Hayles 2021 - Revision history

Wtrettien: /* 2. Print into Postprint */

2022-02-24T18:48:22Z

2. Print into Postprint

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:48, 24 February 2022
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	"Paige sought to give the machine too much cognition at a time when cognition could only be implemented electromechanically and so ended up with a machine of such complexity and fragility that it could not be made commercially viable" (52-3)		"Paige sought to give the machine too much cognition at a time when cognition could only be implemented electromechanically and so ended up with a machine of such complexity and fragility that it could not be made commercially viable" (52-3)



			“Interpenetration of computational devices into typesetting and printing technologies, focusing on what happens once the writer has completed her task and turned her manuscript over to a publisher” (53) — complementary to Kirschenbaum’s work in Track Changes

			“Decisive for this story is the invention of phototypesetting,
			for it broke the link between metal type and printing by using
			light and images rather than cumbersome pieces of metal to
			produce printed texts. Moreover, as we will see, photographic
			images lent themselves to pixelization and consequently to computational
			representation.” (54)

			Lumitype — essentially inventing a digital computer when inventing phototypesetting (57)

			Computer Assisted Typesetter developed by Graphic Systems International in 1972
			— in Lumitype, image conveyed through mirror and prisons, which could easily become misaligned
			— in new machines, fiber-optic bundle encloses the light carriers in a conduit — each optic fiber one pixel of light; accomplishing image digitization

			“When the era of phototypesetters began,
			their main competition was mechanical typesetters such as the
			Linotype, a contest in which phototypesetters had the advantages
			of lower cost, cleaner operation, easier methods to change
			typefaces, and less storage and operating space. Th e incorporation
			of computational components changed the nature of the
			game, however, so that the competition then shifted to handling
			more and more data faster and faster. With the push to produce
			fully assembled pages mixing text, graphics, and color, laser
			devices became the technology of choice, and by the 1980s laser
			imagesetters began to replace the phototypesetting machines.” (64)

			Phototypesetting peak: 1980-1984

			first book to be produced entirely by phototypesetting: Albro Gaul’s Th e Wonderful World of Insects in 1953

			“While phototypesetters were becoming standard in commercial
			print shops, a parallel line of innovation and development focused
			on desktop devices such as the dot matrix, daisy- wheel, and electric
			typeball devices such as the Selectric— a trajectory that entered a distinctively new phase with nonimpact printers.” (66-7)

			“Whereas
			the use of phototypesetters began in the 1950s, as we have seen,
			it was not until the 1980s that desktop devices using nonimpact
			technologies, in particular ink jet and laser printers, were suffi -
			ciently developed to initiate a comparable revolution in desktop
			publishing.” (67)

			Adobe’s development of PDF: “Th is development accelerated
			the shift, already gaining momentum, from thinking of
			proprietary solutions that worked for only one device to a systems
			view in which interfaces were developed that allowed for
			fl exibility and adaptability— the principle that made the web
			possible.” (67)

			First LaserJet printer hit the market in 1984

			1990, Xerox launches DocuTech, “the machine that single-handedly created the market for print-on-demand” (69)

			Switch from photons to electrons required rethinking all aspects of the machines

			With DocuTech and development of POD market, “Intellectual property as instantiated in books was suddenly
			plunged into an entirely diff erent temporal regime, and book
			production was changed forever.” (73)

			“Th e decisions bounded by Higonnet and Moyroud’s midcentury
			practice of using binary inputs up to the end- of- the- century
			decision to use software instead of hardwired logic circuits for
			the DocuTech had two enormous consequences that unfurled
			in the gale- force winds of change that blew in the new millennium.
			Th e fi rst was to open the door to the rapid development
			and expansion of the cognitive capabilities not only in the devices
			that produced books but also in those that served as electronic
			reading platforms for them, the e- readers. Th e second was to
			accelerate already- existing trends to separate content from its
			material manifestation by introducing a clear delineation between
			electronic data and the devices that interpreted them, a development
			that made e- books conceptually and practically distinct
			from e- readers. Th e fi rst consequence led to radically changed
			relationships between electronic reading devices and human
			readers; the second to a seismic shift from books that were owned
			by those who bought them to content that was merely leased and
			subject to significant restrictions on how it could be used.” (76)

