Ex-foliations : reading machines and the upgrade path

364 Pages·2009·4.178 MB·English

by  Harpold, Terry

Ex-foliations
Electronic Mediations
Katherine Hayles, Mark Poster, and Samuel Weber, Series Editors
25 Ex-foliations: Reading Machines and the Upgrade Path Terry Harpold
24 D igitize This Book! The Politics of New Media, or Why We Need Open
Access Now Gary Hall
23 Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet Lisa Nakamura
22 Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools Byron Hawk, David M. Rieder,
and Ollie Oviedo, Editors
21 The Exploit: A Theory of Networks Alexander R. Galloway and
Eugene Thacker
20 Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow
Victoria Vesna, Editor
19 Cyberspaces of Everyday Life Mark Nunes
18 Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture Alexander R. Galloway
17 Avatars of Story Marie-Laure Ryan
16 Wireless Writing in the Age of Marconi Timothy C. Campbell
15 Electronic Monuments Gregory L. Ulmer
14 Lara Croft: Cyber Heroine Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky
13 T he Souls of Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory
Thomas Foster
12 Déjà Vu: Aberrations of Cultural Memory Peter Krapp
11 Biomedia Eugene Thacker
10 Avatar Bodies: A Tantra for Posthumanism Ann Weinstone
9 C onnected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society
Steven Shaviro
8 Cognitive Fictions Joseph Tabbi
7 Cybering Democracy: Public Space and the Internet Diana Saco
6 Writings Vilém Flusser
5 Bodies in Technology Don Ihde
4 Cyberculture Pierre Lévy
3 What’s the Matter with the Internet? Mark Poster
2 H igh Techne¯: Art and Technology from the Machine Aesthetic to the
Posthuman R. L. Rutsky
1 D igital Sensations: Space, Identity, and Embodiment in Virtual Reality
Ken Hillis
Ex-foliations
Reading Machines and the Upgrade Path
Terry Harpold
Electronic Mediations 25
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis • London
Permission to reprint previously published and trademarked material is found
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Published by the University of Minnesota Press
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library of congress cataloging-in-publication data
Harpold, Terry.
Ex-foliations : reading machines and the upgrade path / Terry Harpold.
p. cm. — (Electronic mediations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8166-5101-6 (hc : alk. paper)—isbn 978-0-8166-5102-3
(pb : alk. paper)
1. Reading machines (Data processing equipment). 2. Electronic books. I. Title.
TK7887.8.R4H37 2009
070.5'797—dc22 2008018610
Produced by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services
Copyediting by Nancy Evans
Design and composition by Yvonne Tsang
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jeanne, who reads ahead
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I believe in calling a spade a spade—not a personalized
earth-moving equipment module; and a multi-dimensional
spade, by gum, a hyper-spade—not a personalized earth-moving
equipment module with augmented dirt access, retrieval and
display capability under individualized control.
—Theodor Holm Nelson, Dream Machines (1974)
In our time, a machine has nothing whatever to do with a tool.
There’s no genealogy from the spade to the turbine. The proof of this
is that you can quite legitimately call a little sketch that you make
on this paper a “machine.” Nothing else is needed. You have simply
to have an ink capable of carrying current in order that this should
be a very efficient machine. And why shouldn’t it be conductive?
The mark is already in and of itself a conductor of sensual pleasure.
—Jacques Lacan, L’Envers de la psychanalyse (1969–70)
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Contents
Read Me First 1
1. “A Future Device for Individual Use” 15
2. Historiations: Xanadu and Other Recollection Machines 45
3. Revenge of the Word: Grammatexts of the Screen 81
4. Ex-foliations 111
5. Lexia Complexes 143
6. Allographs: Windows of Afternoon 175
7. Reading Machines 209
Acknowledgments 243
Notes 245
Bibliography 305
Permissions and Trademarks 331
Index 333