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.
| ISBN: | 9781501348518 |
| Publication date: | 19th March 2020 |
| Author: | Robert Barry |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 150 pages |
| Series: | Object Lessons |
| Genres: |
Literary theory Cultural studies Philosophy: aesthetics Electronic devices and materials |
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.
Compact Disc features in the following genres: Literary theory, Cultural studies, Philosophy: aesthetics, Electronic devices and materials
Compact Disc is available in Paperback
Compact Disc was written by Robert Barry and published by Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Compact Disc has 150 pages
Yes it is part of Object Lessons series
£8.99