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Archive for the ‘Media ecology’ Category

Bluffing to please: ChatGPT’s sorry strategy

Posted in Media ecology, Science & society, tagged , , , on February 19, 2025 | Leave a Comment »

I’m sharing an exchange between my son and ChatGPT, wherein he is asking the AI about whether bison ever lived in the northeastern United States. When he hones in on some confusing information, ChatGPT begins to respond in a way that seems calculated to please, and when he tells it its information is incorrect, ChatGPT […]

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We are all dispensable: For a revolution of the means of information

Posted in Manifestos & auguries, Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2025 | 2 Comments »

There’s a clear lesson for us in the mass firings of federal employees, carried out as part of an administrative coup led by the world’s wealthiest tech oligarch, in the country that had up till recently been seen as the paragon of stability and prosperity. That lesson is that we are all dispensable now. In […]

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Drone ontology, part 1

Posted in Media ecology, Science & society, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 17, 2024 | 1 Comment »

I suspect I’m not the only one fascinated by the mystery #drone sightings that have been reported in various parts of the eastern United States and occasionally near military installations in Europe and the UK over the last several weeks. There are three general hypotheses I can think of to account for them (and it […]

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Symbiocene talk, AI, & other things

Posted in Anthropocene, Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , , on June 27, 2024 | 1 Comment »

This blog has been a bit quiet as I transition to my new position as Woodsworth Chair in Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University. I’ll be sharing more about that soon. In the meantime, I can share links to a few recent talks. Last year’s Free Cultural Spaces symposium “Towards the Symbiocene,” held in Amsterdam’s Club […]

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Ecomaterialist theory roundtable

Posted in Cinema, Media ecology, tagged , , , , on April 17, 2024 | Leave a Comment »

I’m part of a roundtable discussion on ecomaterialist theory that’s just been published by the New Review of Film and Television Studies. It’s with film and media studies scholars Seán Cubitt (of Melbourne University), Elena Past (Wayne State University), and Hunter Vaughan (University of Cambridge), and curated by Ludo de Roo (Macquarie University). Among other topics, the roundtable delves […]

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Conversations with chatbots

Posted in Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , on September 4, 2023 | Leave a Comment »

Like a lot of university faculty these days, I’ve been thinking about, and testing out, chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. In fact, I’ve been quizzing them on various things. They have answered some of my questions with general-consensus knowledge. For instance, on whether or not it’s too late for humanity to successfully respond […]

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Ecomedia Studies handbook

Posted in Eco-culture, Eco-theory, Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , on August 8, 2023 | 1 Comment »

I’m happy to share the news that the Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies is out — and is entirely open-access, which is especially thrilling, as Routledge handbooks can otherwise get pretty expensive. It’s a 36-chapter mega-volume that tries to define the field and lay out some of its most exciting international contours. The volume is […]

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Cinema will henceforth be Godardian

Posted in Cinema, Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , , on September 27, 2022 | Leave a Comment »

The work of Jean-Luc Godard, who passed away a couple of weeks ago through euthanasia at the age of 91, has always seemed to me to be about the possibilities of cinema as a form of thinking. Cinema’s combination of sound and image, constrained by the capacities of the medium but also evolving as those […]

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Info war & peace, theories turning to ashes

Posted in Media ecology, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2022 | Leave a Comment »

This is being cross-posted (in modified form) from UKR-TAZ, where it is part of a series examining the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion of Ukraine continues to horrify, with casualties mounting and humanitarian corridors failing to materialize. But one of its more interesting dimensions, from the perspective of media and cultural theory, is the […]

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Post-pandemic, what will have changed?

Posted in Manifestos & auguries, Media ecology, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2021 | 2 Comments »

When we look back at this time a few decades hence, what changes will we take the pandemic of 2020-21 to have ushered in? How will it have transformed work, recreation, travel and transportation, food, politics, and everything else? The following are some initial thoughts toward a hopeful eco-justice based perspective on how the world […]

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Media+Environment at FLEFF tonight

Posted in Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , , on April 9, 2021 | Leave a Comment »

Happy to share that I’ll be participating in a panel/conversation at the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), in a celebration of open-access journal Media+Environment, today from 5:00 to 6:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time (21:00-22:30 GMT). FLEFF, which is now in its 24th year, is one of the signature environmental film festivals around the world. […]

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The information coup

Posted in Media ecology, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2021 | 1 Comment »

Shoshana Zuboff’s analysis of “The Coup We Are Not Talking About,” published in today’s Sunday New York Times, is an essential follow-up to her book Surveillance Capitalism, applying that book’s analysis to the situation we are living through. This other coup is the “epistemic coup” which, she writes, “proceeds in four stages”:

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