num_pages: 176
description: Software actively shapes the way we know, see, and do things in the world. In BEHIND THE BLIP, a far-reaching and strikingly original collection of essays on the "culture of software," new-media critic Matthew Fuller sets out some of the ways in which people are opening this process up to greater debate and experimentation. BEHIND THE BLIP brings together insights from social studies of science and philosophies of technology, with accounts and ideas from hackers, artists, inventors, programmers, and other users of software. BEHIND THE BLIP surveys the potential grounds for software criticism and proposes some currents in software that call for new ways of thinking about the subject. It also offers numerous case studies taken from Fuller's own experience participating in the production of a popular experimental web browser; a site parasiting search engines to hack racism on the net; and a large-scale disassembly of the world's "favorite" writing machine, Microsoft Word. BEHIND THE BLIP refuses to stop asking questions or settle for what's served up on the desktop. Along the way, fundamental possibilities for technology, computers, and culture are set loose.
language: English
title: Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software
titlecomplete: Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software
ratings_count: 16
publisher: Autonomedia