Tag Archives: Digital Aesthetics Reading Group

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group – 27 October 2017 4-6pm

The first meeting of this year’s Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on the 27th of October from 4pm to 6pm in the Vasari.

For this session we will explore the theme of “The Interface,” led by Dr. Scott Rodgers. Scott has chosen the following texts for us to read:

The chapter “The Unworkable Interface” from Alexander Galloway’s The Interface Effect:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1kgf0l8me65i3s/Galloway%202012%20The%20Interface%20Effect%20Chapter%201.pdf?dl=0

 

And the chapter “Interface” from James Ash’s The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d0e5x9h0cisc1ij/Ash%202015%20The%20Interface%20Envelope%20Chapter%202.pdf?dl=0

The Architecture, Space and Society Centre lecture by Douglas Spencer is that evening at 6pm, so we will wrap up in time to attend.

All the best,

Joel

 

 

Dr. Joel McKim

Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group – 21 March 2017 3pm

symbolic-misery

The next meeting of the Vasari Research Centre hosted Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on the 21st of March from 3pm to 5pm in the Vasari Centre, 43 Gordon Square.

For this meeting we will be reading the work of French philosopher Bernard Stiegler. The readings, a short essay entitled “Suffocated Desire, Or How the Cultural Industry Destroys the Individual” and two excerpts from Stiegler’s book Symbolic Misery, are available as pdfs upon request. I hope some of you will be able to join us on the 21st.

All best wishes,

Joel

Dr. Joel McKim

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group: 9 December 2016 3pm

The next meeting of the Vasari Research Centre hosted Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on 9 December from 3pm to 5pm in the Vasari.

For this meeting we will be reading two essays from the recent Postdigital Aesthetics: Art, Computation And Design collection (edited by David Berry and Michael Dieter).

The two essays – “Aesthetics of the Banal: ‘New Aesthetics’ in an Era of Diverted Digital Revolutions” by Christian Ulrik Andersen and Søren Bro Pold and “The Genius and the Algorithm: Reflections on the New Aesthetic as a Computer’s Vision” by Stamatia Portanova – are available upon request and all are very welcome to join us.

All best wishes,

Joel McKim

j.mckim@bbk.ac.uk

 

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group: 14 October 2016 3pm

The next meeting of the Vasari Research Centre hosted Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on 14 October from 3pm to 5pm in the Vasari (43 Gordon Square.

The topic of this meeting will be an introduction to the writings of Gilbert Simondon. Simondon is an important mid-century French philosopher of technology (an inspirational figure for Gilles Deleuze, Bernard Stiegler, Isabelle Stengers, Bruno Latour…). This is an opportune time to look at Simondon as his major texts will soon be published in English. Yuk Hui from the Leuphana University of Lüneburg will return to the Vasari to act as a guest moderator for this discussion. Yuk is a leading commentator on Simondon, so this is a nice opportunity to read alongside an authority on the subject.

Yuk has selected the following readings (please select links): an essay entitled “Technical Mentality” and a short section of Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, entitled “Technical Individualization.”

I hope some of you will be able join us, but please do let me know, as spaces are limited.

 

All the best,

 

Joel McKim

j.mckim@bbk.ac.uk

Director of Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group 29 June 2016

Dear all,

The second meeting of the Vasari Research Centre hosted Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will take place on 29 June from 4pm to 6pm in the Vasari Centre.

Our topic this meeting will be a broad examination of the theories and methodologies of the Digital Humanities with a focus on literary critic Franco Moretti (a proponent of quantitative measurement within the humanities) and some of the current debates surrounding the field. PDF texts by Moretti and Maciej Eder are available upon request and we will also draw from the following online resources.

Review of Moretti’s Distant Reading: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/8/1/000171/000171.html

LARB Critique of Digital Humanities: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/neoliberal-tools-archives-political-history-digital-humanities/

Response to LARB Critique: https://thepointmag.com/2016/criticism/system-reboot

Hope you can join us.

All the best,
Joel

Dr Joel McKim

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Digital Aesthetics Reading Group, 4 May 2016

Beautiful dataThe inaugural meeting of the Digital Aesthetics Reading Group will meet on Wednesday 4 May from 6-8pm. The reading group is organized by the Vasari Research Centre for Art and Technology and meetings will be held in the Vasari (basement of 43 Gordon Square, below the cinema). The reading group is an opportunity for Birkbeck students and staff interested in digital culture and aesthetics to gather and discuss relevant texts, artworks and developments in the field.

The first meeting will include a discussion on a chapter from Orit Halpern’s recent book Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 and a screening of a selection of the film work of the designers Ray and Charles Eames.

If you would like to receive a PDF of the Halpern chapter or have any questions about the reading group, please feel free to contact Joel McKim (j.mckim@bbk.ac.uk).

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