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Series: Object Lessons
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
Ideal for readers interested in arts and culture, music history, media studies, and technology enthusiasts curious about the impact of digital evolution on physical media. Also suitable for those who appreciate cultural philosophy and the nuanced stories behind everyday objects.
"The compact disc promised to be the perfect medium for recorded sound, but it presaged the end of physical media for good. Its history shows that the materiality of media can never simply be wished away."--
The compact disc promised to be the perfect medium for recorded sound, but it presaged the end of physical media for good. Its history shows that the materiality of media can never simply be wished away.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
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Description
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
The story of the compact disc is also the story of the end of physical media. It is the story of how the quest for perfection laid the grounds for the death of a great industry. For in the passage from analogue media, like records and tapes, to digital formats, like CDs, something changed in the nature of media and in the relationship we have with music. Music became code, a sequence of 1s and 0s, a flow of pure information. The material structure of the medium itself was always supposed to disappear. But the physical has proved to possess an uncanny knack for returning.
Today the CD is a zombie medium, still popular amongst certain avant-garde record labels and Japanese consumers. Against all the odds, the spectre endures.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Series: Object Lessons
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Bicycle
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. These days the bicycle often appears as an interloper in a world constructed for cars. An almost miraculous 19th-century contraption, the bicycle promises to transform our lives and the world we live in, yet its time seems always yet-to-come or long-gone-by. Bicycle by...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Rust
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Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Every shelf is different, and every bookshelf tells a different story. One bookshelf can creak with character in a bohemian coffee shop, while another can groan with gravitas in the Library of Congress. Bookshelf by writer and historian Lydia Pyne explores these differences...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. In Earth, a planetary scientist and a literary humanist explore what happens when we think of the Earth as an object viewable from space. As a “blue marble,” “a blue pale dot,” or, as Chaucer described it, “this litel spot of erthe,” the...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Egg
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. This book is about a strange object—strange in part because it is something that we all have been, and that many of us eat. Nicole Walker's Egg relishes in sharp juxtapositions of seemingly fanciful or repellent topics, so that reproductive science and gustatory...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Eye Chart
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Desert nomads tested their vision by distinguishing a pair of stars. But we have since created more disquieting ways to test the strength of the eyes. Reading the eye chart is an exercise in failure, since it only gets interesting when you cannot...Paperback$2099Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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Hood
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. We all wear hoods: the Grim Reaper, Red Riding Hood, torturers, executioners and the executed, athletes, labourers, anarchists, rappers, babies in onesies, and anyone who’s ever grabbed a hoodie on a chilly day. Alison Kinney’s Hood explores the material and symbolic vibrancy of...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Jet Lag
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Jet lag is a momentary condition resulting from the human body and its inner clock being pitched against the time-leaping effects of modern aviation. But more than that, it is a situation that explains time, technology, and the human body. Jet lag epitomises...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Mushroom
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. They are grouped with plants, but they behave more like animals. In their inscrutability, mushrooms are wondrous organisms. The...Paperback$2199Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
This elegantly written book offers a concise cultural history of the compact disc, blending engaging anecdotes with philosophical insight. Reviewers praise its thoughtful homage to the format, highlighting its exploration of the quest for technological perfection and the cultural shifts in audio recording. It is celebrated for its clear, incisive critique and the way it rekindles wonder for the technology that revolutionised music consumption.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781501348518
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 19 March 2020
Country: United States
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 14.0mm
Width: 120.0mm
Height: 164.0mm
Weight: 149g
Pages: 160
About the Author
Robert Barry is Visual Arts Editor at The Quietus and a Faculty Member at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, UK. He is the author of The Music of the Future (2017) and co-editor, with Houman Barekat and David Winters, of The Digital Critic: Literary Culture Online (2017).
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