Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Computers linked to networks have created the first broadly used systems that allow individuals to create, distribute, and receive audiovisual content with the same box. They challenge theorists of digital culture to develop interaction-based models to replace the more primitive models that allow only passive use.

The Digital Dialectic is an interdisciplinary jam session about our visual and intellectual cultures as the computer recodes technologies, media, and art forms. Unlike purely academic texts on new media, the book includes contributions by scholars, artists, and entrepreneurs, who combine theoretical investigations with hands-on analysis of the possibilities (and limitations) of new technology. The key concept is the digital dialectic: a method to ground the insights of theory in the constraints of practice. The essays move beyond journalistic reportage and hype into serious but accessible discussion of new technologies, new media, and new cultural forms.

Contributors: Florian Brody, Carol Gigliotti, N. Katherine Hayles, Michael Heim, Erkki Huhtamo, George P. Landow, Brenda Laurel, Peter Lunenfeld, Lev Manovich, William J. Mitchell, Bob Stein.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Touted as an interdisciplinary jam session about our visual and intellectual cultures as the computer continues to pervade almost every moment of our lives, this book delivers in grand, thought-provoking style. Edited by Lunenfeld (communication and new media design, Art Center Coll. of Design), the volume offers a cornucopia of essays by almost a dozen contributors (including Lunenfeld himself), who draw inspiration from the 1995 Conference on the Convergence of Technology, Media, and Theory. None of the material seems dated (four years can be eons when considering technology), and a clear favorite has to be Brenda Laurels wry, memoir-like discourse on technology and entertainment, Musings on Amusements in America, or What I Did on My Summer Vacation. Other offerings include William J. Mitchells Replacing Place and George P. Landows Hypertext as Collage Writing. This effort in toto is an entertaining, unqualified success. Recommended for all collections.Geoff Rotunno, Valley Voice Newspaper, Goleta, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Technology is pervasive in US culture today; cyberspace has become another cultural medium occupied by various information sources. Realists and idealists may agree on divergent points of view over alleged intrusions this digital medium has placed on society and its culture; however, this dialectic offers more than opposing viewpoints over ethical and moral issues initiated by technology. The contributors to this volume provide significant insights into the ways that computers intrude into life and do or do not benefit society. Lunenfeld has compiled a sophisticated collection of readings of the ethical concerns technology raises in a technological culture, readings that invite one to think and ask more about the subject. This theoretical conversation between contributors and readers should be read by anyone interested in how technology has become a significant part of culture. A landmark collection, useful to upper-division undergraduates through professionals working in computer science. A. C. Rosati; Clarion University of Pennsylvania