ABSTRACT

Since the invention of digital technology, its development has followed an entrenched path of miniaturization and decentralization with increasing focus on individual and niche applications. Computer hardware has moved from locations remote from the individual to desktop and handheld devices while becoming embedded in various material infrastructures. Software has followed the same course. The entire process has converged on a path where various analogue devices are becoming digital, increasingly being embedded in machines at the smallest scale. In a parallel development, there has been a convergence of computers with communications ensuring that the delivery and interaction mechanisms for computer software is now focused on networks of individuals, not simply through the desktop, but in mobile contexts. Various inert media such as fixed television is becoming more flexible as computers and visual media are becoming one.