Extreme TrackingWeek 1: Critical Code Studies Working Group
Ξ February 6th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ test, CCS, conferences, fundamentals, working group |
Week 1 has been such a success! As we approach the start of Week 2, we look back on what has happened so far.
Week 2: Guest Speaker, Jeremy Douglass, UCSD
A quick look at the working group’s statistics for the week
Members: 97
Code critiques: 15
Bibliographic entries: 80+ entries
Replies to the Week 1 presentation: 67
Code Critiques:
Telamon, John Bell
Strange Code, David M. Berry
4K> code competitions, David M. Berry
De-OMG-ifying Rails, Hugh Cayless
technésexual Puredata patch, Micha Cárdenas
music-pirating software, Max Feinstein
Annakournikova worm, Mark Marino
Nick Montfort’s 256-Character Poetry Generators, Mark Marino
Slash Goggles Algorithm, Mark Marino
Textbook Case, Warren Sack
Carrier: Becoming Symborg, David Shepard
The Jew’s Daughter, David Shepard
There is also a 2orking list of candidates for potential readings.
Max Feinstein’s review of Week 1:
What has been added to code critiques:
Our burgeoning Code Critiques discussion has amassed an impressive array of source code this week, each bit accompanied by relevant background information poised for CCS-style analysis. Such details as the code’s purpose, author, and cultural relevance lend themselves to the original and innovative discussion that’s currently taking place and effectively bridging the gap between traditionally isolated code and the world outside of the compiler. For example, group members Jeremy Douglass, José Carlos Silvestre, and Azdel Slade are engaged in an insightful discussion about the heteronormative tendencies of the Annakournikova computer virus, a topic suggested by Mark C. Marino in his opening presentation. This multidisciplinary (and international) conversation, like the many others taking place simultaneously in the working group, draws upon theories and ideas from a variety of disciplines, all ushered in by our members whose academic specialties range from English to Political Science to Art History, and include a healthy cornucopia of digital culture studies. The great start we’ve witnessed this week promises to evolve into an expansive collection of highly valuable CCS conversations by the forum’s end. Anxious followers worry not, for much of the discussion from the working group will eventually be published on the electronic book review.
Highlighted code critiques:
- David Shepard’s examination of a new media art work about the Hepatitis C virus: “Carrier: Becoming Symborg,” a program that incorporates Java, Javascript, HTML, CSS, Shockwave, and VRML.
- Micha Cárdenas’s insight into a Puredata patch called technésexual
- John Bell’s look at a Javascript project called Telamon.js
- Warren Sack’s critique of the computer science textbook Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
- David M. Berry looks at the coding competitions.
Week 2:
Monday, Jeremy Douglass will kick off a new discussion topic with a presentation on code snippets. The conversation will focus on “code citation and the opportunities and challenges of working with primary source code in software and code studies.” In addition to making major improvements to the working group’s website design and format, the UC San Diego researcher has contributed valuable ideas to virtually every discussion topic in the last week, so the upcoming presentation promises to be a particularly informative and interesting one!
Highlights of last week’s speaker:
Last week, Mark C. Marino welcomed the working group’s audience, comprised of nearly 100 scholars, with his video presentation on Critical Code Studies. In his opening remarks, Marino shared his enthusiasm about our project as “an opportunity, in the context of a talented and committed set of peers, to generate close readings of source code.” Additionally, he shared an exhaustive list of ideas that provide the framework for our group’s studies: The importance of authorial intent, the role of code and subject groups, the relationship of code to realism, the place of the hacker, and a number of other bases for conversation. The presentation wrapped up with a close reading of the Annakournikova worm’s source code, complete with Marino’s interpretation of key lines in the software, which served as the guide by which other code readers have navigated through their own studies throughout the week. No doubt the groundwork laid out by Marino has set the tone and inspired much of the creative work taking place in our discussions.