Federico Biancuzzi, Shane Warden (eds.): Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, code, programming, software
Masterminds of Programming features exclusive interviews with the creators of several historic and highly influential programming languages. Think along with Adin D. Falkoff (APL), James Gosling (Java), Bjarne Stroustrup (C++), and others whose vision and hard work helped shape the computer industry. You’ll find advice you can apply to systems you’re developing, even if you don’t use the specific languages being discussed.
Publisher O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2009
Theory in Practice (O’Reilly) Series
ISBN 0596515170, 9780596515171
Length 480 pages
Amy N. Langville, Carl Dean Meyer: Google’s PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings (2006)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, google, internet, search, software, web
Why doesn’t your home page appear on the first page of search results, even when you query your own name? How do other Web pages always appear at the top? What creates these powerful rankings? And how? The first book ever about the science of Web page rankings,Google’s PageRank and Beyondsupplies the answers to these and other questions and more. The book serves two very different audiences: the curious science reader and the technical computational reader. The chapters build in mathematical sophistication, so that the first five are accessible to the general academic reader. While other chapters are much more mathematical in nature, each one contains something for both audiences. For example, the authors include entertaining asides such as how search engines make money and how the Great Firewall of China influences research. The book includes an extensive background chapter designed to help readers learn more about the mathematics of search engines, and it contains several MATLAB codes and links to sample Web data sets. The philosophy throughout is to encourage readers to experiment with the ideas and algorithms in the text. Any business seriously interested in improving its rankings in the major search engines can benefit from the clear examples, sample code, and list of resources provided.
Publisher Princeton University Press, 2006
ISBN 0691122024, 9780691122021
Length 224 pages
David Link: Poetry Machines / Machine Poetry. On the Early History of Computerised Text Generation and Generative Systems (2007) [German]
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, code poetry, digital poetry, poetry
Since the construction of the first computer in 1948, text is not only written and read, but also executed. Authors are now able to compose documents that produce content when run. “Poetry Machines / Machine Poetry” investigates the early history of these algorithmic artefacts in detail, traces them back to their literary predecessors, and emphasises the paradigms, contexts and phantasms that motivated and inspired them.
Computers are fundamentally alien to language. While Artificial Intelligence research in the 1960s and 1970s tried to overcome this difficulty unsuccessfully, text adventures used the same resistance playfully to enhance the suspense of the game. The book analyses variable scripts, Joseph Weizenbaum’s “Eliza”, Kenneth Colby’s “Parry”, early adventure games and Terry Winograd’s “SHRDLU” down to their source code, points out their metaphorical and logical structures, and places them in a genealogy of growing algorithmic complexity. The attempts are based on the belief that language and the knowledge about the world represented by it can be fully explained and even be formalised, emphatically advocated for instance in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”. Technically, optional elements are arranged in tree-like structures and generate seemingly endless variance.
An antagonistic tradition of thought connects the dadaist Tristan Tzara, Claude E. Shannon’s re-discovery of the Russian mathematician Andrey A. Markov and the “Cut-Up” experiments of William S. Burroughs. It focuses on operations rather than on options and develops genuinely generative algorithms, which employ different routines to turn found material into collages and to produce effects unforeseen. The lacking machinic understanding of symbols transforms into poetry.
For principal reasons, the study of algorithms cannot proceed purely theoretically. As a concrete example of generative software, whose scope is by no means limited to the medium of text, Link gives an overview of a program he developed in the context of this research, “Poetry Machine”. The interactive text generator is based on semantic networks and acquires information about language autonomously from the internet. The translation of the fundamental text “An Example of Statistical Investigation of the Text ‘Eugene Onegin’ Concerning the Connection of Samples in Chains” by Andrey A. Markov, which can be regarded as the foundation of the generative approach, is given in the appendix.
Poesiemaschinen / Maschinenpoesie. Zur Frühgeschichte computerisierter Texterzeugung und generativer Systeme
Publisher: Wilhelm Fink
Approx. 150 pages, 23 b/w images
Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau. Interactive Art Research (2009)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, artificial life, evolution, interactivity, interface, internet, media art, nanotechnology
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are two of the most innovative and internationally renowned media artists and researchers. Their work has been called “epoch-making” (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC Museum, Tokyo) for developing natural and intuitive interfaces and for applying scientific principles such as artificial life, complexity, generative systems and nanotechnologies to their innovative interface design.
