BY ANDRÉ CARRINGTONAssistant professor of English at Drexel University In the 21st century, society has grown to rely on the axiom that “race” is a lie. For some people, out of paranoia or a desire to avoid conflict, touting the knowledge that race is socially constructed is a way of declaring that ignorance about what … More Racial justice, American exceptionalism, and speculative fiction
This publicity photograph from RCA emphasizes the wealth and prestige of the first television viewers posed in front of the TRK-12 RCA receiver.Courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library. BY DANIELLE SHAPIRO Today, we take television for granted. It is everywhere, in different sizes and shapes, in our pockets and our living room walls. It is … More The 1939–40 New York World’s Fair publicly launched the first idea of the television and what it can do.
LAURA MAULDINAssistant professor of human development/family studies and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut A common argument for using sign language with hearing babies is that it would have benefits that are practical (less fussing), emotional (creates a closer parent bond), and cognitive (boosts brain development). “Fewer tantrums and more fun!” … More Disagreement abounds about the best way to serve deaf children.
BY JENNIFER GABRYS Reader in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London Planetary computerization—and the making of a computational planet—are terms and concepts that now occupy considerable attention in media studies and environmental theory and practice. Yet these developments have been underway since at least the post-war context, since renderings of the planet as expressed through … More The Internet of Things and the rise of planetary computerization: How environmental sensing technologies multiply rather than consolidate versions of the planet.
BY PAUL ROQUETPostdoctoral fellow in global media and film studies at Brown University 2016 marks the 150th birth anniversary of the French composer Erik Satie (1866–1925). As far as musical ideas go, Satie is best known for his notion of “furniture music” (musique d’ameublement), first introduced nearly 100 years ago in 1917 and later popularized … More The boombox on the bus: Erik Satie’s furniture music in 2016
BY MARGARET SCHWARTZAssistant professor of communication and media studies at Fordham University It seems everyone I know—and I mostly know a lot of aging, white, GenX hipsters—spent January 10th “mourning” David Bowie. I put it in quotes because I’m not sure we know what mourning really is. Or because what we did the day the … More Mourning what matters: On David Bowie and Laquan McDonald.
Members of the hacktivist group Anonymous wear masks based on the filmV for Vendetta‘s character V, who had been influenced by Guy Fawkes.This mask appears at a 2012 protest in Montreal. Source: Wikipedia. BY MARCO DESERIISAssistant professor of media and screen studies at Northeastern University November was a busy month for Anonymous. On November 5, … More On agonistic democracy and Anonymous
T.S. Eliot astride a John Deere tractor.Photo remix by David S. Roh. BY DAVID S. ROHAssistant professor of English at the University of Utah What does T.S. Eliot have in common with a John Deere tractor? Quite a bit, as it turns out. The John Deere company (owned by General Motors) recently set the blogosphere … More On the perils of absolute ownership, tractors, and T.S. Eliot
BY RYAN THOMAS SKINNERAssistant professor of ethnomusicology at The Ohio State University For many, to think of a place called “Mali” is to hear, first and foremost, its music. Mali may be a poor, landlocked, and sunbaked country in the West African Sahel, but its widely acclaimed music culture—with its bluesy resonances, danceable rhythms, and … More What is "Malian music"?
BY PAUL STEPHENS In early 2012 I thought I had discovered the perfect title for my new project, which was to be a diary of my information habits. I wrote up several pages of notes under the title “Confessions of an Infomaniac.” Several weeks later I Googled the phrase, and to my chagrin found the … More Meditations of an Infomaniac, Part 2 of 2
