Ready Player One by Ready Player One by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. "Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix."--USA Today * "As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates."--Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune--and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he's beset by rivals who'll kill to take this prize. The race is on--and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly * San Francisco Chronicle * Village Voice * Chicago Sun-Times * iO9 * The AV Club "Delightful . . . the grown-up's Harry Potter."--HuffPost "An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart."--CNN "A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader."--Boston Globe "Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that's both hilarious and compassionate."--NPR "[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own."--iO9
80s : all-American ads by
This exhaustive compendium of ads from the period - many of which haven't been seen since - is a fascinating reminder of surprisingly simpler times and a rediscovery of a forgotten age in advertising history.
The Art of Ready Player One by
Discover the captivating art of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One. Our dystopian world lies on the brink of chaos and collapse, but the people have found their salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune in the form of a digital Easter egg hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. Wade Watts, an unlikely young hero, decides to join the contest and embarks on a reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical world of action, danger, and mystery. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on author Ernest Cline's internationally best-selling book, Ready Player One is a hugely imaginative sci-fi adventure set in a rich virtual world. The Art of Ready Player One explores the creation of the incredible design work for this much-anticipated film, showcasing a wealth of concept art, sketches, storyboards, and other stunning visuals. The book also features exclusive interviews and commentary from the creative team, forming the perfect companion to one of the most exciting films of 2018.
Ars Electronica 2015: Post city: habitats for the 21st century by 
Ars Electronica 2021 (A new digital deal) by
42nd Ars Electronica Festival - for the second time in hybrid format. Themes of the festival: How can an artistic-scientific research make interfaces of technology, art and society visible?
Coded Characters: media art by Jill Scott by
Since 1975, the experimental work of Australian-born artist Jill Scott has evolved from making surveillance-performance events, to video art, to new computer art and interactive cinema. Coded Characters surveys her work, noting a persistent questioning of the role of the audience and an interest in the human body, which for Scott becomes both an interface and a player in the evolving zones of tech space and physical reality.
Crash : nostalgia for the absence of cyberspace by 
The Cybercultures Reader by
This volume aims to cover the whole spectrum of cyberspace and related new technologies to explore the ways in which new technologies are reshaping cultural forms and practices at the turn of the century. It is divided into thematic sections focussing on key issues such as subcultures in cyberspace, posthumanism and cyberbodies, and pop-cultural depictions of human-machine interaction. Key features include section introductions locating the essays in their theoretical and technological context, and editor's introduction and accompanying user's guide. Bibliography issues include: theoretical approaches to cyberculture; representations in fiction and on film; the development of distinct cyber-subcultures; and feminist and queer approaches within cyberculture.
Game Feel: a game designer's guide to virtual sensation by
"Game Feel" exposes "feel" as a hidden language in game design that no one has fully articulated yet. The language could be compared to the building blocks of music (time signatures, chord progressions, verse) - no matter the instruments, style or time period - these building blocks come into play. Feel and sensation are similar building blocks where game design is concerned. They create the meta-sensation of involvement with a game. The understanding of how game designers create feel, and affect feel are only partially understood by most in the field and tends to be overlooked as a method or course of study, yet a game's feel is central to a game's success. This book brings the subject of feel to light by consolidating existing theories into a cohesive book. The book covers topics like the role of sound, ancillary indicators, the importance of metaphor, how people perceive things, and a brief history of feel in games. The associated web site contains a playset with ready-made tools to design feel in games, six key components to creating virtual sensation. There's a play palette too, so the desiger can first experience the importance of that component by altering variables and feeling the results. The playset allows the reader to experience each of the sensations described in the book, and then allows them to apply them to their own projects. Creating game feel without having to program, essentially. The final version of the playset will have enough flexibility that the reader will be able to use it as a companion to the exercises in the book, working through each one to create the feel described.
