McKenzie Wark

McKenzie Wark, 2023. Photo: Clemence Poles. Source.
Born	September 10, 1961(1961-09-10) Newcastle, Australia
Lives in	New York City, United States
Web	Aaaaarg, Academia.edu, Wikipedia

McKenzie Wark (1961) is a writer and scholar. Wark is Professor of Culture and Media at Eugene Lang College at The New School in New York City that she joined in 2003. Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, media art, and the Situationist International.

McKenzie Wark was born in Newcastle, Australia in 1961 and grew up with her older brother Robert and sister Susan. When McKenzie was 6 years old, her mother died. Brother Robert McKenzie Wark remembers reading to McKenzie as a young child and the three children were brought up by their architect father Ross Kenneth Wark. McKenzie received a bachelor's degree from Macquarie University (1985), a Master's from the University of Technology, Sydney (1990), and a PhD in Communications from Murdoch University (1998). Wark is married to Christen Clifford. The couple have two children, Felix and Vera. In 2018 Wark came out as transgender and went on to use they/them pronouns; as of 2019 she uses she/her pronouns. [1] [2]

Publications

Books

A Hacker Manifesto, 2004, Log, PDF.

The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International, 2011, Log, PDF.

Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene, 2015, Log, HTML.

• Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994, PDF, IA.

• The Virtual Republic: Australia's Culture Wars of the 1990s, Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1997. [3]

• Celebrities, Culture and Cyberspace, Sydney: Pluto Press Australia, 1999; London: Commerford & Miller, 1999. [4]

• ReadMe! ASCII Culture & The Revenge of Knowledge. Filtered by Nettime (editor, with Josephine Bosma, Pauline van Mourik Broekman, Ted Byfield, Matthew Fuller, Geert Lovink, Diana McCarty, Pit Schultz, Felix Stalder, and Faith Wilding), New York: Autonomedia, Feb 1999, 556 pp. Nettime publication (ZKP5). [5]

• Speedfactory (with Bernard Cohen, John Kinsella, and Terri-Ann White), Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2002, 151 pp. [6]

• Dispositions, Cambridge: Salt, 2002. [7]

• A Hacker Manifesto, Harvard University Press, 2004, 208 pp. [8]
  • Hacker-Manifest, trans. Dietmar Zimmer, Munich: C.H. Beck, 2005, [236] pp. [9] (German)
  • Un manifesto hacker: lavoratori immateriali di tutto il mondo unitevi!, trans. Marco Deseriis, Milan: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, 2005, 178 pp. (Italian)
  • Hakkā sengen [ハッカー宣言], trans. Tomoyuki Kaneta, Tokyo: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 2005, 248 pp. (Japanese)
  • Un manifeste hacker, trans. Club Post-1984 Mary Shelley & Cie Hacker band, Paris: Ubiprodedis/Criticalsecret, 2006, 389+[24] pp. (French)
  • Ena maniphesto tōn chaker [Ένα μανιφέστο των χάκερ], trans. Nektarios Kalaitzēs, Athens: Scripta, 2006, 300 pp. (Greek)
  • Un manifiesto hacker, trans. Laura Manero, Barcelona: Alpha Decay, 2006, 204 pp; repr., 2023. [10] (Spanish)
  • Hakerski manifest, trans. Tomislav Medak, Zagreb: Multimedijalni institut, 2006. (Croatian)
  • Bir hacker manifestosu, trans. Merve Darende, Istanbul: Altıkırkbeş, 2008, 234 pp. [11] (Turkish)
  • Hekerski manifest, trans. Aleksandra Rekar, afterw. Janez Strehovec, Ljubljana: Maska, 2008, 275 pp. (Slovenian)
  • Hackerkiáltvány, trans. Nagy Mónika Zsuzsanna, Budapest: Noran Libro, 2010, 213 pp. [12] (Hungarian)
  • Manifiesto hacker, trans. Sensei Magnus, n.d., [19] pp. Trans. of a shorter essay. (Spanish)

• Gam3r 7h3ory, Institute for the Future of the Book, 2006ff.

