Since the late 1970s, the Berlin-based contemporary artist Isa Genzken (b. 1948) has produced a body of work that is remarkable for its formal and material inventiveness. In her sculptural practice, G
When two categories merge and a new syntactic object is formed, what determines which of the two merged categories transmits its properties one level up -- or, in current terminology, which of the two
Since the late 1970s, the Berlin-based contemporary artist Isa Genzken (b. 1948) has produced a body of work that is remarkable for its formal and material inventiveness. In her sculptural practice, G
Humans are no longer spectators who need to adapt to their natural environment. Ourimpact on the earth has caused changes that are outside the range of natural variability and areequivalent to such ma
Humans are no longer spectators who need to adapt to their natural environment. Ourimpact on the earth has caused changes that are outside the range of natural variability and areequivalent to such ma
Most research on media use by young people with disabilities focuses on the therapeutic and rehabilitative uses of technology; less attention has been paid to their day-to-day encounters with media an
There's never been a better time to be outside the consensus -- and if you don'tbelieve it, then peer into these genre-defining essays from The Baffler, the magazine that's beenblunting the cutting ed
Every day in American cities street vendors spread out their wares on sidewalks, foodtrucks serve lunch from the curb, and homeowners hold sales in their front yards -- examples of thewide range of in
Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves toengage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music mustmaster an array of sp
The Swedish Pirate Party emerged as a political force in 2006 when a group ofsoftware programmers and file-sharing geeks protested the police takedown of The Pirate Bay, aSwedish file-sharing search e
With robots, we are inventing a new species that is part material and part digital. The ambition of modern robotics goes beyond copying humans, beyond the effort to make walking, talking androids that
In Life after New Media, Sarah Kember and Joanna Zylinska make acase for a significant shift in our understanding of new media. They argue that we should movebeyond our fascination with objects--comp
Today, computers are part of kids' everyday lives, used both for play and forlearning. We envy children's natural affinity for computers, the ease with which they click in andout of digital worlds. Th
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many observers feared that terrorists and rogue states would obtain weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or knowledge about how to build them from the vast Soviet
The idea that technology will pave the road to prosperity has been promoted throughboth boom and bust. Today we are told that universal broadband access, high-tech jobs, andcutting-edge science will p
Every time we listen—to speech, to music, to footsteps approaching or retreating—our auditory perception is the result of a long chain of diverse and intricate processes that unfold withi
The uniqueness of shape as a perceptual property lies in the fact that it is both complex and structured. Shapes are perceived veridically---perceived as they really are in the physical world, regard
We are living beyond our means, running up debts both economic and ecological, consuming the planet's resources at rates not remotely sustainable. But it's hard to imagine a different way. How can we
What if Jacques Lacan—the brilliant and eccentric Parisian psychoanalyst—had worked as a police detective, applying his theories to solve crimes? This may conjure up a mental film clip st
Information retrieval in the age of Internet search engines has become part of ordinary discourse and everyday practice: "Google" is a verb in common usage. Thus far, more attention has bee
We are material beings in a material world, but we are also beings who have experiences and feelings. How can these subjective states be just a matter of matter? To defend materialism, philosophical
This enlightening, entertaining, and intriguing novel begins as a story within a story—or a story within a trunk. A Frenchman—our narrator, presumably the author Michel Jouvet, or a liter
Learning from Las Vegas, originally published by the MIT Press in 1972, was one of the most influential and controversial architectural books of its era. Thirty-five years later, it remains a perennia
For more than two decades, in such landmark studies as The Second Self and Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle has challenged our collective imagination with her insights about how technology enters our
What happens when fire strikes the manufacturing plant of the sole supplier for thebrake pressure valve used in every Toyota? When a hurricane shuts down production at a Unileverplant? When Dell and A
The art of Louise Bourgeois stages a dynamic encounter between modern art and psychoanalysis, argues Mignon Nixon in the first full-scale critical study of the artist's work. A pivotal figure in twent
Historically, music was long classified as both art and science. Aspects of music--from the mathematics of tuning to the music of the celestial spheres--were primarily studied as science until the sev
The story of the building of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College in the context of ecological design, institutional learning, and the green campus movement.The story of the Adam Joseph Lew
What is the condition of the suspect in a post-9/11 world? Do perpetual detention, ubiquitous surveillance cameras, and the legal apparatus of the USA Patriot Act target suspects accurately or genera
Since September 11, 2001, much has been said about the difficult balancing act between freedom and security, but few have made specific proposals for how to strike that balance. As the scandals over
One of the most contentious questions in public utility regulation is what "fair"rate of return to allow investors. This book spells out the advantages and disadvantages of themajor methods used to es
In these essays, Peter Lunenfeld does theory and criticism "in real time," looking at (among other subjects) art, video games, book design, "techno-masturbation," T
In Panpsychism in the West, David Skrbina argues for the importance of panpsychism - the theory that mind exists, in some form, in all living and nonliving things - when considering the nature of cons
Why are workers with identical skills found in both "good" jobs and "bad" jobs? Why are workers who do similar jobs paid differently, contrary to standard competitive theory? Obse
This accessible, hands-on text not only introduces students to the important topics in historical linguistics but also shows them how to apply the methods described and how to think about the issues;
Foster begins with the primitivist fantasies of Gauguin and Picasso, which he examines through the Freudian lens of the primal scene. He then turns to the purist obsessions of the Viennese architect L
In Irrational Modernism, Amelia Jones gives us a history of New York Dada, reinterpreted in relation to the life and works of Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Jones enlarges our conception of Ne
Winner of the 2005 Gary A. Olson Book Award presented by the Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition and JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition The digital era promises, as did many other techno
Thomas Bugge, Danish Astronomer Royal, spent six months in France in 1798-99 as hiscountry's delegate to the International Commission on the Metric System, and while there he made aclose study of the
When aerospace engineers, laid off from the space program, feel lucky to find employment as manual laborers; when physics Ph.D.s, ready and willing to teach, find themselves at the end of waiting lis
