Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination

Kirschenbaum, Matthew G.

ISBN 10: 0262113112 / ISBN 13: 9780262113113

Published by Mit Pr (edition ), 2007

About this Item

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 0262113112-8-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination
• Publisher: Mit Pr (edition )
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262113112
• ISBN 13: 9780262113113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

In Mechanisms, Matthew Kirschenbaum examines new media and electronic writing against the textual and technological primitives that govern writing, inscription, and textual transmission in all media: erasure, variability, repeatability, and survivability. Mechanisms is the first book in its field to devote significant attention to storage--the hard drive in particular--arguing that understanding the affordances of storage devices is essential to understanding new media. Drawing a distinction between "forensic materiality" and "formal materiality," Kirschenbaum uses applied computer forensics techniques in his study of new media works. Just as the humanities discipline of textual studies examines books as physical objects and traces different variants of texts, computer forensics encourage us to perceive new media in terms of specific versions, platforms, systems, and devices. Kirschenbaum demonstrates these techniques in media-specific readings of three landmark works of new media and electronic literature, all from the formative era of personal computing: the interactive fiction game Mystery House, Michael Joyce's Afternoon: A Story, and William Gibson's electronic poem "Agrippa."

About the Author

Matthew G. Kirschenbaum is Associate Professor of English and Associate Director, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), University of Maryland. He was a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow.