http://criticalcodestudies.com
(((Scholars gather to pore over software code. I'm torn between the competing theories that this is Quixotic excess or absolute genius.)))
Link: CCS Methodology | Critical Code Studies.
To promote close reading of software within socio-historical contexts, CCS offers a set of reading practices to interpret specific aspects of the code. Below is an intial list of “what can be read.” (This list is hardly exclusive but meant more as a starting point for methodologies to be developed at greater length over the course of this blog and the writings related to CCS.)
The context of the software
the coders
years of the programming
history of development and use
funders
research questions
additional personal, testers, consultants
programming language
hardware
paratexts (articles about the software)
The software itself
procedures (how the code operates)
the high-level structure
Its programming
Individual lines of code can be read as:
natural language affinities (run, execute, fire, print)
whitespace
clarity-obfuscation
in-program commentary and documentation
Issues to be considered
social implications of software
world representations
aesthetics
impact on race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and socio-economic status
oppositional practices: obfuscation (Mateas and Montfort), transcoding (Zach Blas)
“values sensitive design” (Daniel Howe) or “critical design”Tactics:
Reading functionality against code (form-content)
Comparing implementations in different languages
Reading functionality against socio-historical context
Reading code against output
Reading “interpreted code” against content
Reading instructions against data
And, of course, “against” here signifies in tandem with, intertwined with, in dialogue with.
(((Is this serious? You bet it is.)))
