Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

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

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Lessons from the Philosophy of Science

March 8th, 2021 in the categories: Philosophy of Science

How can we redirect ideas from the philosophy of science (which has focused in the past on physics, chemistry, astronomy, biology, etc...) to interrogating computer science or what Herbert A. Simon called The Sciences of the Artificial (as opposed to sciences which study natural phenomena)?
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From Sociology to Media Studies to Software Studies, part one

March 8th, 2021 in the categories: Media Studies, Software Studies

The science part of the invention of computer science: algorithms and data can all be encoded into lengthy binary strings (i.e., stored as computable numbers). The cultural part: how one does this (i.e., the relationship between the code and the data) is a cultural decision.
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From Sociology to Media Studies to Software Studies, part two

March 8th, 2021 in the categories: Media Studies, Sociology

The study of the societal consequences and existential meanings of digital technologies has today, in effect, merged with media studies: this is called the field of “digital media.”
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“The Prisoner” as “The Hostage” and the Episode “A. B. and C.”, by Alan N. Shapiro

September 21st, 2019 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, The Prisoner

I relate "The Prisoner" to one key concept of Baudrillard: his idea of the figure of the hostage as a metaphor for understanding both the situation of our post-political world and the situation of the individual consumer-citizen in the contemporary postmodern and cybernetic capitalist society.
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The Simulacra of Public Space: the work of Christos Voutichtis, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 28th, 2019 in the categories: Creative Coding, The Illusion Beyond Art

I am going to talk about the artworks of Christos Voutichtis. Seine Arbeit ist ein führendes Beispiel für Interspace Art: nämlich das Bewusstsein für hybriden physischen und virtuellen Raum fördern.
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Technological Anarchism, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 28th, 2019 in the categories: Art and Economics, Ecology, Energy, and the Environment

My intention is to write a book developing the transdisciplinary concept of Technological Anarchism as an optimistic, normative, heterotopian (a term of Michel Foucault) idea of a near-future and open-ended social, logistical, and economic system of Post-Scarcity and Post-Capitalism.
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Science-Fiction-Replikatoren: Additive Fertigung und die Ökonomie der Zukunft, von Alan N. Shapiro

June 27th, 2019 in the categories: Additive Manufacturing, Star Trek

Sozialismus ist schiefgegangen. Kapitalismus muss sich verändern. Der europäische Kapitalismus hat Angst davor, von Asien überholt zu werden. Wie also sieht die Vision für den europäischen Kapitalismus aus, um sich erfolgreich weiter zu entwickeln?
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Baudrillard and the Situationists, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 27th, 2019 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Situationists

I will say something about the similarities and differences between the Situationist critical social theory of advanced or hyper-capitalism and consumerist media culture – the theory of “the society of the spectacle” and Jean Baudrillard’s theory of image, media and consumer culture – the theory of simulation, simulacra, virtuality, hyper-reality, Integral Reality, and “the models and codes precede the real.”
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Mobility and Science Fiction, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 27th, 2019 in the categories: Car of the Future, Future Design, Science Fiction Film

It is the self-driving car – and the way that it has come to inform the advanced technological imagination in our media culture – that I want to focus my attention on here. The autonomous vehicle has become one of the principal exemplars symbolizing the whole wide spectrum of self-aware technologies of Industry 4.0.
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Gestalt-Ideas at the Interface between Theory and Practice, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: Future Design

What is design as a “thinking discipline”? What is the relationship between “academic” ideas and the wider capitalist-practical-business society?
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Philosophie, Science und Ökologie: Whitehead und Merleau-Ponty über den Begriff der Natur, von Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: A. N. Whitehead, Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Vor etwa zehn Jahren begann ich mich intensiv für Kunstwerke und Kunstinstallationen zu interessieren, die Wissenschaften und Technologien in ihrer Konzeption und Ausführung mit einbezogen: Medienkunst, Electronic Art, Computerkunst, Videokunst, Bio Art, transgenic art, robotics art, telepresence art, ecosystems art und virtuelle Kunst.
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Fiktion ist der Schlüssel zu kreativen Lösungen, von Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: Fiction, Future Design

Der Triumph Donald Trumps als US-Präsidentschaftskandidat der Republikaner im Jahr 2016 veranschaulicht die wachsende und allgegenwärtige Konfusion zwischen dem ,Realen‘ und dem Virtuellen in der zeitgenössischen Geschichtssituation der Hypermoderne.
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Art Students Make Politics: 40 years since the 1977 movement of the „Metropolitan Indians“ in Italy, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: Feminist Theory, Performance Studies

In March 1977, art students from the DAMS Arts, Music and Theatre faculty (where Umberto Eco taught) of the University of Bologna participated in an art-, culture-, and ideas-inspired political movement called the „Metropolitan Indians“ (Indiani Metropolitani) or the „marginalized of society“ (gli emarginati).
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Gerry Coulter, Sophie Calle and Baudrillard’s “Pursuit in Venice”, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 25th, 2019 in the categories: Gerry Coulter, Jean Baudrillard, The Illusion Beyond Art

I did not know Gerry Coulter well personally. Yet I have considered him to be my friend. Our intellectual, political, and academic perspectives have been very close to one another. We have been comrades-in-arms, fighting for the same cause. We have both been engaged with Jean Baudrillard’s system of thought.
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Alan N. Shapiro racconta “Star Trek” (RAI4 Italian TV interview)

April 10th, 2017 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, Star Trek

Poliedrico studioso di tecnologia, fantascienza, media e filosofia contemporanea, americano di nascita ed europeo d’adozione, Alan N. Shapiro spiega l’importanza, i significati e il successo della saga di Gene Roddenberry, partendo dal suo innovativo e celeberrimo saggio Star Trek: Tecnologie della sparizione.
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