“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. The specialization of images of the world has culminated in a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle serves as a total justification of the conditions and goals of the existing system.” — Guy Debord

Alan N. Shapiro
media theory,
science fiction theory,
future design research

  • “Lost”: Der Pilotfilm, Symbole und wiederkehrende Themen, von Vanessa Berkler

    Die TV-Serie Lost startete im Jahr 2004 und endete im Jahr 2010 nach sechs Staffeln. Inhalt ist der Flugzeugabsturz des Oceanic Flight 815, bei dem 48 Überlebende auf einer einsamen, geheimnisvollen Insel stranden. Schon der Pilotfilm gleicht durch seine Komplexität und seinen Detailreichtum einem spannenden, aufwendigen Film.

  • “Lost” und Literatur, von Concetta Altmaier

    In der US-amerikanischen Fernsehserie Lost(1) finden sich zahlreiche Verweise auf literarische Texte, die sich durch direkte Zitate oder inhaltliche Parallelen feststellen lassen. Aufgrund der Qualität und Quantität dieser Referenzen scheint Lost im Vergleich zu anderen Serien eine besondere Rolle einzunehmen.

  • Reality and Simulation in “The Prisoner,” by Caroline Fuchs

    Number 6 is being held hostage in “The Village” for only one reason: to answer the question why did he resign. But Number 6 did not resign for personal gain (to sell the valuable information he has) but for personal reasons, rebels against his prison and refuses to cooperate.

  • “Out of thin air” – Mask and Representation in “Mad Men,” by Marten Weise

    The TV Show Mad Men, first broadcast in July 2007, has received a lot of positive critique and has been awarded many well-known prizes. In three consecutive years (2007, 2008 and 2009) it won the Golden Globe for The Best Television Series in the category Drama. It investigates many different topics on a televisual level.

  • Orientation, von Anja Vögerl

    “Orientation” ist die dritte Folge der zweiten Staffel der US TV-Sendung “LOST”. Die Episode enthält zwei verschiedene Handlungsstränge, die auf verschiedenen Seiten der Insel stattfinden, sowie John Lockes Flashback. In diesem Aufsatz soll zuerst der Inhalt der Folge wiedergegeben, danach der Konflikt zwischen Jack und Locke.

  • Jets’ Playoff Chances

    Consider the scenario of the Bengals beating the Steelers then losing to the Ravens. The Cincinnati-Pittsburgh tiebreaker at 9-7 will be decided by won-long percentage within the division. The Steelers are 2-2 now and would finish 3-3. The Bengals are 1-3 now and would finish 2-4. The Steelers would be #2 in their division.

  • Twenty Basic Principles of a New Green Politics, by Alan N. Shapiro

    The disasters that we are facing in the areas of ecology, energy and the environment are well-known and they are truly horrific. However, the fact that everyone knows about these disasters is more a factor contributing to nothing constructive been done about them than it is a factor contributing to something being done about them.

  • Towards a New Green Politics, by Alan N. Shapiro

    On October 11, 2012, I gave a lecture called “Towards a New Green Politics” at the Digital Art department of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Here is the Abstract of the talk, and some of my lecture notes.

  • The Plane of the Future, by Alan N. Shapiro, and Congetture minime sullo spazi-tempo, by Pier Luigi Capucci

    In airports as they are today, the passengers experience the terrible inconvenience of going through the security check of their carry-on luggage. This security system – the purpose of which is, of course, absolutely vital to the prevention of terrorist incidents and hijackings – is designed like an assembly line in a factory.

  • What’s the Use of Unrequited Love?, by Vesela Mihaylova

    The subject of this thesis has its roots in a personal experience. I fell in love, but I was not loved in return and I had to ask myself what was the use or the sense of this love. The affair ended, and I decided to apply my emotions and feelings into an artistic project.

  • Inter-disciplinary or Trans-disciplinary? by Nolan Bazinet

    The discourse of reconciling two epistemologically disparate cultures (the humanities and the natural sciences) has come a long way. From the unfortunate decade of the 1990s when such a discourse – or rather, emotionally-charged debate – was dubbed ‘The Science Wars’ to today’s debates, intellectuals from both camps are finally attempting to bridge a divide.

  • Time-Memory-Experience (part 4 of 4), by Anja Wiesinger and Alan N. Shapiro

    We would like to look into the timeliness of the computer, the rhythm created by the machine and by the user, and the perception of time produced in the interaction between user and machine. Computers don’t have a concept of time as we know it.

  • Time-Memory-Experience (part 3 of 4), by Anja Wiesinger

    The Optical Unconscious in Walter Benjamin’s writing appears first in „A little history of photography“ (1931). Benjamin describes how photography evolved from the portrait photography of the middle of the 19th century to the Paris recordings by Eugene Agdet’s in the 1920s to the applications of the mass media.

  • Time-Memory-Experience (part 2 of 4), by Anja Wiesinger

    The object of analysis is a digital image archive. I chose ARTstor, the biggest online image library for research and education. ARTstor collaborates worldwide with other institutions to include as many collections as possible. The non-profit organization was founded in 2003, out of the urgency to make image material available by the Internet.

  • Time, Memory, Experience (part 1 of 4), by Anja Wiesinger

    In my Master’s Thesis in Art History, done at the Technical University of Berlin in 2011, I attempted to revise the theories and concepts that arose in the advent of the Internet in the early 1990s, when the Internet emerged from a blank canvas and served as a projection for dreams about utopian cyberspace.

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