Is This Tomorrow? : visions of the future by architects and artists
Accompanying the innovative new 2019 exhibition 'Is This Tomorrow?' at Whitechapel Gallery, this fully-illustrated catalogue re-imagines the classic 1956 publication made for the Gallery's seminal exhibition 'This is Tomorrow'. For a major new presentation in 2019, Whitechapel Gallery is taking as a model its groundbreaking 1956 exhibition 'This is Tomorrow', an event which is indelibly linked to the institution's history. Organised and developed by architect, writer and sculptor Theo Crosby, 'This is Tomorrow' featured 37 artists, architects, designers and writers who worked together in 12 small groups. In the catalogue, Lawrence Alloway introduced the exhibition as 'devoted to the possibilities of collaboration', the results of which 'appear to be setting up a programme for the future.' 'Is This Tomorrow?' will also feature 12 groups of contemporary architects, artists and other cultural practitioners to highlight the potential of collaboration, to address key issues we face today and to offer a vision of the future. Both UK and international participants will explore subjects from conflict and warfare, economic inequality, migration and resource scarcity, to education, labour, trade and technology, comparing and contrasting the ideas of the original 'This is Tomorrow' artists and architects whose concerns with communication theory, mass culture and the vernacular reflected their associations with British Constructivism and the Independent Group. The accompanying catalogue will take its inspiration from the original seminal 1956 publication, with each group presenting their process of design and collaboration through plans, sketches and photographs, plus accompanying explanatory texts. Architects featured include Adjaye Associates (UK/US/Ghana), Alberto Kalach/TAX (Mexico), Marina Tabassum Architects (Bangladesh) and Studio Anne Holtrop (Netherlands). Artists featured include Rana Begum, Cecile B. Evans, Simon Fujiwara and Kapwani Kiwanga.
Low form : imaginaries and visions in the age of artificial intelligence by
Catalog of an exhibition held at the MAXXI, Rome, Italy, Oct. 20, 2018-Feb. 24, 2019
Mass Effect : art and the internet in the twenty-first century by
Essays, discussions, and image portfolios map the evolution of art forms engaged with the Internet.Since the turn of the millennium, the Internet has evolved from what was merely a new medium to a true mass medium-with a deeper and wider cultural reach, greater opportunities for distribution and collaboration, and more complex corporate and political realities. Mapping a loosely chronological series of formative arguments, developments, and happenings, Mass Effect provides an essential guide to understanding the dynamic and ongoing relationship between art and new technologies. Mass Effect brings together nearly forty contributions, including newly commissioned essays and reprints, image portfolios, and transcribed discussion panels and lectures that offer insights and reflections from a wide range of artists, curators, art historians, and bloggers. Among the topics examined are the use of commercial platforms for art practice, what art means in an age of increasing surveillance, and questions surrounding such recent concepts as "postinternet." Other contributions analyze and document particular works by the artists of And/Or Gallery, Cory Arcangel, DIS, Cao Fei, the Radical Software Group, and others. Mass Effect relaunches a publication series initiated by the MIT Press and the New Museum in 1984, which produced six defining volumes for the field of contemporary art. These new volumes will build on this historic partnership and reinvigorate the conversation around contemporary culture once again. Copublished with the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Important Notice- The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images found in the physical edition. Contributors Cory Arcangel, Karen Archey, Michael Bell-Smith, Claire Bishop, Dora Budor, Johanna Burton, Paul Chan, Ian Cheng, Michael Connor, Lauren Cornell, Petra Cortright, Jesse Darling, Anne de Vries, DIS, Aleksandra Domanović, Harm van den Dorpel, Dragan Espenschied, R zsa Zita Farkas, Azin Feizabadi, Alexander R. Galloway, Boris Groys, Ed Halter, Alice Ming Wai Jim, Jogging, Caitlin Jones, David Joselit, Dina Kafafi, John Kelsey, Alex Kitnick, Tina Kukielski, Oliver Laric, Mark Leckey, David Levine, Olia Lialina, Guthrie Lonergan, Jordan Lord, Jens Maier-Rothe, Shawn Maximo, Jennifer McCoy, Kevin McCoy, Gene McHugh, Tom Moody, Ceci Moss, Katja Novitskova, Marisa Olson, Trevor Paglen, Seth Price, Alexander Provan, Morgan Quaintance, Domenico Quaranta, Raqs Media Collective, Alix Rule, Timur Si-Qin, Josephine Berry Slater, Paul Slocum, Rebecca Solnit, Wolfgang Staehle, Hito Steyerl, Martine Syms, Ben Vickers, Michael Wang, Tim Whidden, Anicka Yi, and Damon Zucconi
Mazes for the Mind by
A roller-coaster ride through the unpredictable, exciting, and challenging universe of computers, games, puzzles, mazes, and computer art.
