Alan N. Shapiro, Technologist and Futurist

Blog and text archive about media theory, science fiction theory, future design, social choreography, Computer Science 2.0, new media art, robots and androids, Star Trek, The Prisoner, Jean Baudrillard, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, and Marshall McLuhan

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Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance, by Alan N. Shapiro

July 29th, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Media Studies, Science & Technology, Science Fiction Studies, Star Trek

In his lengthy review-essay of "Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance" in "Science Fiction Studies", coeditor Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. remarks: "Shapiro’s study of Star Trek is one of the most original works of sf-theory since Scott Bukatman’s 'Terminal Identity' (1993)."
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The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti

July 29th, 2010 in Category: Androids & Artificial Life, Arts & Genomics, Book Descriptions, Rethinking Science, Science & Technology, The Technological Herbarium

"The Technological Herbarium" is a study of works of art that exemplify the importance of science and technology in artistic creation. It embodies the invention of a strong philosophical concept that enables the glimpsing – in the coming together of nature and new technologies in the domain of art – of a new real.
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Framemakers: Choreography as an Aesthetics of Change, edited by Jeffrey Gormly

May 25th, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Dance Theory, Social Choreography, The Illusion Beyond Art

A collection of essays from a diverse group of thinkers - leaders in their fields - exploring the notion of choreography as the aesthetics of change. Established practitioners re-imagine their own fields (theology, social dreaming and organizational change, ethics, community building) as choreographic endeavours.
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Stefanie Schmidt, Film und Erinnerung

May 24th, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, Jacques Lacan, Media Studies, Sigmund Freud

Im Hinblick auf einen vergleichenden Bezug zu der zeitphilosophiscen Filmtheorie von Gilles Deleuze werden die bildhaften und sprachlicen Aspekte des Gedächtnisses und des Films, wie sie enmal in Anschluss an die Linie Freud/Lacan und zum anderen bei Bergson/Deleuze entwickelt werden, diskutieret.
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Jean Baudrillard, Le Ludique et le policier

May 24th, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Jean Baudrillard

This collection of 23 essays by Jean Baudrillard in French from the years 1967-1978 is not available at any amazon website. It was published by Sens & Tonka, editeurs in 2001.
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Arguing the Case, by Marc Silver

May 23rd, 2010 in Category: Book Descriptions, Language

Employing analytical methods deriving from linguistics, logic, psychoanalysis and cultural and literary criticism, Marc Silver reveals the common premises and common illusions behind the claims being made about the “human sciences” today.