Snap to Grid: A User's Guide to Digital Arts, Media, and Cultures

Many times writers will fail to address or recognize the potentail of hypertext as a medium, or will discuss virtual reality in some niavely science-fictioness manner. Peter Lunenfeld embraces these issues and more in a way that is hard to accomplish without chronological distance. Without attempts at all-encompassing rhetoric, he makes strong, undeniable observations of where our culture is, with reference to the digital media that encompass it.Particularly exciting (for me) is the point that virtual reality is only significantly present as an "object to think with", a sort of prophetic idea which influenced society greatly without ever being fully acheived. Its a more productive look in the mirror instead of the usual look to the supposed future.Important distinctions are made between traditional chemical photography and digital photography, as well as between the telephone and the world wide web. Also very interresting is the discouse on digital media's influence on architecture, with several eye-opening examples.Obviously I was most intrigued by the discussions on media, but there are two more sections, one on cultures, the other on makers. The culture part focuses on "technocultures", the demo, and the aesthetics neccesary in this environment; the makers part on the work of specific artists and their cultural importance. Several examples are given to show what results in this electronic culture solidly reinforcing each argument.