The New Media Reader (Hardcover)

by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Editor), Nick Montfort (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A stunner...."
— Brian Kim Stefans, New York Fine Arts Quarterly

"The New Media Reader ...is my if-you-can-only-take-one pick for a computer history vacation suitcase-stuffer."
— Michael Swaine, Dr. Dobb's Journal

Product Description
This reader collects the texts, videos, and computer programs--many of them now almost impossible to find--that chronicle the history and form the foundation of the still-emerging field of new media. General introductions by Janet Murray and Lev Manovich, along with short introductions to each of the texts, place the works in their historical context and explain their significance. The texts were originally published between World War II--when digital computing, cybernetic feedback, and early notions of hypertext and the Internet first appeared--and the emergence of the World Wide Web--when they entered the mainstream of public life. The texts are by computer scientists, artists, architects, literary writers, interface designers, cultural critics, and individuals working across disciplines. The contributors include (chronologically) Jorge Luis Borges, Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, Ivan Sutherland, William S. Burroughs, Ted Nelson, Italo Calvino, Marshall McLuhan, Billy Kl?Jean Baudrillard, Nicholas Negroponte, Alan Kay, Bill Viola, Sherry Turkle, Richard Stallman, Brenda Laurel, Langdon Winner, Robert Coover, and Tim Berners-Lee. The CD accompanying the book contains examples of early games, digital art, independent literary efforts, software created at universities, and home-computer commercial software. Also on the CD is digitized video, documenting new media programs and artwork for which no operational version exists. One example is a video record of Douglas Engelbart's first presentation of the mouse, word processor, hyperlink, computer-supported cooperative work, video conferencing, and the dividing up of the screen we now call non-overlapping windows; another is documentation of Lynn Hershman's Lorna, the first interactive video art installation.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 837 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262232278
• ISBN-13: 978-0262232272
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #175,479 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done!, March 17, 2003

By A Customer

Fascinating, thorough in its analysis, beautifully designed reader/player. Good, well-rounded selection of texts and new media objects with no attempt to be exhaustive (to the editors' credit). I plan to use it as one of the texts in an upcoming university course.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rosetta Stone of Hypertext, June 14, 2004

By	M. Crumpton "somegoodbooks" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This huge tome is a must have for anyone who wants to deeply understand hypertext and its precursors. From William Burroughs to Doug Englebart and Augosto Boal to Ted Nelson this book presents a huge range of articles (and discursive commentary) of interest to computer scientists, writers, new media workers, artists and everyone in between. This is one stop shopping for new media literacy with over 800 pages of good stuff, much of it very hard to find outside of this volume.

4.0 out of 5 stars heavy stuff, November 29, 2008

By	Budhaditya Chattopadhyay "Budhaditya C" (India) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

nice coverage of essential writings historically, but the hardcover edition is quite heavy to carry around.