On the Existence of Digital Objects: Volume 48 (Electronic Mediations) - Softcover

Hui, Yuk

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816698910 ISBN 13: 9780816698912

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2016

Synopsis

Digital objects, in their simplest form, are data. They are also a new kind of industrial object that pervades every aspect of our life today—as online videos, images, text files, e-mails, blog posts, Facebook events.Yet, despite their ubiquity, the nature of digital objects remains unclear.

On the Existence of Digital Objects conducts a philosophical examination of digital objects and their organizing schema by creating a dialogue between Martin Heidegger and Gilbert Simondon, which Yuk Hui contextualizes within the history of computing. How can digital objects be understood according to individualization and individuation? Hui pursues this question through the history of ontology and the study of markup languages and Web ontologies; he investigates the existential structure of digital objects within their systems and milieux. With this relational approach toward digital objects and technical systems, the book addresses alienation, described by Simondon as the consequence of mistakenly viewing technics in opposition to culture.

Interdisciplinary in philosophical and technical insights, with close readings of Husserl, Heidegger, and Simondon as well as the history of computing and the Web, Hui’s work develops an original, productive way of thinking about the data and metadata that increasingly define our world.

About this title

About the Author

Yuk Hui is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media in Leuphana University in Germany.

Bernard Stiegler is head of the Institut de recherche et d’innovation of the Centre Pompidou.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0816698910
• ISBN 13: 9780816698912
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 336