Critical code studies

Critical code studies (CCS) is an emerging academic subfield, related to software studies, digital humanities, cultural studies, computer science, human–computer interface, and the do-it-yourself maker culture. Its primary focus is on the cultural significance of computer code, without excluding or focusing solely upon the code's functional purpose. According to Mark C. Marino, it

is an approach that applies critical hermeneutics to the interpretation of computer code, program architecture, and documentation within a socio-historical context. CCS holds that lines of code are not value-neutral and can be analyzed using the theoretical approaches applied to other semiotic systems in addition to particular interpretive methods developed particularly for the discussions of programs.

As introduced by Marino, critical code studies was initially a method by which scholars "can read and explicate code the way we might explicate a work of literature", but the concept also draws upon Espen Aarseth's conception of a cybertext as a "mechanical device for the production and consumption of verbal signs", arguing that in order to understand a digital artifact we must also understand the constraints and capabilities of the authoring tools used by the creator of the artifact, as well as the memory storage and interface required for the user to experience the digital artifact.

Evidence that critical code studies has gained momentum since 2006 include an article by Matthew Kirschenbaum in The Chronicle of Higher Education, CCS sessions at the Modern Language Association in 2011 that were "packed" with attendees, several academic conferences devoted wholly to critical code studies, and a book devoted to the explication of a single line of computer code, titled 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10.

See also

• Critical legal studies
• Critical theory
• Hermeneutics

References

Bibliography

• Aarseth, Espen (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-5579-5. 
• Eyman, Douglas (2015). Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv65swm2. ISBN 978-0-472-90011-4. 
• Manovich, Lev (2013). Software Takes Command. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-62356-672-2. https://issuu.com/bloomsburypublishing/docs/9781623566722_web. Retrieved 6 April 2020. 
• Marino, Mark C. (2006). "Critical Code Studies". Electronic Book Review. ISSN 1553-1139. https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/critical-code-studies/. Retrieved 6 April 2020. 
• Montfort, Nick; Baudoin, Patsy; Bell, John; Bogost, Ian; Douglass, Jeremy; Marino, Mark C.; Mateas, Michael; Reas, Casey et al. (2013). 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01846-3. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/10-print-chr2055rnd1-goto-10. Retrieved 30 November 2018. 

Further reading

• Berry, David M. (2008). Copy, Rip, Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source. London: Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183q67g. ISBN 978-1-84964-455-6. https://archive.org/details/copyripburnpolit0000berr. 
•  ———  (2011). The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/9780230306479. ISBN 978-0-230-24418-4. 
• Black, Maurice J. (2002). The Art of Code (PhD dissertation). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. OCLC 244972113. ProQuest 305507258.
• Chopra, Samir; Dexter, Scott D. (2008). Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203942147. ISBN 978-0-203-94214-7. 
• Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong (2008). "On 'Sourcery,' or Code as Fetish". Configurations 16 (3): 299–324. doi:10.1353/con.0.0064. ISSN 1080-6520. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:405433/. Retrieved 5 April 2020. 
•  ———  (2011). Programmed Visions: Software and Memory. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01542-4. 
• Fuller, Matthew (2003). Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software. New York: Autonomedia. ISBN 978-1-57027-139-7. 
• Fuller, Matthew, ed (2008). Software Studies: A Lexicon. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-06274-9. 
• Hayles, N. Katherine (2004). "Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis". Poetics Today 25 (1): 67–90. doi:10.1215/03335372-25-1-67. ISSN 1527-5507. http://www.cws.illinois.edu/IPRHDigitalLiteracies/Hayles.pdf. Retrieved 5 April 2020. 
• Heim, Michael (1987). Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-03835-4. https://archive.org/details/electriclanguage00heim. 
• Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (2004). "Extreme Inscription: Towards a Grammatology of the Hard Drive". TEXT Technology (2): 91–125. ISSN 1053-900X. http://observatory.constantvzw.org/books/vol13_2_06.pdf. Retrieved 5 April 2020. 
•  ———  (2008). Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-11311-3. 
• Kitchin, Rob; Dodge, Martin (2011). Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-04248-2. 
• Kittler, Friedrich A. (1997). Johnston, John. ed. Literature, Media, Information Systems: Essays. Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association. ISBN 978-90-5701-071-2. 
•  ———  (1999). Gramophone, Film, Typewriter. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3232-1. 
• Mackenzie, Adrian (2003). "The Problem of Computer Code: Leviathan or Common Power". Lancaster, England: Lancaster University. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/mackenza/papers/code-leviathan.pdf. 
•  ———  (2006). Cutting Code: Software and Sociality. Digital Formations. 30. Oxford: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-7823-4. 
• Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-13374-6. 
• Manovich, Lev; Douglass, Jeremy (2009). "Visualizing Temporal Patterns in Visual Media". http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/visualizing_temporal_patterns.pdf. 
• Montfort, Nick; Bogost, Ian (2009). Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01257-7. 
• Wardrip-Fruin, Noah (2009). Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01343-7.