an expansive educational and research collaboration through the formation of five river hubs spanning the river’s headwaters to the Gulf. The Open School engages pressing issues at the intersections of race, environment, and extraction through education, cultural exchange, and action.
Tagwriting
The fourth coast, revisited (article)
The author travelled for two and a half months by canoe and other modes of transport down the entire length of the Mississippi River with the Mississippi. An Anthropocene River project. Reflecting on this journey, this essay revisits Catherine Brown and William Morrish’s 1991 essay, The Fourth Coast: An Expedition on the Mississippi River, in
Rupture of the Virtual
Book Release! Rupture of the Virtual is an examination of a concept of the material and the invaluable resources it offers for critical thinking today. In a multifaceted analysis, the book considers the theoretical reasons for the material’s exclusion from media theory and details the military origins of computing interface technologies, such as the Head-up
AN AESTHETICS OF DISPLACEMENT
(Written as an introduction to the Anthropocene Film Residency. Read more about the project on the Anthropocene Curriculum website.) 1 Looking down on St. Anthony Falls from the walls of the lock and dam infrastructure, one can marvel at this feat of technical engineering. The river runs over an artificial concrete platform creating the Falls.
“Turn off, Tune out, Drop out: Preliminary Notes on Digital Escapism”
John Kim“Turn off, Tune out, Drop out: Preliminary Notes on Digital Escapism” Curatorial essay for MCAD exhibition, Stream Capture. In retreat centers, adult camps, support groups, intentional communities, and other enclaves around the country, people long for resources to live a life free from a surfeit of the glow of screens. Digital detoxes, media cleanses,
Lumpen 130: The Municipalism issue
My contribution to Lumpen 130, the Municipalism issue. Lumpen – http://www.lumpenmagazine.org/
Nam June Paik book project (draft description)
Ai Weiwei, With Wind (2015) What are we to make of the Orientalist motifs in recent high profile global art? Among examples to list here are Zhang Xiaogang’s monochromatic family portraits seemingly set during the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei’s paper dragon for Alcatraz, and Cai Guo-Qiang’s references to historical figures from first millenia China. These
Culture’s exemption from free trade: A study of media’s autonomy in the World Trade Organization
Culture’s exemption from free trade: A study of media’s autonomy in the World Trade Organization
In recent trade negotiations, such as those that have taken place in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) talks and the World Trade Organization (WTO), proponents of free trade have argued that there is nothing exceptional about the media that should compel one to treat them differently from any other commodity. Media products should be subject to market de-regulation like any other mass-produced item, be it cars, computers or toys. Against this position have stood critical commentary and popular protest that resist the tendency to treat the media as a commodity like any other. Proponents of exemption have maintained that they have a cultural function or value that should exempt them from trade liberalization. The controversy is fascinating because it speaks directly to capitalism’s historical expansion to cultural production and the extent to which notions of value outside the commodity form continue to inform recent international discussions… [read more at link above]
Infinity and spinning pinwheels of death
(Written about CAA’s project for Northern Lights AOV6.) Read the publication. The Center for Advanced Application’s (CAA) newest product, Infinity, makes visual reference to a class of animated icons that user interface developers refer to as activity progress indicators. These icons not only include the much maligned spinning wheel (suggested by Infinity), but also the
Encounters with the Material: Krzysztof Wodiczko and site-specific media art
Forthcoming in Discourse. This article examines media practices that open encounters with the material as a critical intervention into the virtual condition. It addresses Krzysztof Wodiczko’s site-specific large-scale image projections as an example of this type of media practice. Wodiczko’s work has been characterized as “interrogative,” that is, critical of social and political problems associated
