Framework

Theoretical Framework and Methodology

My proposed framework strikes new ground by being embodied in a free, open source software project, involving a substantial code composition and review component along with traditional humanities practices. It combines critical theory and scholarship by invention, embodying theory as poiesis (McGann) by theorist practitioners (Applen and McDaniel) doing big humanities (Hayles).

The ontic framework of my proposal resembles the layered models of computer networking, a cross between the OSI and four-layer Internet models (Galloway; Hafner and Lyon), and the five layers Montfort and Bogost delineate in their articulation of platform studies. At the top layer of reception and operation circulate philosophical concerns (Floridi; Landow). The interface level foregrounds social, cultural, industrial, and embodiment concerns (Deleuze and Guatarri; Sterne; Hayles). Emphasizing the form and function level are software studies, game studies, procedural rhetoric, even algorithmic criticism (Bogost; Manovich; McGann; Ramsay). Below these, considering the level of code and programming languages, theorize critical code studies and semiotics of programming (Marion; Tanaka-Ishii). And finally the base level is plumbed by platform studies and media studies (Monfort and Bogost; Kittler; Bogost). It is important to distinguish these layered models from developmental models that suggest a progression, for an update to hermeneutic phenomenology must imbricate all of these layers concurrently. Critical programming embraces all of these levels as matters of concern, taking the position of creative theorist-practitioner, in addition to the position of reactive consumer common to other forms of criticism. Thus Latour is also key to my proposal, providing its ethical framework, along with David Berry and others who focus on various levels of human computer symbiosis, and David Ramsay who invites this style of engagement. Using this framework, I propose repeating the historical/mythical narrative from the origin of electronic computing, the software industry, networking, personal computers to the free Internet, now into closing by proprietary forms once more, with an emphasis on code, coding practices, specific languages, platforms, individual and collective programming styles, arriving at a new digital humanities practice called critical programming.

A methodological framework is suggested by merging professional software development processes with familiar practices in literacy criticism, cultural studies, and ethnography to form projects that Hayles calls Big Humanities. My working hypothesis is that critical programming, by attending to the distinctions articulated by the ontic framework, by answering the call of the ethical framework, and by adopting and modulating practices of the methodological framework, may generate new exemplars of Big Humanities scholarship. The ontic layers are treated synchronically while paying heed to the diachronic intermingling of technogenesis and synaptogenesis in order to discern the trajectories of the present human computer symbiosis. The significance of this work includes kick starting a series of innovative projects to counter the stagnation that has been the bane of humanities in recent years and the source of popular dismissals of irrelevance. Moreover, critical programming offers a broad, dynamic approach towards a philosophy of computing.

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