New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam | 2011

Book review: Tactical Media by Rita Raley

In december 2004, an alleged spokesmen of Dow Chemical named ‘Jude Finisterra’ appeared on television to apologize for the Bhopal disaster, a 1984 industrial disaster in India that resulted in thousands of deaths. Two hours (an a lot of...

By Yeun Au on 09/21/11 1

Book Review: KINGPIN by Kevin Poulsen

If you like police stories with persecution, infiltration and investigation KINGPIN may be just the right book for you. Written by Kevin Poulsen, it is an exciting story of the rise of one hacker to the control of the...

By Mario Gesteira on 09/21/11 1

Book Review ‘Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other’ by Sherry Turkle (Part 1)

About 30 percent of the Dutch are unhappy about the social support they get from their fellow citizens. A third of those wish they would get more visitors, for the occasional small talk, and 28 percent wish they would...

By Roos van Tongerloo on 09/21/11 1

Book review: Precarious Rhapsody. Semiocapitalism and the pathologies of the post-alpha generation by Franco “Bifo” Berardi

An infinite series of bifurcations, forking paths, choices (to be) made. Every choice made rules out other possibilities. But do we make these choices, or are they made for us? Is there a real choice? In Precarious Rhapsody, Franco...

By Martijn Dorresteijn on 09/20/11 1

Book review: In the Plex by Steven Levy

"I wanted to write a book that got the reader inside Google and learned about its thought process, the way it planned and built products, its visions for the future, and the way it struggled with issues like China,...

By Demet Dagdelen on 09/20/11 Comments Off

Book Review: The Cultural Logic of Computation, by David Golumbia

How does new media influence the cultural development of the society and which influence do they have on the identity of a society? Which possibilities of knowledge to they open up and which risks are involved? The Cultural Logic...

By Jesse Oyegbesan on 09/20/11 Comments Off

Book review:Taking Care of Youth and the Generations by Bernard Stiegler

Marketing technologies pose great threat to the future generations – this is the main thesis of French philosopher, Bernard Stiegler‘s book Taking Care of Youth and the Generations. In a work published in English language in 2010, Stiegler begins...

By Mzia Kupunia on 09/20/11 1

Book review: Cory Doctorow’s “For the win – organize to survive!”

Cory Doctorow’s novel could be described as a thriller for the MMORPG generation. The author / co-editor of Boing Boing, describes a near future scenario, in which professional gamers in developing countries stage revolts, first in-game, and later, in real...

By Daniel Luiz dos Santos on 09/20/11 1

Book Review: ‘Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media’ by Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo van Leeuwen (Editors)

I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am trying to find my voice. (Maybe I should just steal it). “Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.” (Polonius’ advice Laertes...

By Liam Voice on 09/20/11 Comments Off

Book Review: From Image to Interaction by Arjen Mulder

“Every form of contemporary art contains a kernel of life, a possibility for growth or development, even if a few decades later we may scarcely be able to sense it, thanks to the canonization of the once-contemporary – whether...

By Duohuai Zhang on 09/19/11 Comments Off

REVIEW: PressPausePlay

PressPausePlay discusses how digital technology has affected the creative industries including music, film art and even literature.

By Janice Wong on 09/19/11 Comments Off

Book review: Basic Internet Security by Adam Hyde et.al.

Basic Internet Security successfully aims at two things - it points out that anybody involved in some kind of Internet activity should be concerned with at least some security measures, while keeping it easy and simple for both the...

By Joep Hegger on 09/19/11 Comments Off

Book Review: The new rules of the game

Note: this is a review on a Dutch book called De nieuwe regels van het spel. This book is not available in English. Visit the RMO website for more information. In this advisory report, the Dutch Counsil for Social...

By Leonie Nijenmanting on 09/19/11 1

Book review: ‘Designing Culture: the technological imagination at work’ by Anne Balsamo

In this book, ‘Designing culture: the technological imagination at work’, Anne Balsamo, Professor of interactive media at the University of Southern California, calls for a new approach to technological innovation arguing that culture must be taken into account when...

By Philip Breek on 09/19/11 Comments Off

Review on Jason Fried: Rework

I would like to start off this review by mentioning that Rework is not your average new media literature. In fact, from the perspective of the authors it can be considered as business book. However, if we read between...

By Renoud Netjes on 09/19/11 2

Masters thesis: Virtualized Subjectivity in Contemporary Art Practice

A few weeks ago I completed and submitted my Masters thesis, ending my yearlong study at the University of Amsterdam’s New Media MA program. Our cohort will officially graduate this Tuesday, 20 Sept, 2011. Here it is, if anybody’s...

By Ashiq Khondker on 09/19/11 1

Book Review: The Book of Ice, by Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky)

In December 2007, composer and artist and writer Paul D. Miller a.ka. DJ Spooky a.k.a That Subliminal Kid boarded a decommissioned naval ship and traveled to Antarctica. The book that resulted from this journey is The Book of Ice,...

By Autumn Hand on 09/18/11 Comments Off

Book Review on Sherry Turkle: Alone Together

Book Review on Sherry Turkle: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other Sherry Turkle is a MIT technology and society specialist who is interested in the influence of technology at human life and...

By Anne Laurine Stadermann on 09/18/11 1

Book Review: The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading. Tales of the Computer as Culture Machine by Peter Lunenfeld

The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading. Tales of the Computer as Culture Machine is a brilliant piece written by UCLA professor and digital media theorist Peter Lunenfeld, in which he sets out to explain his envisioning of the...

By Luana Pascu on 09/18/11 Comments Off

Book Review: Crowdsourcing, How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe.

What do YouTube, Wikipedia, IMDB, Tripadvisor, Linux, iStockphoto and Firefox all have in common? They exist through the collective efforts of millions of ordinary users like you and me. The strategy behind the success of these websites is crowdsourcing:...

By Leander Roet on 09/18/11 1

Review on Stephen Baker’s The Numerati

Stephen Baker’s The Numerati, published in 2008, tells the story of our modern world’s “binarization;” how every individual is deduced to ones and zeroes through the trails of data we leave behind which are consequently gathered, analyzed and categorized...

By Jeroen Rijskamp on 09/18/11 2

Book review: Check in / check uit – Christian van ‘t Hof, Rinie van Est, Floortje Daemen

By Annet Bos on 09/18/11 2

Book Review: What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly

“Space: the final frontier – to boldly go where no man has gone before.” This may be the answer Kelly was looking for when he set out to answer his own question, the title of his book and thesis. ...

By Christopher Mead on 09/18/11 3

BOOK REVIEW The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism

BOOK REVIEW Title: The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude: Global Art, Memory and Post-Fordism Author: Pascal Gielen Year: 2009 Publisher: Valiz In The Murmuring of the Artistic multitude, art-sociologist Pascal Gielen reflects on the increasing co-incidence of, and structural...

By Daniel de Zeeuw on 09/18/11 Comments Off