Alexander R. Galloway

Alexander R. Galloway (1974) is a writer and computer programer working on issues in philosophy, technology, and theories of mediation. Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, he is author of several books on digital media and critical theory, including The Interface Effect (Polity, 2012). His collaboration with Eugene Thacker and McKenzie Wark, Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation, was published by the University of Chicago Press. With Jason E. Smith, Galloway co-translated the Tiqqun book Introduction to Civil War (Semiotext[e], 2010). For ten years he worked with RSG on Carnivore, Kriegspiel and other software projects. Galloway's last book was a monograph on the work of François Laruelle, published in 2014. He is currently finishing a new manuscript on the deep history of computation.

Galloway has given over two hundred talks both across the U.S. and in ten countries around the world. His writings have been translated into eleven languages. He is recipient of a number of grants and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Berlin Prize, and the Prix Ars Electronica.

A member of the NYU faculty since 2002, Galloway has also held visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania (Spring 2012) and Harvard University (Fall 2016). During 2019-2020 he was a member in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. (2020)

Publications

Monographs

• Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization, MIT Press, 2003, ARG.
  • Purotokoru: datsu chūshinka igo no kontorōru wa ikani sadō suru noka [プロトコル : 脫中心化以後のコントロールはいかに作動するのか], trans. Keisuke Kitano, Kyoto: Jinbunshoin, 2017, 421 pp. (Japanese)

• Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture, University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
  • Teorija video iger: eseji o algoritemski kulturi, trans. Andraž Golc, afterw. Janez Strehovec, Ljubljana: Maska, 2011, 271 pp. (Slovenian)

• with Eugene Thacker, The Exploit: A Theory of Networks, University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

• Ausser Betrieb: das müssige Interface, Cologne: Buchhandlung Walther König, 2010, 48 pp. Trans. of the lecture "The Unworkable Interface". (German)

• French Theory Today: An Introduction to Possible Futures, ed. Sarah Resnick New York: The Public School New York/Erudio Editions, 2011. [1]
  • Les nouveaux réalistes: philosophie et postfordisme: C. Malabou, B. Stiegler, M. Belhaj Kacem, Q. Meillassoux, F. Laruelle, trans. Clémentine Duzer and Thomas Duzer, Paris: L. Scheer, 2012, 159 pp. (French)

• The Interface Effect, Polity Press, 2012, xi+170 pp.

• with Eugene Thacker and McKenzie Wark, Excommunication: Three Inquiries in Media and Mediation, University of Minnesota Press, 2013.

• Laruelle: Against the Digital, University of Minnesota Press, 2014, xxv+280 pp. [2]

• Uncomputable: Play and Politics in the Long Digital Age, Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2021, xv+263 pp. [3]

Articles

• "Playing the code-Allegories of control in Civilization", Radical Philosophy 128(5): pp 33-40, Nov-Dec 2004.
• "Warcraft and Utopia", Ctheory, Feb 2006.
• "Protocol", Theory, Culture & Society 23(2-3): "Problematizing Global Knowledge", 2006, pp 317-320. [4]
• "Carnivore personal edition”: exploring distributed data surveillance", AI & SOCIETY 20(4) Mar 2006, pp 483-492.
• "Language wants to be Overlooked: On Software and Ideology", Journal of Visual Culture 5(3), 2006, pp 315-331. [5]
• "24/7, 16.8: Is 24 a Political Show?", Afterimage 35(1) Jul 2007, pp 18–22.
  • '"24/7, 16,8: ¿Es “24” una serie política?"', trans. Sergio Martinez Luna. Estudios visuales: Ensayo, teoría y crítica de la cultura visual y el arte contemporáneo 5: 2008, pp 23-42. IA (Archive). [6]
• "Radical illusion (a game against)." Games and Culture 2(4): 2007, pp 376-391.
• "The Unworkable Interface", New Literary History, 39(4): 2008, pp 931-955.
  • "Außer Betrieb: Das müßige Interface (The Unworkable Interface)", International Flusser Lectures expanded trans. Niklas Schrape. Walther König; Universität der Künste Berlin, 2010. pp 48 (German)
• with Eugene Thacker. "On Narcolepsy", The Spam Book: On Viruses, Porn and Other Anomalies from the Dark Side of Digital Culture, eds. Jussi Parikka and Tony D. Sampson, forew. Sadie Plant, Hampton Press, 2009, pp 251-263.
• "Debord’s nostalgic algorithm", Culture Machine" 10:1, 2009 pp 131-136.
• "The Spirit of Nihilism", Ctheory, October 2009.
• "The Anti-language of New Media", Discourse 32:3, 2010, pp 276-284.
• "A Note on the Translation" as trans. with Jason E. Smith in Tiqqun. Introduction to Civil War. Los Angeles: Semiotexte, 2010. p 7.
• "What is New Media? Ten Years After 'The Language of New Media'", Criticism 53:3, 2011, pp 377-384. [7]
• "Does the Whatever Speak?", Race after the Internet, eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White, Routledge, 2012. pp 111-127. Log
• "Computers and the Superfold", Deleuze Studies 6(4): 2012, pp 513-528.
• "What is a Hermeneutic Light?", Leper Creativity: Cyclonopedia Symposium, Punctum Books, 2012, pp 159-172. OAPEN
• "Plastic reading", Novel: A Forum on Fiction 45(1): 2012, pp 10-12.
• "The computational image of organization: Nils Aall Barricelli", Grey Room 2012, pp 26-45.
• "The Poverty of Philosophy: Realism and Post-Fordism", Critical Inquiry 39:2, 2013, pp 347-366. [8]
  • "哲學的貧乏：唯實論與後福特主" [Zhéxué de pínfá: Wéi shí lùn yǔ hòu fútè zhǔyì] trans. 王聖智 [Wang, Shen-Jyh], ARTITUDE Magazine. Jul. 2014, 74-83. IA (Archive). (Chinese).
• "Jodi’s Infrastructure", e-flux Journal 74, Jun 2016.
• "History Is What Hurts: On Old Materialism", Social Text 34:2, 2016, pp 125-141. [9]
• co-author, "A Questionnaire on Materialisms", October 155:1, 2016, pp 45-47. [10]
• "21 Paragraphs on Badiou", e-flux Journal 89, Mar 2018.
• "Mathification", Diacritics 47:1, 2019, pp 96-115. [11]

Lectures

• "Deleuze and Computers", Lecture, with Communications+1 and UMass Free Culture. W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts. Amherst, MA. Dec 2nd, 2011, Video, 51 min.

Interviews, discussions

• Stefan Hechenberger, "Interview with Alex Galloway", Switch 19:1, San José State University, Summer 2004.
• "Dialogues Carried Out in Silence: An E-mail Exchange', dialogue with Geert Lovink and Eugene Thacker, Grey Room 33:4, pp. 96–112, Fall 2008. [12]
• Leper Creativity, panel discussion with Nicola Masciandaro and Eugene Thacker, The New School, Mar 2011. Video.

Links

• Personal website
• Profile on NYU
• Profile on Rhizome