Alan N. Shapiro, Autonomy in the Digital Society

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

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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 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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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.