Holmqvist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521419956
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many industrial training applications, educational applications, and of course information applications such as databases and hypermedia are all attempts to communicate, and yet we really don't know much about the computer as a communicative medium. Bringing together a collection of essays presenting such diverse theoretical approaches as general semiotics, linguistics, communication theory, literary and art criticism, sociology, and history, the editors set out to establish and elaborate the role of computer systems as a sign technology. The volume is divided into three main parts, each focused on a different field of semiotic inquiry. "Computer-Based Signs" discusses the special nature of signs produced by means of computers. "The Rhetoric of Interactive Media" deals with codes of aesthetics and composition for the new "elastic" medium of communication: interactive fiction and hypertext. "Computers in Context" analyzes computer technology in the larger cultural, historical, and organizational contexts. Scholars in computer science, cognitive science, organization theory, information and media science, semiotics, communication, and linguistics will find this book invaluable, and as current excitement about hypermedia and electronic books continues to grow, a broader audience including computer artists and literary critics will also find it a useful resource.

Turtle Geometry

Turtle Geometry PDF Author: Harold Abelson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262510370
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
Turtle Geometry presents an innovative program of mathematical discovery that demonstrates how the effective use of personal computers can profoundly change the nature of a student's contact with mathematics. Using this book and a few simple computer programs, students can explore the properties of space by following an imaginary turtle across the screen. The concept of turtle geometry grew out of the Logo Group at MIT. Directed by Seymour Papert, author of Mindstorms, this group has done extensive work with preschool children, high school students and university undergraduates.

Code as Creative Medium

Code as Creative Medium PDF Author: Golan Levin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262542048
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
An essential guide for teaching and learning computational art and design: exercises, assignments, interviews, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work. This book is an essential resource for art educators and practitioners who want to explore code as a creative medium, and serves as a guide for computer scientists transitioning from STEM to STEAM in their syllabi or practice. It provides a collection of classic creative coding prompts and assignments, accompanied by annotated examples of both classic and contemporary projects, and more than 170 illustrations of creative work, and features a set of interviews with leading educators. Picking up where standard programming guides leave off, the authors highlight alternative programming pedagogies suitable for the art- and design-oriented classroom, including teaching approaches, resources, and community support structures.

Gaming Matters

Gaming Matters PDF Author: Judd Ethan Ruggill
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817317376
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
In Gaming Matters, McAllister and Ruggill turn from the broader discussion of video game rhetoric to study the video game itself as a medium and the specific features that give rise to games as similar and yet diverse as Pong, Tomb Raider, and Halo.

Code

Code PDF Author: Charles Petzold
Publisher: Microsoft Press
ISBN: 0137909292
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 563

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Book Description
The classic guide to how computers work, updated with new chapters and interactive graphics "For me, Code was a revelation. It was the first book about programming that spoke to me. It started with a story, and it built up, layer by layer, analogy by analogy, until I understood not just the Code, but the System. Code is a book that is as much about Systems Thinking and abstractions as it is about code and programming. Code teaches us how many unseen layers there are between the computer systems that we as users look at every day and the magical silicon rocks that we infused with lightning and taught to think." - Scott Hanselman, Partner Program Director, Microsoft, and host of Hanselminutes Computers are everywhere, most obviously in our laptops and smartphones, but also our cars, televisions, microwave ovens, alarm clocks, robot vacuum cleaners, and other smart appliances. Have you ever wondered what goes on inside these devices to make our lives easier but occasionally more infuriating? For more than 20 years, readers have delighted in Charles Petzold's illuminating story of the secret inner life of computers, and now he has revised it for this new age of computing. Cleverly illustrated and easy to understand, this is the book that cracks the mystery. You'll discover what flashlights, black cats, seesaws, and the ride of Paul Revere can teach you about computing, and how human ingenuity and our compulsion to communicate have shaped every electronic device we use. This new expanded edition explores more deeply the bit-by-bit and gate-by-gate construction of the heart of every smart device, the central processing unit that combines the simplest of basic operations to perform the most complex of feats. Petzold's companion website, CodeHiddenLanguage.com, uses animated graphics of key circuits in the book to make computers even easier to comprehend. In addition to substantially revised and updated content, new chapters include: Chapter 18: Let's Build a Clock! Chapter 21: The Arithmetic Logic Unit Chapter 22: Registers and Busses Chapter 23: CPU Control Signals Chapter 24: Jumps, Loops, and Calls Chapter 28: The World Brain From the simple ticking of clocks to the worldwide hum of the internet, Code reveals the essence of the digital revolution.

