To enrich means to add, not to substitute or to abolish.—Luigi Russolo, The Enharmonic Bow “Noise,” as an idea, a subject, a field, an instrument, came upon the scene with a power and swiftness that transformed all of science and […]
Techno-Futurism: Noise, Dissonance, and the Global Avante Garde
Base matter is external and foreign to human aspirations, and it refuses to allow itself to be reduced to the great ontological machines resulting from these aspirations. —Georges Bataille, Base Materialism and Gnosticism For Bataille, religion is not the revelation of
The Horror of Capitalism: Consuming the Body of God
…measured against the conditions of the present, communism itself embodies the most alien of all possible futures. —Edmund Berger Edmund Berger author of Uncertain Futures: An Assessment of the Conditions of the Present (see my review) has for years done his
Edmund Berger: On Art and Revolutionary Transformation in the Age of Blockchain
“Where am I?” asks the sleeper who wakes with difficulty. He doesn’t recognize the room, the furniture. It is too dark; lingering parts of the dream slip into the surroundings, giving them a strangely worrying air. But are we not
Atopia: On Frédéric Neyrat’s Manifesto for a Radical Existentialism
…measured against the conditions of the present, communism itself embodies the most alien of all possible futures. —Edmund Berger Edmund Berger author of Uncertain Futures: An Assessment of the Conditions of the Present (see my review) has for years done his
Edmund Berger: On Art and Revolutionary Transformation in the Age of Blockchain – Part 1
The unlikely parable that Xenophon relates between Socrates and their mutual friend Aristippus of Cyrene serves as a lead in to the subject of this post. Socrates had observed his friend Aristippus for some time and felt that the young
The Hedonistic Imperative: The Seduction of Hypercapitalism
…new technologies may suggest, create, even impose new ends, never before conceived, simply by offering their feasibility. —Hans Jonas, Toward a Philosophy of Technology For years now philosophers, scientists, artists, pundits, academics, social-critics, etc. have spoken of the death of
Beyond Humanity: The Datacentric Worldview
The digital network that sustains the functioning of our societies as well as their control mechanisms is the ultimate figure of the technical grid that sustains power – and does this not confer a new lease of life on Trotsky’s
Slavoj Zizek: The Next Revolution – the Digital Commons?
We need the deniers to get out of the way. They are risking everyone’s future…. The Koch Brothers are criminals…. They should be charged with criminal activity because they’re putting the profits of their business ahead of the livelihoods of
Climate Apocalypse: The Denial of the Future
On the Anti-City: I think it’s a form of desire for inertia, desire for ubiquity, instantaneousness – a will to reduce the world to a single place, a single identity. – Paul Verilio, Pure War We’ve passed through the looking
For Paul Virilio the last remaining defense against the crumbling world economy is to abandon the ship, lift our heads to the sky and join in the exurbanist future of the Ultracity. In that short book The Futurism of the
Paul Virilio: The Propaganda of a Growing Disaster
In The Futurism of the Instant Paul Virilio envisions a future of interminable migration. A World in transit, mobile: a parade of endless migrants across the globe without stop. The age of nomadism has returned with a vengeance. “What can
Paul Virilio: The Great Migrations of the Future