Cold war legacies : systems, theory, aesthetics / edited by John Beck and Ryan Bishop.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Beck, John, 1963- editor.

Contributor:

Bishop, Ryan, editor.

Series:

Technicities

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cold War--Influence.

Cold War.

Civilization--History--20th century.

Civilization.

War--Influence.

History.

Genre:

History.

Aufsatzsammlung.

Physical Description:

304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press 2016.

Summary:

Systems analysis, cybernetics, information theory - form the late 1940s through the 80s, these shaped military, business, government and academic thinking. Their influence on the arts is obvious, form the 'systems novels' of the 1960s and 70s to electronic music and from conceptual art to electronic media. 0The end of the Cold War did not end systems thinking; indeed, given the explosion of computer technologies into every aspect of contemporary life it can be argued that we are living in a world imagined and engineered by the Cold War. This collection connects Cold War material and conceptual technologies to the arts, society and culture.

Contents:

List of figures

Series editors' preface

Acknowledgements

Notes on contributors. Introduction: the long Cold War / John Beck and Ryan Bishop. 1 Pattern recognition : The future : RAND, brand and dangerous to know / John Beck

Simulate, optimise, partition: algorithmic diagrams of pattern recognition from 1953 onwards / Adrian Mackenzie

Impulsive synchronisation: a conversation on military technologies and audiovisual arts / Aura Satz and Jussi Parikka. 2 The persistence of the nuclear : The meaning of Monte Bello / James Purdon

Deep geological disposal and radioactive time: Beckett, Bowen, Nirex and Onkalo / Adam Piette

Shifting the nuclear imaginary: art and the flight from nuclear modernity / Ele Carpenter

Alchemical transformations? Fictions of the nuclear state after 1989 / Daniel Grausam. 3 Ubiquitous surveillance : "The very form of perverse artificial societies:" the unstable emergence of the network family from its Cold War nuclear bunker / Ken Hollings

The signal-haunted Cold War: persistence of the SIGINT ontology / Jussi Parikka

"Bulk surveillance," or the elegant technicities of metadata / Mark Coté. 4 Pervasive mediations : Notes from the underground: microwaves, backbones, party lines and the Post Office Tower / John W.P. Phillips

Insect technics: war vision machines / Fabienne Collingnon

Overt research / Neal White and John Beck

Smart dust and remote sensing: the political subject in autonomous systems / Ryan Bishop. Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index (pages 289-305)

ISBN:

9781474409483

1474409482

9781474409490

1474409490

9781474409506

1474409504

OCLC:

946009259