Customer Reviews

In the Realm of the Circuit: Computers, Art, and Culture

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Not since Marshall McLuhan has so excellent a discussion of how the medium becomes the message appeared! It starts with a timeline of discoveries and key or symptomatic events: for example, 7000-3000 BCE, the beginning of civilization; 1661, the establishment of a postal service in the American colonies; 1790, the adoption by the British navy of Admiral Sir Home Rigg's secret flag code; 1863, sending a fax message from London to Liverpool; 1947, the replacement of vacuum tubes by transistors, with much in between.

Then gesture, sound, image and word is explored in a moderate postmodern manner, concentrating on the distinction between analog and digital. The authors next post a challenging quote: "The computer is the single most important invention since fire," and then seriously evaluate how true it is by discussing the invention's interaction with reality, art, space and time.

The book ends with a list of key people and important places and things. For flavor, the list begins with Akbar, the great Mughal emperor, and ends with the urban designer, Lily Yeh.

"In the Realm of the Circuit" is full of fresh, new images that appropriately illustrate the text. It can be read for pleasure as well as serve as a textbook for an undergraduate course.

James H. Schwartz
Professor