[-empyre-] Welcome to May on -empyre: "In flux: New Media Theory in 2014"

[Renate Ferro]

Welcome to May on –empyre soft-skinned space:

In flux: New Media Theory in 2014
Organized by Renate Ferro (US)

We invite our open network of –empyre subscribers to post freely with
our invited guests Geert Lovink (NL), Alexander Galloway (US), and
McKenzie Wark (AU) and others. Our discussion will take place during
four weeks in May beginning  on the 5th and concluding on May 31st,
2014.

Inspired by the impetus from last month's wide-ranging discussion of
"critical making," we are eager to receive your thoughts on how we
might understand new media theory at this moment of openness to
international productions and differences.  We invite all –empyre-
subscribers to collectively contribute to this month’s discussion. Our
expansive and diverse list of artists, theorists, programmers, gamers,
academics, activists from diverse geographies across the globe may
provide very different responses to this provocation. Let’s take
advantage of the “turn” of the seasons to consider the ever-changing
territories we negotiate individually and collectively.

Rather than featuring weekly featured guests in May, we propose
holding an open discussion around issues about new media theory, In
flux: New Media Theory in 2014.   Related  issues are raised by
Alexander Galloway, McKenzie Wark, and Eugene Thacker's recent book,
Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation. While the
monograph is a must read (the bibliographic information is listed
below), we also propose taking our momentum from a response to the
book written by Geert Lovink and an online response by Mckenzie Wark
(the links are listed below as well).  We will be pleased to be joined
by Geert, Alex, and Ken at various moments through the conversation
this month. Their biographies are below.

Excommunication by Alexander Galloway, Eugene Thacker and McKenzie Wark
For information about the full text see the University of Chicago:
http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo14413838.html

Geert Lovink’s
"Hermes on the Hudson: Notes on Media Theory after Snowden" in e-flux
http://worker01.e-flux.com/pdf/article_8979320.pdf

McKenzie Warke’s response to Lovink in Public Seminar Commons
"Where next for media theory?"
http://www.publicseminar.org/2014/04/where-next-for-media-theory/#.U2U_z-vWp30

Looking forward to an open, collective month on -empyre.
Renate

Biographies:
Guests:
Alexander R. Galloway (US) is a writer and computer programer working
on issues in philosophy, technology, and theories of mediation.
Associate professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York
University, he is author of several books on digital media and
critical theory, mostly recently The Interface Effect (Polity, 2012).
His collaboration with Eugene Thacker and McKenzie Wark,
Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation, has just been
published by the University of Chicago Press. With Jason E. Smith,
Galloway co-translated the Tiqqun book Introduction to Civil War
(Semiotext[e], 2010). For ten years he worked with RSG on Carnivore,
Kriegspiel and other software projects. Galloway's next project is a
monograph on the work of François Laruelle, set to be published in
late 2014.

Geert Lovink (ND) is a media theorist, internet critic and author of
Zero Comments (2007) and Networks Without a Cause (2012). Since 2004
he is researcher in the School for Communication and Media Design at
the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) where he is the
founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures. From 2004-2013
he also taught in the new media masters program at Mediastudies,
University of Amsterdam. His institute recently organized conferences
and research networks around topics such as the politics and
aesthetics of online video, urban screens, Wikipedia, the culture of
search, internet revenue models, digital publishing strategies and
alternatives in social media. Besides this he is a media theory
professor at the European Graduate School (Saas-Fee) and an associated
member of the Centre for Digital Cultures at the Leuphana University
(Lueneburg/D).

Mackenzie Wark (AU) is the author of three books, Virtual Geography,
The Virtual Republic and Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace. He was a
co-editor of the Nettime anthology Readme! and with Brad Miller
co-produced the multimedia work Planet of Noise. He is Professor of
Culture and Media in Liberal Studies at The New School for Social
Research. His research interests are media theory, new media, critical
theory, cinema, music, and visual art.

Moderator:
Renate Ferro  (US) is a conceptual artist working in emerging
technology and culture. Most recently her work has been featured at
The Freud Museum (London), The Dorksy Gallery (NY), The Hemispheric
Institute and FOMMA (Mexico), The Janus Pannonius Muzeum (Hungary),
and The Free University Berlin (Germany).  Her work has been published
in such journals as Diacritics, Theatre Journal, and Epoch. She is a
co-moderator for the online new media list serve -empyre-soft-skinned
space. Ferro is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of
Art at Cornell University teaching digital media and theory. She also
directs the Tinker Factory, a creative research lab for Research
Design, Creativity, and Interdisciplinary Research.
-- 

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,
(contracted since 2004)
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office:  306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rferro at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu