Real Wars on Virtual Battlefields
The Convergence of Programmable Media at the Military-Civilian Margin
1st Edition
Published on 15. July 2015
412 pages
978-3-8394-1240-4 (ISBN)
Description
The book analyzes the multifarious exchange of algorithmic technologies and concepts between the military and the media industry from the early 1990s until now. Unlike most related scholarly work which focuses on digital games, it drafts a model of programmable media which is grounded in a close-reading of the key technologies, most notably the paradigm of object-oriented programming, and reconsiders technical disciplines from a humanities perspective. This model is then applied to analyze the effects of algorithmic logic on the military-civilian continuum, including economic practices, patterns of media usage and military decision-making.
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Stefan Werning
Real Wars on Virtual Battlefields
The Convergence of Programmable Media at the Military-Civilian Margin
Book
10/2009
1st Edition
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Person
Stefan Werning (Dr.) is currently working as an assistant professor of Digital Media at the University of Bayreuth. His research fields include the history of technology, 'new media' phenomena and the theorization of trans-media products and practices.
Content
- Cover Real Wars on Virtual Battlefields
- CONTENTS
- Table of Illustrations
- 1 Introduction
- 1.1 Remilitarization - Coming to Terms with the Notion of War in Contemporary Western Societies
- 1.2 Programmable Applications within Media Deployment Policies
- 1.3 The State of Research and the Politics of Documentation
- 1.4 Programmable Media as Socio-Cultural Filters
- 1.5 Digital Games as a Subset of Programmable Media
- 1.6 Towards an Integrative Model of Programmable Media Analysis
- 1.7 Technical Preliminaries
- 2 Building Blocks for a Model of Programmable Media Analysis
- 2.1 Critical Considerations on the Current State of Game Studies
- 2.2 Towards Programmable Media Analysis
- 2.3 Reading (Digital) Games as Code
- 2.4 Socio-Cultural Implications of Analyzing Programmable Media
- 2.5 From Technology Semiotics to Programmable Media Analysis
- 2.6 Program Code Rhetoric in Academic Literature
- 2.7 The 'Next Generation'
- 3 Epistemological Effects of Programmable Media in Perspective
- 3.1 Towards an Epistemology of Program Code
- 3.2 The Compatibility/Standardization Paradigm
- 3.3 The Computability Paradigm
- 3.4 A Program Code Model of Authenticity Effects
- 3.5 Nature in the Age of Algorithmic Representability
- 3.6 History as Simulation
- 3.7 Simulation/Emulation
- 4 Programmable Media at the Civilian/Military Margin
- 4.1 Before 'Information Warfare' (IW)
- 4.2 The Doctrine of Information Warfare
- 4.3 War and (Media) Literacy
- 4.4 New Rules of Play - Algorithms as Role Models of Military Self-Description and Organization
- 4.5 A Concluding Look Back
- 5 From the War in the Gulf to the Global War on Terror - A History in Games
- 5.1 The Methodological Problem of the 'Gulf Wars'
- 5.2 The Global War on Terrorism in Digital Games
- 5.3 Delimiting Wars by their Media Representations
- 5.4 Encyclopedicity
- 5.5 Applied Forum Analysis - An Ethnographic Perspective on Programmable Media
- 6 Peripheralization and Universalization. Macro Effects of Programmable Media in Military-Civilian Contexts
- 6.1 Historiographical Effects of Digital War Games
- 6.2 A Comparative Look at COTS Games in Military Applications
- 6.3 Grids as a Ubiquitous Dimension of (Digital) Warfare
- 6.4 Politico-Military Rhetoric and Code(s) in Non-War Game Contexts
- 6.5 Inserting Military Iconography into Media Usage Ecologies
- 6.6 Psychophysical Coercion of the Interface
- 6.7 The Implied Economization of War and Programmable Media Systems
- 6.8 Composing Universal Aesthetics and Narratives of War
- 6.9 Virtual Wars - Real Battlefields
- Bibliography
