Alan N. Shapiro, Visiting Professor in Transdisciplinary Design, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, Germany

Blog and project archive about transdisciplinary design, media theory and creative coding

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Announcing “The Prisoner Con” in Seattle, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2017

March 1st, 2017 in the categories: Media Studies, Surveillance, The Prisoner

What better way to celebrate the society of simulation, surveillance, information and the global village than to attend the 50th anniversary fan convention of the iconic late 1960s BBC television series "The Prisoner"... Registration now open...
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The Relevance of “The Prisoner” to Today’s Information and Surveillance Society, by Alan N. Shapiro

April 8th, 2014 in the categories: The Prisoner

I do a media sociology of "The Prisoner." I relate "The Prisoner" to Orwell, McLuhan, Foucault, Baudrillard, and Flusser. "The Prisoner" as a literary text is at the heart of modern media theory. It is "the real deal" for understanding the information and surveillance society of 2014, as Catherine McGoohan said.
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Three Essays on “The Prisoner,” by Alan N. Shapiro, Nolan Bazinet and Nicole Maggio

May 28th, 2012 in the categories: The Prisoner

"The Prisoner" is a narrative metaphor for understanding the contemporary sociological-technological situation of the hyper-network society. Through "The Prisoner," we can understand the successor to the "surveillance society" (Foucault) and the successor to "the global village" (Marshall McLuhan).
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Where am I? In The Village

June 18th, 2011 in the categories: New American Studies, The Prisoner

In Phoenix, we ate dinner at an instance of The Village Inn restaurant chain. The interior décor, the atmosphere, and the "language semiotics" (the signs, the typography) of The Village Inn reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows of all time: "The Prisoner", starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan.