No abstract

No abstract

[murmur] is an archival audio project that collects and curates stories set in cities around the globe. At each location, a distinctive [murmur] sign with a telephone number and location code marks where stories are available. While [murmur]'s signs evoke the tradition of neo-Situationist and neo-Lettrist signage, it is the sonic supplement to these signs that is of particular interest. This article contextualizes the relationships that [murmur] establishes between physical signage, recorded sound, and specific geographic locales in both historical and theoretical terms. Thomas Edison originally only permitted demonstrations of the phonograph according to a strict system of territorial licensing, suggesting that there has always been a link between visible language, recorded audio, and territoriality. The article's argument contextualizes and expands on this historical relationship via Deleuze and Guattari's essay "1837: Of the Refrain."

This article considers Minecraft, one of the most widely played and popular video games of all time, with over 100 million copies sold. Minecraft is an open-ended strategy game about material logistics, governance, and world building. It is also about a nostalgic modernity that players desire and produce but that is everywhere complicated by the very conditions of its production. Drawing on the work of Bernhard Siegert, Svetlana Boym, Raymond Williams, James C. Scott, and Chandra Mukerji, we consider the block-, grid-, and code-level cultural techniques associated with playing the game as allegories for our increasingly complex relationship to digital culture. Minecraft is not the apotheosis of cultural domination by code as much as it is a playable parable about its complications.

No abstract