My talk at the Third Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Here’s my short talk from the Third Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium (Sept 14, The New School), on the photography of Garry Winogrand. As I’ve already mentioned here, I had to miss the symposium because I was in China, so I submitted this short video instead of giving a presentation in person. While a video presentation isn’t very far afield from a… read more
Video and transcript of my talk at the Third Object-Oriented Ontology Symposium
Below is the video for my talk at the Third Object-Oriented Ontology symposium, which I delivered remotely by video. I intended the video as the way to experience the content, but upon request I’ve also posted a transcript of the material for those who prefer to read it that way. For a larger sized video, watch on Vimeo or select… read more
First, Levi Bryant’s treatise on object-oriented ontology, The Democracy of Objects, is now available to read online. Print and PDF editions forthcoming. Congrats to Levi for its unveiling. Second, the third object-oriented ontology symposium will take place tomorrow (14 Sept) at the New School. As I mentioned earlier I’m in China at the World Economic Forum, but I’ve left a… read more
Facebook likes Cow Clicker
While they’ve never said so in public, it seems Facebook has always been a silent fan of Cow Clicker. I’ve been tipped off about it several times, including via this shot of a Cow Clicker doodle on the whiteboard “wall” at Facebook HQ. A wider view of the wall cow included, later appeared in an issue of Wired. But given… read more
The Cows Have Been Raptured
Yesterday evening, the countdown timer atop the Cow Clicker pages finally elapsed, and as per the prophesy, the cowpocalypse was summoned. Despite the players’ cowllective intelligence in solving the Cow ClickARG, despite their numerous supplications to the bovine gods in response to the threat of moo-msday, nevertheless the Cowpocalypse has come. All cows were raptured to their heavenly pastures. Even… read more
At the New School
The third object-oriented ontology symposium will take place on September 14 at The New School in New York City. This event follows the first two symposia, held at Georgia Tech in April 2010 and at UCLA last December. Special thanks to McKenzie Wark for hosting it. I’ll be in China that week, missing both the week of speculative realism in… read more
A short film about people and objects
This a charming and fascinating short film that should be of interest to those of us interested in people, objects, technology, and related matters. (via D.E. Wittkower)
Brief thoughts on Steve Jobs's Resignation
Steve Jobs is a fascist. That’s what everyone loves about him: he tells us what he wants, and he convinces us we are going to like it. And we do, not because he’s right (despite popular opinion), but because it’s so rare to get such definitive, brazen, top-down, abusive treatment in this era of lowest-common-demoninator wishy-washiness. It doesn’t matter if… read more
Part 2: The Digital Humanities
If we accept the premise that the humanities should orient toward the world and not toward a private, scholarly sanctuary, then what trends are already facilitating that process? One candidate is the “digital humanities,” a topic about which I have remained silent for too long, despite the fact that I direct a digital media graduate program and teach in a… read more
Part 1: The Humanities in Public
Recently, Stanford comparative literature professor David Palumbo-Liu made a case for why the humanities are indispensible. It’s one in a long history of such justifications, a task that seems as necessary as ever. Yet, as with so many such justifications, Palumbo-Liu’s speaks declaratively. Consider his closing charge—one I saw excerpted frequently and with enthusiasm in the days after he wrote… read more