MachineMachine /stream - tagged with theory http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net Speculative Realism Pathfinder http://courseweb.lis.illinois.edu/~phettep1/SRPathfinder.html#texts/speculative-realism-pathfinder Speculative Realism reading list http://t.co/Fkm6YZqN rt @t3dy ]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:50:24 -0700 http://courseweb.lis.illinois.edu/~phettep1/SRPathfinder.html#texts/speculative-realism-pathfinder The Era of Networked Science http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/michael_nielsen_reinventing_discovery.php The Internet may well have its downsides, but it also has the potential to make us collectively smarter, according to open-science advocate Michael Nielsen. In Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Nielsen argues that networked digital tools, such as discussion boards and online marketplaces, can make it easier for scientists to pool their data, share methodologies, and find far-flung collaborators. Even non-scientists are participating in large-scale citizen science projects. In Nielsen’s view, however, public policy has yet to catch up to technology. The digital environment will amplify our collective intelligence, but only if there are incentives for people… ]]> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:41:40 -0700 http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/michael_nielsen_reinventing_discovery.php Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia”: A Discussion http://www.filmquarterly.org/2012/01/lars-von-triers-melancholia-a-discussion/ Lars von Trier’s latest has been overshadowed by the director’s ill-judged comments at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. This is a pity because, as Film Quarterly Writer-at-Large NINA POWER and editor ROB WHITE discuss (resuming a dialogue begun here in regard to von Trier’s Antichrist), Melancholia is a rich, fascinating, and radical work. ]]> Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:07:49 -0700 http://www.filmquarterly.org/2012/01/lars-von-triers-melancholia-a-discussion/ It’s Only Humanist http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/aug/17/its-only-humanist/ To me it tastes like a desire to locate man’s place in a world that he perceives primarily with the aid of machines. The art of the Greeks has been used in the past as a touchstone for artists who measure their own vision against an anthropocentric one. “Greek art had a purely human conception of beauty,” Apollinaire wrote in an essay about a 1912 exhibition of Cubist painting. “It took man as the measure of perfection. The art of the new painters takes the infinite universe as its ideal, and it is to the fourth dimension alone that we… ]]> Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:16:49 -0700 http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/aug/17/its-only-humanist/ Meaning/time=? [e-flux on Coked-Out, Motherless Robots] http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/09/29/meaningtime-e-flux-on-coked-out-motherless-robots/ Are we moving too fast for meaning? That’s the argument put together by Franco Berardi in his essay Time, Acceleration, and Violence, published on e-flux. It’s the latest in an expanding body of “are we moving too fast for…?” thinking, with meaning-as-victim following truth-as-victim (Zygmunt Bauman), character-as-victim (Richard Sennett), and promiscuity-as-victim (Miquel Brown). But does it make any sense? From what I understand, Berardi’s argument is that among the many ills caused by capitalism’s constant acceleration is an “inflation of meaning.” The increased production of symbols – aided, one assumes, by greater productivity among symbol-creators – has had roughly the… ]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:29:59 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/09/29/meaningtime-e-flux-on-coked-out-motherless-robots/ Crusoe film adaptations and *that* footprint http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/197212 Robinson Crusoe film adaptations. Which are the best ones? Also, *that* footprint... For a project I am working on, I want to isolate the moment in Robinson Crusoe where he discovers the savage footprint, imprinted in the sand, for the first time.

In the book this footprint is discovered quite a few years before Friday arrives. It signifies the first time Crusoe realises that there are 'others' visiting his Kingdom.

