Behind the blip : essays on the culture of software

A far-reaching and strikingly original collection of essays on the “culture of software” by British new-media critic Matthew Fuller, Behind the Blip looks at the many ways in which the ostensibly neutral user interfaces, search engines, “intelligent agents,” and word processors that are now part of our everyday life are actively reshaping the way we look at and interact with the world. Software actively shapes the way we know, see, and do things in the world. In BEHIND THE BLIP, a far-reaching and strikingly original collection of essays on the "culture of software," new-media critic Matthew Fuller sets out some of the ways in which people are opening this process up to greater debate and experimentation. BEHIND THE BLIP brings together insights from social studies of science and philosophies of technology, with accounts and ideas from hackers, artists, inventors, programmers, and other users of software. BEHIND THE BLIP surveys the potential grounds for software criticism and proposes some currents in software that call for new ways of thinking about the subject. It also offers numerous case studies taken from Fuller's own experience participating in the production of a popular experimental web browser; a site parasiting search engines to hack racism on the net; and a large-scale disassembly of the world's "favorite" writing machine, Microsoft Word. BEHIND THE BLIP refuses to stop asking questions or settle for what's served up on the desktop. Along the way, fundamental possibilities for technology, computers, and culture are set loose. Matthew Fuller analyses the tools which we all use everyday to interface with the world - Web browsers, search engines, word processors. He presents a 'critical help system' to help us understand what is really going on behind the menu and the windows of our computer screens