Memory Trade: A Prehistory of CybercultureThe notion of "culture" is changing at the speed of information itself. Computer technology is creating a new kind of public, a cyberculture with all its utopian & apocalyptic possibilities. But is it that new? Popular debate generally ignores cyberculture's historical context. The official history begins in the nineteenth century & tracks the evolution of telecommunications, the egalitarian dream of the global village, & the emergence of the military-industrial complex. However, this omits the deeper, prehistory of technological transformations of culture that are everywhere felt but nowhere seen in the telematic landscape of the late twentieth century. Cyberculture is an extension, rather than innovation, of human engagement with communication & information technologies. A work of archeology, Memory Trade scrapes away the surfaces of the contemporary world to detect the sedimentary traces of the past: a past that inflects the present with the echoes of ancient, unresolved philosophical questions about the relationships between humans & technology, creativity & artifice, reality & representations of reality. Memory Trade is an exploration, in text & image, of the unconscious of cyberculture, its silent, secret prehistory. From Plato's Cave to Borges' literary labyrinths, Freud's Mystic Writing-Pad, & Joyce's reinvention of language in Finnegans Wake, Memory Trade is a reflection of contemporary culture. |
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abstract actually alphabet already ancient argued art of memory artificial asserts association become body called central century classical communication complex conceived concept concerned context continue created critical culture cyberculture cybernetics cyberpunk cyberspace Derrida described discussion dream electronic environment exist experience extended fact figure Finnegans function human hypertext idea imagination immersion important interaction interface involves Joyce Joyce's kind language letters linguistic literacy literate living logic machine marks material meaning mechanism memory metaphor mind mode nature Nelson networks notion object observed oral organization perception Plato play possible present principle printed question reader reading reality reason reference relation represent representation rhetoric sense signs social space speak speech structure suggests theater theory things thought tion traces tradition understanding virtual virtual reality visual Wake writing written
Bibliographic information
| Title | Memory Trade: A Prehistory of Cyberculture An Interface book from 21. C |
| Authors | Darren Tofts, Murray McKeich |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Interface, 1998 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Nov 2, 2007 |
| ISBN | 9057041812, 9789057041815 |
| Length | 131 pages |
| Subjects | › Art / Conceptual |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |