Alan N. Shapiro, Hypermodernism, Hyperreality, Posthumanism

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

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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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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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Ruben Talberg‘s volte-face paintings “Arcanum”, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 19th, 2015 in the categories: Painting

An artwork piece from Ruben Talberg’s series “Arcanum” suggests an important multi-nodal secret that can only become known to the initiated few. The work hints at presenting the key to solving a mystery, providing an answer to a riddle that is accessible via magic, mysticism and a very personalized meditation practice filtered through classical spiritual traditions.
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The development of New Music theory and philosophy with focus on the American composer John Cage, by Marit Trantel

March 9th, 2015 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

I will explore how John Cage’s music and his philosophy relate with other theories of New Media philosophy. Cage was one of the most important composers of New Music and helped to revolutionise the concept of traditional classical music entirely.
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“Nature Disappears Beneath Our Words and Images”: Nicola Toffolini interviewed by Alan N. Shapiro

September 7th, 2014 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

I interviewed the Italian artist Nicola Toffolini in Bologna, Italy. I spoke in English, and Nicola spoke in Italian. I have translated his comments into English.
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“I Bring Philosophy and Biotechnology into the Sphere of Art”: Polona Tratnik interviewed by Alan N. Shapiro

September 7th, 2014 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

I interviewed the Slovenian artist and media culture-cultural studies professor Polona Tratnik in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
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What’s the Use of Unrequited Love?, by Vesela Mihaylova

June 19th, 2012 in the categories: Philosophy of Love, The Illusion Beyond Art

I fell in love, but I was not being loved in return and I had to ask myself the question what was the use (or the sense) of this love. The affair ended, and I decided to apply my emotions and feelings into an artistic project in order to release them, in an attempt to put them in order, to examine them and let them go.
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Beginner’s Luck (a Casino Gambling story)

February 14th, 2012 in the categories: Casino Gambling, Creative Writing, Photography

There was a famous and elegant casino at the Venice Lido called the Casinò Municipale di Venezia. My friends knew about the casino but had never been inside. To my surprise, Tony expressed his belief that I was destined to win a lot of money at blackjack. He announced that he intended to "stake me" money to play.
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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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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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Pietro Mussini: A habitat of an interlocked nature, by Franco Torriani

June 18th, 2011 in the categories: The Illusion Beyond Art

How far can an artistic practice really produce, and place in a given space and time, place-unrelated objects (in respect to a given place), it’s an underlaying matter that enlivens most of Pietro Mussini’s creative path.
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Eduardo Kac: Living Works, by Claudio Cravero

June 3rd, 2011 in the categories: Arts & Genomics, The Illusion Beyond Art

The first exhibition in Italy dedicated to the controversial figure of Eduardo Kac (Rio de Janeiro, 1962; he lives in Chicago). His research explores the frontiers between man, animal and robot, culminating in Transgenic Art, through which living beings become a single entity with the technological.
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