Digital Culture
Second Edition
Charlie GereTaking account of developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, this title charts the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. It is suitable for those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
From our bank accounts to supermarket checkouts to the movies we watch, strings of ones and zeroes suffuse our world. Digital technology has defined modern society in numerous ways, and the vibrant digital culture that has now resulted is the subject of Charlie Gere’s engaging volume.
In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. After tracing the historical development of digital culture, Gere argues that it is actually neither radically new nor technologically driven: digital culture has its roots in the eighteenth century and the digital mediascape we swim in today was originally inspired by informational needs arising from industrial capitalism, contemporary warfare and counter-cultural experimentation, among other social changes.
A timely and cutting-edge investigation of our contemporary social infrastructures, Digital Culture is essential reading for all those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
Taking account of developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, this title charts the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. It is suitable for those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
From our bank accounts to supermarket checkouts to the movies we watch, strings of ones and zeroes suffuse our world. Digital technology has defined modern society in numerous ways, and the vibrant digital culture that has now resulted is the subject of Charlie Gere’s engaging volume.
In this revised and expanded second edition, taking account of new developments such as Facebook and the iPhone, Charlie Gere charts in detail the history of digital culture, as marked by responses to digital technology in art, music, design, film, literature and other areas. After tracing the historical development of digital culture, Gere argues that it is actually neither radically new nor technologically driven: digital culture has its roots in the eighteenth century and the digital mediascape we swim in today was originally inspired by informational needs arising from industrial capitalism, contemporary warfare and counter-cultural experimentation, among other social changes.
A timely and cutting-edge investigation of our contemporary social infrastructures, Digital Culture is essential reading for all those concerned about the ever-changing future of our Digital Age.
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There are lots of illustrations of early technological advances, which always look endearingly quaint. But the outstanding characteristic, in a field where pretentious obfuscation often seems obligatory, is that Gere can not only string a sentence together, but also uses those sentences to produce cogent and interesting arguments. He concludes that our digital culture has been built from elements including: Cold War defence technologies avant-garde art practice counter-cultural techno-utopianism Post-Modernist critical theory new wave subcultural style . . .
'Architects Journal
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This is an excellent book. It gives an almost complete overview of the main trends and views of what is generally called digital culture through the whole post-war period as well as a thorough exposition of the history of the computer and its predecessors and the origins of the modern division of labour.
'Journal of Visual Culture
Preface to the second edition
Introduction: What is Digital Culture?
1: The Beginnings of Digital Culture
2: The Cybernetic Era
3: The Digital Avante-garde
4: The Digital Counter-culture
5: Digital Resistances
6: Digital Nature
7: Digital Culture in the Twenty-first Century
References
Acknowledgements
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index
Charlie Gere is Reader in New Media Research and Director of the Institute for Cultural Research, University of Lancaster. He is co-editing with Robin Boast an anthology entitled Allegories of the Information Age (forthcoming).
