Speaking code : coding as aesthetic and political expression / text: Geoff Cox ; code: Alex McLean ; , foreword by Franco "Bifo" Berardi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cox, Geoff, author.

Contributor:

McLean, Alex, 1975-

Series:

Software studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Source code (Computer science)--Philosophy.

Source code (Computer science).

Programming languages (Electronic computers)--Syntax.

Programming languages (Electronic computers).

Computer prose.

Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 149 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, [2013]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Speaking Code begins by invoking the "Hello World" convention used by programmers when learning a new language, helping to establish the interplay of text and code that runs through the book. Interweaving the voice of critical writing from the humanities with the tradition of computing and software development, in Speaking Code Geoff Cox formulates an argument that aims to undermine the distinctions between criticism and practice and to emphasize the aesthetic and political implications of software studies. Not reducible to its functional aspects, program code mirrors the instability inherent in the relationship of speech to language; it is only interpretable in the context of its distribution and network of operations. Code is understood as both script and performance, Cox argues, and is in this sense like spoken language--always ready for action. Speaking Code examines the expressive and performative aspects of programming; alternatives to mainstream development, from performances of the live-coding scene to the organizational forms of peer production; the democratic promise of social media and their actual role in suppressing political expression; and the market's emptying out of possibilities for free expression in the public realm. Cox defends language against its invasion by economics, arguing that speech continues to underscore the human condition, however paradoxical this may seem in an era of pervasive computing.

Contents:

0 Double Coding 1

Coding subject 3

Coding expression 7

Introduction 11

1 Vocable Code (co-written with Alex McLean) 17

Coding language 19

Grammars-Notation-Indeterminism Coding speech 27

Machines-Intelligence-Embodiment Code act 34

Speech act-Vocable Synthesis-Excess

2 Code Working 39

Code in-itself 41

Emergence-Computation-Voice Coding work 47

Valorization-Property-Self-organization Code action 58

Virtuosity-Performativity-Recomposition

3 Coding Publics 69

Public domain 72

Purification-Ownership-Freedoms Public networking 79

Inequities-Control-Exits

Public for-itself 91

Recombination-Reciprocity-Autonomy

4 Code for-Itself 99

Execution 100

Negation 102

Coda 104.

Notes:

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

0262305224

9780262305228

OCLC:

828680026

Publisher Number:

9780262305228

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.