[Air-L] Database reading list

[Cory Salveson]

*Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow *(Ed. by
Victoria Vesna, University of Minnesota Press, 2007:
http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/database-aesthetics;
http://victoriavesna.com/dataesthetics) "examines the database as cultural
and aesthetic form, explaining how artists have participated in network
culture by creating data art." In particular, I think Vesna's chapter,
"Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand: The Database Aesthetics of
Everything," discusses an art project involving the storage, manipulation,
presentation, etc. of medical data in a public art project.

*Knowledge Machines: Digital Transformations of the Sciences and Humanities*
(Eric T. Meyer and Ralph Schroeder, MIT Press, 2015:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/index.php?q=books/knowledge-machines) explores
"e-research" and how data (including big data) practices and techniques are
shaping/being shaped by scientific research generally.

The chapters, "The Lockean view and databases" from *Information
Management: An Informing Approach *(Fons Wijnhoven, Routledge, 2010:
https://www.routledge.com/Information-Management-An-Informing-Approach/Wijnhoven/p/book/9780415552158)
and "Foucault and Data Bases" from *The Mode of Information:
Poststructuralism and Social Contexts* (Mark Poster, Wiley, 1991:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745603270.html) might
contribute to a discussion of the epistemological orientation, or
assumptions and biases, of databases. E.g., even in a world of big data,
you can only put so much of certain delineated facts/symbolic
representations into the "universe of discourse" that databases represent.

*The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire* (Thomas
Richards, Verso Books, 1993) "analyzes the ways in which the Victorian
organization of knowledge was enlisted into the service of the British
Empire, as fields like biology, geography and geology began to function
almost as extensions of British intelligence."

Finally, something brief about "database" as a legal definition, for
example in terms of the EU Database Directive vs. U.S.'s looser protections
of databases under copyright law, might be beneficial in conjunction with
these.

Good luck! I'd be interested to see the list when you're done.

Cory Salveson
http://corysalveson.com

On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 9:14 AM, Tarleton L. Gillespie <tlg28 at cornell.edu>
wrote:

> This list focuses specifically on the metaphors used to describe data and
> databases, but it may have references relevant to your needs too.
>
>
> https://socialmediacollective.org/reading-lists/metaphors-of-data-a-reading-list/
>
> Tarleton
>
>
>
> On 5/25/16, 9:53 AM, "Air-L on behalf of Amanda Licastro" <
> air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of amanda.licastro at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Hello Air Followers,
> >
> >I am looking to compile a list of readings on the database. I am
> >specifically looking for information about how data is collected,
> >organized, and manipulated in the humanities and social sciences, and even
> >more specifically in terms of our teaching/assessment materials. Take, for
> >example:
> >
> >Drucker, Johanna. “Database Narratives in Book and Online.” *Journal of
> >Electronic Publishing* 18.1 (2015): n. pag. Web.
> >http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jep/3336451.0018.113?view=text;rgn=main
> >
> >Price, Kenneth M. “Edition, Project, Database, Archive, Thematic Research
> >Collection: What’s in a Name?” *Digital Humanities Quarterly* 3.3 (2009):
> >n. pag. Print.
> >http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/dhq/vol/3/3/000053/000053.html
> >
> >I will create a public Zotero group of these materials and invite anyone
> on
> >the list who is interested once I collect your suggestions.
> >
> >Thank you in advance,
> >Amanda
> >
> >Amanda Licastro, PhD
> >Assistant Professor of Digital Rhetoric,
> >Stevenson University in Maryland
> >http://digitocentrism.commons.gc.cuny.edu/
> >@amandalicastro
> >_______________________________________________
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