Lee Wilkers – Shelf https://leewilkers.com/shelf/ Things on my desk — books, essays, interviews, slides, films, concepts. en-us Sat, 02 May 2026 12:15:15 GMT The Timeless Way of Building — Christopher Alexander https://www.patternlanguage.com/bookstore/timeless-way-of-building.html https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#christopher-alexander-the-timeless-way-of-building Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Architecture & Built Environment Oxford University Press, 1979

]]> Tools for Conviviality — Ivan Illich https://archive.org/details/illich-conviviality https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#ivan-illich-tools-for-conviviality Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Technology & Ways of Living Harper & Row, 1973

]]> The History of Concrete — John Wilson https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/the-history-of-concrete-review-john-wilson-1236637530/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#john-wilson-the-history-of-concrete Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Architecture & Built Environment Magnolia Pictures, 2026

]]> 17776 — Jon Bois https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#jon-bois-17776 Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences SB Nation, 2017

Jon Bois's 2017 multimedia fiction on SB Nation, set in a far future where humans no longer die and football games last millennia, told through scrolling web pages and YouTube.

]]> Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions — Lucy Suchman https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/humanmachine-reconfigurations/9D53E602BA9BB5209271460F92D00EFE https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#lucy-suchman-human-machine-reconfigurations Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Technology & Ways of Living Cambridge, 2007

]]> By Design — Amanda Kramer https://letterboxd.com/film/by-design-2025/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#amanda-kramer-by-design Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Furniture & Craft Sundance Film Festival, 2025

A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.

]]> Everything — David OReilly https://store.steampowered.com/app/582270/Everything/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#david-oreilly-everything Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences 2017

David OReilly's 2017 simulation in which every object in the universe is playable, narrated by Alan Watts; first video game screened at the Vienna International Film Festival.

]]> The Real World of Technology — Ursula Franklin https://monoskop.org/images/5/58/Franklin_Ursula_The_Real_World_of_Technology_1990.pdf https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#ursula-franklin-the-real-world-of-technology Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Tech History & Critique House of Anansi Press, 1990

]]> Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface — Bret Victor https://worrydream.com/MagicInk/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#bret-victor-magic-ink-information-software-and-the Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Interfaces & Interaction worrydream.com, March 2006

why are you clicking

]]> The Forty Part Motet — Janet Cardiff https://cardiffmiller.com/installations/the-forty-part-motet/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#janet-cardiff-the-forty-part-motet Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences 2001

Janet Cardiff's 2001 sound installation — Thomas Tallis's forty-part motet through forty loudspeakers in an oval, one voice per speaker.

]]> Technics and Civilization — Lewis Mumford https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.49974 https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#lewis-mumford-technics-and-civilization Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Tech History & Critique Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934

]]> Hail the Maintainers — Andrew Russell & Lee Vinsel https://aeon.co/essays/innovation-is-overvalued-maintenance-often-matters-more https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#russell-vinsel-hail-the-maintainers Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Infrastructure & Maintenance Aeon, 2016

]]> That Dragon, Cancer — Ryan Green, Amy Green https://store.steampowered.com/app/419460/That_Dragon_Cancer/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#numinous-games-that-dragon-cancer Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Games, Play & Performance Numinous Games, 2016

Ryan and Amy Green's 2016 autobiographical game tracing their son Joel's fight against cancer through poetic vignettes.

]]> Maintenance and Care: Fixing a Broken World — Shannon Mattern https://placesjournal.org/article/maintenance-and-care/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#shannon-mattern-maintenance-and-care Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Infrastructure & Maintenance Places Journal, 2018

not every road should be repaired

]]> The Question Concerning Technology in China: An Essay in Cosmotechnics — Yuk Hui https://www.urbanomic.com/book/question-concerning-technology-china/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#yuk-hui-the-question-concerning-technology-in-china Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Tech History & Critique Urbanomic, 2016

what if technology is not universal?

]]> On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects — Gilbert Simondon https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517904876/on-the-mode-of-existence-of-technical-objects/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#gilbert-simondon-on-the-mode-of-existence-of-technical-objects Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Technology & Ways of Living Univocal / University of Minnesota Press, 1958 / 2017

]]> Internet Phone Book — Elliott Cost & Kristoffer Tjalve https://internetphonebook.net/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#internet-phone-book Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Web Stuff Athens & Rotterdam, 2025

800 websites printed on yellow pages

]]> Passage — Jason Rohrer https://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#jason-rohrer-passage Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences 2007

Jason Rohrer's 2007 five-minute game compressing an entire human life; one of the first video games acquired by MoMA.

]]> Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man — Marshall McLuhan https://archive.org/details/understandingmed0000mclu https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#marshall-mcluhan-understanding-media-the-extensions-of-man Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Visual Culture & Media McGraw-Hill, 1964

]]> Step by Step: A Political Ecology of the Repair Manual — Shannon Mattern https://placesjournal.org/article/step-by-step-repair-manuals-political-ecology/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#shannon-mattern-step-by-step Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Infrastructure & Maintenance Places Journal, 2024

who gets to fix what

]]> We could all be archivists — Chase McCoy https://chsmc.org/2025/01/archivists/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#chase-mccoy-we-could-all-be-archivists Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Potpourri chsmc.org, January 2025

]]> Tree of Codes — Jonathan Safran Foer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Codes https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#jonathan-safran-foer-tree-of-codes Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences Visual Editions, 2010

Jonathan Safran Foer's 2010 die-cut book created by excising words from Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles.

]]> The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology — Langdon Winner https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/whale_reactor.pdf https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#langdon-winner-the-whale-and-the-reactor Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Tech History & Critique University of Chicago Press, 1986

]]> The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects — Marshall McLuhan & Quentin Fiore https://archive.org/details/pdfy-vNiFct6b-L5ucJEa https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#marshall-mcluhan-quentin-fiore-the-medium-is-the-massage-an Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Visual Culture & Media Bantam, 1967

]]> From Tech Critique to Ways of Living — Alan Jacobs https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/from-tech-critique-to-ways-of-living https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#alan-jacobs-from-tech-critique-to-ways-of-living Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Technology & Ways of Living The New Atlantis, 2021

Neil Postman was right. So what?

]]> Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness — John Hull https://www.meta.com/experiences/notes-on-blindness/1946326588770583/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#john-hull-notes-on-blindness Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Experiences Middleton, Spinney, Colinart & La Burthe, 2016

2016 VR experience built from John Hull's audio diaries recorded as he lost his sight, using binaural sound and real-time 3D animation.

]]> Into the Universe of Technical Images — Vilém Flusser https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/into-the-universe-of-technical-images https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#vilem-flusser-into-the-universe-of-technical-images Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Visual Culture & Media University of Minnesota Press, 1985 / 2011

]]> Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction: A Systematic Approach to Interactive Visualization — Bret Victor https://worrydream.com/LadderOfAbstraction/ https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#bret-victor-up-and-down-the-ladder-of-abstraction Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Interfaces & Interaction worrydream.com, October 2011

zoom in, zoom out, keep going

]]> The Anarchist's Tool Chest — Christopher Schwarz https://lostartpress.com/products/the-anarchists-tool-chest https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#christopher-schwarz-the-anarchist-s-tool-chest Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Furniture & Craft Lost Art Press, 2010

build the chest first

]]> Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya — Nanjala Nyabola https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Democracy,_Analogue_Politics https://leewilkers.com/shelf/#nanjala-nyabola-digital-democracy-analogue-politics Sat, 02 May 2026 12:14:42 GMT Tech History & Critique Zed, 2018

the internet arrived, the politics didn't change

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