It has been critically engaged with by the likes of Umberto Eco, Susan Stewart (two times) and Simon O'Sullivan. Do you… ]]> Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:31:01 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/197212 “Seriality for All”: The Role of Protocols and Standards in Critical Theory http://nedrossiter.org/?p=286 For many years, philosophers have been casting doubt on the common identification with meaning and signification as the primary human response mechanisms to the world. If we wish to understand anything about how our complex technical society is made up, we must pay attention to the underlying structures that surround us, from industry norms to building regulations, software icons and internet protocols. Yet our ordinary understanding of the world resists this very idea. If we call for another society, with more equality and style, it is not enough to think differently; the very framework of that thinking must be negated… ]]> Sat, 24 Sep 2011 16:36:53 -0700 http://nedrossiter.org/?p=286 How Can We Understand Code as a "Critical Artifact"? http://henryjenkins.org/2011/09/how_can_we_understand_code_as.html The working definition for Critical Code Studies (CCS) is "the application of humanities style hermeneutics to the interpretation of computer source code." However, lately, I have found it more useful to explain the field to people as the analysis of technoculture (culture as imbricated with technology) through the entry point of the source code of a particular digital object. The code is not the ends of the analyses, but the beginning. Critical Code Studies finds code meaningful not as text but "as a text," an artifact of a digital moment, full of hooks for discussing digital culture and programming communities.… ]]> Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:23:48 -0700 http://henryjenkins.org/2011/09/how_can_we_understand_code_as.html How Can We Understand Code as a "Critical Artifact"? http://henryjenkins.org/2011/09/how_can_we_understand_code_as.html The working definition for Critical Code Studies (CCS) is "the application of humanities style hermeneutics to the interpretation of computer source code." However, lately, I have found it more useful to explain the field to people as the analysis of technoculture (culture as imbricated with technology) through the entry point of the source code of a particular digital object. The code is not the ends of the analyses, but the beginning. Critical Code Studies finds code meaningful not as text but "as a text," an artifact of a digital moment, full of hooks for discussing digital culture and programming communities.… ]]> Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:26:12 -0700 http://henryjenkins.org/2011/09/how_can_we_understand_code_as.html Slavoj Zizek - How to Read Lacan - Troubles with the Real: Lacan as a Viewer of Alien http://www.lacan.com/zizalien.htm/slavoj-zizek-how-to-read-lacan-troubles-with-the-real-lacan-as-a-viewer-of-alien Slavoj Zizek on how to read Lacan (hint: watch #Alien and #TheThing) : http://t.co/m8CjaBV #horror #SciFi #theory #cinema #x ]]> Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:32:26 -0700 http://www.lacan.com/zizalien.htm/slavoj-zizek-how-to-read-lacan-troubles-with-the-real-lacan-as-a-viewer-of-alien Is New Media Accepted in the Art World? Domenico Quaranta’s Media, New Media, PostMedia http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/08/30/is-new-media-accepted-in-the-art-world-domenico-quarantas-media-new-media-postmedia/ Do institutions and galleries have a growing interest in New Media? Two weeks ago, I identified the art “internet bubble” at The L Magazine, a trend that’s currently giving new media the spot light. Not everyone sees new media the same way though. Domenico Quaranta, an Italian writer and curator previously best known to this blog for “Holy Fire“, a dubiously themed new media exhibition in Brussels that included only “collectible” work, being one such example. Quaranta’s followed up the 2008 exhibition by writing a whole book on the subject of New Media — “Media, New Media, PostMedia” — one core theme being… ]]> Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:22:06 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/08/30/is-new-media-accepted-in-the-art-world-domenico-quarantas-media-new-media-postmedia/ The Battle Over Zomia http://chronicle.com/article/The-Battle-Over-Zomia/128845/ Over the past two millennia, "runaway" communities have put the "friction of terrain" between themselves and the people who remained in the lowlands, he writes. The highland groups adopted a swidden agriculture system (sometimes known, pejoratively, as "slash and burn"), shifting fields from place to place, staggering harvests, and relying on root crops to hide their yields from any visiting tax collectors. They formed egalitarian societies so as not to have leaders who might sell them out to the state. And they turned their backs on literacy to avoid creating records that central governments could use to carry out onerous… ]]> Mon, 05 Sep 2011 05:20:41 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/The-Battle-Over-Zomia/128845/ How to Read Lacan - Troubles with the Real: Lacan as a Viewer of Alien http://www.lacan.com/zizalien.htm/slavoj-zizek-how-to-read-lacan-troubles-with-the-real-lacan-as-a-viewer-of-alien Slavoj Zizek on how to read Lacan (hint: watch #Alien and #TheThing) : http://t.co/m8CjaBV #horror #SciFi #theory #cinema #x ]]> Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:41:21 -0700 http://www.lacan.com/zizalien.htm/slavoj-zizek-how-to-read-lacan-troubles-with-the-real-lacan-as-a-viewer-of-alien Is New Media Accepted in the Art World? Domenico Quaranta’s Media, New Media, PostMedia http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/08/30/is-new-media-accepted-in-the-art-world-domenico-quarantas-media-new-media-postmedia/ Do institutions and galleries have a growing interest in New Media? Two weeks ago, I identified the art “internet bubble” at The L Magazine, a trend that’s currently giving new media the spot light. Not everyone sees new media the same way though. Domenico Quaranta, an Italian writer and curator previously best known to this blog for “Holy Fire“, a dubiously themed new media exhibition in Brussels that included only “collectible” work, being one such example. Quaranta’s followed up the 2008 exhibition by writing a whole book on the subject of New Media — “Media, New Media, PostMedia” — one core theme being… ]]> Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:07:15 -0700 http://www.artfagcity.com/2011/08/30/is-new-media-accepted-in-the-art-world-domenico-quarantas-media-new-media-postmedia/ Contemporary art does not account for that which is taking place http://t.co/L5AX7Ye/liam-gillick-e-flux-contemporary-art-does-not-account-for-that-which-is-taking-place-httptcol5ax7ye-contemporaryart-art-x-theory Liam Gillick: @e_flux Contemporary art does not account for that which is taking place http://t.co/L5AX7Ye #contemporaryart #art #x #theory ]]> Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:00:27 -0700 http://t.co/L5AX7Ye/liam-gillick-e-flux-contemporary-art-does-not-account-for-that-which-is-taking-place-httptcol5ax7ye-contemporaryart-art-x-theory The Logic of Life by Francois Jacob http://www.librarything.com/work/book/77592602/the-logic-of-life-peregrine-books-by-francois-jacob

