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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Baudrillard’s Importance for the Future, by Alan N. Shapiro

October 22nd, 2019 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard

Baudrillard is most well-known for his theory of hyper-reality. The book "Simulacres et Simulation" was immortalized when a hollowed-out copy of it appeared in the 1999 Hollywood blockbuster science fiction film "The Matrix," directed by the Wachowski brothers. Baudrillard disliked "The Matrix."
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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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Baudrillard and the Situationists, by Alan N. Shapiro

June 27th, 2019 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Situationists

I will say something about the similarities and differences between the Situationist critical social theory of advanced or hyper-capitalism and consumerist media culture – the theory of “the society of the spectacle” and Jean Baudrillard’s theory of image, media and consumer culture – the theory of simulation, simulacra, virtuality, hyper-reality, Integral Reality, and “the models and codes precede the real.”
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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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Alan N. Shapiro racconta “Star Trek” (RAI4 Italian TV interview)

April 10th, 2017 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio, Star Trek

Poliedrico studioso di tecnologia, fantascienza, media e filosofia contemporanea, americano di nascita ed europeo d’adozione, Alan N. Shapiro spiega l’importanza, i significati e il successo della saga di Gene Roddenberry, partendo dal suo innovativo e celeberrimo saggio Star Trek: Tecnologie della sparizione.
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Orwell, Baudrillard and Trump, by Alan N. Shapiro

February 19th, 2017 in the categories: Donald Trump, Jean Baudrillard

From a Baudrillardian perspective, one could say that the media themselves (not only the news media, but the media considered in their widest scope) – having promoted a culture of simulation and simulacra where words and images stand on their own and have no reference – are responsible for Trump.
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Baudrillard und Trump: Agonie des Realen, von Alan N. Shapiro

February 18th, 2017 in the categories: Donald Trump, Jean Baudrillard

Es handelt sich hier um den fraktalen oder viralen Zustand von Simulakra der vierten Ordnung. Nach Baudrillard Post-Simulations-Erkenntnistheorie oder der "Simulationsepidemie" strahlt der Wert - wenn dieser Begriff noch angebracht ist - wie krebsartige Metastasen in alle Richtungen aus.
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Baudrillard und Trump: Simulation und Objektorientierung, nicht wahr und falsch, von Alan N. Shapiro

February 16th, 2017 in the categories: Donald Trump, Jean Baudrillard

Der Diskurs der Kritischen Theorie ist nicht brauchbar. Trump ist der Kandidat des Reality-Fernsehens, der Prominentenkultur, der Medienhyperrealitätsunterhaltung, jener 15 Minuten Ruhm für jedermann (Warhol), des "Transpolitischen" (Baudrillard) und der Objektorientierung (OO).
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Baudrillard and Trump: Simulation and Object-Orientation, Not True and False by Alan N. Shapiro

January 5th, 2017 in the categories: Donald Trump, Jean Baudrillard

Critical theory discourse is ineffective. Trump is the candidate of Reality TV, of the celebrity culture, of media hyper-reality entertainment, of everyone’s 15 minutes of fame (Warhol), of the “trans-political” (Baudrillard), and of object-orientation (OO).
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Discover America und die Idee der Baudrillard-Company, von Alan N. Shapiro

July 16th, 2015 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard

Die beiden wesentlichen Kreisläufe sind die Mobilität (Autos etc.) und der Bildschirm (Fernsehen etc.) – Geschwindigkeit und Virtualität – das Kinetische und das Filmische. Automobile, nicht Menschen, sind die wahren Einwohner erster Klasse der hypermodernen Megalopolis (wie Marshall McLuhan bereits in den 1960er Jahren schrieb), ebenso wie Computernetzwerke und Medientechnologie.
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Cultural Citizenship in Contemporary America, by Alan N. Shapiro

February 12th, 2013 in the categories: Consumer Culture, Jean Baudrillard

The damaged life of the fragmented individual, performing his duties in the system of production, is circumscribed by a universe of self-referential images and solipsistic spaces which sustain his socialization in that system.
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Reality and Simulation in “The Prisoner,” by Caroline Fuchs

January 25th, 2013 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Media Studies

For most of the Villagers it is not possible to separate between what is real and what is simulated. A simulation is created in The Village through the use of media. But what if most of what the Villagers do, see and live is a simulation? Can there even be a reality behind that façade?
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On the trail of Jean Baudrillard and Slavoj Žižek in the American Desert

June 30th, 2011 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard, Slavoj Žižek

In Baudrillard’s "America", the secret heart of reversibility is captured in the imaginary of the desert. The desert is The Other America, the quintessential strange attractor, the counterpoint to the system.
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Whiskey Pete’s Casino at the California/Nevada Border

March 24th, 2011 in the categories: Casino Gambling, Jean Baudrillard

From Dublin, Ireland I traveled on to New York City, then to southern California. The Baudrillard-America trip had begun. Moments after entering Nevada by car, we encountered Whiskey Pete's casino. Here an important Baudrillard conference had taken place in 1996.
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Baudrillard, Globalization and Terrorism, by Douglas Kellner

December 3rd, 2010 in the categories: Jean Baudrillard

Douglas Kellner is the George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. He is a “third generation” critical theorist in the tradition of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, or "Frankfurt School." He is the author of about 10 books.
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