[Air-L] Digital Material

[Mirko Tobias Schaefer]

as to the 'newness' of media, especially so-called new media: as many 
others we also had/have quite some doubts about the newness, the 
virtuality, the immateriality, the utopian promises and the 'participation'.

Our book "Digital Material. Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and 
Technology" addresses these issues and presents the ongoing research at 
the Utrecht University new media group. We're not there yet, but we aim 
at developing something like a 'materialist' perspective on digital 
media and social interaction online. Comments and critical feedback are 
very welcome!

The book is published at Amsterdam University Press (distributed in the 
US through Chicago University Press) under a CC license. Of course, you 
can also download it/spread it/print it:
http://www.let.uu.nl/tftv/nieuwemedia/images/uploads/Digital-Material.pdf


More Information:

Digital Material. Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology
by Marianne van den Boomen, Sybille Lammes, Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Joost 
Raessens, Mirko Tobias Schaefer

Amsterdam University Press

Three decades of societal and cultural alignment of new media yielded to 
a host of innovations, trials, and problems, accompanied by versatile 
popular and academic discourse. New Media Studies crystallized 
internationally into an established academic discipline, and this begs 
the question: where do we stand now? Which new questions emerge now new 
media are taken for granted, and which riddles are still unsolved? Is 
contemporary digital culture indeed all about ‘you’, the participating 
user, or do we still not really understand the digital machinery and how 
this constitutes us as ‘you’?

The contributors of the present book, all teaching and researching new 
media and digital culture, assembled their ‘digital material’ into an 
anthology, covering issues ranging from desktop metaphors to Web 2.0 
ecosystems, from touch screens to blogging and e-learning, from 
role-playing games and Cybergoth music to wireless dreams. Together the 
contributions provide a showcase of current research in the field, from 
what may be called a ‘digitalmaterialist’ perspective.

About the editors:
The editors are all teaching and researching in the program New Media 
and Digital Culture <http://www.newmediastudies.nl>at the Department of 
Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.