Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books
about the hidden lives of ordinary things. Barcodes are about as
ordinary as an object can be. They’re everywhere and impact
everything from how we shop to how we travel to how the global
economy is managed, but few people likely give them more than a
second thought. In a way, their “ordinariness” is the ultimate
symbol of their success. After all, barcodes have remained mostly
unchanged (except for a few exceptions like QR Codes) for the last
50 years, and yet billions of barcodes are still scanned each day.
However, behind the mundanity of the barcode lies an important,
interesting, and engaging history. Barcodes are objects that
bridged the gap between physical objects and digital databases and
helped pave the way for the contemporary Internet of Things. They
were highly controversial at points and protested by consumer
groups and labor unions. Barcodes were widely deployed as a symbol
of dystopian capitalism and surveillance in science fiction and art
installations. This book tells the story of the barcode’s
complicated history and examines how an object so crucial to so
many parts of our lives became more ignored and more ordinary as it
spread throughout the world. Object Lessons is published in
partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
General
Imprint: |
Bloomsbury Academic USA
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Object Lessons |
Release date: |
October 2023 |
Authors: |
Jordan Frith
(Pearce Professor of Professional Communication)
|
Dimensions: |
165 x 121mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
152 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-5013-9991-6 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-5013-9991-8 |
Barcode: |
9781501399916 |
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