• Gamer Theory, Harvard University Press, 2007, 118 pp.
  • Théorie du gamer, trans. Noé le Blanc, Paris: Éditions Amsterdam / Les prairies ordinaires, 2019, 209 pp. (French)

• 50 Years of Recuperation: The Situationist International 1957-2007, New York: Buell Center, and Princeton Architectural Press, 2008, 48+[32] pp. Review: Kinkle (Hist Mat). [13]

• The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International, London: Verso, 2011, 224 pp. [14]
  • Kaldırım Taşlarının Altında Kumsal Var, trans. Arda Çiltepe, Istanbul: SEL, 2014, 226 pp. Publisher. (Turkish)
  • La playa bajo la calle: la vida cotidiana y los momentos gloriosos de la Internacional Situacionista, trans. José Luis Piquero, Paracuellos de Jarama (Madrid): Hermida, 2018, 272 pp. (Spanish)

• Telesthesia: Communication, Culture and Class, Cambridge: Polity, 2012. [15]
  • Kua yue shi kong de gan zhi: Jiao liu, wen hua yu jie ji [跨越时空的感知: 交流,文化与阶级], Nanjing: Jiang su feng huang jiao yu chu ban she, trans. Changyu Hu, 2015, 191 pp. (Chinese)

• The Spectacle of Disintegration: Situationist Passages out of the Twentieth Century, London: Verso, 2013. [16]
  • Spektakl dezintegracji. Sytuacjonistyczne drogi wyjścia z XX wieku, trans. Katarzyna Makaruk, Warsaw: Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, 2014, 313 pp. Excerpt. Publisher. (Polish)

• W.A.N.T: Weaponized Adorables Negotiation Tactics (with Rachel Law), 2013, 80 pp.

• Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation (with Alexander R. Galloway and Eugene Thacker), University of Chicago Press, 2013.

• I'm Very Into You. Correspondence 1995–1996 (with Kathy Acker), ed. & intro. Matias Viegener, afterw. John Kinsella, Semiotext(e), 2015, 160 pp. Publisher.
  • Jeg er helt opslugt af dig: korrespondance 1995-1996, trans. Mikkel Thykier and Mathias Ruther, Aarhus: Antipyrine, 2019, 184 pp. (Danish)
  • Du hast es mir angetan. E-Mails 1995/96, ed. & intro. Matias Viegener, afterw. McKenzie Wark, trans. Johanna Davids, Berlin: August, 2022, 173 pp. Publisher. (German)

• Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene, London: Verso, 2015, xxiv+280 pp.
  • Molekulares Rot. Theorie für das Anthropozän, trans. Dirk Höfer, Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 2017, 300 pp. Publisher. (German)
  • Molekularno rdeče: teorija za dobo antropocena, trans. Marko Bauer, afterw. Primož Krašovec, Ljubljana: Sophia, 2018, xxx+323 pp. Reviews: Kaluža (Radio Student), Kuhar (Teorija in praksa). [17] [18] (Slovenian)
  • Moleküler Kızıl. Antroposen Çağının Teorisi, Metis Yayınları, 2020. (Turkish)

• Molecular Red Reader (editor), London: Verso, 2015, 85 pp.

