Digital Contagions

A Media Archaeology of Computer Viruses, Second Edition

Steve Jones, Jussi Parikka

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English

Peter Lang Publishing Inc
29 August 2016

Communication studies; Historiography; Social & cultural history; Media studies; Computing: general

Series: Digital Formations

Now in its second edition, Digital Contagions is the first book to offer a comprehensive and critical analysis of the culture and history of the computer virus. At a time when our networks arguably feel more insecure than ever, the book provides an overview of how our fears about networks are part of a more complex story of the development of digital culture. It writes a media archaeology of computer and network accidents that are endemic to the computational media ecology. Viruses, worms, and other software objects are not seen merely from the perspective of anti-virus research or practical security concerns, but as cultural and historical expressions that traverse a non-linear field from fiction to technical media, from net art to politics of software. Mapping the anomalies of network culture from the angles of security concerns, the biopolitics of computer systems, and the aspirations for artificial life in software, this second edition also pays attention to the emergence of recent issues of cybersecurity and new forms of digital insecurity. A new preface by Sean Cubitt is also provided.

By: Jussi Parikka
Series edited by: Steve Jones
Imprint: Peter Lang Publishing Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 2nd Revised edition
Volume: 44
Dimensions: Height: 220mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 460g
ISBN: 9781433132322
ISBN 10: 143313232X
Series: Digital Formations
Pages: 298
Publication Date: 29 August 2016
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments – Sean Cubitt: Foreword – Introduction: The General Accident of Digital Network Culture – Section I: Fear Secured: From Bugs to Worms – Section II: Body: Biopolitics of Digital Systems – Intermezzo: Viral Philosophy – Section III: Life: Viral Ecologies – Afterword: An Accident Hard, Soft, Institutionalized – Appendix: A Timeline of Computer Viruses and the Viral Assemblage – Bibliography – Index

Jussi Parikka is Professor in Technological Culture & Aesthetics at the Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. He is also Docent in Digital Culture Theory at the University of Turku, Finland. A widely published media theorist, he is author of the award-winning Insect Media (2010) and A Geology of Media (2015), What is Media Archaeology (2012), and co-editor of Writing and Unwriting (Media) Art History (2015).

Reviews for Digital Contagions: A Media Archaeology of Computer Viruses, Second Edition

'Digital Contagions' is the first book to look at the computer virus as a historical and cultural phenomenon, rather than simply as a technological issue. It brilliantly recounts the history of the emergence of such viruses in the context of other epidemics, and how these different kinds of contagions are ineluctably bound together in our technologized, digital culture. The book is an essential text for helping us come to terms with the massive changes this emerging culture is bringing about. Inspired by the work of Paul Virilio, Friedrich Kittler, and Gilles Deleueze, this book chronicles the contemporary digital landscape through the menagerie of email worms and computer viruses that infect and define it. A self-described media archeologist, Jussi Parikka is both theoretically nuanced and technically detailed, a welcome relief coming on the beels of dotcom bysteria over digital by-giene. The result is a becoming-viral of today's technological culture. It is essential reading for anyone infected by the digital contagion. -Inspired by the work of Paul Virilio, Friedrich Kittler, and Gilles Deleuze, this book chronicles the contemporary digital landscape through the menagerie of email worms and computer viruses that infect and define it. A self-described media archeologist, Jussi Parikka is both theoretically nuanced and technically detailed, a welcome relief coming on the heels of dotcom hysteria over digital hygiene. The result is a becoming-viral of today's technological culture. It is essential reading for anyone infected by the digital contagion.- (Alexander R. Galloway, Assistant Professor, Department of Culture and Communication, New York University; Author of 'Protocol and Gaming') -'Digital Contagions' is the first book to look at the computer virus as a historical and cultural phenomenon, rather than simply as a technological issue. It brilliantly recounts the history of the emergence of such viruses in the context of other epidemics, and how these different kinds of contagions are ineluctably bound together in our technologized, digital culture. The book is an essential text for helping us come to terms with the massive changes this emerging culture is bringing about.- (Charlie Gere, Reader in New Media Research, Lancaster University; Author of 'Digital Culture' and 'Art, Time and Technology')