Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

Blog and project archive about media theory, science fiction theory, and creative coding

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Time, Memory, Experience (part 1 of 4), by Anja Wiesinger

April 24th, 2012 in the categories: Computer Science 2.0, Media Studies

My project is to revise the theories and concepts that arose in the advent of the Internet in the early 1990s, when the Internet emerged from a blank canvas and served as a projection for dreams about utopian cyberspace. Have these theories of New Media and New Technologies stood the test of time?
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The Car of the Future, by Alan N. Shapiro and Alan Cholodenko

February 15th, 2012 in the categories: Car of the Future, Donna Haraway, Future Design, Gregory Bateson, Marshall McLuhan, Paul Virilio, Real/Virtual Reality

In November 2008, Alan N. Shapiro was invited by Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany to speak about his ideas about "the car of the future." He spoke in front of an audience of people from the Human-Machine Interface Dept. and and the Infotainment Dept. This text was written as accompaniment to that presentation.
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A New Computer Science is Underway: Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Anja Wiesinger

February 15th, 2012 in the categories: Computer Science 2.0

American philosopher and veteran software engineer Alan Shapiro reflects on computer science in relation to the history of ideas it originated from.
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On the Sociology of Music, by Alan N. Shapiro and Chris Williams

February 12th, 2012 in the categories: Music

Here we make the first presentation of our ideas about the reality of popular music in contemporary society. But what is reality? What is the relationship between reality and mediality? Between reality and virtuality? Between reality and simulations? What is music in the context of our social system of consumer culture?
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Radical skepticism and the logic of Shakespeare’s artistry, by Robert Schneider

February 12th, 2012 in the categories: English Literature

Robert Schneider is the author of a book-length reinterpretation of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" called "Shylock, The Roman" (Pulpless.com, 2001). I find this book to be the basis for investigating the relationship between Shakespeare and Star Trek as twin canonical texts of "Western Civ."
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The Best of All Possible Worlds: Modal Metaphysics and Possibilia, by James Shapiro

February 11th, 2012 in the categories: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

A brilliant and highly productive intellectual whose work spanned over many fields—mathematics, geometry, physics, etc., in addition to his philosophical contributions—Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz remains best known for his rather unique version of “theodicy.”
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Media theory: beyond the dualities of form and content, critical and enthusiastic, real and fake, by Alan N. Shapiro

February 4th, 2012 in the categories: Media Studies

On January 26, 2012, I gave a lecture in the Speakers' Series of the Centre for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
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Introduction to Polona Tratnik, by Anja Wiesinger

January 12th, 2012 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

Being a signifier for health, fruition, and beauty, hair also fulfills an aesthetic function. It is a medium with tactile qualities, associated with intimacy on the one hand, and with the abject on the other hand.
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti: Artworks of Nicola Toffolini (translated by Alan N. Shapiro)

December 9th, 2011 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

Nicola Toffolini works on the nature-technology marriage by elaborating singular ecosystems enclosed in glass and aluminium cases of marked formal elegance. Inside plants have been placed which, in order to live, depend on sophisticated electronic mechanisms, which visitors operate from the outside interactively.
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Impressionist Paintings by Florence Morrison, Installment 3

December 8th, 2011 in the categories: Painting

Moving Shadow (1968), Black and White Pondside (1966), Maritime Artefacts (1964)
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Anticipating the Future through Knowledge of the Fiction in Social Reality, by Alan N. Shapiro

November 17th, 2011 in the categories: Future Design

I was the keynote speaker at the conference on "Das Wissen der Zukunft" ("Knowledge of the Future") that took place at the University of Vienna on November 4-5, 2011. These are the lecture notes for my speech.
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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Mattia Nicoletti

November 16th, 2011 in the categories: Uncategorized

On November 3, 2011, Alan N. Shapiro was interviewed by the Italian journalist Mattia Nicoletti for the Milanese daily newspaper "Il Metro Quotidiano." This is the English version of the interview that appeared in Italian.
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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Erik Aru

October 19th, 2011 in the categories: Uncategorized

This interview appeared in October 2011 in the Estonian print magazine "HEI: Hea Eesti Idee", an EU publication known as "Estonia's biggest innovation magazine." I think that this and Ingrid Peek's radio interview are my two best interviews thus far.
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The Jig She Saw: Reflections on Creating Relational Encounters in Participatory Theatre, by Regan O’Brien

October 15th, 2011 in the categories: Performance Studies

In this essay, I will be reflecting on the theories and practice which took place in the process of creating and performing "The Jig She Saw: Reflections on You," a small scale immersive, interactive performance installation. The project is rooted in Relational Aesthetics and in social choreography.
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Julian, California: The Museum of Reality

July 1st, 2011 in the categories: New American Studies

After seeing one town after the next that looks the same, after seeing all of this cloned hyper-non-reality, it was good to finally arrive in Julian, California, where the local HISTORICAL SOCIETY has preserved everything just as it was exactly 117 years ago.
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