More Than Real: Art in the Digital Age by
This is the second in the Summit publication series, disseminating key insights of the 2018 Summit and extending a global dialogue on an important social issue: art in the digital age. The multidisciplinary perspectives come together through the inspirational book design of Irma Boom.Acting as a cultural incubator for innovative ideas and change, the Verbier Art Summit is an international platform erected to optimise the role of art in a global society. Their mission is to connect thought leaders to key figures in the art world and thus position the Summit as a catalyst for innovation and change. Their vision is to create an influential platform in a non-transactional context for artists, curators, museum directors, private and corporate collectors, art critics, gallerists, art historians and art consultants - Verbier Art Summit 2018
Systems by
Writings survey system-based art, from its origins in works from the 1950s to the 1970s to its twenty-first century resurgence in works that draw on cutting-edge science. In the late 1950s, experiments such as the cybernetic sculptures of Nicolas Schöffer or the programmatic music compositions of John Cage and Iannis Xenakis transposed systems theory from the sciences to the arts. By the 1960s, artists as diverse as Roy Ascott, Hans Haacke, Robert Morris, Sonia Sheridan, and Stephen Willats were breaking with accepted aesthetics to embrace open systems that emphasized organism over mechanism, dynamic processes of interaction among elements, and the observer's role as an inextricable part of the system. Jack Burnham's 1968 Artforum essay "Systems Aesthetics" and his 1970 "Software" exhibition marked the high point of systems-based art until its resurgence in the changed conditions of the twenty-first century. Systems traces this radical shift in aesthetics from its roots in mid twentieth-century general systems theory, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence to the cutting-edge science of the present. The collected texts examine the connections between advanced technological systems, our bodies and minds; the relation of musical to spatial and architectural structures; and the ways in which systems-based art projects can create self-generating entities and networks, alter our experience of time, change the configurations of social relations, cross cultural borders, and interact with threatened ecosystems. Artists surveyed include Roy Ascott, Driessens and Verstappen, David Dunn, Brian Eno, Frank Gillette, Michael Joaquin Grey, Hans Haacke, Helen Mayer Harrison, Newton Harrison, Joan Littlewood, Richard Paul Lohse, Laurent Mignonneau, Manfred Mohr, Nam June Paik, Cedric Price, Casey Reas, Ken Rinaldo, Tomás Saraceno, Sonia Sheridan, Christa Sommerer, Ubermorgen, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Peter Weibel, Mitchell Whitelaw, John Whitney, James Whitney, Stephen Willats, Iannis Xenakis Writers include Gregory Bateson, Mary Catherine Bateson, Pierre Bourdieu, R. Buckminster Fuller, Jack Burnham, Fritjof Capra, Geoff Cox, James P. Crutchfield, Boris Groys, Francis Halsall, Usman Haque, N. Katherine Hayles, Caroline Jones, Stephen Jones, Christian Katti, Bruno Latour, Mary Louise Lobsinger, James Lovelock, Niklas Luhmann, Humberto Maturana, Donella H. Meadows, William J. Mitchell, Gordon Pask, Nick Prior, Francisco Varela, Heinz von Foerster, Michael Weinstock, Norbert Wiener
Unpackaging Art of The 1980s by
American art of the 1980s is as misunderstood as it is notorious. Critics of the time feared that market hype and self-promotion threatened the integrity of art. They lashed out at contemporary art, questioning the validity of particular media and methods and dividing the art into opposing camps. While controversies have since subsided, critics still view art of the 1980s as a stylistic battlefield. Alison Pearlman rejects this picture, which is truer of the period's criticism than of its art. Pearlman reassesses the works and careers of six artists who became critics' biggest targets. In each of three chapters, she pairs two artists the critics viewed as emblematic of a given trend: Julian Schnabel and David Salle in association with Neo-Expressionism; Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring vis-à-vis Graffiti Art; and Peter Halley and Jeff Koons in relation to Simulationism. Pearlman shows how all these artists shared important but unrecognized influences and approaches: a crucial and overwhelming inheritance of 1960s and 1970s Conceptualism, a Warholian understanding of public identity, and a deliberate and nuanced use of past styles and media. Through in-depth discussions of works, from Haring's body-paintings of Grace Jones to Schnabel's movie Basquiat, Pearlman demonstrates how these artists' interests exemplified a broader, generational shift unrecognized by critics. She sees this shift as starting not in the 1980s but in the mid-1970s, when key developments in artistic style, art-world structures, and consumer culture converged to radically alter the course of American art. Unpackaging Art of the 1980s offers an innovative approach to one of the most significant yet least understood episodes in twentieth-century art.
