Digital Culture
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'There are lots of illustrations of early technological advances, which always look endearingly quaint. But the outstanding characteristic, in a field where pretentious obfuscation often seems obligatory, is that Gere can not only string a sentence together, but also uses those sentences to produce cogent and interesting arguments. He concludes that our digital culture has been built from elements including: Cold War defence technologies; avant-garde art practice; counter-cultural techno-utopianism; Post-Modernist critical theory; new wave subcultural style' --Architect's Journal
'This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and views of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labour.'
--Journal of Visual Culture
'This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and views of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labour.'
--Journal of Visual Culture
Product Description
From our bank accounts to supermarket checkouts to the movies we watch, strings of ones and zeroes suffuse our world. Digital technology has defined modern society in numerous ways, and the vibrant digital culture that has now resulted is the subject of Charlie Gere's engaging volume. In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. After tracing the historical development of digital culture, Gere argues that it is actually neither radically new nor technologically driven: digital culture has its roots in the eighteenth century and the digital mediascape we swim in today was originally inspired by informational needs arising from industrial capitalism, contemporary warfare and counter-cultural experimentation, among other social changes. A timely and cutting-edge investigation of our contemporary social infrastructures, "Digital Culture" is essential reading for all those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a highly recommended book and a pretty important one. Other books in this field give a history of the technology or a survey of what is going on at the moment. This book offers a history of the thinking and the concepts that have made the technology possible.
The introduction makes the point eloquently by describing the threat of the Millennium bug. Although it turned out to be a damp squib, the fact that so much panic was caused by the absence of two digits showed how dependent modern life has become on technology.
What follows is a story of how digital culture developed to the point it’s at now. The trail starts in the nineteenth century with Charles Babbage and concludes firmly in the twenty first century with The Matrix. In between, the book reads a like a wild surf of the Internet, segueing from subject to subject with an exhilaration that smacks of Greil Marcus.
Behind the pacey, almost breathless style lies an engaging and unique alternative history. This is definitely not a retelling of a familiar story, of the growth of technology; rather it is a book about the cultural references, the sociological events and the thinking that produces the technology, told as a series of strands, coherently woven together. It embraces a heady mix of art, music, literature, politics and alternative culture, which inform and enrich the subject matter to create a captivating read.
Gere has produced a stimulating and thought- provoking book. He has managed to narrate an important story in a most engaging style, showing by referencing the familiar how digital technology has been shaped, not just by scientists in white coats, but by an eclectic mix; and uniquely illustrates our own involvement in the development of digital culture, making this a book that should appeal to all.
Format:Paperback
Nerds, digits, blue screens of death. Ah the connected, wired, wireless brave new world in which we all subsist. This brilliant book sums it all up - its history, its science, its implications. However its focus is so avowedly digital (that is its strength and so must also be its weakness) that in this review I am compelled to take a step sideways and describe it with reference to some recent political books (all of which I have reviewed).
This solidly satisfying book explains how digital culture and capitalism are lovingly entwined. The abstraction of things using symbols exemplified by money leads inexorably to the disembodied deregulation that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Credit Crunch (see Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay). Reducing everything to mere data imperils knowledge.
The digital mindset is also eerily attuned to the rejection of necessity that is the contemporary sickness, as described in The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy. After all what do we use computers for? Increasingly it is for games, shopping, anti-social networking.
Digital culture is also thoroughly entwined with the postwar rebellion amply criticised in What did the baby boomers ever do for us?.
Through the prism of these three other books one can't help but feel, and for all the breadth and depth of this book's admirable analysis, that digital culture is ultimately vapid. Compare and contrast with the solid values and humane achievements portrayed in Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character.
This solidly satisfying book explains how digital culture and capitalism are lovingly entwined. The abstraction of things using symbols exemplified by money leads inexorably to the disembodied deregulation that led to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Credit Crunch (see Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay). Reducing everything to mere data imperils knowledge.
The digital mindset is also eerily attuned to the rejection of necessity that is the contemporary sickness, as described in The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes it Hard to be Happy. After all what do we use computers for? Increasingly it is for games, shopping, anti-social networking.
Digital culture is also thoroughly entwined with the postwar rebellion amply criticised in What did the baby boomers ever do for us?.
Through the prism of these three other books one can't help but feel, and for all the breadth and depth of this book's admirable analysis, that digital culture is ultimately vapid. Compare and contrast with the solid values and humane achievements portrayed in Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character.
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