Cultural Studies 3 Lecture 2a

Cultural Studies 3: 

Cultural Studies 3 Digital culture Lecture 2 Digital Culture: A brief history Liam Greenslade http://ncad.culturalstudies.googlepages.com http://ncadculturalstudies3.blogspot.com

Historical Roots of Digital Culture: 

Historical Roots of Digital Culture The machine is always social before it is technical. There is always a social machine which selects the technical elements used Deleuze & Parnet (1977)

Capitalism & Abstraction: 

Capitalism & Abstraction Capital in the 19th Century operates through various forms of abstraction: Labour power (as opposed to labour) The commodity form (as a circulating sign of exchange value rather than material use value) Money (Wealth as ‘liquidity’ rather than real property) Time (As abstract, delocalized, impersonal units)

Machinic thinking: 

Machinic thinking Transformation of the labourer to ‘machine part’ Breakdown of complex operations into discrete, atomistic parts Mechanisation of simplified processes Cybernetic control/self regulation Boolean logic

Abstraction, Communication, Representation: 

Abstraction, Communication, Representation Development of communication technology Morse code and the electric telegraph The development of photography and moving images The ‘irrelevance of geography’ Trading in information instead of commodities Divorce of the signifier from the signified

Documentation: 

Documentation Movement of population brought about by industrialisation creates ‘free-floating’ individual and changes nature of social control Development of ‘statistics’ The punch-card and the calculator Circulation and transmission of data about individuals Constitution of people as a ‘discrete signs’ within formalized power relations

Turing’s ‘conceptual machine’: 

Turing’s ‘conceptual machine’ A Turing machine is the original idealized model of a computer, invented by Alan Turing in 1936. Based on a typewriter, a Turing machine consists of a line of cells known as the "tape", together with a single active cell, known as the "head". The head can move up and down the tape and read the cell on the tape and perform different actions according to what it finds. The Turing machine is configurable in an infinite number of states Turing machines are equivalent to modern electronic computers at a certain theoretical level, but differ in many details.

Turing, Enigma & World War 2: 

Turing, Enigma & World War 2 Invention of the radio in the 1870s brought with it a concern (and fascination) with codes and cyphers Turing served at Bletchley Park cryptographic centre decoding German military codes Development of mechanical decryption devices using mass calculation procedures to decode messages Development of electronic, stored program computers

Cybernetics & Information Theory: 

Cybernetics & Information Theory World War II accelerated both the development of computers and theoretical interest in theories of communication and human/machine interaction Encryption by ‘scrambling’ signals Predictive gun-sights and anti-aircraft control systems Servo-mechanical and feedback systems

Computers and the Cold War: 

Computers and the Cold War Fears about national security drive military spending in the post-war USA Arms race and doctrine of ‘mutually assured destruction’ prompt need for better early warning and missile guidance systems SAGE EWS (1961), the largest computer project of its day, cost $1 billion and didn’t work but it did contribute to the development of commercial computer systems (such as SABRE the airline ticketing system) It also marked a change in the conception of computers from large scale calculating engine and heralds the start of the ‘digital age’.

The significance of SAGE: 

The significance of SAGE Real time computing Magnetic memory Video and graphical display Simulation Analogue to digital and digital to analogue conversion Multiprocessing Networking

Cold war, Space race & the silicon chip: 

Cold war, Space race & the silicon chip Military funded research produces smaller more powerful computers Transistors replace valves but complex systems require more wiring making them slower and less efficient Military needs drive the development of the ‘integrated circuit’ for arms race and the space race Prices drop rapidly making personal computers a viable possibility

From ARPA to DARPA: 

From ARPA to DARPA Advanced Research Projects Agency Set up in 1958 to conduct ‘blue sky’ research as a response to Sputnik Broad mandate and limited accountability Able to support high risk projects such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects and human-machine interface development And, most importantly, the INTERNET

Further Reading: 

Further Reading Gere C (2002) Digital Culture Lndon: Reaktion Chapters 1 & 2 Marx K Capital Chapter 1 available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm