[Air-L] New book - Engines of Order (open access)

[Bernhard Rieder]

Dear colleagues,

My apologies for the shameless self-promotion, but I am very happy to announce that after way too many years of work, my book Engines of Order: A Mechanology of Algorithmic Techniques has been published by Amsterdam University Press in the Recursions series edited by Jussi Parikka, Anna Tuschling, and Geoffrey Winthrop-Young.

The first half of the book is my attempt to formulate a theory of software, building on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon and the cultural techniques tradition. The second part then applies that framework to the historical analysis of a number of “algorithmic techniques” from the field of information ordering. The book has a heavier theoretical side to it, but the second part in particular can also be read as a somewhat gentle and historically embedded introduction to how contemporary ranking, recommendation, and classification actually works. A longer blurb is below.

Engines of Order is available in print directly from AUP, with 40% off until August 15 with the discount code "VIRTUALNECS": http://bit.ly/eoo-print
You can also download the Open Access PDF from here: http://bit.ly/eoo-oa

Cheers and stay safe,
Bernhard



Engines of Order
A Mechanology of Algorithmic Techniques

Software has become a key component of contemporary life and algorithms that rank, classify, or recommend are everywhere. Building on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon and the cultural techniques tradition, this book examines the constructive and cumulative character of software and retraces the historical trajectories of a series of algorithmic techniques that have become the building blocks for contemporary practices of ordering. Developed in opposition to centuries of library tradition, these techniques instantiate dynamic, perspectivist, and interested forms of knowing. Embedded in technical infrastructures and economic logics, they have become engines of order that transform how we arrange information, ideas, and people.



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Bernhard Rieder | Associate Professor | New Media and Digital Culture  
University of Amsterdam | Turfdraagsterpad 9 | 1012 XT Amsterdam | The Netherlands  
http://thepoliticsofsystems.net | http://labs.polsys.net | https://www.digitalmethods.net | @RiederB