Download or read book Paper Machines written by Markus Krajewski and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2011-08-19 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the card catalog—a “paper machine” with rearrangeable elements—can be regarded as a precursor of the computer. Today on almost every desk in every office sits a computer. Eighty years ago, desktops were equipped with a nonelectronic data processing machine: a card file. In Paper Machines, Markus Krajewski traces the evolution of this proto-computer of rearrangeable parts (file cards) that became ubiquitous in offices between the world wars. The story begins with Konrad Gessner, a sixteenth-century Swiss polymath who described a new method of processing data: to cut up a sheet of handwritten notes into slips of paper, with one fact or topic per slip, and arrange as desired. In the late eighteenth century, the card catalog became the librarian's answer to the threat of information overload. Then, at the turn of the twentieth century, business adopted the technology of the card catalog as a bookkeeping tool. Krajewski explores this conceptual development and casts the card file as a “universal paper machine” that accomplishes the basic operations of Turing's universal discrete machine: storing, processing, and transferring data. In telling his story, Krajewski takes the reader on a number of illuminating detours, telling us, for example, that the card catalog and the numbered street address emerged at the same time in the same city (Vienna), and that Harvard University's home-grown cataloging system grew out of a librarian's laziness; and that Melvil Dewey (originator of the Dewey Decimal System) helped bring about the technology transfer of card files to business.
Download or read book The German Language in a Changing Europe written by Michael G. Clyne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-11-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent sociopolitical events have profoundly changed the status and functions of German and influenced its usage. In this study (published by Cambridge in 1984) Michael Clyne revises and expands his original analysis of the German language in Language and Society in the German-speaking Countries in the light of such changes as the end of the Cold War, German unification, the redrawing of the map of Europe, increasing European integration, and the changing self-images of Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. His discussion includes the differences in the form, function and status of the various national varieties of German; the relation between standard and non-standard varieties; gender, generational and political variation; Anglo-American influence on German; and the convergence of east and west. The result is a wide-ranging exploration of language and society in the German-speaking countries, all of which have problems or dilemmas concerning nationhood or ethnicity which are language-related and/or language-marked.
Download or read book Identity and Cultural Memory in the Fiction of A S Byatt written by L. Steveker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides innovative readings of the key texts of A.S. Byatt's oeuvre by analysing the negotiations of individual identity, cultural memory, and literature which inform Byatt's novels. Steveker explores the concepts of identity constructed in the novels, showing them to be deeply rooted in British literary history and cultural memory.
Download or read book Spirits Unseen written by Christine Göttler and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigating the meanings and uses of "spiritus" in a variety of early modern disciplines and fields - natural philosophy, theology, music, literature and the visual arts - this book revisits the ambivalent history of a central ancient concept in a period of crisis and change.
Download or read book The Crisis of Representation written by Kurt Appel and published by V&R unipress GmbH. This book was released on 2019-01-21 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term “Crisis of Representation” rose to fame through Michel Foucault. The crisis, in the context of this issue, has not only a political and economic dimension, but a cultural, aesthetic and religious one as well. Thus, a serious inquiry into this complex and multidimensional phenomenon requires an interdisciplinary approach. The issue targets the phenomena at hand through 15 contributions – all with unique and innovative approaches to the topic. One common aim that holds the issue together is the analysis of the nature of the crisis, which helps to find suitable theoretical frameworks. On the other hand, the term itself functions as a tool that enables the analysis of specific societal developments. Contributing authors brought with them expertise from their respective fields including philosophy, political sciences, theology, Islamic studies and religious studies. This allowed for a cross-disciplinary approach on the phenomenon with special foci on politics, religions, societies and finance, as well as theoretical developments on current philosophical and post-colonial discourses.
Download or read book Online Social Sciences written by Bernad Batinic and published by Seattle ; Toronto : Hogrefe & Huber Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More researchers in social sciences and market research want to use the Internet to obtain data. This text provides comprehensive information, from the basics upwards, about online research methods, technical approaches to data collection and the qualityand limitations of data collected online.
Download or read book The Origins of the World s Mythologies written by Michael Witzel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Witzel persuasively demonstrates the prehistoric origins of most of the mythologies of Eurasia and the Americas ('Laurasia').
Download or read book Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World c 1410 1800 written by Tracey A. Sowerby and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-12 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World offers a new contribution to the ongoing reassessment of early modern international relations and diplomatic history. Divided into three parts, it provides an examination of diplomatic culture from the Renaissance into the eighteenth century and presents the development of diplomatic practices as more complex, multifarious and globally interconnected than the traditional state-focussed, national paradigm allows. The volume addresses three central and intertwined themes within early modern diplomacy: who and what could claim diplomatic agency and in what circumstances; the social and cultural contexts in which diplomacy was practised; and the role of material culture in diplomatic exchange. Together the chapters provide a broad geographical and chronological presentation of the development of diplomatic practices and, through a strong focus on the processes and significance of cultural exchanges between polities, demonstrate how it was possible for diplomats to negotiate the cultural codes of the courts to which they were sent. This exciting collection brings together new and established scholars of diplomacy from different academic traditions. It will be essential reading for all students of diplomatic history.
