Scholars

Events

• Software Studies Workshop, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, 25-26 February 2006. Facilitated by Matthew Fuller.

• SoftWhere: Software Studies Workshop, University of California, San Diego, 21-22 May 2008.

• Software Studies Retrospective, New York University, NY, 25 Apr 2014. Video: Wardrip-Fruin, Fuller, Manovich (response and Q&A).

• Open Codes: Living in Digital Worlds exhibition, ZKM, 20 Oct 2017-5 Aug 2018. Curated by Peter Weibel, Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Yasemin Keskintepe, and Blanca Giménez.

Resources

• Aesthetic Programming: A Handbook of Software Studies, eds. Winnie Soon & Geoff Cox, 2020.

• Critical Code Cookbook, eds. Xin Xin and Katherine Moriwaki, New York, 2022ff.

Publications

Matthew Fuller (ed.), Software Studies: A Lexicon, 2008, Log.

Olga Goriunova (ed.), Fun and Software: Exploring Pleasure, Paradox and Pain in Computing, 2014. Log.

Journals

• Critical Studies in Peer Production (CSPP), 2011, 1 issue.

• Journal of Peer Production (JoPP), forked from CSPP in 2012. Editors: Mathieu O'Neil (coordinator), Athina Karatzogianni, George Michaelides, Johan Söderberg, Maurizio Teli, Nathaniel Tkacz.

• Computational Culture, a Journal of Software Studies, since 2012. Editorial group: Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey, Olga Goriunova, Graham Harwood, Adrian Mackenzie.

Book series

Software Studies (MIT Press) [1]

Edited by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Winnie Soon, Jichen Zhu and Noah Wardrip-Fruin (since 2022); formerly by Matthew Fuller, Lev Manovich, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Roundtable, 2022.

• Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Programmed Visions: Software and Memory, The MIT Press, 2011, 239 pp. [2]
• Rob Kitchin, Martin Dodge, Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life, MIT Press, 2011, 304 pp. [3] [4]
• Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies, MIT Press, 2012, 504 pp. [5]
• Geoff Cox, Alex McLean (with Foreword by Franco Berardi), Speaking Code: Coding as Aesthetic and Political Expression, MIT Press, 2012, 168 pp. [6]
• Nick Montfort, et al., 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10, MIT Press, 2012, 304 pp. [7]
• Benjamin H. Bratton, The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty, MIT Press, 2016, xx+502 pp.
• Annette Vee, Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing, MIT Press, 2017, 376 pp.
• Warren Sack, The Software Arts, MIT Press, 2019, xx+375 pp.
• Mark C. Marino, Critical Code Studies, MIT Press, 2020, 288 pp.
• Noah Wardrip-Fruin, How Pac-Man Eats, MIT Press, 2020, 384 pp.
• Alan F. Blackwell, Emma Cocker, Geoff Cox, Alex McLean, Thor Magnusson, Live Coding: A User's Manual, MIT Press, Nov 2022, 344 pp, HTML. Publisher.
• Sarah Ciston, David M. Berry, Anthony C. Hay, Mark C. Marino, Peter Millican, Jeff Shrager, Arthur I. Schwarz Peggy Weil, Inventing ELIZA: How the First Chatbot Shaped the Future of AI, forew. Janet H. Murray, MIT Press, Jul 2026, 350 pp, PDF. Publisher.

Other books

• Philip Agre, Computing and Human Experience, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2001.
• Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Montfort (eds.), The New Media Reader, The MIT Press, 2003.
• Matthew Fuller, Behind The Blip. Essays On The Culture Of Software, New York: Autonomedia, 2003. [8]
• Martin Campbell-Kelly, From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog. A History of the Software Industry, MIT Press, 2003.
• Alexander Galloway, Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization, MIT Press, 2004, 260 pp.
• Olga Goriunova, Alexei Shulgin (eds.), Readme Edition 2004: Software Art and Cultures, Aarhus: University of Aarhus, 2004, 400 pp.
• Florian Cramer, Words Made Flesh: Code, Culture, Imagination, Rotterdam: Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy Hogeschool Rotterdam, 2005, 140 pp. [9] (English)
• Geoff Cox, Joasia Krysa (eds.), Engineering Culture: On ‘The Author as (Digital) Producer’, New York: Autonomedia, 2005, 240 pp.
• Adrian Mackenzie, Cutting Code: Software and Sociality, New York: Peter Lang, 2006.
• Jussi Parikka, Digital Contagions: A Media Archeology of Computer Viruses, New York: Peter Lang, 2007. Conclusions.
• Matthew Fuller (ed.), Software Studies: A Lexicon, The MIT Press, 2008. [10]
• Christopher M. Kelty, Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008, xvi+378 pp, PDF.
  • Two Bits: la trascendencia cultural del software libre, ed. Florencio Cabello, Barcelona: Icaria, 2019, 455 pp, PDF. (Spanish)
• Jussi Parikka, Tony D. Sampson (eds.), The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn, and Other Anomalies from the Dark Side of Digital Culture, Hampton Press, 2009, 320 pp.
• Nick Montfort, Ian Bogost, Racing the Beam, The Atari Video Computer System, MIT Press, 2009.
• Konrad Becker, Felix Stalder (eds.), Deep Search, Studeinverlag, 2010.
• Exe.cut(up)able statements: Poetische Kalküle und Phantasmen des selbstausführenden Texts, Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 2011. (German)
• David M. Berry, The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
• Christian Ulrik Andersen, Søren Bro Pold, Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons, Aarhus University Press, 2011. TOC and Introduction.
• David M. Berry (ed.), Life in Code and Software: Mediated Life in a Complex Computational Ecology, London: Open Humanities Press, 2012.
• David M. Berry, Software Studies: Theory and Practice, Cupertino: Apple iBooks, 2012. [11]
• Matthew Fuller, Andrew Goffey, Evil Media, MIT Press, 2012. [12]
• Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command, Bloomsbury, 2013.
• Federica Frabetti, Software Theory: A Cultural and Philosophical Study, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, 220 pp, ARG. [13]
• Olga Goriunova (ed.), Fun and Software: Exploring Pleasure, Paradox and Pain in Computing, Bloomsbury, 2014, 285 pp.
• Helen Pritchard, Eric Snodgrass, Magda Tyźlik-Carver (eds.), Executing Practices, New York: Autonomedia, 2017, 279 pp.
• Bernhard Rieder, Engines of Order: A Mechanology of Algorithmic Techniques, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020, 353 pp. [14] [15]
• Winnie Soon, Geoff Cox, Aesthetic Programming: A Handbook of Software Studies, Open Humanities Press, 2020, 293 pp.
• Publications on software studies at Monoskop Log

