1.
The
materiality
of
code:
Towards
an
understanding
of
socio-­‐technical
rela7ons
Winnie
Soon
Aarhus
University,
Denmark
A
MaAer
of
Design:
Making
Society
through
Science
and
Technology
Jun
14,
2014

2.
SoGware
• soGware
>
invisible
material
• importance
of
soGware
<-­‐>
social
rela7ons
• mutable
“social
object
and
process”
(Mackenzie,
2006,
p.1)
• produc7on
–
consump7on
–
use
–
circula7on-­‐iden7ty
(ibid,
p.
2)

3.
Program
code
and
sociality
• Live
happening
of
data
transla7on
– How
program
code
consumes
and
retrieves
data
from
databases?
– How
program
code
accesses
data?
– How
program
code
interfaces
with
other
systems?
– How
might
we
think
about
code
beyond
the
opera7onal
and
the
instrumental?
code
PlaYorms/
Systems
Databases
data

4.
Pupufu,
2009
hAps://vimeo.com/6891295
00:18

5.
Mechanics
of
Pupufu
INTERFACES
(before
2009)
(2009-­‐2013)
(2009-­‐2013)
2013+

6.
Code
reading
• Close
to
Cri7cal
Code
Studies
(Marino,
2006)
– Code
is
a
“cultural
text”
– Not
aesthe7cs
/
efficiency
of
code
– “stress
meaning,
implica7on,
and
connota7on…with
respect
to
the
broader
social
contexts”
• Code
(mainly
from
developer/ar7st’s
perspec7ve)
– Source
code
(as
a
departure
point)
– Technical
specifica7on
– Discussion
on
code
with
the
ar7st
– Developer’s
community

7.
Code
reading
• What
is
social
rela7on
of
code?
• What
have
been
inscribed
at
the
level
of
code?
• How
might
we
interpret
socio-­‐technical
rela7ons
through
code
discussion?

8.
#1
–
social
media
rela7ons
Ø product
life
cycle
Ø “a
range
of
social
factors”
which
shapes
the
artwork
(Williams
and
Edge,
1996,
p.866)

9.
#2
–
The
dynamics
of
the
API
-­‐
What
are
the
parameters
and
characteris7cs
of
an
API?
-­‐
Instability
and
control
;
query
of
specific
data
becomes
possible
-­‐
nonhuman
par7cipa7on
through
socio-­‐technical
dimensions

10.
#3
–
Open
source
and
social
culture
External
library:
HTML
Agility
Pack
-­‐
free
-­‐
open
source
-­‐
“crea7ve
labour”
(Cox,
2010)

11.
Significance
of
code
• increasing
use
of
real
7me
technology,
third-­‐party
libraries,
engines,
plugins
etc..
• how
might
we
understand
the
“soGwarized
society”?
(Berry,
2013)
• suggest
tracing
program
code
at
a
departure
point
• consider
the
materiality
of
code

12.
Thank
you
Winnie
Soon
(ar7st-­‐researcher)
Aarhus
University,
Denmark
wsoon@dac.au.dk
www.siusoon.com