This monograph represents a comprehensive overview of Sommerer and Mignonneau’s art and research. In addition to providing detailed project descriptions of each interactive artwork, it includes essays and articles by highly recognized media scholars and theoreticians who bring the interactive artworks of Sommerer and Mignonneau in an art and media art history perspective.
Contributions from Roy Ascott, Anne Marie Duguet, Oliver Grau, Erkki Huhtamo, Machiko Kusahara, Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schopf and Peter Wiebel, among others
Editors: Gerfried Stocker, Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau
Publisher Springer, 2009
ISBN 3211990151, 9783211990155
Length 200 pages
Kostas Terzidis: Expressive Form: A Conceptual Approach to Computational Design (2003)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, architecture, design
With the increased use of computers, architecture has found itself in the midst of a plethora of possible uses. This book combines theoretical enquiry with practical implementation offering a unique perspective on the use of computers related to architectural form and design. Notions of exaggeration, hybrid, kinetic, algorithmic, fold and warp are examined from different points of view: historical, mathematical, philosophical or critical. Generously illustrated, this book is a source of inspiration for students and professionals.
Publisher Taylor & Francis, 2003
ISBN 0415317436, 9780415317436
Length 90 pages
Kostas Terzidis: Algorithmic Architecture (2006)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, architecture, cellular automata, language, quantum computing
Why does the word design owe its origin to Latin and not Greek roots? Where do the limits of the human mind lie? How does ambiguity enter the deterministic world of computation? Who was Parmenides and why is his philosophy still puzzling today? This unique volume challenges the reader to tackle all these complex questions and more. Algorithmic Architecture is not a typical theory-based architectural book; it is not a computer programming or language tutorial book either. It contains a series of provocative design projects, and yet it is not just a design or graphic art book per se. Following the tradition of architecture as a conglomeration of various design fields – engineering, theory, art, and recently, computation – the challenge of this book is to present a concept that, like architecture, is a unifying theme for many diverse disciplines. An algorithm is not only a step-by-step problem-solving procedure, a series of lines of computer codes or a mechanistic linguistic expression, but is also an ontological construct with deep philosophical, social, design, and artistic repercussions. Consequently, this book presents many, various and often seemingly disparate points of view that lead to the establishment of one common theme; algorithmic architecture.
Publisher Architectural Press, 2006
ISBN 0750667257, 9780750667258
Length 159 pages
Chaomei Chen: Information Visualization. Beyond the Horizon, 2nd ed. (2006)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, data visualisation, hypertext, information visualization, mapping, vrml
Information visualization is not only about creating graphical displays of complex and latent information structures; it contributes to a broader range of cognitive, social, and collaborative activities. This is the first book to examine information visualization from this perspective.
This 2nd edition continues the unique and ambitious quest for setting information visualization and virtual environments in a unifying framework. Information Visualization: Beyond the Horizon pays special attention to the advances made over the last 5 years and potentially fruitful directions to pursue. It is particularly updated to meet the need for practitioners. The book is a valuable source for researchers and graduate students. This new edition is forwarded by Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland.
Key features:
* Latest advances in information visualization.
* Applications of information visualization, including knowledge domain visualization, knowledge diffusion, and social networks.
* Detecting topics, emergent trends, and abrupt changes.
* Empirical findings concerning information visualization.
* Virtual environments and collaborative virtual environments.
Edition 2
Publisher Springer, 2006
ISBN 184628340X, 9781846283406
Length 316 pages
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Robert Rowe: Machine Musicianship (2004)
Filed under book | Tags: · algorithm, composition, music, performance, sound
Musicians begin formal training by acquiring a body of musical concepts commonly known as musicianship. These concepts underlie the musical skills of listening, performance, and composition. Like humans, computer music programs can benefit from a systematic foundation of musical knowledge. This book explores the technology of implementing musical processes such as segmentation, pattern processing, and interactive improvisation in computer programs. It shows how the resulting applications can be used to accomplish tasks ranging from the solution of simple musical problems to the live performance of interactive compositions and the design of musically responsive installations and Web sites.
Machine Musicianship is both a programming tutorial and an exploration of the foundational concepts of musical analysis, performance, and composition. The theoretical foundations are derived from the fields of music theory, computer music, music cognition, and artificial intelligence. The book will be of interest to practitioners of those fields, as well as to performers and composers.
The concepts are programmed using C++ and Max.
Publisher MIT Press, 2004
ISBN 0262681498, 9780262681490
Length 411 pages
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