Book•
Software Takes Command
01 Jan 2013-
TL;DR: Offering the the first theoretical and historical account of software for media authoring and its effects on the practice and the very concept of 'media,' Lev Manovich develops his own theory for this rapidly-growing, always-changing field.
Abstract: Software has replaced a diverse array of physical, mechanical, and electronic technologies used before 21st century to create, store, distribute and interact with cultural artifacts. It has become our interface to the world, to others, to our memory and our imagination - a universal language through which the world speaks, and a universal engine on which the world runs. What electricity and combustion engine were to the early 20th century, software is to the early 21st century. Offering the the first theoretical and historical account of software for media authoring and its effects on the practice and the very concept of 'media,' the author of The Language of New Media (2001) develops his own theory for this rapidly-growing, always-changing field.What was the thinking and motivations of people who in the 1960 and 1970s created concepts and practical techniques that underlie contemporary media software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, Final Cut and After Effects? How do their interfaces and tools shape the visual aesthetics of contemporary media and design? What happens to the idea of a 'medium' after previously media-specific tools have been simulated and extended in software? Is it still meaningful to talk about different mediums at all? Lev Manovich answers these questions and supports his theoretical arguments by detailed analysis of key media applications such as Photoshop and After Effects, popular web services such as Google Earth, and the projects in motion graphics, interactive environments, graphic design and architecture. Software Takes Command is a must for all practicing designers and media artists and scholars concerned with contemporary media.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a Computational Thinking Test (CTt) is administered on a sample of 1,251 Spanish students from 5th to 10th grade, so its descriptive statistics and reliability are reported in this paper.
447 citations
Cites methods from "Software Takes Command"
...We live immersed in a digital ecosystem full of objects driven by software (Manovich, 2013)....
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TL;DR: The article argues that the authors need to look beyond the algorithms themselves, as a technical and material presence, to explore how the notion or concept of the algorithm is also an important feature of their potential power.
Abstract: This article explores the questions associated with what might be thought of as the social power of algorithms. The article, which introduces a special issue on the same topic, begins by reflecting...
378 citations
Cites background from "Software Takes Command"
...The first is that it provides an illustration of the type of embedded nature of algorithms and their potential role in social processes (amongst a range of examples, see, for instance, Kitchin & Dodge, 2011 or Manovich, 2013)....
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TL;DR: It is argued that, compared to reality construction by traditional mass media, algorithmic reality construction tends to increase individualization, commercialization, inequalities, and deterritorialization and to decrease transparency, controllability, and predictability.
Abstract: This article explores the governance by algorithms in information societies. Theoretically, it builds on (co-)evolutionary innovation studies in order to adequately grasp the interplay of technolog...
257 citations
Cites background from "Software Takes Command"
...As Manovich (2013) argues, digital media have no attributes per se, because these are more or less assigned by the software used....
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TL;DR: It is rare to find an academic today who has had no access to digital technology as part of their research activity, but email, Google searches and bibliographic databases are become increasingly crucial, as more of the world libraries are scanned and placed online.
Abstract: Few dispute that digital technology is fundamentally changing the way in which we engage in the research process. Indeed, it is becoming more and more evident that research is increasingly being mediated through digital technology. Many argue that this mediation is slowly beginning to change what it means to undertake research, affecting both the epistemologies and ontologies that underlie a research programme. Of course, this development is variable depending on disciplines and research agendas, with some more reliant on digital technology than others, but it is rare to find an academic today who has had no access to digital technology as part of their research activity. Library catalogues are now probably the minimum way in which an academic can access books and research articles without the use of a computer, but, with card indexes dying a slow and certain death (Baker, 1996, 2001), there remain few outputs for the non-digital scholar to undertake research in the modern university. Email, Google searches and bibliographic databases are become increasingly crucial, as more of the world libraries are scanned and placed online. Whilst some decry the loss of the skills and techniques of older research traditions, others have warmly embraced what has come to be called the digital humanities (Schreibman et al., 2008; Schnapp & Presner, 2009; Presner, 2010; Hayles, 2011).
245 citations
Cites methods from "Software Takes Command"
...…approach draws from recent work in software studies and critical code studies, but it also thinks about the questions raised by platform studies, namely the specifics of general computability made available by specific platforms (Fuller, 2008; Manovich, 2008; Montfort & Bogost, 2009; Berry, 2011)....
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...(Manovich, 2008:41)....
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TL;DR: Using Niklaus Wirth's 1975 formulation that “algorithms+ data structures’= programs” as a launching-off point, this paper examines how an algorithmic lens shapes the way in which the authors might inquire into contemporary digital culture.
Abstract: Algorithms, once obscure objects of technical art, have lately been subject to considerable popular and scholarly scrutiny. What does it mean to adopt the algorithm as an object of analytic attention? What is in view, and out of view, when we focus on the algorithm? Using Niklaus Wirth's 1975 formulation that “algorithms + data structures = programs” as a launching-off point, this paper examines how an algorithmic lens shapes the way in which we might inquire into contemporary digital culture.
241 citations
Cites background or methods from "Software Takes Command"
...Using Niklaus Wirth’s 1975 formulation that ‘‘algorithmsþ data structures¼ programs’’ as a launching-off point, this paper examines how an algorithmic lens shapes the way in which we might inquire into contemporary digital culture....
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...…finance, labor politics, governance, public policy, and organizational strategy, scholars such as Barocas (2014), Gillespie (2012), Glaser (2014), Manovich (2013), Pasquale (2015), Seaver (2015), and Ziewitz (2015) have turned attention to the way that algorithms are embedded within topics of…...
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