An argument that we must read code for more than what it does--we must consider what it means.
Computer source code has become part of popular discourse. Code is read not only by programmers but by lawyers, artists, pundits, reporters, political activists, and literary scholars; it is used in political debate, works of art, popular entertainment, and historical accounts. In this book, Mark Marino argues that code means more than merely what it does; we must also consider what it means. We need to learn to read code critically. Marino presents a series of case studies--ranging from the Climategate scandal to a hactivist art project on the US-Mexico border--as lessons in critical code reading.
Marino shows how, in the process of its circulation, the meaning of code changes beyond its functional role to include connotations and implications, opening it up to interpretation and inference--and misinterpretation and reappropriation. The Climategate controversy, for example, stemmed from a misreading of a bit of placeholder code as a "smoking gun" that supposedly proved fabrication of climate data. A poetry generator created by Nick Montfort was remixed and reimagined by other poets, and subject to literary interpretation.
Each case study begins by presenting a small and self-contained passage of code--by coders as disparate as programming pioneer Grace Hopper and philosopher Friedrich Kittler--and an accessible explanation of its context and functioning. Marino then explores its extra-functional significance, demonstrating a variety of interpretive approaches.
Author(s): Mark C. Marino
Series: Software Studies
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: xii+275
Contents
Series Foreword
Hacknowledgments
1: Introduction
Code Heard ’round the World
A Job Interview
Protesting in Code
The Origins of Critical Code Studies
E-Voting Software
What Does It Mean to Interpret Code?
Chapter Overviews
2: Critical Code Studies: A Manifesto
Hello, World
What Can Be Interpreted?
The Code as Means, Not Ends
Code Is Not Poetry (or at Least, Most of It Isn’t)
Code Is More than a Static Text
// Cautionary Comments
The Moment Is Critical
3: The Transborder Immigrant Tool
Origins of a Tool
Poems Becoming Code
Code Becoming Poetry
Attribution and Affiliation in Code
The Lore of the Comments
Walking through the Code
Of Witching Sticks and GPS
Poetry in Potential
4: Climategate
Extreme Climate
Recontextualizing Code
Adjusting the Numbers
Fudge Factors
Hidden in Plain Sight
Even the Programming Language Was Critiqued
In the End
5: FLOW-MATIC
Interoperating Systems
FLOW-MATIC
English-Like
Go to versus Jump To
COBOL’s Global Reach
The Drive for Natural Languages
Natural Language in the Postcolonial Age
Hopper’s Intervention
6: Kittler’s Code
There Is No Software, Except ...
// One Brief Comment on Authorship
The Man behind the Code
Is There Really No Software?
Kittler and Computer Graphics
The Raytracer of Heaven and Hell
Encoded Allusions
Assembling and Understanding of the Machine
A Kittlerian Method
Conclusion
7: Generative Code
Code and Poetry
Generous Poetry Generators
Taroko Gorge
The Descendants
Gorge by JR Carpenter
Argot, Ogre Ok!
8: Futures of Critical Code Studies
1. Contributing to Humanities Curricula
2. Informing Computer Science Curricula
3. Supporting Research in the Digital Humanities
4. Inspiring New Work in Code
How to Interpret Code
Final Words
Notes
1 Introduction
2 Critical Code Studies, a Manifesto
3 The Transborder Immigrant Tool
4 Climategate
5 FLOW-MATIC
6 Kittler’s Code
7 Generative Code
8 Futures of Critical Code Studies
Works Cited
Index