			“So dramatic is this break, in fact,
			that it is no exaggeration to say that it constitutes an ontological
			rupture from the print era.” (77)

			“For someone who regards an e- book as a convenient
			way to access print content, reading text on an e- reader may
			not seem very diff erent from engaging with a print object.
			Nevertheless, an adequate understanding of the interactions between a user and an e- reader requires a model of distributed
			cognition and, as a necessary corollary, an understanding
			of the interactions between user and e- book as instances
			of distributed agency. As a result of its cognitive capabilities,
			the e- reader immerses the user in a very diff erent media ecology
			than a print book does. Once the device is not only a cognitive
			support, like the print book, but also a cognizer in its
			own right, it becomes in eff ect a collaborator with the human
			reader, able to sense and respond to the reader’s desires and
			execute commands of a quite sophisticated nature.” (78-80)

Wtrettien: /* 2. Print into Postprint */

2022-01-10T00:09:38Z

2. Print into Postprint

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:09, 10 January 2022
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	"This chapter		"This chapter
	provides specific examples of cognitive assemblages in the		provides specific examples of cognitive assemblages in the history of printing technologies as the machines increasingly
	history of printing technologies as the machines increasingly		incorporated computational components and interacted in different ways with the humans who invented, implemented, operated, and oversaw them. As the machines’ cognitive capacities increased, so did their flexibility and their ability to take on tasks formerly done by humans. But the chapter also shows that the distribution of cognitive tasks between human and machine does not always mean that the more cognition the machine has, the more successful it will be. On the contrary, the Paige Compositor discussed here illustrates just the opposite; this case study indicates that if the cognitive load exceeds the technology’s ability to implement it, fragility rather than flexibility will be the likely result." (41)
	incorporated computational components and interacted in different
	ways with the humans who invented, implemented,
	operated, and oversaw them. As the machines’ cognitive capacities
	increased, so did their flexibility and their ability to take on
	tasks formerly done by humans. But the chapter also shows that
	the distribution of cognitive tasks between human and machine
	does not always mean that the more cognition the machine has,
	the more successful it will be. On the contrary, the Paige Compositor
	discussed here illustrates just the opposite; this case
	study indicates that if the cognitive load exceeds the technology’s
	ability to implement it, fragility rather than flexibility will
	be the likely result." (41)

	5 nodal points:		5 nodal points:
Line 63:		Line 51:
	Paige compositor		Paige compositor

	Linotype ultimately won out -- "By preserving the rendering system but scrapping the renditions,		Linotype ultimately won out -- "By preserving the rendering system but scrapping the renditions, the Linotype instantiated in its “hot- metal” casting technique a new way to instrumentalize the traditional spatial distinction between type pieces set in forms and type pieces ready for distribution. Precisely because this new way reconceptualized how a manual technique could be mechanized, it simplified the cognitive load on the machine." (52)
	the Linotype instantiated in its “hot- metal” casting
	technique a new way to instrumentalize the traditional spatial		"Paige sought to give the machine too much cognition at a time when cognition could only be implemented electromechanically and so ended up with a machine of such complexity and fragility that it could not be made commercially viable" (52-3)
	distinction between type pieces set in forms and type pieces
	ready for distribution. Precisely because this new way reconceptualized
	how a manual technique could be mechanized, it ~~simplifi~~
	ed the cognitive load on the machine." (52)

Wtrettien: /* Introduction */

2022-01-09T23:53:12Z

Introduction

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:53, 9 January 2022
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	in print technology as redistributions of cognitive capabilities		in print technology as redistributions of cognitive capabilities
	between humans and machines.” (15)		between humans and machines.” (15)