Ready Player One by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. "Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix."--USA Today * "As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates."--Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune--and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he's beset by rivals who'll kill to take this prize. The race is on--and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly * San Francisco Chronicle * Village Voice * Chicago Sun-Times * iO9 * The AV Club "Delightful . . . the grown-up's Harry Potter."--HuffPost "An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart."--CNN "A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader."--Boston Globe "Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that's both hilarious and compassionate."--NPR "[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own."--iO9
Overlord, Vol. 1 (manga) by
What do you do when your favorite game shuts down? Momonga decided to stay logged in right up until the very end. But when the servers go dark, he finds himself transported into the game world--and he's been transformed into his skeletal avatar from the game, awesome magical powers included! But what if he's the villain of his own story?
Real Account 1 by
"An interesting take on a tired premise. Why not tweet your friends about it?" -Anime News Network "Social commentary wrapped in a Battle Royale or Sword Art Online-esque 'death game' plot." - Kotaku "Recommended!Between wanting to see the next game and curiosity about where writer Okushou is going with his social commentary, I'm looking forward to the next volume." -Otaku USA UNFOLLOW OR DIE Like many of his peers, Ataru Kashiwagi has found himself addicted to the newest social networking service, Real Account. But one day, Ataru and almost 10,000 other people, get sucked into the Real Account Zone, where they have become players in a series of deadly games. The basic rules of these games are simple-if you lose all your followers, you die in real life, and if you die, all of your followers die with you. As these depraved games decimate the players around him, Ataru must use quick thinking and his knowledge of Real Account to win each round and return to the real world. But when true friendship determines whether he lives or dies, can Ataru really survive when the only people he can count on are his Internet friends?
Sword Art Online Progressive, Vol. 1 (manga) by
Yuuki Asuna was a top student who spent her days studying at cram school and preparing for her high school entrance exams--but that was before she borrowed her brother's virtual reality game system and wound up trapped in Sword Art Online with ten thousand other frightened players. As time passes, Asuna fears what will become of her life outside the fantasy realm--the failure she might be seen as in the eyes of her peers and parents. Unwilling to wait on the sidelines for more experienced gamers to beat the game, Asuna employs her study habits to learn the mechanics of the game--and swordplay. Her swiftness impresses Kirito, a professional gamer who invites Asuna to join the best players on the front line. Is Asuna ready to swap class rankings for player rankings and join Kirito?
Runescape : The First 20 Years by
A full-colour companion tome that offers a look behind the scenes as the iconic online fantasy RPG celebrates its 20th birthday! In 2001, RuneScape transformed the world of MMORPGs with a magical world that was free-to-play in your browser. Assuming any number of fantasy roles, players carved their own adventures in a fantasy land filled with vibrant characters, daring adventure and mystery. In an industry where success can often be short lived, RuneScape has defied the odds by not just surviving, but thriving over an incredible two decades. Now you can get an insider's look at the tremendous talent and enormous effort that went into creating the land of Gielinor and the magical races who inhabit it. Jagex and Dark Horse present a guide to the history of the RuneScape franchise, exploring the detailed tapestry of RuneScape and Old School RuneScape through exciting and exclusive art and behind the scenes interviews!
Stranger Things Omnibus Volume 1 (Graphic Novel) by
A massive collection of comics based on Netflix's 80's nostalgia-fueled Stranger Things. Sci-fi horror at its best including psychic kids, portals to parallel worlds, secret agents, and even slasher-flick style masked villains. Collects four full comics series Stranger Things The Other Side Stranger Things Six Stranger Things Into the Fire Stranger Things Science Camp The Other Side follows Will Byers after he has been pulled into a mysterious nightmare realm. Isolated, disoriented and scared, he quickly realizes he isn't alone-monsters lurk around every corner, and they are hunting him. Six dives into the lives of the psychic kids being held at the mysterious government lab in Hawkins, Indiana. Stripped of her name and left with nothing but the number six, clairvoyant teen Francine plots to break out however she can. She has seen a horrific glimpse into the future to come and wants to save as many people as she can. In Into the Fire, some of the teens who escaped find out that another of their number might yet still be alive and take off on a brutal journey where they must choose between vengeance and mercy all in the hopes of saving their friend from herself. In Science Camp, Dustin Henderson arrives at Camp Know Where anxious about spending the summer away from his friends. When a spooky masked figure starts making camp counselors disappear, he gathers a crew of fellow geeks to save their camp - and possibly their own lives! Featuring writing by Jody Houser with pencils by Stefano Martino, Edgar Salazar, and Ryan Kelly, Inks by Keith Champagne, and Le Beau Underwood, Colors by Lauren Affe, Marissa Louis, and Triona Farrell with lettering by Nate Piekos! Collects Stranger Things The Other Side, Stranger Things Six, Stranger Things Into The Fire, and Stranger Things Science Camp.
