The Computer as Medium

by Edited by Peter Bxgh Andersen , Berit Holmqvist , Jens F. Jensen

• ISBN13: 9780521419956
• ISBN10: 0521419956
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-03-25
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Computers are developing into a powerful medium integrating film, pictures, text and sound, and the use of computers for communication and information is rapidly expanding. The Computer as Medium brings insights from art, literature and theatre to bear on computers and discusses the communicative and organizational nature of computer networks within a historical perspective. The book consists of three parts. The first part characterizes the semiotic nature of computers and discusses semiotic approaches to programming and interface design. The second part discusses narrative and aesthetic issues of interactive fiction, information systems and hypertext. The final part contains papers on the cultural, organizational and historical impact of computers.The broad and rich coverage of this book will appeal to scholars in cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, media studies and mass communications, cultural studies and education.

Table of Contents

Series foreword

Preface

Contributors

Part I. Computer-Based Signs: Introduction Peter Bø

gh Andersen

1. A semiotic approach to programming Peter Bø

gh Andersen

2. Structuralism, computation and cognition: the contribution of glossematics David Piotrowski

3. The shortest way between two points is a good idea: signs, peirce and theorematic machines Keld Gall Jø

rgensen

4. Logic grammar and the triadic sign relation Per Hasle

5. Meaning and the machine: toward a semiotics of interaction Per Aage Brandt

Part II. The Rhetoric of Interactive Media: Introduction Berit Holmqvist

6. Narrative computer systems: the dialectics of emotion and formalism Berit Holmqvist and Peter Bø

gh Andersen

7. Interactive fiction: artificial intelligence as a mode of sign production Peter Bø

gh Andersen and Berit Holmqvist

8. Plays, theaters and the art of acting in the eighteenth century: a formal analysis Jens Hougaard

9. The meaning of plot and narrative Jø

rgen Bang

10. Face to interface Berit Holmqvist

11. Drawing and programming Bjø

rn Laursen and Peter Bø

gh Andersen

12. Hypermedia communication and academic discourse: some speculations on a future genre Gunnar Liestø

l

Part III. Computers In Context: Introduction Jens F. Jensen

13. Computer culture: the meaning of technology and the technology of meaning Jens F. Jensen

14. One person, one computer: the social construction of the personal computer Klaus Bruhn Jensen

15. Hi-tech network organizations as self-referential systems Lars Qvortrup

Comment: disturbing communication Peter Bø

gh Andersen

16. Dialogues in networks Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen

17. Historical trends in computer and information technology Jens Christensen

Comment: the history of computer-based signs Peter Bø

gh Andersen

18. A historical perspective on work practices and technology Randi Markussen

19. Hypertext: from modern utopia to post-modern dystopia? Bjø

rn Sø

renssen

Index.