Software studies explained

Software studies is an emerging interdisciplinary research field, which studies software systems and their social and cultural effects. The implementation and use of software has been studied in recent fields such as cyberculture, Internet studies, new media studies, and digital culture, yet prior to software studies, software was rarely ever addressed as a distinct object of study. To study software as an artifact, software studies draws upon methods and theory from the digital humanities and from computational perspectives on software. Methodologically, software studies usually differs from the approaches of computer science and software engineering, which concern themselves primarily with software in information theory and in practical application; however, these fields all share an emphasis on computer literacy, particularly in the areas of programming and source code. This emphasis on analysing software sources and processes (rather than interfaces) often distinguishes software studies from new media studies, which is usually restricted to discussions of interfaces and observable effects.

History

The conceptual origins of software studies include Marshall McLuhan's focus on the role of media in themselves, rather than the content of media platforms, in shaping culture. Early references to the study of software as a cultural practice appear in Friedrich Kittler's essay, "Es gibt keine Software", Lev Manovich's Language of New Media, and Matthew Fuller's Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software. Much of the impetus for the development of software studies has come from video game studies, particularly platform studies, the study of video games and other software artifacts in their hardware and software contexts. New media art, software art, motion graphics, and computer-aided design are also significant software-based cultural practices, as is the creation of new protocols and platforms.

The first conference events in the emerging field were Software Studies Workshop 2006 and SoftWhere 2008.^{[1] [2]}

In 2008, MIT Press launched a Software Studies book series^[3] with an edited volume of essays (Fuller's Software Studies: A Lexicon), and the first academic program was launched, (Lev Manovich, Benjamin H. Bratton, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin's "Software Studies Initiative" at U. California San Diego).^[4] In 2011, a number of mainly British researchers established Computational Culture, an open-access peer-reviewed journal. The journal provides a platform for "inter-disciplinary enquiry into the nature of the culture of computational objects, practices, processes and structures."^[5]

Related fields

Software studies is closely related to a number of other emerging fields in the digital humanities that explore functional components of technology from a social and cultural perspective. Software studies' focus is at the level of the entire program, specifically the relationship between interface and code. Notably related are critical code studies, which is more closely attuned to the code rather than the program,^[6] and platform studies, which investigates the relationships between hardware and software.^{[7] [8]}

See also

• Cultural studies
• Digital sociology

References

Bibliography

• Book: Fuller , Matthew . Matthew Fuller (author). 2003. Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software. New York. Autonomedia. 978-1-57027-139-7.
• Book: 2008. Fuller. Matthew. Matthew Fuller (author). . Software Studies: A Lexicon. Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Press. 978-0-262-06274-9.
• Book: Kittler , Friedrich . Friedrich Kittler. 1993. Draculas Vermächtnis: Technische Schriften. de. Leipzig. Reclam.
• Kittler. Friedrich. Friedrich Kittler. . 1995. There Is No Software. CTheory. 19 January 2013.
• Book: Manovich , Lev . Lev Manovich. 2001. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Press. 978-0-262-13374-6.

Further reading

• Book: Bassett , Caroline . 2007. The Arc and the Machine: Narrative and New Media. Manchester. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-7342-7.
• Book: Berry , David M. . 2008. Copy, Rip, Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source. registration. London. Pluto Press. 10.2307/j.ctt183q67g. 978-1-84964-455-6.
• Book: Berry , David M. . . 2011. The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. Basingstoke, England. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230306479. 978-0-230-24418-4.
• Black. Maurice J.. 2002. The Art of Code. PhD dissertation. Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania. 244972113. .
• Book: Chopra. Samir. Dexter. Scott D.. 2008. Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software. New York. Routledge. 10.4324/9780203942147. 978-0-203-94214-7.
• Chun. Wendy Hui Kyong. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun. 2008. On 'Sourcery,' or Code as Fetish. Configurations. 16. 3. 299–324. 10.1353/con.0.0064. 53422082. 1080-6520. 5 April 2020.
• Hayles. N. Katherine. N. Katherine Hayles. 2004. Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis. Poetics Today. 25. 1. 67–90. 10.1215/03335372-25-1-67. 16194046. 1527-5507. 5 April 2020.
• Book: Heim , Michael . Michael R. Heim. 1987. Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. registration. New Haven, Connecticut. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-03835-4.
• Kirschenbaum. Matthew G.. 2004. Extreme Inscription: Towards a Grammatology of the Hard Drive. TEXT Technology. 2. 91–125. 1053-900X. 5 April 2020.
• Book: Kittler , Friedrich A. . Friedrich Kittler. 1997. Johnston. John. Literature, Media, Information Systems: Essays. Amsterdam. Overseas Publishers Association. 978-90-5701-071-2.
• Book: Kittler , Friedrich A. . Friedrich Kittler. . 1999. Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Winthrop-Young. Geoffrey. Wutz. Michael. Stanford, California. Stanford University Press. 978-0-8047-3232-1.
• Web site: Mackenzie. Adrian. 2003. The Problem of Computer Code: Leviathan or Common Power. Lancaster, England. Lancaster University. 6 April 2020.
• Book: Mackenzie , Adrian . . 2006. Cutting Code: Software and Sociality. Internet Research Annual. Digital Formations. 30. Oxford. Peter Lang. 978-0-8204-7823-4. 1526-3169.
• Book: Manovich , Lev . Lev Manovich. 2013. Software Takes Command. New York. Bloomsbury Academic. 978-1-62356-672-2. 6 April 2020.
• Web site: Manovich. Lev. Lev Manovich. Douglass. Jeremy. 2009. Visualizing Temporal Patterns in Visual Media. 10 October 2009.
• Marino. Mark C.. 2006. Critical Code Studies. Electronic Book Review. 1553-1139. 6 April 2020.
• Book: Montfort. Nick. Nick Montfort. Bogost. Ian. Ian Bogost. 2009. Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. Racing the Beam. Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Press. 978-0-262-01257-7.
• Book: Wardrip-Fruin , Noah . Noah Wardrip-Fruin. 2009. Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies. Expressive Processing. Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Press. 978-0-262-01343-7.

External links

• Software studies bibliography at Monoskop.org

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2006 . Software Studies Workshop . https://web.archive.org/web/20100327185154/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/Seminars2/softstudworkshop . 27 March 2010 . 5 April 2020.
2. http://workshop.softwarestudies.com/ SoftWhere: Software Studies Workshop
3. Web site: Software Studies – Series . unfit . Cambridge, Massachusetts . MIT Press . https://web.archive.org/web/20100803154024/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/browse/browse.asp?btype=6&serid=179 . 3 August 2010 . 18 January 2013.
4. http://lab.softwarestudies.com/ Software Studies Initiative @ UCSD
5. Web site: Computational Culture: Double Book Launch and Launch of Computational Culture, a Journal of Software Studies. https://archive.today/20130419161041/http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/calendar/?id=4870. dead. 2013-04-19. London . Goldsmiths, University of London. December 2011. January 18, 2013.
6. Web site: Critical Code Studies . criticalcodestudies.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080117001643/http://criticalcodestudies.com/wordpress/ . 2008-01-17.
7. Web site: Bogost . Ian . Montfort . Nick . Platform Studies: A Book Series Published by MIT Press . Platform Studies . 18 January 2013.
8. News: Kirschenbaum . Matthew . 23 January 2009 . Where Computer Science and Cultural Studies Collide . subscription . The Chronicle of Higher Education . 18 January 2013.