Author: Alan N. Shapiro

  • Baudrillard’s Second Life, by René Capovin

    Fashion in the modern sense presupposes the becoming-autonomous of interaction, and is linked, in particular, to the communications of the mass media. In a society differentiated by functions, in fact, there is no one class or group that can impose its own “taste.” Everyone must conform their own taste to the information of all others.”

  • Georges Bataille and Epistemology

    Bataille’s Theory of Religion and The Accursed Share have been read by generations of Marxists, deconstructionists, and Baudrillard the man himself in economic terms. But, in the current situation of virtuality, it is most interesting to read these texts from an epistemological point of view.

  • Around the Town (a Sports Gambling story), part 1 of 4

    As they went inside Grand Central Station, Moe and Siggy saw hurried commuters moving with tunnel vision, not looking at the homeless. The bag ladies and street people would put a damper on one’s day. Past the panhandlers and cup rattlers, the squeegee people, and the Monte dealers, the determined nine-to-fivers kept moving.

  • The End of Homo Oeconomicus

    Da der Mensch ein lebendiges Wesen ist, müssen wir unser Konzept vom Menschen ändern, vom Homo Oeconomicus zu einer Idee des kreativen Menschen, wie der Physiker-Philosoph Hans-Peter Dürr sagt. Wie alle lebendigen Organismen verfügt auch der Mensch über eine Wachstumsfähighkeit.

  • Data and Baudrillard, by Franco La Polla

    This is a translation of one chapter of Franco La Polla’s book Star Trek: Foto di Gruppo con Astronave. La Polla is a distinguished Professor of the History of North American Culture at the University of Bologna. He has written and published three amazing books on Star Trek.

  • Dance and Digital/Virtual Technologies, by Jaana Parviainen

    Dwelling in the virtual sonic environment: Phenomenological analysis of dancers’ learning processes in working with the Embodied Generative Music interface. “We must admit that the sound, of itself, prompts rather a grasping movement, and visual perception the act of pointing.” (Merleau-Ponty)