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Signs O’ The Times

The Software of Philology and a Philology of Software
  • Moritz Hiller
Published/Copyright: October 1, 2015
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Digital Culture & Society
From the journal Digital Culture & Society Volume 1 Issue 1

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of software preservation by approaching this field from a philologic perspective. Philology here is not understood as hermeneutic operation of interpretation, but rather as practice of preserving material objects: critically providing them as basis for future investigation. Software’s status as a material object could not be more uncertain, since it merges - as a source code - a textual dimension and - as a programme - a processual dimension. It is only within the logic of this operativity that software as an object of digital materiality becomes fully conceivable. Since a philology of software would have to consider the phenomenon’s dual mode of existence as static text and/or time-critical process to enable research within both dimensions, old questions about what to preserve and how to preserve it rise anew. The paper will therefore take up a few basic notions of traditional scholarly editing, the software of philology. It explores to what extent they can be applied to objects of digital materiality in order to outline an initial idea of a philology of software.

Published Online: 2015-10-1
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

© 2015 by transcript Verlag

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Introduction
  3. I. Software/Code Studies And Digital Material
  4. Unearthing Techno-Ecology
  5. Reciprocal Materiality And The Body Of Code
  6. II. The Material Of The Digital And Emerging Practices
  7. Swipe To Unlock
  8. Towards An Integrated Theory Of The Cyber-Urban
  9. III. Methodological And Conceptual Reflections
  10. Technological Materiality And Assumptions About ‘Active’ Human Agency
  11. Interpreting An Improper Materialism
  12. Towards A Relational Materialism
  13. IV. Entering The Field
  14. Signs O’ The Times
  15. From Her (2013) To Viv The Global Brain
  16. Material Agency In User-Centred Design Practices
  17. V. In Conversation With
  18. A Geology Of Media And A New Materialism
  19. Information Politics
  20. Biographical Notes
https://doi.org/10.14361/dcs-2015-0110

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelei
  2. Introduction
  3. I. Software/Code Studies And Digital Material
  4. Unearthing Techno-Ecology
  5. Reciprocal Materiality And The Body Of Code
  6. II. The Material Of The Digital And Emerging Practices
  7. Swipe To Unlock
  8. Towards An Integrated Theory Of The Cyber-Urban
  9. III. Methodological And Conceptual Reflections
  10. Technological Materiality And Assumptions About ‘Active’ Human Agency
  11. Interpreting An Improper Materialism
  12. Towards A Relational Materialism
  13. IV. Entering The Field
  14. Signs O’ The Times
  15. From Her (2013) To Viv The Global Brain
  16. Material Agency In User-Centred Design Practices
  17. V. In Conversation With
  18. A Geology Of Media And A New Materialism
  19. Information Politics
  20. Biographical Notes
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