The cultural and philosophical study of software is crucial, both within and outside of the university, at an international level and across disciplines. Software is increasingly considered the focus of digital media studies because of the perceived need to address the invisibility, ubiquity, and power of digital media. Yet software remains quite obscure to students and scholars in media studies, the social sciences, and the humanities. This unique book engages directly in close readings of technical texts and computer code in order to show how software works and in what sense it can be...

The cultural and philosophical study of software is crucial, both within and outside of the university, at an international level and across disciplines. Software is increasingly considered the focus of digital media studies because of the perceived need to address the invisibility, ubiquity, and power of digital media. Yet software remains quite obscure to students and scholars in media studies, the social sciences, and the humanities. This unique book engages directly in close readings of technical texts and computer code in order to show how software works and in what sense it can be...

Is it possible to incite a turn towards Media Philosophy, a field that accounts for the autonomy of media, for machine agency and for the new modalities of thought and subjectivity that these enable, rather than dwelling on representations, audiences and extensions of the self? In the wake of the field-defining work done by Friedrich Kittler, this important collection of essays takes a philosophical approach to the end of the media era in the traditional sense and outlines the implications of a turn that sees media become concepts of the middle, of connection, and of multitude--across diverse...

Is it possible to incite a turn towards Media Philosophy, a field that accounts for the autonomy of media, for machine agency and for the new modalities of thought and subjectivity that these enable, rather than dwelling on representations, audiences and extensions of the self? In the wake of the field-defining work done by Friedrich Kittler, this important collection of essays takes a philosophical approach to the end of the media era in the traditional sense and outlines the implications of a turn that sees media become concepts of the middle, of connection, and of multitude--across diverse...

Wolfgang Ernst has demonstrated that the knowledge of time-giving ('chrono-poetical') media and their temporal essence enriches the tradition of philosophical inquiry into the nature of 'time'. This book, a translated and abridged edition of Ernst's two major volumes, Chronopoetik and Gleichursprunglichkeit, undertakes this on three levels: a close analysis of time-critical moments within media technologies; descriptions of how media temporalities affect and disrupt the traditional human sense of time; and questioning the traditional position of media time within cultural history. The book...

Wolfgang Ernst has demonstrated that the knowledge of time-giving ('chrono-poetical') media and their temporal essence enriches the tradition of philosophical inquiry into the nature of 'time'. This book, a translated and abridged edition of Ernst's two major volumes, Chronopoetik and Gleichursprunglichkeit, undertakes this on three levels: a close analysis of time-critical moments within media technologies; descriptions of how media temporalities affect and disrupt the traditional human sense of time; and questioning the traditional position of media time within cultural history. The book...

The figure of the 'other' is fundamental to the concept of communication. Online or offline, communication, which is commonly defined as the act of sending or imparting information to others, is only possible in the face of others. In fact, the reason we communicate is to interact with others to talk to another, to share our thoughts and insights with them, or to respond to their needs and requests. No matter how it is structured or conceptualized, communication is involved with addressing the other and dealing with the ontological, epistemological, and ethical questions of otherness or...

The figure of the 'other' is fundamental to the concept of communication. Online or offline, communication, which is commonly defined as the act of sending or imparting information to others, is only possible in the face of others. In fact, the reason we communicate is to interact with others to talk to another, to share our thoughts and insights with them, or to respond to their needs and requests. No matter how it is structured or conceptualized, communication is involved with addressing the other and dealing with the ontological, epistemological, and ethical questions of otherness or...

Many technologies and practices that define the Internet today date back to the 1990s - such as user-generated content, participatory platforms and social media. Indeed, many early ideas about the future of the Internet have been implemented, albeit without fulfilling the envisioned political utopias. By tracing back the technotopian vision, Clemens Apprich develops a media genealogical perspecive that helps us to better understand how digital networks have transformed over the last 30 years and therefore to think beyond the current state of our socio-technical reality. This highly original...

By looking back to the early days of network building within the Internet, Clemens Apprich looks at how those pioneer projects have shaped new forms of media and social practices, and critically engages with current discourses about the weal and woe of the Internet.