Readings

As promised, here’s the reading list for my upcoming NYU class, “Theoretical Perspectives on Interactivity.” The order will change as I figure out how I’m going to organize this material. And the “recommended” readings usually refer to books for which I’ll provide hand-outs of one or two chapters.

I may attempt to do an online version of this course, as well, if there’s interest. Then, perhaps, we can have the ‘real’ class interact with the virtual one.

REQUIRED:

Packer, Randall and Ken Jordan. Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN: 0393049795

Morrison, Grant. The Invisibles, Vol. 1: Say You Want a Revolution. DC Comics, 1996. ISBN: 1563892677

McLuhan, Marshall. The Essential McLuhan. Eric McLuhan and Frank Zingrone, eds. New York: Basic Books, 1995. ISBN: 0465019951

Ong, Walter. Orality and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN: 0415281296

Ryan, Marie-Laure, Wendy Steiner and Gerald Prince Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, November 2003. ISBN: 0801877539

Himanen, Pekka. The Hacker Ethic. 0375505660

Carse, James P. Finite and Infinite Games. Ballantine Books, July 1994. ISBN: 0345341848

Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace. Clinamen Press Ltd., April 2002. ISBN: 1903083249

RE/Search #4/5: W.S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Throbbing Gristle. ISBN: 0965046915

Landow, George. HyperText 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. ISBN: 0801855861

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. ISBN: 0738208612

RECOMMENDED:

Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens : A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971. ISBN: 0807046817

McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media – The Critical Edition.

ISBN 1584230738

Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York: Noonday Press, 1973. ISBN: 0374521506

Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Paul Ranibow, ed. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1984. ISBN: 0394713400

Horkheimer, Max, Theodore Adorno and Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford Univ. Press, 2002. ISBN: 0804736332

de la Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co., 1988. ISBN: 0812690230

Spinoza, Benedict De. A Spinoza Reader. E. M. Curley, ed. Princeton Univ. Press, February, 1994. ISBN: 0691000670

Anarchy For The Masses (the Invisibles)

ISBN: 7895034

Book of Lies, Disinformation. ISBN: 7998725

In the Beginning was the Command Line

Neal Stephenson. ISBN: 0380815931

Leary, Timothy. Chaos and Cyberculture.

ISBN: 0914171771 (used only)

Laurel, Brenda. Computers as Theatre. ISBN: 0201550601

Strate, Jacobson, and Gibson, editors. Communication and Cyberspace, second edition. ISBN: 1572733934.

Futureritual, Publication Date: September 1995

ISBN: 1573531073

Painful but Fabulous: The Life and Art of Genesis P-Orridge

Publication Date: May 2002m ISBN: 1887128883

Electronic Revolution

Publication Date: December 1998

ISBN: 388030002X

Back in No Time : The Brion Gysin Reader

Format: Trade Paperback

Publication Date: January 2002

ISBN: 0819565296

Raymond, Eric S. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. ISBN: 0596001088

Rushkoff, Douglas, Open Source Democracy. Demos: UK Open Source Publisher. http://www.demos.co.uk

Rushkoff, Douglas. Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture. ISBN: 0345397746

Rushkoff, Douglas. Coercion: Why We Listen to What “They” Say. ISBN: 157322829X