Download or read book Family and Space written by Maya Halatcheva-Trapp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the ‘spatial turn’ within the social sciences has already nurtured a broad discussion of the relation between society and space, little attention has so far been paid to the question of what we can learn about families when exploring space in its different facets. This book brings together international authors from the fields of sociology, human geography, and anthropology to support the development of space-sensitive and de-territorialised perspectives on the family that reach beyond classical concepts such as the ‘household’ or the ‘nuclear family’. With close attention to the implications of differing relations to space for the social fabric of families, it presents studies of theoretical, methodological, and empirical aspects of late-modern family life. Examining the meaning of absence and presence for parenting, the aesthetic, and sensual dimensions of everyday family life, and its digital and media-related features aspects, Family and Space considers the value of a range of approaches to researching the spatial elements of family life, including ethnographic accounts, interviews, group discussions, mobile methods, and network analyses.
Download or read book Writing and Filming the Painting written by Laura M. Sager Eidt and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2008 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative interdisciplinary study compares the uses of painting in literary texts and films. In developing a framework of four types of ekphrasis, the author argues for the expansion of the concept of ekphrasis by demonstrating its applicability as interpretive tool to films about the visual arts and artists. Analyzing selected works of art by Goya, Rembrandt, and Vermeer and their ekphrastic treatment in various texts and films, this book examines how the medium of ekphrasis affects the representation of the visual arts in order to show what the differences imply about issues such as gender roles and the function of art for the construction of a personal or social identity. Because of its highly cross-disciplinary nature, this book is of interest not only to scholars of literature and aesthetics, but also for scholars of film studies. By providing an innovative approach to discussing non-documentary films about artists, the author shows that ekphrasis is a useful tool for exploring both aesthetic concerns and ideological issues in film. This study also addresses art historians as it deals with the reception of major artists in European literature and film throughout the 20th century.
Download or read book The New Quantum Universe written by Anthony J. G. Hey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-23 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to quantum physics for the general reader.
Download or read book Sources of Mythology written by Klaus J. Antoni and published by Lit Verlag. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Myths are cultural and historical documents of extraordinary importance. Often they represent the oldest written relics still extant from a particular culture. They enable us to glimpse at the worldviews of ancient civilizations. Yet myths are more than mere relics of bygone times: they are still alive and continue to matter in present-day society. This volume explores ancient and contemporary myths from diverse cultural backgrounds. Leading mythologists investigate the sources of mythology, providing an insight into the current state of research in the field of comparative mythology.
Download or read book Memory written by A. S. Byatt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents an anthology that introduces us to a wide range of arguments on the subject of memory, the thread that holds our lives, and our history, together. This book features a selection of extracts from writers and thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle, Montaigne and Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Proust, Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami.
Download or read book Theory of Society Volume 1 written by Niklas Luhmann and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-10 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first volume of Niklas Luhmann's two-part final work was initially published in German in 1997. The culmination of his thirty-year theoretical project to reconceptualize sociology, it offers a comprehensive description of modern society on a scale not attempted since Talcott Parsons. Beginning with an account of the fluidity of meaning and the accordingly high improbability of successful communication, Luhmann analyzes a range of communicative media, including language, writing, the printing press, and electronic media as well as "success media," such as money, power, truth, and love, all of which structure this fluidity and make communication possible. An investigation into the ways in which social systems produce and reproduce themselves, the book asks what gives rise to functionally differentiated social systems, how they evolve, and how social movements, organizations, and patterns of interaction emerge. The advent of the computer and its networks, which trigger potentially far-reaching processes of restructuring, receive particular attention. A concluding chapter on the semantics of modern society's self-description bids farewell to the outdated theoretical approaches of "old Europe," that is, to ontological, holistic, ethical, and critical interpretations of society, and argues that concepts such as "the nation," "the subject," and "postmodernity" are vastly overrated. In their stead, "society"—long considered a suspicious term by sociologists, one open to all kinds of reification—is defined in purely operational terms. It is the always uncertain answer to the question of what comes next in all areas of communication.
Download or read book Thinking in Boxes digital original edition written by Markus Krajewski and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This BIT chronicles the history of the predigital “scholar's machine”: a box of paper slips that acted both as memory aid and text generator. In it, Markus Krajewski describes the scholar's box as a form of data protection, tracing its genealogy beginning with peculiar excerption techniques of early nineteenth century scholars.
Download or read book Handbook of Semiotics written by Winfried Noth and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1990-09-22 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History and Classics of Modern Semiotics -- Sign and Meaning -- Semiotics, Code, and the Semiotic Field -- Language and Language-Based Codes -- From Structuralism to Text Semiotics: Schools and Major Figures -- Text Semiotics: The Field -- Nonverbal Communication -- Aesthetics and Visual Communication.
Download or read book German books in print written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 2296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