• General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty First Century, London: Verso, 2017, viii+325 pp.
  • Intelecte generale: douăzeci şi unu de gânditori pentru secolul douăzeci şi unu, trans. Ovidiu Anemţoaicei, Paul Burcia and Florin Buzdugan, Bucharest: Tracus Arte, 2018, 440 pp. (Romanian)
  • 21 shi ji de 21 wei si xiang jia [21世纪的21位思想家], Shanghai: Shanghai wen yi chu ban she (上海文艺出版社), 2023, 398 pp. (Chinese)
  • Intelectos colectivos: pensadores para el siglo XXI, trans. Javier de la Morena Corrales, La Caja Books, 2023, 470 pp. (Spanish)

• Capital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse?, London: Verso, 2019, 202 pp.
  • El capitalismo ha muerto: el ascenso de la clase vectorialista, trans. Federico Fernandez Giordano, Madrid: Holobionte, 2021, 240 pp. Publisher. (Spanish)
  • Das Kapital ist tot. Kommt jetzt etwas Schlimmeres? Kritik einer politischen Ökonomie der Information, trans. Tom Wohlfarth, Leipzig: Merve, 2021, 248 pp. (German)
  • Il capitale è morto. Il peggio deve ancora venire, trans. Chiara Reali, Rome: Nero, 2021, 198 pp. Publisher. (Italian)
  • Μακένζι Γουάρκ, Το κεφάλαιο πέθανε, trans. Yannis Siglidis (Γιάννης Σιγλίδης), Athens: Topovoros Books (Εκδόσεις Τοποβόρος), 2022, 272 pp. Publisher. Interview with translator. (Greek)

• Reverse Cowgirl, South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e), 2020, 199 pp.
  • Vaquera invertida, trans. Mariano López Seoane, Buenos Aires: Caja Negra, 2022, 234 pp. Publisher. (Spanish)
  • Reverse Cowgirl, trans. Johanna Davids, Berlin: August, 2023, 240 pp. (German)

• Sensoria: Thinkers for the Twenty-first Century, London: Verso, 2020, 296 pp. Publisher.
  • 21 segi jiseong, Paju: Munhak Sasang, 2019, 463 pp. (Korean)

• Philosophy for Spiders: On the Low Theory of Kathy Acker, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2021, 192 pp. Publisher. Review: Markiewicz (EJAS).

• Raving, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, Mar 2023, xiv+119 pp. Publisher. Reviews: Medithi (LARB), Benson (ArtReview), Volpert (PopMatters). Interviews: Colyar (The Cut), Hjerpe (Document). [19] [20]
  • "Xéneuphorie", trans. Fanny Quément, Audimat 19, 2023, pp 89-105. Trans. of ch. 2. [21] (French)
  • Raving, trans. Mariano López Seoane, afterw. Marta Echaves, Buenos Aires: Caja Negra, 2023, 184 pp. Publisher. (Spanish)
  • Raving, trans. Alessandra Castellazzi, Rome: Nero, 2023, 188 pp. Publisher. (Italian)
  • Raven, trans. Joannie Baumgärtner, Leipzig: Merve, 2024, 192 pp. Publisher. (German)
  • Raving, trans. Vít Bohal and Františka Blažková, Prague: tranzit.cz, 2024. Book launch. Publisher. (Czech)
  • Raving, trans. Nuno Quintas, Lisbon: Orfeu Negro, 2025. (Portuguese)

• Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir, London: Verso, 2023, 176 pp. Excerpt. Excerpt. Interviews: Abraham (AnOther), Pensato (Xtra). Reviews: Bond (NYT), Molina (Guernica), Milner (Lambda Lit Rev). Publisher.
  • Maitasuna eta dirua, sexua eta heriotza, trans. Danele Sarriugarte, Navarra: Katakrak, 2024, 240 pp. Publisher. (Basque)
  • Amor y dinero, sexo y muerte, trans. Lola Copacabana, Buenos Aires: Caja Negra, 2025, 208 pp. Publisher. (Spanish)

• Life Story, Hanuman, 2024, 152 pp. Publisher.

• Leaving the Twentieth Century: Situationist Revolutions, London: Verso, 2024, 416 pp. Publisher.

