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Understanding Representation

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Journal of Visual Culture
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Language Wants To Be Overlooked: On Software and Ideology

Alexander R. Galloway

New York University, 239 Greene Street, 7th floor, New York, NY 10003, USA; galloway{at}nyu.edu

This article is a theoretical response to the observation from Wendy Hui Kyong Chun that ‘software is a functional analog to ideology’. Several principles of software design support this claim, the first being the principles of reflection and obfuscation evident in all types of code. At the same time, in contrast to natural language, code is both scriptural and executable, indicating the functional quality of software. In simulating the ideological model, software is an example of technical transcoding without figuration that nevertheless coexists with an exceedingly high level of ideological fetishism and misrecognition.

Key Words: allegory • code • function • ideology • language • obfuscation • reflection • software

Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 5, No. 3, 315-331 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1470412906070519
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