xirdalium: academia’s indentured servants
Outspoken anthropologist ↑Sarah Kendzior [ has an opinon piece published at Al Jazeera, called ‘↑Academia’s indentured servants.’ Very worthwhile—here are some snippets from the beginning and the end:...
View Articlexirdalium: graeber in exile
The Chronicle of Higher Education yesterday published an excellent article on ↑David Graeber: ‘↑A Radical Anthropologist Finds Himself in Academic “Exile”‘ His academic “exile,” as he calls it...
View Articlexirdalium: digital ethnography
Digital ethnography can be understood as a method for representing real-life cultures through storytelling in digital media. Enabling audiences to go beyond absorbing facts, computer-based...
View Articlexirdalium: omni collection online
This is a detail of page 72 of the July 1982 issue of the magazine ↑Omni. Depicted is the beginning of ↑William Gibson‘s short story ‘↑Burning Chrome.’ It is a bit of linguistic history, because here...
View Articlexirdalium: cyberpunk and postcyberpunk
Something seems to be in the air. Just recently we had Jiré Emine Gözen’s doctoral thesis ‘↵Cyberpunk Science Fiction‘ (2012), now Krzysztof K. Kietzman has published his M.A. thesis ‘↓Constructs of...
View Articlexirdalium: transformation of reality
I well remember going to conferences in 2006 and 2007 where trendy social theorists presented papers arguing that these new forms of securitization, linked to new information technologies, heralded a...
View Articlexirdalium: source
‘↑Source‘ is an astounding Japanese independent cyberpunk short-film by director A.T.—it’s not embeddable, as it seems, so go and ↑watch it on Vimeo … A.T. 2012. ↑Source [short film]. Tokyo: TYO...
View Articlexirdalium: beauty of science
We must not forget that when radium was discovered no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be...
View Articlexirdalium: african seed control
Seed and the control of seed lies at the heart of agriculture. In Africa around 80% of seed comes from local and community saved seed resources. This seed is adapted to local conditions. It forms...
View Articlexirdalium: the nostalgist
↑CIMINI, GIACOMO. t.b.a. ↑The Nostalgist [short film]. London: Wonder Room Productions. WILSON, DANIEL H. 2009. ↑The Nostalgist. Tor.com 28 July 2009. Available online. via ↑entry at ↑boingboing share...
View Articlexirdalium: queen of cyberpunk
That juxtaposition of technology and humanity is a key theme of the cyberpunk movement [...] (Brown 2011) When Synners [Cadigan 1991] was published, the World Wide Web didn’t exist; few people had...
View Articlexirdalium: artificial paradise inc
Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories...
View Articlexirdalium: watterson on comics
[Jake Rossen:] Where do you think the comic strip fits in today’s culture? [↑Bill Watterson:] Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. Obviously the role of...
View Articlexirdalium: what’s the profession?
zeph’s pop culture quiz #59 A gentleman in striped pants, black jacket, white shirt, and black leather gloves investigates a sign laid out on a forest floor. The sign is composed of twigs and...
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