Fascinating -albeit deeply depressing- news stories have been emerging recently in mainstream media about the conflict between, on the one hand, the development of digital society and, on the other, the protection of the environment and of key natural resources. The stories and scientific studies reveal the energy and water voracity of ChatGPT, the threat that sea level rise poses to internet infrastructure, the water wars in Taiwan between microchip manufacturers and local farmers, etc. The most visible and debated facet of the debate are the data centres. This Summer, people in Uruguay were ..read more

It’s already the third edition of Foto/Industria -the biennial of photography that documents industry and work- that i attend (the previous ones were dedicated to food and to the technosphere.) And yet, it feels like the tourist in me will never get tired of walking around the city of Bologna to visit the exhibitions located in various palazzi and museums. Andreas Gursky, Toys “R” Us, 1999 Mattia Dagani Rio, Los Santos, 2023. Part of Automated Photography, an exhibition based on a research project of the Master of Photography programme at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne Exhibitio ..read more

If there’s one person who has the intellectual generosity, practical know-how and theory background to write a “systematic theory of DIY electronic culture”, it’s Garnet Hertz. Hertz is Canada Research Chair in Design and Media Arts, an Associate Professor of Design at Emily Carr University in Vancouver and an artist whose works put into practice his research on DIY culture, electronic art and critical design. Garnet Hertz, Phone Safe 2, 2015 Garnet Hertz, Videodome, 2013 Throughout the years, Hertz has created projects has diverse as a phone hammer with an integrated cable cutter, a fax-bas ..read more

BLACK BOX CARTOGRAPHY. A critical cartography of the Internet and beyond, by Vladan Joler. Edited by Vladan Joler, Francesco D’Abbraccio, Andrea Facchetti. Publisher: Krisis Publishing. Whether it’s because of the bottle of water that ChatGPT “drinks for every 20 to 50 questions we ask” or the ghost workforce performing mind-numbing or traumatising cognitive labour to train driverless cars and moderate online content, most of us find it more and more difficult to ignore not only the growing role that artificial agents are having on our private, professional and civic life but also the impact ..read more

Marie-Luce Nadal uses discarded materials to create formidable machines that capture clouds, catch lightning strikes and trigger vaporous explosions. Whether they make the sky cry or celebrate the Constellation of Taurus, her performances and sculptures play with atmospheric events and everything that is elusive and ethereal. Marie-Luce Nadal, Faire Pleurer les Nuages (Make the Clouds Cry), 2015-2022 Nadal learnt to read the clouds from her grandfather, trained as an architect and is now using meteorological variables to explore the human desire to master all natural phenomena and life forms ..read more

Vegetal Entwinements in Philosophy and Art, edited by curator Giovanni Aloi and philosopher Michael Marder. Published by MIT Press. This reader contains essays by experts in ethnobotany, cultural theory, Native American studies, evolutionary ecology, anthropology, biological sciences, speculative fiction, environmental humanities, food sovereignty, etc. The texts look at plants but they also and mostly look at us, at our reluctance to acknowledge the value of plants radical alterity, at our urge to dominate and classify everything around us, at the role of art and philosophy in dismantling th ..read more

From Rai stones to Pet Rock, handaxes to rock ‘flour’, bezoars to plastiglomerates, rocks of all sizes and values have long played a role in human cultures. They might look boring and, in most cases, have humble financial worth, but rocks reveal fascinating stories about the world and how humans shape its geological evolution. NEO MINERALIA, exhibition view. Credit: Benjamin Roberts. Center for Crafts NEO MINERALIA, exhibition view. Credit: Benjamin Roberts. Center for Crafts NEO MINERALIA, a show curated by Oscar Salguero, postulates that recent rock formations no longer fit within the trad ..read more

Every day, reports about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mention drone strikes, both inside and outside the battlefield. It seems (to me at least) that their use by Kyiv has even led to a change in the perception of the technology. Military drones used to be associated with the idea of an unjust war. In the framework of this invasion, however, they appear as high-tech guerrilla tools that disrupt imperialism and allow civilians and soldiers to defend their country. In this context, the book Drone Vision: Warfare, Surveillance, Protest, edited by Sarah Tuck and Louise Wolthers, invites readers to ..read more

Around 24 billion items of clothing are donated to charity every year: the majority of these are shipped to Africa. Most are sold in street markets. An estimated 40 per cent, however, are of such poor quality they have no market value. They are literally “rubbish fashion” and are dumped in landfills or burned, becoming major contributors to the local waste crisis. In Ghana, these garments have a name: obroni wawu, ‘Dead White Men’s Clothes’. Jeremy Hutchison, Dead White Man, 2022-2023. Photo by Dani Pujalte Jeremy Hutchison, Dead White Man, 2022-2023. Photo by Dani Pujalte In his Dead White ..read more

Green Revisited: Encountering Emerging Naturecultures, edited by Rasa Smite, Jens Hauser, Kristin Bergaust and Raitis Smits. Published by RIXC, in collaboration with FeLT – Futures of Living Technologies and MPLab – Art Research Lab. Part of RIXC’s Acoustic Space series. Green Revisited presents both a series of essays as well as an overview of the exhibitions that took place in 2020 and 2021 around the Greenness studies developed by Jens Hauser. The contributors to the book challenge anthropocentrism by reconsidering the relations between humankind and non-human agencies, nature and techno-s ..read more