The Power of Experiments: Decision Making in a Data-Driven World by Michael Luca and Max H. Bazerman
"How did experiments, once cloistered in laboratories, become a contemporary lever wielded widely in both public and private sectors today? Michael Luca and Max H. Bazerman trace this lineage in their book, The Power of Experiments: Decision Making in a Data-Driven World."
Reviewed by Christine T. Wolf
The Apple II Age: How the Computer Became Personal by Laine Nooney
"What is personal about the personal computer? The term sits at the intersection of a major crossroads in technological history and is used to describe the small and nimble machines of hobbyists in the 1970s before becoming the primary banner under which a vast amount of computing exists today."
Reviewed by Rob Arcand
The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India by Janaki Srinivasan
"The Political Lives of Information begins by juxtaposing how a former executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa and a daily wage agricultural worker in south India view the role that information can play in empowering people. The UN official extols the transformative potential of information, but Palaniammal, the agricultural worker, is a lot more skeptical."
Reviewed by Srravya Chandhiramowuli
Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Videogame Monstrosity by Jaroslav Švelch
"The multifaceted arguments Jaroslav Švelch marshals in this study of monstrosity promise to address two pivotal issues: Why are monsters so prominent in gaming, and how has gaming changed our perception of monsters? These and other salient questions are tackled in Švelch’s circumspect and well-documented study from a range of angles."
Reviewed by Peter Krapp
The Lab Book: Situated Practices in Media Studies by Darren Wershler, Lori Emerson and Jussi Parikka
"In The Lab Book, authors Darren Wershler, Lori Emerson, and Jussi Parikka have developed a deeply researched and critically complex conversation that combines a historical overview of lab thinking with a sustained argument for the value of the hybrid media lab within the contemporary university."
Reviewed by Emma Fraser