Journal issues, book chapters, papers, articles, theses

• Matthew Fuller, "It looks like you're writing a letter: Microsoft Word", Nettime, 5 Sep 2000.
• Matthew Fuller, "Behind the Blip: Software as Culture (some routes into 'software criticism', more ways out)", Nettime, 7 Jan 2002; repr. in Read_me Festival 1.2, eds. Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin, Moscow, 2002.
  • "Za signalom na ekrane: Programmnoye obespecheniye kak kultura" [За сигналом на экране: Программное обеспечение как культура], in Read_me Festival 1.2, eds. Olga Goriunova and Alexei Shulgin, Moscow, 2002. (Russian)
• Adrian Mackenzie, "The Problem of Computer Code: Leviathan or Common Power?", Mar 2003, 23 pp.
• Wolfgang Hagen, "The Style of Source Codes", in New Media, Old Media, eds. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun and Thomas Keenan, New York: Routledge, 2005.
• Wendy Hui Kyung Chun, "On Software or the Persistence of Visual Knowledge", Grey Room 18 (Winter 2005), pp 26-51.
• Matthew Fuller, Softness: Interrogability; General Intellect, Art Methodologies in Software, Huddersfield: Huddersfield University/Digital Research Unit, 2006; repr., Aarhus: Center for Digital Æstetik-forskning, 2006, 49 pp. Originally given as a talk at the ISEA in Helsinki in 2004
• Mark C. Marino, "Critical Code Studies", Electronic Book Review, 12 Apr 2006.
• Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, "On 'Sourcery,' or Code as Fetish", Configurations 16:3, Fall 2008, pp 299-324.
• Sean Cubitt, "Codecs and Capability", in Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, eds. Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008, pp 45-51.
• Jana Horáková, "Konec dějin nových médií: Softwarová studia", in Martin Flašar, Jana Horáková, Petr Macek et al, Umění a nová média, Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2011. (Czech)
• Matthew Fuller, "Software Studies Methods", in The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities, ed. Jentery Sayers, New York: Routledge, 2016; repr. in Fuller, How To Be a Geek, Polity, 2017.
• Aymeric Mansoux, Sandbox Culture: A Study of the Application of Free and Open Source Software Licensing Ideas to Art and Cultural Production, London: Goldsmiths University of London, 2017, xxxviii+486 pp. PhD thesis.
• Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Winnie Soon, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Jichen Zhu, "Software Studies, Revisited. A Roundtable on the Software Studies Series at MIT Press", Computational Culture 9, May 2022.
• Digital Humanities Quarterly 17(2): "Situating Critical Code Studies in the Digital Humanities", eds. Mark Marino and Jeremy Douglass, 2023.

• more

Primary references

• Friedrich Kittler, "There Is No Software", Stanford Literature Review, 9:1 (Spring 1992), pp 81-90; repr. in CTheory, 18 Oct 1995; repr. in Electronic Culture, ed. Timothy Druckrey, New York: Aperture, 1996, pp 331-337; repr. in Kittler, Literature, Media, Information Systems, ed. John Johnston, Amsterdam, 1997, pp 147-155.
  • "Es gibt keine Software", in Writing/écriture/Schrift, ed. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Munich, 1992; repr. in Kittler, Draculas Vermächtnis. Technische Schriften, Leipzig: Reclam, 1993, pp 225-242. (German)

• Félix Guattari, "A propos des machines", Chimeres 19 (Spring 1993). Originally given as a lecture in November 1990 at the 'Cinema et Litterature: Le temps des machines' conference organised by the Centre de recherche et d'action culturelle de Valence. (French)
  • "On Machines", trans. Vivian Constantinopoulos, in Journal of Philosophy and the Visual Arts 6, ed. Andrew Benjamin, London: Academy Editions, 1995, pp 8-12. [16]
  • "Über Maschinen", in Ästhetik und Maschinismus. Texte zu und von Félix Guattari, ed. Henning Schmidgen, Berlin, 1995, pp 115-132. (German)

See also

Software art, Evil media, Cultural transcoding, Digital humanities

Links

• Software Studies Initiative, Graduate Center CUNY & La Jolla, UCSD.
• Critical Software Thing, a group of artists, practitioners, and researchers; est 2015.
• Resource on Software studies, Aarhus U.
• Software studies at Wikipedia
• Critical Algorithm Studies: A Reading List, related work on algorithms curated by the Social Media Collective
• Esoteric.Codes, a resource on unconventional programming languages, edited by Daniel Temkin.

• Featured articles