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critical code studies

## mark c. marino

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“While we examine programming architecture and admire modularity and efficiency, the study of computer code does not currently emphasize interpretation, the search for and production of meaning (+ implication, + connotation).”

he mentions aesthetics in the form of “stylistic clarity” > writable text (texte scriptible), understanding for more “efficient” modification. but could it be that this efficiency involves a ‘creative’ outloook on the given code base? so it’s not just about modularity, efficiency, re-usability.

John Cayley defines codeworks as “literature which uses, addresses, and incorporates code: as underlying language-animating or language-generating programming, as a special type of language itself, or as an intrinsic part of the new surface language or ‘interface text’ in networked and programmable media.”. I would define the object of my research as “code which uses and addresses literature: which incorporates ambiguity, stylistic necessity, semantic complexity and uses of metaphors in order to convey a message that code alone, as a ‘strictly’ technical object, cannot convey.”

“Through CCS, practitioners may critique the larger human and computer systems, from the level of the computer to the level of the society in which these code objects circulate and exert influence.””


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