Unit Operations

Unit Operations by Ian Bogost

In Unit Operations, Ian Bogost argues that similar principles underlie both literary theory and computation, proposing a literary-technical theory that can be used to analyze particular videogames. Moreover, this approach can be applied beyond videogames: Bogost suggests that any medium--from videogames to poetry, literature, cinema, or art--can be read as a configurative system of discrete, interlocking units of meaning, and he illustrates this method of analysis with examples from all these fields. The marriage of literary theory and information technology, he argues, will help humanists take technology more seriously and hep technologists better understand software and videogames as cultural artifacts. This approach is especially useful for the comparative analysis of digital and nondigital artifacts and allows scholars from other fields who are interested in studying videogames to avoid the esoteric isolation of game studies.

The richness of Bogost's comparative approach can be seen in his discussions of works by such philosophers and theorists as Plato, Badiou, Zizek, and McLuhan, and in his analysis of numerous videogames including Pong, Half-Life, and Star Wars Galaxies. Bogost draws on object technology and complex adaptive systems theory for his method of unit analysis, underscoring the configurative aspects of a wide variety of human processes. His extended analysis of freedom in large virtual spaces examines Grand Theft Auto 3, The Legend of Zelda, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and Joyce's Ulysses. In Unit Operations, Bogost not only offers a new methodology for videogame criticism but argues for the possibility of real collaboration between the humanities and information technology.

Ian Bogost is the Georgia Institute of Technology's Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and Professor of Interactive Computing, as well as a founding partner of Persuasive Games LLC. Unit Operations (2006), Persuasive Games (2007), Chasing the Beam ( 2009), Newsgames (2010), How To Do Things with Videogames (2011), Alien Phenomenology (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), and 10 PRINT CHR (205.5+RND(1)); Goto 10 (2012) are among Bogost's seven books. Bogost also makes videogames about a variety of subjects, including airport security, disgruntled workers, the petroleum business, suburbia errands, and tort reform. Millions of people have played his games, and they have been presented all over the world. At the 2010 Indiecade Festival, his game A Slow Year, a compilation of game poems for Atari, won the Vanguard and Virtuoso honors.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780262524872
ISBN 10	0262524872
Title	Unit Operations
Author	Ian Bogost
Series	Unit Operations
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	MIT Press Ltd
Year published	2008-01-25
Number of pages	264
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable