Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

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

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Alan N. Shapiro interviewed by Gerry Ryan

July 23rd, 2010 in the categories: Star Trek, Teleportation

I was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Gerry Ryan on April 30, 2010, Ireland's premier radio and television broadcaster. On June 1, 2005, I was interviewed for 45 minutes by Gerry on the Gerry Ryan Show - Ireland's most popular FM radio programme - about my book "Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance."
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The Car of the Future, more sketches, by Nick Pugh

July 22nd, 2010 in the categories: Car of the Future

Visualisations by the virtuoso concept artist-designer Nick Pugh.
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Baudrillard’s Second Life, by René Capovin

July 22nd, 2010 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Media Studies

Baudrillard's appropriation of McLuhan's formula "the medium is the message" comes to be understood in the light of this radical critique of the media, recognized as an instance of making people passive. The Canadian scholar saw here liberatory possibilities, summed up in the noted image of the "global village."
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Georges Bataille and Epistemology

July 22nd, 2010 in the categories: Georges Bataille

Bataille’s "Theory of Religion" and "The Accursed Share" have been read by a couple of generations of (hippie) Marxists, deconstructionists, and Baudrillard the man himself in economic terms. But, from the current situation of virtuality, it is most interesting to read these texts from an epistemological point of view.
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Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 1 of 4

July 22nd, 2010 in the categories: American Slang, Creative Writing, Sports Gambling

As they went inside Grand Central Station, Moe and Siggy saw more hurried commuters moving ahead with tunnel vision. Nobody wanted to look at the homeless. The bag ladies and street people would just put a damper on one’s day.
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The End of Homo Oeconomicus

July 16th, 2010 in the categories: Hans-Peter Dürr, Michel Foucault

As the physicist-philosopher Hans-Peter Dürr says, we must change our conception of what human beings are from Homo economicus (Economic human) to an idea of a Creative human.
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Data and Baudrillard, by Franco La Polla

June 25th, 2010 in the categories: Android Data, Androids & Artificial Life, Jean Baudrillard, Star Trek, The Next Generation

This is a translation of one chapter of Franco La Polla’s book "Star Trek: Foto di Gruppo con Astronave." Almost all of the books on Star Trek were written in a relatively thoughtless manner, put together in haste to make money. In contrast to them, La Polla’s books on Star Trek are rare precious gems of high intelligence.
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Dance and Digital/Virtual Technologies, by Jaana Parviainen

June 22nd, 2010 in the categories: Dance Theory, Real/Virtual Reality, The Body

Dwelling in the virtual sonic environment: phenomenological analysis of dancers’ learning processes in working with the EGM (Embodied Generative Music) interface.
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From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti – Teleporting an Unknown State, by Eduardo Kac (translated by Alan N. Shapiro)

June 6th, 2010 in the categories: Arts & Genomics, Rethinking Science, The Technological Herbarium

"Teleporting an Unknown State" is defined by Eduardo Kac as a biotelematic interactive installation in which the natural biological process at the basis of the artwork is activated by a telecommunications system managed by the computer.
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Sketches of the Car of the Future, by Nick Pugh

May 26th, 2010 in the categories: Car of the Future, Future Design

Visualisations by the virtuoso concept artist-designer Nick Pugh.
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The Car of the Future is a Virtual Reality Game Platform

May 26th, 2010 in the categories: Car of the Future, Future Design, Paul Virilio

In our concept of the Car of the Future, people will use their cars a good deal of the time for activities that take place in a virtual reality environment, and less for the physical activity of getting from point A to point B. This will have the direct outcome that less petroleum will be used, and less pollution will be given off.
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The Car of the Future is a Shapeshifter, by Nick Pugh

May 26th, 2010 in the categories: Car of the Future, Future Design

As population continues to increase and our cities become ever more dense the need will arise to develop new technologies that actively compact and minimize the products we use, especially the automobile.
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A Critique of the Idea of Neutral Language, by Marc Silver

May 26th, 2010 in the categories: Chaim Perelman, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Language, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, Wikipedia

There has been intense scrutiny brought to bear upon the ways in which various disciplines deploy rhetorical devices to “argue their case,” as well as to consolidate their identities and maintain them intact. Marc Silver builds his argument upon such topical foundations, but also shifts the ground in new and original ways.
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Towards a New Computer Science: Instantiate a Much Richer Software Instance

April 21st, 2010 in the categories: Alexis Clancy, Humanities Informatics

Object-Orientation is an essential prerequisite to the New Computer Science. Yet Object-Orientation has the limitation that it has continued mainly to be a technical practice, stuck in the binary opposition between technique and culture.
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The Answer to the Question of Artificial Life

April 18th, 2010 in the categories: Alexis Clancy, Androids & Artificial Life, Humanities Informatics

Artificial Life has the goal of making make software that is more “alive.” However, ALife has overlooked that “vitality” already exists in the creative arts. Life means art, music, painting, dance, poetry, literature, languages, sexuality, society, spirituality. Life means emotions, feelings, sensations, intuitions, colors.
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