The Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS) Lab
I am Director of a lab that pursues collaborations with computer scientists in developing methodologies for humanities-based explorations of digital objects through the entry point of source code.
Summary Statement of Research Interests
conversational agents (chatbots), new media, emerging writing forms instructional technology, game studies, social networking, selfies, fake news, and contemporary writing practices. Also, Critical Code Studies.
Books
Critical Code Studies Computer source code has become part of popular discourse. Code is read not only by programmers but by lawyers, artists, pundits, reporters, political activists, and literary scholars; it is used in political debate, works of art, popular entertainment, and historical accounts. In this book, I argue that code means more than merely what it does; we must also consider what it means. We need to learn to read code critically. I present a series of case studies?ranging from the Climategate scandal to a hactivist art project on the US-Mexico border?as lessons in critical code reading.
Each case study begins by presenting a small and self-contained passage of code?by coders as disparate as programming pioneer Grace Hopper and philosopher Friedrich Kittler?and an accessible explanation of its context and functioning. I then explore its extra-functional significance, demonstrating a variety of interpretive approaches.
Reading Project: A Collaborative Analysis of William Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit} a collaborative analysis of Poundstone’s Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit} presents a new critical model for approaching twenty-first century poetics. Three digital culture scholars approach the same work of digital literature from three distinct critical perspectives—traditional literary hermeneutics, critical code studies, and humanities info-visualization software approaches— to show how scholars can be attentive to content and code, poetics and platforms, and also to each other. The book’s structure presents this practice as a series of feedback loops of interpretative collaboration between the writers with the goal of modeling new critical approaches to digital humanities scholarship. With Jessica Pressman and Jeremy Douglass (University of Iowa Press, 2015)
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 takes a single-line program for the Commodore 64 and uses it for the starting point for a discussion of programming, Basic, early personal computers, and code. With Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian Bogost, Jeremy Douglass, Michael Mateas, Casey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter (MIT Press, 2013)
Research Keywords
new media, game studies, electronic literature, composition, conversational agents, hypertext, code, mobile narratives, software studies, critical code studies, technoculture, social media, Web 2.0, educational technology
Research Specialties
Electronic Literature, New Media, Computers and Composition, Digital Narrative, Conversational Agents, Game Studies, Critical Code Studies, Software Studies
REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
“Why We Must Read the Code.” Debates in the Digital Humanities. Matthew Gold and Lauren Klein, eds. Minnesota UP: 2016
“Netprov: Elements of an Emerging Form.” Electronic Literature Communities. Scott Rettberg, Patricia Tomaszek. The Center for Literary Computing. 2015.
“Review of Speaking Code by Geoff Cox and Alex McLean.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 66.9. 24 June 2015
“Acting Out: Netprov in the Classroom.” With Rob Wittig. Creative Writing in the Digital Age: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy. Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
“Field Report for Critical Code Studies, 2014.” Computational Culture. 4. 9 November 2014.
“Code.” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media. Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, and Benjamin J. Robertson, eds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2014.
“Reading exquisite_code: Critical Code Studies of Literature.” Comparative Textual Media: Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era. N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman, eds. Minnesota: Minnesota, 2013.
“Mobilizing Cities: Alternative Storytelling.” The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Mobile Technologies. Jason Farman, ed. New York: Routledge, 2013
“Code as Ritualized Poetry: The Tactics of the Transborder Immigrant Tool.” Digital Humanities Quarterly. 7.1. 2013?
“Of Sex, Cylons, and Worms: A Critical Code Study of Heteronormativity.” Leonardo Electronic Almanac. 17.1 April 2012
“The ppg256 Perl Primer: The Poetry of Techneculture.” Emerging Language Practices. Issue 1. 2010.
Disrupting Heteronormative Codes: When Cylons in Slash Goggles Ogle AnnaKournikova. Dec. 2009. UC Irvine: Digital Arts and Culture 2009.
“Multimedia Hurston.” Explorations: The Flora Levy Humanities Series. Lafayette: Louisiana State University. 2009
“Ulysses on Web 2.0: Towards a hypermedia parallax engine.” James Joyce Quarterly. 44.3. Spring 2007.
“Critical Code Studies.” electronic book review. 4 December 2006.
“Benchmark Fiction: A Framework for Comparative New Media Studies.” with Christy Dena and Jeremy Douglass. Proceedings of the Seventh International Digital Arts and Cultures conference. Copenhagen. Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2005. Copenhagen, Denmark.
NON-REFEREED PUBLICATIONS
Proceedings of “CCS @ USC” conference. Edited and wrote an introduction and “Opening Remarks.” Vectors Journal. January 2011
“Critical Code Studies and the electronic book review: An Introduction” electronic book review. Introduction to CCSWG weekly threads. September 15, 2010
“Electronic Literature as an Information System.” Hyperrhiz.06 Visionary Landscapes with Juan B. Gutierrez, Pablo Gervás, Laura Borràs Castanyer Summer 2009.
“Review: The Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1: A New Media Primer.” Digital Humanities Quarterly. Summer 2008. v2. n1.
“Review: Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of Digital Machines.” Global Media and Communication. Spring 2008.
“Tuning the Lyre: The Harmony of Eliot, Yeats, and Heraclitus,” an essay published in Criterion. April 2000