The World of Cyberpunk 2077 by
An insightful, captivatingly designed, full-color edition that transports readers to the futuristic megalopolis of Night City--the epicenter of the vibrant new action-RPG from CD Projekt Red. Step into the year 2077, a world dotted with dystopian metropoles where violence, oppression, and cyberware implants aren't just common--they're necessary tools to get ahead. Delve into incisive lore to discover how the economic decline of the United States created a crippling dependence on devious corporations and birthed the Free State of California. Explore the various districts, gangs, and history of Night City. Learn all there is to know about the technology of tomorrow and research the cybernetics, weapons, and vehicles of Cyberpunk 2077. Dark Horse Books and CD Projekt Red present The World of Cyberpunk 2077--an extensive examination of the rich lore of Cyberpunk 2077. This intricately assembled tome contains everything you need to know about the history, characters, and world of the long-awaited follow-up from the creators of The Witcher video game series.
Communities of Play: emergent cultures in Multiplayer games and virtual worlds by
The odyssey of a group of "refugees" from a closed-down online game and an exploration of emergent fan cultures in virtual worlds. Play communities existed long before massively multiplayer online games; they have ranged from bridge clubs to sports leagues, from tabletop role-playing games to Civil War reenactments. With the emergence of digital networks, however, new varieties of adult play communities have appeared, most notably within online games and virtual worlds. Players in these networked worlds sometimes develop a sense of community that transcends the game itself. In Communities of Play, game researcher and designer Celia Pearce explores emergent fan cultures in networked digital worlds--actions by players that do not coincide with the intentions of the game's designers. Pearce looks in particular at the Uru Diaspora--a group of players whose game, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, closed. These players (primarily baby boomers) immigrated into other worlds, self-identifying as "refugees"; relocated in There.com, they created a hybrid culture integrating aspects of their old world. Ostracized at first, they became community leaders. Pearce analyzes the properties of virtual worlds and looks at the ways design affects emergent behavior. She discusses the methodologies for studying online games, including a personal account of the sometimes messy process of ethnography. Pearce considers the "play turn" in culture and the advent of a participatory global playground enabled by networked digital games every bit as communal as the global village Marshall McLuhan saw united by television. Countering the ludological definition of play as unproductive and pointing to the long history of pre-digital play practices, Pearce argues that play can be a prelude to creativity.
Introduction to Game Systems Design by
As games grow more complex and gamers expectations soar, the discipline of game systems design becomes ever more important. Game systems designers plan a games rules and balance, its characters attributes, most of its data, and how its AI, weapons, and objects work and interact. Introduction to Game Systems Design is the first complete beginners guide to this crucial discipline. Writing for all aspiring game professionals, even those with absolutely no experience, leading game designer and instructor Dax Gazaway presents a step-by-step, hands-on approach to designing game systems with industry-standard tools. Drawing on his experience building AAA-level game systems (including games in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises), Gazaway covers all this, and more: Exploring the essentials of game design and its emerging subdisciplines Asking the essential questions at the heart of all design Getting started with modern game system design tools, including the spreadsheets most professionals now use Creating systems and data from a blank page Populating and quantifying a world of data into a game Tuning and balancing game systems Testing game systems and data Leveraging communication, psychology, and rewards within your games Balancing game probability within systems Whether youre a college freshman entering a game design program, an indie developer using Unreal or Unity, a Dungeon Master, or anyone who wants to really understand modern games, this guide will help you get where you want to go.
