The Afterlives of Georges Perec - by Rowan Wilken & Justin Clemens (Paperback)

About the Book

These 14 essays examine Georges Perec's impact on architecture, art, design, media, electronic communications, computing and the everyday.

Book Synopsis

These 14 essays examine Georges Perec's impact on architecture, art, design, media, electronic communications, computing and the everyday.

What do Perec's descriptions of the minutiae of everyday life reveal about our use of information and communications technologies?
What happens if we read Life: A User's Manual as a toolbox of ideas for games studies?
What light does the concept of the 'infra-ordinary' shed on social media?
What insights does algorithmic writing generate for the digital humanities?
What lessons can architects, artists, game-designers and writers draw from Perec's fascination with creative constraints?
Through an examination of such questions, this collection takes Perec scholarship beyond its existing limits to offer new ways of rethinking our present.

From the Back Cover

'A literally fabulous introduction to Perec's work, still relatively unknown in the Anglophone world - a treasure trove of clues as to where previously unknown riches are to be found in the multidimensional oeuvre which this Parisian polymath bequeathed us - full of unforeseen marvels and infra-ordinary wonders.' David Morley, Goldsmiths College A comprehensive examination of the enduring influence of the work of Georges Perec Georges Perec is widely acknowledged as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. His far-reaching influence has inspired many fields of creativity, extending far beyond literature itself. The Afterlives of Georges Perec examines the impact of Perec's ideas, writing and analytical experimentation in architecture, art and design, media, electronic communications and computing, and studies of the everyday. It asks: what are the lessons that architects, artists, game-designers and writers can draw from Perec's fascination with creative constraints? What do his descriptions of the minutiae of everyday life reveal about our use of information and communications technologies? What happens if we read Life, A User's Manual as a toolbox of ideas for games studies? How might his fascination with the 'infra-ordinary' shed light on the uses of contemporary social media? What insights might Perec's use of algorithmic writing generate for the digital humanities? Through an examination of such questions, this collection takes Perec scholarship beyond its existing limits to offer new ways of rethinking our present. Rowan Wilken is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at Swinburne University of Technology. Justin Clemens is Associate Professor in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne. Cover image: Georges Perec rue Vilin, photo Pierre Getzler Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-0124-1 Barcode

Review Quotes

A literally fabulous introduction to Perec's work, still relatively unknown in the Anglophone world - a treasure trove of clues as to where previously unknown riches are to be found in the multidimensional oeuvre which this Parisian polymath bequeathed us - full of unforeseen marvels and infra-ordinary wonders.--David Morley, Goldsmiths College

About the Author

Rowan Wilken is Principal Research Fellow at RMIT. He is the author of Teletechnologies, Place, and Community (Routledge, 2011), and co-editor of Locative Media (Routledge, 2014) and Mobile Technology and Place (Routledge, 2012).

Justin Clemens is Associate Professor in English and Theatre Studies at the University of Melbourne.