Digital Dreams: Exploring the Computer as an Art Medium

Digital Dreams: Exploring the Computer as an Art Medium PDF Author: Harry Borgman
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1477181326
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
Harry Borgman's professional career has spanned many fields including graphic design, cartooning and illustration. He was art director on the Chevrolet account at Campbell - Ewald advertising agency and the Chariman of the Advertising Department at the Society of Arts and Crafts ( now the College for Creative Studies ). He has written several art technique books for Watson Guptill Publications, Dover Publications recently reprinting his book "Pen and Pencil Drawing Techniques." For many years he worked as a freelance artist in Detroit, New York and Paris, France. As a painter he works in the watercolor and acrylic mediums and is also very active as a sculptor, doing wood carvings as well as wood and metal constructions. Recently he has been experimenting with the computer medium, currently creating photomontages and collages on the computer for a proposed exhibition.

A City Is Not a Computer

A City Is Not a Computer PDF Author: Shannon Mattern
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069122675X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models. Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the "city-as-computer" metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs. Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.

Mindstorms

Mindstorms PDF Author: Seymour A Papert
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154167510X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.

Gaming the Iron Curtain

Gaming the Iron Curtain PDF Author: Jaroslav Svelch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026254928X
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
How amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Aside from the exceptional history of Tetris, very little is known about gaming culture behind the Iron Curtain. But despite the scarcity of home computers and the absence of hardware and software markets, Czechoslovakia hosted a remarkably active DIY microcomputer scene in the 1980s, producing more than two hundred games that were by turns creative, inventive, and politically subversive. In Gaming the Iron Curtain, Jaroslav Švelch offers the first social history of gaming and game design in 1980s Czechoslovakia, and the first book-length treatment of computer gaming in any country of the Soviet bloc. Švelch describes how amateur programmers in 1980s Czechoslovakia discovered games as a medium, using them not only for entertainment but also as a means of self-expression. Sheltered in state-supported computer clubs, local programmers fashioned games into a medium of expression that, unlike television or the press, was neither regulated nor censored. In the final years of Communist rule, Czechoslovak programmers were among the first in the world to make activist games about current political events, anticipating trends observed decades later in independent or experimental titles. Drawing from extensive interviews as well as political, economic, and social history, Gaming the Iron Curtain tells a compelling tale of gaming the system, introducing us to individuals who used their ingenuity to be active, be creative, and be heard.

The Typographic Medium

The Typographic Medium PDF Author: Kate Brideau
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262365626
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
An innovative examination of typography as a medium of communication rather than part of print or digital media. Typography is everywhere and yet widely unnoticed. When we read type, we fail to see type. In this book, Kate Brideau considers typography not as part of "print media" or "digital media" but as a medium of communication itself, able to transcend the life and death of particular technologies. Examining the contradiction between typographic form (often overlooked) and function (often overpowering), Brideau argues that typography is made up not of letters but of shapes, and that shape is existentially and technologically central to the typographic medium. After considering what constitutes typographic form, Brideau turns to typographic function and how it relates to form. Examining typography's role in both the neurological and psychological aspects of reading, she argues that typography's functions exceed reading; typographic forms communicate, but that communication is not limited to the content they carry. To understand to what extent the design and operations of the typographic medium affect the way we perceive information, Brideau warns, we must understand the medium's own operational logic, embodied in the full diversity of typographic forms. Brideau discusses a range of topics--from intellectual property protection for typefaces to Renaissance and Enlightenment ideal letterforms--and draws on a wide variety of theoretical work, including phenomenological ideas about comprehension, German media archaeology, and the media and communication theories of Vilém Flusser and others. Hand-drawn illustrations of typographic forms accompany the text.