Living and dying in a virtual world : digital kinships, nostalgia, and mourning in Second Life by
Summary: This book takes readers into stories of love, loss, grief and mourning and reveals the emotional attachments and digital kinships of the virtual 3D social world of Second Life. At fourteen years old, Second Life can no longer be perceived as the young, cutting-edge environment it once was, and yet it endures as a place of belonging, fun, role-play and social experimentation. In this volume, the authors argue that far from facing an impending death, Second Life has undergone a transition to maturity and holds a new type of significance. As people increasingly explore and co-create a sense of self and ways of belonging through avatars and computer screens, the question of where and how people live and die becomes increasingly more important to understand. This book shows how a virtual world can change lives and create forms of memory, nostalgia and mourning for both real and avatar based lives.
Metaversed by
Understand the coming metaverse--and discover how to look past the hype and harness the future of technology. Metaversed is an insightful discussion and analysis of the next, rapidly approaching technological revolution. The authors deliver a compelling new exploration of how the metaverse and emerging technologies combine to define our collective future. In addition to identifying the business opportunities, the book pulls back the curtain on major safety and privacy issues that will arise and the expected shifts in both our private and social spheres. In the book, you'll understand: How multiple industries will be changed and challenged in a 3D spatial world and how to navigate the future crypto-ladden business landscape; Legal and policy considerations necessary to build and maintain safe, shared digital spaces The economic and social impacts, including the potential for our digital lives to outlive our physical selves Actionable insights, so you can make the most out of the next digital revolution Metaversed is a can't-miss presentation of the most significant market opportunities and societal challenges posed by the metaverse. It also will empower readers to take positive action that avoids the same online mistakes that happened on social media and create more responsible tech usage habits in our personal and professional lives.
Nostalgic Design: Rhetoric, Memory, and Democratizing Technology by
Nostalgic Design presents a rhetorical analysis of twenty-first century nostalgia and a method for designers to create more inclusive technologies. Nostalgia is a form of resistant commemoration that can tell designers what users value about past designs, why they might feel excluded from the present, and what they wish to recover in the future. By examining the nostalgic hacks of several contemporary technical cultures, from female software programmers who knit on the job to anti-vaccination parents, Kurlinkus argues that innovation without tradition will always lead to technical alienation, whereas carefully examining and layering conflicting nostalgic traditions can lead to technological revolution.
Technology and inequality : concentrated wealth in a digital world by
This book will summarize what we know about technology and inequality across disciplines, and seek out new ways to analyze this relationship based on technology and business practices, with the objective of restoring digital technology as an engine of opportunity. Besides the unique focus on the role of technology in inequality, the book will have a unifying theme of tracing wealth creation and wealth capture in the technology sector, and relating specific practices—what technology companies actually do—to larger shifts in wealth and power. A clear conceptual framework will be used to analyze key industry case studies: search engines, social media, and the ‘sharing’ economy.
Virtual Reality by
A comprehensive overview of developments in augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality--and how they could affect every part of our lives. After years of hype, extended reality--augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR)--has entered the mainstream. Commercially available, relatively inexpensive VR headsets transport wearers to other realities--fantasy worlds, faraway countries, sporting events--in ways that even the most ultra-high-definition screen cannot. AR glasses receive data in visual and auditory forms that are more useful than any laptop or smartphone can deliver. Immersive MR environments blend physical and virtual reality to create a new reality. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, technology writer Samuel Greengard offers an accessible overview of developments in extended reality, explaining the technology, considering the social and psychological ramifications, and discussing possible future directions. Greengard describes the history and technological development of augmented and virtual realities, including the latest research in the field, and surveys the various shapes and forms of VR, AR, and MR, including head-mounted displays, mobile systems, and goggles. He examines the way these technologies are shaping and reshaping some professions and industries, and explores how extended reality affects psychology, morality, law, and social constructs. It's not a question of whether extended reality will become a standard part of our world, he argues, but how, when, and where these technologies will take hold. Will extended reality help create a better world? Will it benefit society as a whole? Or will it merely provide financial windfalls for a select few? Greengard's account equips us to ask the right questions about a transformative technology.
Virtual World Design by
Written by an award-winning designer with 20 years of experience designing virtual environments for television and online communities, Virtual World Design explores the intertwining disciplines of 2D graphics, 3D models, lighting, sound, and storytelling. It illustrates how these disciplines come together by design in the creation of an accessible virtual environment for teaching, research, and entertainment. The book gives anyone the tools and techniques to design virtual environments that support their message and are accessible by all.