http://semioclast.net Smashing Signification Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:49:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In the Labyrinth was the first book of "literature" I think I ever read without having been assigned it. There was a time that all I wanted to do was write like Robbe-Grillet (probably a curse of many young, aspiring novelists). He is one of the reasons I now do ... http://semioclast.net/?p=53 According to LTC Bob Bateman, even in the "Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell" culture of the U.S. military (a culture that still struggles with social conventions that have emerged since the 1950's), the man-hug is gaining popularity: The realization of a definite shift in behavior did not really hit me until late October ... http://semioclast.net/?p=52 We've seen tons of surveillance cameras, and even a few surveillance cameras camouflaged as birdhouses, but Celine Shenton brings us the first birdhouse disguised as a surveillance camera we've seen. I like the mashup of one object we should see more frequently in urban spaces with another we see ... http://semioclast.net/?p=51 The University of Pittsburgh Colloquium on Electronic and Interactive Texts (which I co-organize with Professor Don Bialostosky) will be hosting a lecture and seminar with our second guest speaker, Stuart Moulthrop, Professor of Information Arts and Technologies at the University of Baltimore. Professor Moulthrop's wife and writing partner, Nancy ... http://semioclast.net/?p=47 Steven Poole has released a newly revised copy of his book Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames. The best part is that he's made the book available via a free (as in beer and as in speech) PDF download. Poole describes the book as, "a book about the aesthetics ... http://semioclast.net/?p=46 Jeremy Boggs and Dave Lester of the Center for History and New Media have released their first two WordPress plugins over at their new site Scholarpress.net. Separately, each plugin offers something interesting for academics (especially educators) who use WordPress as their platform of choice. Dan Cohen gives ... http://semioclast.net/?p=43 Two stories today show us how, even when they are not provided for us (as they are in Alternate Reality Games), we find ways to create our own rabbit holes: The first story, from the blog Save The Robot, chronicles the author's recent fascination with a minor player on an yet ... http://semioclast.net/?p=42 Eludamos.org is a new, peer reviewed, online game studies journal. Their 2007 issue (they're published biannually) is online now. ELUDAMOS positions itself as a publication that fundamentally transgresses disciplinary boundaries. The aim is to join questions about and approaches to computer games from decidedly heterogeneous scientific contexts (for example cultural ... http://semioclast.net/?p=41 In the wake of the DMCA and its triennial exemptions (the most recent of which allows educators to break CSS encryption on DVDs to make clips for students, among other allowances), clarity on intellectual property issues escapes many academics who feel that, in their classrooms at least, anything goes when ... http://semioclast.net/?p=40 In this installation of DiGRA's Hardcore series, "Un-Situated Play? Textual Analysis and Digital Games," Diane Carr takes up a textual studies approach to digital games: The shortcomings associated with analysis that focuses ‘on the game itself’ are widely and casually acknowledged, yet ‘textual analysis’ as a methodology remains rarely or broadly ... http://semioclast.net/?p=38