Penguin Books Ltd (1989), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 448 pages

]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:31:52 -0700 http://www.librarything.com/work/book/77592602/the-logic-of-life-peregrine-books-by-francois-jacob Death Is Not the End (Long Live theory!) http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end Was theory a gigantic hoax? On the contrary. It was the only salvation, for a twenty year period, from two colossal abdications by American thinkers and writers. From about 1975 to 1995, through a historical accident, a lot of American thinking and mental living got done by people who were French, and by young Americans who followed the French. The two grand abdications: one occurred in academic philosophy departments, the other in American fiction. In philosophy, from the 1930s on, a revolutionary group had been fighting inside universities to overcome the “tradition.” This insurgency, at first called “logical positivism” or… ]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:08:16 -0700 http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end Book review - Media, New Media, Postmedia - we make money not art http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2011/08/media-new-media-postmedia.php/book-review-media-new-media-postmedia-we-make-money-not-art Media, New Media, Postmedia - mapping the postmedia perspective : http://j.mp/nX8rlH #Book #Review #Postmedia #digital #art #theory #x ]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:58:22 -0700 http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2011/08/media-new-media-postmedia.php/book-review-media-new-media-postmedia-we-make-money-not-art Media, New Media, Postmedia http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2011/08/media-new-media-postmedia.php/book-review-media-new-media-postmedia-we-make-money-not-art Media, New Media, Postmedia - mapping the postmedia perspective : http://j.mp/nX8rlH

#Book #Review #Postmedia #digital #art #theory #x ]]> Tue, 30 Aug 2011 02:58:21 -0700 http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2011/08/media-new-media-postmedia.php/book-review-media-new-media-postmedia-we-make-money-not-art Death Is Not the End (Long Live theory!) http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end Was theory a gigantic hoax? On the contrary. It was the only salvation, for a twenty year period, from two colossal abdications by American thinkers and writers. From about 1975 to 1995, through a historical accident, a lot of American thinking and mental living got done by people who were French, and by young Americans who followed the French.

The two grand abdications: one occurred in academic philosophy departments, the other in American fiction. In philosophy, from the 1930s on, a revolutionary group had been fighting inside universities to overcome the “tradition.” This insurgency, at first called… ]]> Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:48:43 -0700 http://nplusonemag.com/death-not-end