Software Studies Initiative has two labs in New York and San Diego:
Software Studies NYC location: The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave, New York. Built in 1906.
Software Studies NYC California location: Calit2, La Jolla, CA. Built in 2005.
About Software Studies Initiative
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Google searches and Amazon recommendations, airline flight paths and traffic lights, email and your phone: our culture runs on software. How does software shape the world?
Software Studies is a new research paradigm in the humanities and media studies that emerged in the second part of 2000s. The very first book that has this term in its title was published by The MIT Press in June 2008 (Matthew Fuller, ed., Software Studies: A Lexicon). In August 2008 The MIT Press started Software Studies book series, with Matthew Fuller, Noah Wardrip-Fruin
"Software Studies" book series | MIT Press book series
Lev Manovich: Software Takes Command | Forhcoming from Bloomsbury Academic, 2013
SoftWhere 2008 | International workshop in Software Studies, UCSD, May 21-22, 5/2008
Software Studies at Calit2
The Software Studies Initiative was founded in 2007 to help the development of this field. We work to disseminate the broad vision of software studies. That is, we think of software as a layer that permeates all areas of contemporary societies. Therefore, if we want to understand contemporary techniques of control, communication, representation, simulation, analysis, decision-making, memory, vision, writing, and interaction, our analysis can't be complete until we consider this software layer. This is why we are convinced that “software studies” is necessary and we welcome you to join us in our projects and activities.
Software Studies Initiative UC San Diego is housed within the UCSD Division of the California Institute for Telecommunication and Information Technology (Calit2. The technical facilities, research labs and staff support for the research in digital media at Calit2 unmatched anywhere on the West Coast:
The projects and activities of the Software Studies Initiative are taking full advantage of our unique affiliation with Calit2. Calit2 is developing innovative cyberinfrastructure for the next paradigm of scientific research based on remote collaboration between teams of scientists, working with very large data sets, and access to state-of-the-art computing, storage, networking and display technologies. In our project we are exploring how these cyberinfrastructure tools can be used in humanities and social science research.
Software Studies and Cultural Analytics
How can the latest tools in data analysis and visualization be used in relation to cultural data? How can we take advantage of unprecedented amounts of cultural data available on the web to begin analyzing culture in new ways? How does computational analysis of these massive datasets can help us to develop new cultural theory for the 21st century global networked digital culture ?
Cultural Analytics is a new field (2007) provoked by these questions. We define cultural analytics as the use of computational methods for the analysis of massive cultural data sets and flows. But rather than simply borrowing existing techniques and software from the sciences and the industry, we also examining their underlying assumptions and conceptual foundations.
Understood in view of these questions, our research at Software Studies Initiative covers two complementary directions:
1) Study of software and cyberinfrastructure and their deployment in modern societies using approaches from humanities, cultural criticism, and social sciences.
2) Use software-based research methods and next generation cyberinfrastructrure tools and resources for the study of massive sets of visual cultural data, asking theoretical questions which are important for humanities.
Working with a visualization of one million images on 287 HIPerSpace display at Calit2.
SPONSORS
The Andrew Mellon Foundation
National Science Foundation (NSF)
NEH Office of Digital Humanities
Calit2 UCSD Division
CRCA
UCDARnet
UCHRI
National University of Singapore
If you are interested in engaging in internships, collaborative research with our group or sponsoring innovative research projects, please contact Dr. Lev Manovich, Director of Software Studies Initiative at manovich.lev@gmail.com.
