Intro -- International Texts In Critical Media Aesthetics -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Understanding media -- Software, or the engine of contemporary societies -- What is software studies? -- Cultural software -- Media applications -- From documents to performances -- Why the history of cultural software does not exist -- Summary of the book's narrative -- PART 1 Inventing media software -- 1 Alan Kay's universal media machine -- Appearance versus function -- "Simulation is the central notion of the Dynabook" -- The permanent extendibility -- The computer as a metamedium -- 2 Understanding metamedia -- The building blocks -- Media-independent vs. media-specific techniques -- Inside Photoshop -- There is only software -- PART 2 Hybridization and evolution -- 3 Hybridization -- Hybridity vs. multimedia -- The evolution of a computer metamedium -- Hybridity: examples -- Strategies of hybridization -- 4 Soft evolution -- Algorithms and data structures -- What is a "medium"? -- The metamedium or the monomedium? -- The evolution of media species -- PART 3 Software in action -- 5 Media design -- After Effects and the invisible revolution -- The aesthetics of hybridity -- Deep remixability -- Layers, transparency, compositing -- After Effects interface: from "time-based" to "composition-based" -- 3D space as a media design platform -- Import/export: design workflow -- Variable form -- Amplification -- Conclusion -- Software, hardware, and social media -- Media after software -- Software epistemology -- Index