			== 2. Print into Postprint ==

			"This chapter
			provides specific examples of cognitive assemblages in the
			history of printing technologies as the machines increasingly
			incorporated computational components and interacted in different
			ways with the humans who invented, implemented,
			operated, and oversaw them. As the machines’ cognitive capacities
			increased, so did their flexibility and their ability to take on
			tasks formerly done by humans. But the chapter also shows that
			the distribution of cognitive tasks between human and machine
			does not always mean that the more cognition the machine has,
			the more successful it will be. On the contrary, the Paige Compositor
			discussed here illustrates just the opposite; this case
			study indicates that if the cognitive load exceeds the technology’s
			ability to implement it, fragility rather than flexibility will
			be the likely result." (41)

			5 nodal points:
			* "shift from human to machine cognition int he Paige Compositor"
			* invention of Lumitype phototypesetter -- rupture rather than shift
			* C/A/T (Computer Assisted Typesetter) of early 1970s -- digression; "opened possibilities that were cut short when phototypesetters gave way to more fully computerized devices such as laser printers and typesetters" (43)
			* merging of reprographic technologies with desktop publishing to make print-on-demand possible (43)
			* development of e-books and e-readers, making these earlier shifts/ruptures/transformations apparent to readers

			"If we ask when text first became computational," would have to go back to Jacquard, example of woven book of prayers

			Paige compositor

			Linotype ultimately won out -- "By preserving the rendering system but scrapping the renditions,
			the Linotype instantiated in its “hot- metal” casting
			technique a new way to instrumentalize the traditional spatial
			distinction between type pieces set in forms and type pieces
			ready for distribution. Precisely because this new way reconceptualized
			how a manual technique could be mechanized, it simplifi
			ed the cognitive load on the machine." (52)

Wtrettien: Created page with "Hayles, N. Katherine. ''Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational.'' New York: Columbia UP, 2021. == Introduction == “It is time — indeed, past time — to create a v..."

2022-01-09T22:26:06Z

Created page with "Hayles, N. Katherine. ''Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational.'' New York: Columbia UP, 2021. == Introduction == “It is time — indeed, past time — to create a v..."

New page

Hayles, N. Katherine. ''Postprint: Books and Becoming Computational.'' New York: Columbia UP, 2021.

== Introduction ==

“It is time — indeed, past time — to create a vocabulary and conceptual framework acknowledging the the sea change that occurred when computational media permeated the printing industry … The term I propose to designate this new state of affairs is post print” (2)

“The period from 1950 to 2000 represents a difference in scale so dramatic that it amounts to a qualitative, not merely quantitative transformation. It is not exaggeration to say it constitutes a rupture in the genealogy of printed books — the rupture denoted by the term postprint.” (2)

“The codes underlying digital texts position print in a profoundly different way than it was positioned in previous epochs, for in the posprint era hard copy becomes merely one kind of output among many possible displays.” (3)

“Th e diff erence
is emphatically not between the materiality of print and the
immateriality of digital forms, as is sometimes proclaimed, but
rather between diff erent kinds of material instantiations and
diverse kinds of textual bodies.” (3)

“My approach has been to scale up (and down) to what I see as
the catalyst for all of postprint’s diverse aspects— namely, the
emergence of cognition in artificial media.” (6)

Defines cognition as “the process of interpreting information in contexts that connect it with meaning” (6) — all lifeforms exhibit some kind of cognition, as does computational media

“interpretations
and meaning- making practices circulate through transindividual
collectivities created by fl uctuating and dynamic interconnections
between humans and computational media, interconnections
that I call cognitive assemblages” (8)

“The cognitive-assemblage framework enables to different kinds of discourses: one that focuses on the materialities of individual participants and another that focuses on the more abstract flows that bind entities together into a collectivity” (12-3)

“What kind of work can the cognitive- assemblage framework do
in relation to postprint? It provides a way to conceptualize innovations
in print technology as redistributions of cognitive capabilities
between humans and machines.” (15)