Kim Stanley Robinson: The Ministry for the Future (2020)

17 August 2021, dusan

“Kim Stanley Robinson is one of contemporary science fiction’s most acclaimed writers, and with this new novel, he once again turns his eye to themes of climate change, technology, politics, and the human behaviors that drive these forces. But his setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world – rather, he imagines a more hopeful future, one where humanity has managed to overcome our challenges and thrive.”

Publisher Orbit Books, New York and London, Oct 2020
ISBN 9780316300131, 0316300136
563 pages

Interviews with author.
Reviews: Derrick O’Keefe (Jacobin, 2020), Gerry Canavan (Los Angeles Review of Books, 2020), Bill McKibben (New York Review, 2020), Steven Poole (The Guardian, 2020), Mark Yon (SFF World, 2020), Kirkus Reviews (2020),Michael Svoboda (Yale Climate Connections, 2020), Nick Robins (LSE blog, 2021), Cory Doctorow (2020), Ian Maxton (Spectrum Culture, 2020), George Katsiaficas (PM Press, 2021), Martin Empson (Climate & Capitalism, 2021), Bob Frame and Patrick Flamm (Polar Record, 2021).
Commentary: Andreas Malm (Verso Blogs, 2021).
Book seminar: Crooked Timber (2021, Robinson’s response).

Publisher
Wikipedia
WorldCat

HTML

Inke Arns, Marie Lechner (eds.): Computer Grrrls (2021) [German/English]

12 May 2021, dusan

Computer Grrrls brings together 23 international artistic positions that negotiate the complex relationship between gender and technology in past and present. The book deals with the link between women and technology from the first human computers to the current revival of technofeminist movements. An illustrated timeline with over 200 entries covers these developments from the 18th century to the present day.

The publication presents artists, hackers, makers and researchers who are working on how to think differently about technology: by questioning the gender bias in big data and artificial intelligence, promoting an open and diversified Internet, and designing utopian technologies.

The perspectives presented here address a broad range of topics: electronic colonialism, the place of minorities on the Internet, the sexist bias of algorithms, the dangerous dominance of white men in the development of artificial intelligence and digital surveillance, but also ideas on how we can change our traditional ways of thinking.

Artists included: Morehshin Allahyari, Manetta Berends, Zach Blas & Jemima Wyman, Nadja Buttendorf, Elisabeth Caravella, Jennifer Chan, Aleksandra Domanović, Louise Drulhe, Elisa Giardina Papa, Darsha Hewitt, Lauren Huret, Hyphen-Labs, Dasha Ilina, Roberte la Rousse, Mary Maggic, Caroline Martel, Lauren Moffatt, Simone C. Niquille, Jenny Odell, Tabita Rezaire, Erica Scourti, Suzanne Treister, Lu Yang.”

Publisher Kettler, Dortmund, and HMKV, Dortmund, May 2021
Open access
ISSN 2629-2629
ISBN 9783862069071
191 pages
HT coco

Publisher
Publisher
Exhibition (HMKV, 2018-2019)

PDF (59 MB)

Anon Collective (ed.): Book of Anonymity (2021)

8 April 2021, dusan

“Anonymity is highly contested, marking the limits of civil liberties and legality. Digital technologies of communication, identification, and surveillance put anonymity to the test. They challenge how anonymity can be achieved, and dismantled. Everyday digital practices and claims for transparency shape the ways in which anonymity is desired, done, and undone.

The Book of Anonymity includes contributions by artists, anthropologists, sociologists, media scholars, and art historians. It features ethnographic research, conceptual work, and artistic practices conducted in France, Germany, India, Iran, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. From police to hacking cultures, from Bitcoin to sperm donation, from Yik-Yak to Amazon and IKEA, from DNA to Big Data — thirty essays address how the reconfiguration of anonymity transforms our concepts of privacy, property, self, kin, addiction, currency, and labor.” (from back cover)

Contributors: Anon, Götz Bachmann, Dwaipayan Banerjee, Solon Barocas, Aram Bartholl, Amelie Baumann, Vadim Bernard, Paula Bialski, Andreas Broeckmann, Heath Bunting, Martin De Bie, Bureau d’études, Jacob Copeman, Abigail Curlew, Stéphane Degoutin, Simon Farid, Parastou Forouhar, Randi Heinrichs, Anna Henke, Michi Knecht, knowbotiq, Gertraud Koch, Julien McHardy, Helen Nissenbaum, Gerald Raunig, RYBN.ORG, Daniela Silvestrin, Thorsten Thiel, Transformella, Daniël de Zeeuw, Nils Zurawski.

Publisher Punctum Books, March 2021
Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license
ISBN 9781953035301
484 pages
HT coco

Publisher
PubPub
OAPEN

PDF (11 MB)