PEOPLE
Faculty researchers
 | Lev Manovich: Director, Software Studies @ CALIT2; Professor, CUNY |
 | Jeremy Douglass: Assistant Professor, English, UCSB |
 | Cicero Inacio da Silva: Professor, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil |
Visiting fellows
 | Winter and Spring 2011: Jean-Francois Lucas: PhD candidate in Sociology, European University of Brittany, Rennes |
 | Spring 2009: Tristan Thielmann: Assistant Professor in Media Studies at the Research Center "Media Upheavals", University of Siegen, Germany |
Post-doc researchers
 | Eduardo Navas: Postdoctoral Scholar, Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, 2010-2012. |
| Jeremy Douglass: Postdoctoral Researcher, Software Studies, Calit2, 2007-2012. |
Graduate researchers, UCSD, 2007-2012
 | William Huber (Visual Arts) |
| Tara Zepel (Visual Arts) |
| So Yamaoka (Computer Science and Engineering) |
| Sunsern Cheamanunku (Computer Science and Engineering) |
| Chanda L. Carey (Visual Arts) |
| Daniel Rehn (Visual Arts) |
| Laura Hoeger (Visual Arts) |
 | Stephen Mandiberg (Communication) |
| Rachel Cody (Sociology) |
 | Hijoo Son (History, UCLA) |
Undergraduate researchers, UCSD, 2007-2012
 | Devon Merill (Independent Summer Internship -- "Exploring comics and manga through scripted image processing workflows." Summer 2009.) |
 | Jia Gu (Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Researcher, UCSD -- "new software interfaces for image collections". Summer 2008.) |
 | Agatha Man (Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Researcher, UCSD -- "analyses of MMO games". Summer 2008.) |
 | Nichol Bernardo (Undergraduate intern, UCSD -- "Cultural Analytics". Summer 2008. |
 | Bob Li (Undergraduate Graphic Designer. Summer 2008.) |
| Kedar Reddy (Calit2 summer 2009 undergraduate fellow) |
| Christa Lee (Fall 2008 independent study - arthistory.viz) |
| Victoria Azurin (Undergraduate intern, UCSD -- "Cultural Analytics - visual culture applications". Summer 2009; Manga project - summer 2010) |
| Xiaoda Wang (Undergraduate intern, UCSD -- "Cultural Analytics - art history applications". Summer 2009.) |
| Nadia Xiangfei Zeng (Undergraduate researcher, UCSD -- Manga project; gallery@calit2 Software Studies exhibition; visualization software. Summer 2010.) |
Faculty Collaborators, UCSD, 2007-2012
- Noah Wardrip-Fruin:Associte Professor, Computer Science, UCSC (co-founder of Software Studies Initiative)
- Kay O'Halloran, Multimondal Analysis Lab, NUS (cultural analytics)
- Cinemetrics: a research group comprising leading film scholars (film analysis)
- David Kirsh, Cognitive Science, UCSD (dance video analysis)
- Digital Formalism project: Department for Theatre, Film and Media Studies (TFM), Vienna University; the Austrian Film Museum; Interactive Media Systems Group, Vienna University of Technology (film analysis)
- Isabel Galhano Rodrigues, University of Porto, Portugald (gesture analysis)
- Jim Hollan, Cognitive Science, UCSD (UCSD Collaboratory Grant - development of Cultural Analytics software)
- Falko Kuester, Structural Engineering (UCSD Collaboratory Grant - development of Cultural Analytics software)
- National University of Singapore (4 faculty from different departments - application of Cultural Analytics methods and techniques to the analysis of Asian cultures)
- Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths College, University of London (Software Studies)
Members of Software Studies Initiative working with a visualization showing 128 short videos.
PRESS
Manovich and Cultural analytics research in The Chronicle for Higher Education
Cultural analytics research in NEH Humanities magazine
About our exhibition SHAPING TIME at Graphic Design Museum (Breda, ND)
Software Studies work with National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Expressive Processing by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Lev Manovich 's workshop @ FILE Labo 2009
Cultural analytics coverage in Singapore and UAE
A Computing Science Approach For Analyzing Culture (www.supercomputingonline.com)
Software Studies in Chronicle of Higher Education
Calit2 article about our Humanities High-Performance Computing grant
Lev Manovich is interviewed about Cultural Analytics for BBC World Service "Digital Planet" show
Visualizing Cultural Patterns in N Art Magazine
Cultural Analytics in voiceofsandiego.org article
Cultural Analytics @ ISEA 2008
HPCwire article about Cultural Analytics
Game Libratory featured on NotCot
"Visualizing Cultural Patterns" featured in UCSD/Calit2 article
SoftWhere '08 press release and article in San Diego Business Journal
UC San Diego New-Media Expert Pushes Peer Review into the 21st Century
A era da infoestética
Manovich and Cultural analytics research in The Chronicle for Higher Education
Cultural analytics research in NEH Humanities magazine
About our exhibition SHAPING TIME at Graphic Design Museum (Breda, ND)
Software Studies work with National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Expressive Processing by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Lev Manovich 's workshop @ FILE Labo 2009
Cultural analytics coverage in Singapore and UAE
A Computing Science Approach For Analyzing Culture (www.supercomputingonline.com)
Software Studies in Chronicle of Higher Education
Calit2 article about our Humanities High-Performance Computing grant
Lev Manovich is interviewed about Cultural Analytics for BBC World Service "Digital Planet" show
Visualizing Cultural Patterns in N Art Magazine
Cultural Analytics in voiceofsandiego.org article
Cultural Analytics @ ISEA 2008
HPCwire article about Cultural Analytics
Game Libratory featured on NotCot
"Visualizing Cultural Patterns" featured in UCSD/Calit2 article
SoftWhere '08 press release and article in San Diego Business Journal
UC San Diego New-Media Expert Pushes Peer Review into the 21st Century
A era da infoestética