• Writing on Raving: An Anthology (editor, with Geoffrey Mak and Zoë Beery), OR Books, Apr 2025, 240 pp. A mix of voices from the Brooklyn underground rave scene and beyond. [22]

Journals

• editor, e-flux 117: "trans | femme | aesthetics", Apr 2021.
• editor, with madison moore, e-flux 132: "Black Rave", Dec 2022.

Essays, reviews

• "Fashioning the Future: Fashion, Clothing, and the Manufacturing of Post-Fordist Culture", Cultural Studies 5:1, 1991, pp 61-76.

• "Speaking Trajectories: Meaghan Morris, Antipodean Theory and Australian Cultural Studies", Cultural Studies 6:3, 1992, pp 433-448.

• "Lost in Space: Into the Digital Image Labyrinth", Continuum 7:1, 1993, pp 140-160.

• "Third Nature", Cultural Studies 8:1, 1994, pp 115-132.

• "Vectoral Perception and Cultural Studies: Essaying the Gulf in Global Media Perception", Journal of International Communication 1:1, 1994, pp 60-87.

• "Let's Perform", in Fruit: A New Anthology of Contemporary Australian Gay Writing, ed. Gary Dunne, Sydney: BlackWattle Press, 1994; repr., Meanjin 69:4, Summer 2010, pp 119-123.

• "In the Shadow of the Military‐Entertainment Complex", Continuum 9:1, 1996, pp 98-117.

• "The Demidenko‐Effect and the Virtual Republic", Continuum 11:2, 1997, pp 61-71.

• "Antipodality", Angelaki 2:3, 1997, pp 17-27.

• Ray Edgar, Ashley Crawford (eds.), Transit Lounge, Melbourne: Fine Art Publishing, 1998. Includes several of Wark's essays.

• "In the Midst of a Deleuzian Cultural Studies", Continuum 15:1, 2001, pp 117-127.

• "Hackers", Theory, Culture & Society 23:2-3, May 2006, pp 320-322.

• "Information Wants to Be Free (But Is Everywhere in Chains)", Cultural Studies 20:2-3, 2006, pp 165-183. [23]

• "“Not Yet”: On the Novels of Kenneth Fearing", The Brooklyn Rail, 2 Apr 2007.

• "Détournement: An Abuser's Guide", Angelaki 14:1, 2009, pp 145-153.

• "New Babylon ou le monde des communs. L'actualité intemporelle du projet d'architecture utopique de Constant", Multitudes 41, 2010, pp 114-125. (French)

• "Nouvelles stratégies de la classe vectorialiste", trans. Christophe Degoutin, Multitudes 54, 2013, pp 191-198. (French)

• "Blue Ruin: Totality and Acceleration", Rhizome, 10 Mar 2014.

• "Designs for a New World", e-flux 58, Oct 2014.

• "Capture All: SimCity, Gamespace, and Play", The Avery Review 6, 2015.

• "The Vectoralist Class", e-flux Supercommunity, 29 Aug 2015.

• "Creators of the World Unite", Los Angeles Review of Books, 25 Nov 2015; repr. in LARB: The Digital Revolution: Debating the Promise and Perils of the Internet, Automation, and Algorithmic Lives in the Last Years of the Obama Administration, 2017, pp 63-68. Review of Cory Doctorow's Information Doesn’t Want to be Free.

• "The Vectoralist Class, Part II", e-flux 70, Feb 2016.

• "Undeletable Text: Eric Hobsbawm", boundary 2 43:2, 2016, pp 125-140.

• "Friction", Public Seminar, 5 Sep 2016. On Anna Tsing.

• "Africa contra Hegel", Public Seminar, 24 Sep 2016. On Achille Mbembe.

• "The Sublime Language of My Century", Public Seminar, 14 May 2016.

• "Digital Provenance and the Artwork as Derivative", e-flux 77, Nov 2016.

• "What if this is not Capitalism Any More, but Something Worse? NPS Plenary Lecture, APSA 2015, Philadelphia, PA", New Political Science 39:1, Feb 2017, pp 58-66.

