Depth Effects: Dimensionality from Camera to Computation by Brooke Belisle
Brooke Belisle begins her book Depth Effects: Dimensionality from Camera to Computation by defining the concept of depth as the coconstitution of both the seer and the seen, as well as of their relative positions and apartness to each other.
Reviewed by Lena Rubisova
Inside IBM: Lessons of a Corporate Culture in Action by James W. Cortada
This isn’t the first book about IBM, and it will certainly not be the last. As both a trained historian and a former senior IBM manager, James Cortada provides a unique “ground-up” perspective on IBM’s corporate culture, drawing from his extensive network of former employees and an archive of corporate memorabilia.
Reviewed by Melissa De La Cruz
The Kids Are Online: Confronting the Myths and Realities of Young Digital Life by Ysabel Gerrard
Social media is destroying youth mental health. Predators lurk around the digital corners of Roblox. Instagram is driving eating disorders in young girls. Media and communication scholars have dismissed such framing as moral panics that say more about adult anxieties about technology and youth. Or, as danah boyd put it back in 2014, when it comes to social media and youth, “it’s complicated.”
Reviewed by Kate Sim and Haley Lepp
Misinformation, Content Moderation, and Epistemology: Protecting Knowledge by Keith Raymond Harris
The digital information age has profoundly reshaped how societies create, share, and contest knowledge, raising urgent questions about trust, truth, and authority in public discourse. In this evolving landscape, misinformation has emerged as a complex cultural and epistemic threat, one that not only fosters false beliefs but also erodes trust and distorts perceptions of evidence.
Reviewed by Shan Yi and Wu Biyu
Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History by Laura E. Helton
Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History offers an introspective look into not only “thinking black” but also being Black in social, political, intellectual, historical, and contemporary Black thought. Author Laura E. Helton draws on archival documents from six main collections, crafting an ambitious book that documents the lives of African Americans who not only produced these collections but also lived them.
Reviewed by J. Crystal Contreras
The Intimate Life of Computers: Digitizing Domesticity in the 1980s by Reem Hilu
An invigorating exploration of the early adoption of microprocessors in domestic life, The Intimate Life of Computers: Digitizing Domesticity in the 1980s, by Reem Hilu, is a welcome call to reexamine the cultural impact of technology in the 1980s. At the core of this book is the development of the concept of “companionate computing.” Hilu invites us to consider a diverse range of technologies as companionate computing, including self-assembly computer kits, spreadsheet software, alarm clocks, and coffee makers, to name a few.
Reviewed by Tanya K Osborne
The Science of Reading: Information, Media & Mind in Modern America by Adrian Johns
As I read this book, I was surveilled by a vast and shadowy array of corporations, marketing firms, tech companies, political operatives, and spy agencies that report back to various governments (not just our own). Some were merely interested in selling me stuff, others were more concerned with my politics, but they all wanted to know what I was reading and how I was reading it, and they all employed scientific apparatuses and methodologies to address that question.
Reviewed by Jonathan Rose
Liberatory Librarianship: Stories of Community, Connection, and Justice edited by Brian W. Keith, Laurie Taylor, and Shamin Renwick
Liberatory Librarianship: Stories of Community, Connection, and Justice, edited by Brian W. Keith, Laurie Taylor, and Shamin Renwick, is a wide-ranging collection that shares ways librarians can bring skills to leverage systems of support for the work of historically marginalized communities. This book offers an expansive look at both the theoretical implications of liberatory librarianship and its practical outcomes.
Reviewed by Caelin Ross
Computing Legacies: Digital Cultures of Simulation by Peter Krapp
Digital cultural heritage often involves archives or documentation of perceptually static artifacts such as images, data, and ebooks. Contrastingly, capturing and documenting the dynamic possibilities of digital simulations, from video games to software emulation, poses a challenge. How does one stabilize accurate representations of inherently dynamic and speculative information objects?
Reviewed by Alexander O. Smith
Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations by Souvik Mukherjee
In Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations, Dr. Souvik Mukherjee investigates and compiles the history, development, culture, and representation of video games in the Indian subcontinent, which comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives
Reviewed by John Joseph “Jack” Fennimore
Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World by Georgina Voss
Over the last several decades, there have been countless books that claim to be “guides” of one sort or another to the technological future. Systems Ultra: Making Sense of Technology in a Complex World enters this arena with a unique voice. Delving into historical anecdotes (the emergence of the word “system,” the development of airplane navigation systems and management, and even the development of digital architecture software), Georgina Voss draws on her experience as an artist, designer, consultant, and researcher.
Reviewed by Bea Wohl
Posthuman Gaming: Avatars, Gamers, and Entangled Subjectivities by Poppy Wilde
Many digital games enable interaction with the game world through a playable character, an avatar that players navigate within the game. This virtual depiction of the player and the relationship between players’ bodies and minds and their characters has been explored from various perspectives.
Reviewed by Ahu Yolaç