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(2012) Understanding digital humanities, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Katherine Hayles observes, "Along with the hierarchical nature of codes goes a dynamic of concealing and revealing that operates in ways that have no parallel in speech and writing" (2005: 54). Hayles alludes to two examples of this dynamic. The first is to the "essential practice" in software engineering of "conceal[ing] code with which one is not immediately concerned" (2005:54). The second example is, well, more revealing: "[R] evealing code when it is appropriate or desired also bestows significant advantage. The "reveal code"command in HTML documents … may illuminate the construction and intent of the work under study" (2005: 54). This essay unfolds in the space between concealing and revealing limned by these two examples.
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Dexter, S. (2012)., The esthetics of hidden things, in D. M. Berry (ed.), Understanding digital humanities, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 127-144.
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