Barcodes - the little stripes on everything you buy that make the register beep at the checkout counter. Ever wonder how they got there? Jordan Frith did, and his book reveals a weird and wonderful history.
Barcodes - the little stripes on everything you buy that make the register beep at the checkout counter. Ever wonder how they got there? Jordan Frith did, and his book reveals a weird and wonderful history.
Jordan's book on Barcodes is part of the Object Lessons series.
In our talk, we didn't have a chance to get to the story about how barcodes may have caused George HW Bush to lose the 1990 presidential election! For that story and a lot more, get a copy of Jordan's book here.
Jordan Frith (he/him) is the Pearce Professor of Professional Communication at Clemson University. His primary research focuses on technical communication, mobile communication, social media, and communication infrastructures, and he is the author of 5 books and numerous public-facing articles in popular venues such as Slate, Salon, and The Conversation. His work is inherently interdisciplinary, and he has also published 40+ academic articles in a variety of disciplines, including technical communication, communication studies, media studies, and geography. His 2019 book A Billion Little Pieces was published as part of MIT Press’s Infrastructure series, and his newest book—Barcode—was published in November 2023 as part of the highly competitive Object Lessons’ series. In addition to his research, Dr. Frith is the editor-in-chief of the Association of Computing Machinery’s (ACM) Communication Design Quarterly and serves on the executive board of multiple disciplinary organizations.
From Jordan's website:
I figure professional webpages are pretty rote and standardized, so instead of going down that route, I’ll start with a bit about my background not many people know that I’ve begun reflecting upon more as I age: Only one of my four grandparents was born in the US. My paternal grandmother was Brazilian, and my mom and her parents are all from Canada. Also, neither of my parents were born in the US (my dad was born in Panama). I have two passports and, if I’d played my cards right, could have had four passports (there was an age window on two of the count…
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