In a recent interview, Geert Lovink called the internet perhaps the mistake of his generation. According to him, the idea that people can control it is naive. ‘Platform Brutality’ is the eighth book in Lovink’s series about the internet and forms a trinity with ‘Sad By Design’ (2019) and ‘Stuck On The Platform’ (2022), which… Continue reading dreaming
Category: book review
materialism
There is a connection between our lost faith in a better future and the growing popularity of science fiction, German A. Duarte, Andrea Facchetti, and Seçil Uğur Yavuz from the Faculty of Art and Design at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Northern Italy argue. By analyzing the work of author Philip K. Dick, they… Continue reading materialism
speculative realism
For theorists, the 2007 conference on speculative realism at Goldsmiths College in London is like the first Nirvana concerts in Belgium and the Netherlands. Afterward, everyone was there or wanted to be there. The conference brought together several thinkers with more in common than in difference: criticism of the prevailing continental philosophy. Four philosophers stood… Continue reading speculative realism
what is sci-fi?
How do you define science fiction? That is the question that has occupied Steven Shaviro for decades. Now that he is approaching sixty, he still has no answer. That is precisely as it should be, writes Shaviro: science fiction has no clear boundaries, which is good. Science fiction is an important genre, he emphasizes. For… Continue reading what is sci-fi?
design pessimism
Design has become an empty shell, Silvio Lorusso argues, and he does so with a lot of humor and serious theoretical and practical observations. Lorusso refers to the word design and the entire discipline. This creates a difficult situation: many designers feel responsible for improving the world, while they have to do so with resources… Continue reading design pessimism