September 08, 2003

Pixelating

Via Liz: Pixelvision: A Meditation. A great short piece on the history of the pixel.

Let me add that I believe this is precisely the kind of work we should be doing more of in new media studies, digital studies, cyberculture, what-have-you. How many books have already been written on electronic writing? The shelves groan. Yet to the best of my knowledge none of them talks about the pixel with the depth of this very short and essentially non-scholarly essay. I think there’s a lot new media can learn from science and technology studies in this regard: Don MaKenzie’s Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (MIT 1990) is exemplary.

Posted by mgk at September 8, 2003 02:24 PM
Comments

Hallelujah! As a PhD student in S&TS interested in pushing the field into more studies of new media, I agree entirely (if from the other direction). There are a handful of people in S&TS doing new media stuff, but not as many as I'd like, and S&TS theory hasn't been adopted as widely as I'd like to see. However, this raises the pertinent question for me, finishing my dissertation this semester and currently on the job market - do you think that doctoral training in S&TS would qualify someone for jobs in the more traditional (and more numerous) homes of new media/cyberculture/what have you studies like communication or comp lit departments? 'Cause I'm looking for a job for next September, and I'd definitely like to know...

Posted by: Epistemographer at September 9, 2003 02:02 AM | Link to Comment

Well, much depends on the subject of your dissertation. Since there aren't really any Ph.D.s in new media or cyberculture per se, I think anyone who can demonstrate training and a research agenda is positioned to compete for such jobs.

Posted by: MGK at September 9, 2003 08:58 AM | Link to Comment
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