• "From Architecture to Kainotecture", e-flux Architecture: "Accumulation", 5 Apr 2017.

• "Eduardo Viveiros de Castro: In and Against the Human", Verso Blog, 12 Jun 2017.

• "On Nick Land", Verso Blog, 20 Jun 2017.

• "Our Aesthetics", Verso Blog, 27 Jun 2017. On Sianne Ngui.

• "RetroDada Manifesto", Visual Communication Quarterly 24:2, Jul 2017, pp 98-99.

• "My Collectible Ass", e-flux 85, Oct 2017.

• "Et si ce n’était même plus du capitalisme, mais quelque chose d’encore bien pire?", trans. Yves Citton, Multitudes 70, 2018, pp 76-81. (French)

• "Wild Gone Girls", e-flux 93, Sep 2018.

• "How Philosopher Paul Virilio (1932–2018) Spoke to an Age of Acceleration and Total War", Frieze, 19 Sep 2018. On Paul Virilio.

• "Kathy Acker: Get Rid of Meaning", The Brooklyn Rail, 5 Feb 2019.

• with Carla Nappi, "Reading Needham Now", Technology and Culture 60:2, Apr 2019, pp 562-573.

• "Freaky Realism: Michael Taussig's Palma Africana", The Brooklyn Rail, May 2019.

• "L'Europe dans les strates du monde numérique", trans. Anne Querrien, Multitudes 74, 2019, pp 57-63. (French)

• "Femme as in Fuck You", e-flux 102, Sep 2019.

• "Reality Cabaret: On Juliana Huxtable", e-flux 107, Mar 2020.

• "Theory in a Pandemic", Identities 17:1, Skopje, Summer 2020, pp 46-48.
  • "Teoria em uma pandemia", trans. Nicolas Llano, Identities 17:1, Skopje, Summer 2020, pp 46-48. (Portuguese)

• "Trans | Acker", TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 7:3, Aug 2020, pp 476-478. [24]

• "The Cis Gaze and Its Others (for Shola)", e-flux 117, Apr 2021.

• "Trap Metaphysics ", e-flux 122, Nov 2021.

• "Theory Daddy", New Left Review, 16 Nov 2021. On Sylvère Lotringer.

• "Unpacking the Hidden Meanings in The Matrix Resurrections", Frieze, 10 Jan 2022.

• "Danny Boyle’s Disneyfication of the Sex Pistols", Frieze, 16 Jun 2022. On TV series Pistol.

• "Toward a Multiple Trans Literature", The Nation, 7 Jul 2022. On Imogen Binnie’s Nevada.

• "Sex Pirate", New Left Review, 30 Nov 2022. Review of Jason McBride, Eat Your Mind.

• "A New Kind of Trans Poetics", The Nation, 6 Dec 2022. On Kay Gabriel's A Queen in Bucks County.

• "We Are The New School", Verso Blog, 8 Dec 2022.

• "The Mainstream Media’s Fearmongering About Trans Kids Is Nothing But Clickbait", The Nation, 31 Jan 2023.

• "Hazel Jane Plante’s Novel of Art, Sex, and Rock and Roll", The Nation, 27 Apr 2023.

• "What Trans Visibility Gave Me", TIME, 24 Jun 2023.

• "Critical (Auto) Theory", e-flux 140, Nov 2023.
  • "(Auto)teoría crítica", trans. Cecilia Pavón, Caja Negra Editora Blog, Mar 2025. (Spanish)

• "Bound: Be Gay, Do Crime", Criterion, 18 Jun 2024. Film review.

• "The Politics of Cuteness", Frieze, 23 Oct 2024. On trans-feminine aesthetics and the revolutionary potential of prettiness.

• "Deserters’ Dance", Praksis Presents 11: "Party as Form", eds. Praksis and Matilda Moors, Oslo: Praksis, Winter 2024.

more

• Texts on PublicSeminar.org, 2013 ff.

