A pseudo-autobiographical exploration of the artistic and cultural impact of the transformation of the print book to its electronic incarnations.
Tracing a journey from the 1950s through the 1990s, N. Katherine Hayles uses the autobiographical persona of Kaye to explore how literature has transformed itself from inscriptions rendered as the flat durable marks of print to the dynamic images of CRT screens, from verbal texts to the diverse sensory modalities of multimedia works, from books to technotexts.
Weaving together Kaye's pseudo-autobiographical narrative with a theorization of contemporary literature in media-specific terms, Hayles examines the ways in which literary texts in every genre and period mutate as they are reconceived and rewritten for electronic formats. As electronic documents become more pervasive, print appears not as the sea in which we swim, transparent because we are so accustomed to its conventions, but rather as a medium with its own assumptions, specificities, and inscription practices. Hayles explores works that focus on the very inscription technologies that produce them, examining three writing machines in depth: Talan Memmott's groundbreaking electronic work Lexia to Perplexia, Mark Z. Danielewski's cult postprint novel House of Leaves, and Tom Phillips's artist's book A Humument. Hayles concludes by speculating on how technotexts affect the development of contemporary subjectivity.
Writing Machines is the second volume in the Mediawork Pamphlets series.

Writing Machines (Mediaworks Pamphlets) (Mediawork Pamphlets Series)

N. Katherine Hayles

Anne Burdick

Literature & Fiction

Mit Pr

From the central concept of the field―which depicts the world as a mutually interactive whole, with each part connected to every other part by an underlying field― have come models as diverse as quantum mathematics and Saussure’s theory of language. In The Cosmic Web, N. Katherine Hayles seeks to establish the scope of the field concept and to assess its importance for contemporary thought. She then explores the literary strategies that are attributable directly or indirectly to the new paradigm; among the texts at which she looks closely are Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Nabokov’s Ada, D. H. Lawrence’s early novels and essays, Borges’s fiction, and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

The Cosmic Web: Scientific Field Models and Literary Strategies in the 20th Century

History & Criticism

Cornell University Press

For the past few hundred years, Western cultures have relied on print. When writing was accomplished by a quill pen, inkpot, and paper, it was easy to imagine that writing was nothing more than a means by which writers could transfer their thoughts to readers. The proliferation of technical media in the latter half of the twentieth century has revealed that the relationship between writer and reader is not so simple. From telegraphs and typewriters to wire recorders and a sweeping array of digital computing devices, the complexities of communications technology have made mediality a central concern of the twenty-first century.Despite the attention given to the development of the media landscape, relatively little is being done in our academic institutions to adjust. In Comparative Textual Media, editors N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman bring together an impressive range of essays from leading scholars to address the issue, among them Matthew Kirschenbaum on archiving in the digital era, Patricia Crain on the connection between a child’s formation of self and the possession of a book, and Mark Marino exploring how to read a digital text not for content but for traces of its underlying code.Primarily arguing for seeing print as a medium along with the scroll, electronic literature, and computer games, this volume examines the potential transformations if academic departments embraced a media framework. Ultimately, Comparative Textual Media offers new insights that allow us to understand more deeply the implications of the choices we, and our institutions, are making.Contributors: Stephanie Boluk, Vassar College; Jessica Brantley, Yale U; Patricia Crain, NYU; Adriana de Souza e Silva, North Carolina State U; Johanna Drucker, UCLA; Thomas Fulton, Rutgers U; Lisa Gitelman, New York U; William A. Johnson, Duke U; Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, U of Maryland; Patrick LeMieux; Mark C. Marino, U of Southern California; Rita Raley, U of California, Santa Barbara; John David Zuern, U of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Comparative Textual Media

Jessica Pressman

University of Minnesota Press

A compendium of some of the most important thinking about art and technology to have taken place in the last few decades at the international level. Based on the research of the Banff New Media Institute from 1995 to 2005, these essays, transcripts and artists projects celebrate the belief that artists and cultural industries, in collaboration with scientists, social scientists and humanists, have a critical role to play in developing technologies that work for human betterment and allow for a more participatory culture. Each thematic chapter features an introduction, an original essay and carefully edited transcriptions drawn from thousands of hours of audio material with artists and theorists such as Laurie Anderson, Herve Fische, Kim Sawchuck, Zainub Verjee, Bill Vorn and many others. Also included is the catalogue of the exhibition, The Art Formerly Known As New Media, and a DVD based on the electronic journal, HorizonZero. Featured artists include Geoff Lillemon, Matthew Sloly, Maria Lantin, Shu Lea Cheang, Sara Diamond, Michael Naimark, Greg Niemeyer, Catherine Richards and Martin Wattenberg, Maciej Wisniewski. With a Forward by Kellogg Booth and an Afterword by Susan Kennard. Essays by Sandra Buckley, Steve Dietz, Jean Gagnon, N. Katherine Hayles, Eric Kluitenberg, Jeff Lieper and Allucquere Rosanne Stone.

Euphoria / Dystopia: The Banff New Media Institute Dialogues

Arts & Photography

Sandra Buckley

Steve Dietz

Eric Kluitenberg

Jeff Liepe

Jean Gagnon

Allucquere Rosanne Stone

Riverside Architectural Pr

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by N. Katherine Hayles. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by N. Katherine Hayles