Platform Studies, Material Computing, and the Atari VCS<\/b><\/p>\n
Nick Montfort, MIT<\/p>\n
A presentation in the
\nWorkshop in the History of Material Texts
\nUniversity of Pennsylvania – March 14, 2011 – 5:15pm
\nVan Pelt Library, 2nd Floor<\/p>\n
Platform studies is a family of approaches that aim to help us understand the relationship between computational platforms and the creative work that is done on them. At a high level, two realizations are particularly important to platform studies: First, that creative production on the computer, using computation, is culturally relevant; and second, that we can usefully look to the underlying systems and structures that constrain and enable this creative production. In this talk, I will describe how participating in this workshop helped me to engage with the materiality of texts and then of computing, how I initially sought to investigate the relationship between textual studies and computational media, and how, working with my collaborator Ian Bogost, I found a deeper, productive connection between digital media and textual materiality that is based on the concept of the platform. Along the way, I will discuss and use as my main example the Atari VCS (a.k.a. Atari 2600). This famous early cartridge-based game system was the focus of my and Bogost’s 2009 book, Racing The Beam,<\/i> the first book in the MIT Press series Platform Studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Platform Studies, Material Computing, and the Atari VCS Nick Montfort, MIT A presentation in the Workshop in the History of Material Texts University of Pennsylvania – March 14, 2011 – 5:15pm Van Pelt Library, 2nd Floor Platform studies is a family of approaches that aim to help us understand the relationship between computational platforms and … <\/p>\n