An examination of the interactions of science and technology, art, and literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. Scholars focus on five historical themes in the transition from energy to information: thermodynamics, electromagnetism, inscription, information theory, and vitality.

This book offers an innovative examination of the interactions of science and technology, art, and literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Scholars in the history of art, literature, architecture, computer science, and media studies focus on five historical themes in the transition from energy to information: thermodynamics, electromagnetism, inscription, information theory, and virtuality. Different disciplines are grouped around specific moments in the history of science and technology in order to sample the modes of representation invented or adapted by each field in response...