Author: Alan N. Shapiro

Baudrillard and Trek-nology (Or Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek and Reading Jean Baudrillard), by Alan N. Shapiro

We should be greatly mistaken were we to view science fiction as an escape from everyday reality: on the contrary, it is an extrapolation from the irrational tendencies of that reality through the free exercise of narrative invention.

October 10, 2010
From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti – Interactive Plant Growing and Trans Plant by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau (translated by Alan N. Shapiro)

Christa Sommerer has a strong interest in botany: she dedicated herself to this after her secondary studies, enrolling in the Faculty of Biology and Botany of Vienna. Her intention was to investigate nature with methods suitable to the classification of plants for the purpose of achieving the formulation of systematic rules.

October 4, 2010
From The Technological Herbarium, by Gianna Maria Gatti – Nerve Garden by Bruce Damer (translated by Alan N. Shapiro)

All images © Copyright Bruce Damer, embedded here with the permission of the artist. Nerve Garden is a three-dimensional virtual world accessible on the Internet, a “Public Terrarium in Cyberspace,” according to the definition of its authors, where the users of the Net can sow and witness the growth of virtual plants.

October 4, 2010
Interview with AVINUS Press about The Technological Herbarium

AVINUS Press (Anabelle Assaf): Worum geht es im Technologischen Herbarium? (Kunst? Technologie? Natur? Informatik?) Welche Art von Kunstwerken hat die Autorin gewählt, und was macht diese so besonders? What is The Technological Herbarium about? (art? technology? nature? computer science?) What kind of artworks did the author choose, and what makes them so special?

September 8, 2010
Passing: Franco La Polla

Franco La Polla died in Pavia, Italy on February 27, 2009. From 2004 to 2007, La Polla was Professor of the History of Cinema, and Director of the Department of Music and Theatre (DAMS) at the University of Bologna. For 30 years, La Polla was Professor of the History of American Literature.

August 23, 2010
The Car of the Future, folding study, by Nick Pugh

All images © Copyright Nick Pugh and Alan N. Shapiro, 2010

August 5, 2010