• Texts on Verso Blog, 2011 ff.

• On Academia.edu

Misc

• "Doc 029: McKenzie Wark", Interlude Docs, Oct 2021.

Interviews, conversations

• Ed Valauskas, "FM Interviews: McKenzie Wark", First Monday 9:12, Dec 2004.

• "A Functional Form Has Its Own Beauty: An Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson", Los Angeles Review of Books, 1 Sep 2013.

• "#3 Debord Action Figure. Entretien réalisé par Ewen Chardronnet autour du travail de McKenzie Wark", in Artisans numériques, ed. Ewen Chardronnet, Orléans: HYX, 2014, pp 177-185. (French)

• "Durable Futures and Intimate Encounters. McKenzie Wark with Thyrza Nichols Goodeve", The Brooklyn Rail, 8 Sep 2015.

• with Petar Jandrić, "New Knowledge for a New Planet: Critical Pedagogy for the Anthropocene", Open Review of Educational Research 3:1 (2016), pp 148-178. [25]

• Alexander R. Galloway, "An Interview with McKenzie Wark", boundary2, 7 Apr 2017.

• Richard Marshall, "The Hacker", 3:AM Magazine, 10 Jun 2017.

• "More Pretty: Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli and McKenzie Wark in conversation", e-flux, 25 Nov 2019, 81 min.

• "McKenzie Wark with John Capetta: New Social Environment #8", Mar 2020, 60 min. Video.

• Ondřej Trhoň, "„Všichni jsme uvnitř informačního stroje, žádný vnějšek už není,“ říká spisovatelka a filozofka médií McKenzie Wark", Radio Wave, Prague, 11 May 2020. (Czech)

• "Lyle Ashton Harris with McKenzie Wark", The Brooklyn Rail, Jun 2020.

• "Isabel Sandoval and Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky with McKenzie Wark: New Social Environment #189", Dec 2020, 115 min. Video. [26]

• Sofia Lemos, "Ficting and Facting. McKenzie Wark, RIBOCA2—2nd Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2020", Mousse Magazine, Dec 2020.

• Anders Dunker, "A Rave Just for Friends. Theorist McKenzie Wark thinks we misunderstood the utopian", Kunstkritikk, 21 May 2021.
  • "En rave kun for venner. Teoretikeren McKenzie Wark mener vi har misforstått det utopiske", Kunstkritikk, 21 May 2021. (Norwegian)

• McKenzie Wark Podcast series: The Artist-Publisher, 2022. Audio. Conversations on the art of publishing and publishing as an art form, with Jacqueline De Jong (The Situationist Times), GB Jones (JDS, etc), Hedi El Kholti (Semiotexte), Julietta Aranda (e-flux journal) and Hannah Baer (Deluge Books).

• "McKenzie Wark in conversation with Ryan Mangione", November 41, Jul 2022.

• Zoë Beery, Geoffrey Mak, "The Creative, Collective, Queer Project of Raving", The Nation, Mar 2023.

• "Aria Dean with McKenzie Wark", Brooklyn Rail, New York, Apr 2023.

• Adlan Jackson, "McKenzie Wark Wants You to Know NYC’s DIY Culture Still Exists", Hellgate, Jun 2023.

• Amelia Abraham, "McKenzie Wark’s Illuminating New Memoir Expands the Queer Canon", AnOther Magazine, 27 Sep 2023.

• Misha Pensato, "In ‘Love and Money, Sex and Death,’ McKenzie Wark writes to the people who shaped her", Xtra, 12 Oct 2023.

• Sanja Grozdanić, "How to Be A 21st Century Marxist with Hacker Theorist McKenzie Wark", Ssense, 6 Feb 2024.

Links

• New School
• Bluesky
• Mastodon
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Bandcamp
• Academia.edu
• Linktree
• Anthropocene Lecture at HKW, Berlin, 2017.