In 1985, the French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard curated a groundbreaking exhibition called Les Immatériaux at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The exhibition showed how telecommunication technologies were beginning to impact every aspect of life. At the same time, it was a material demonstration of what Lyotard called the post-modern condition. This book features a previously unpublished report by Jean-François Lyotard on the conception of Les Immatériaux and its relation to postmodernity. Reviewing the historical significance of the exhibition, his text is accompanied by twelve contemporary meditations. The philosophers, art historians, and artists analyse this important moment in the history of media and theory, and reflect on the new material conditions brought ...

In these interviews dating from 1998, Châtelet amplifies the major themes of To Live and Think Like Pigs, discusses his method of dramatisation and the crucial importance of style; and touches on subjects from dialectics to dope smoking, from Yoplait to slavery, along the way introducing some of the book’s key concepts: cybercattle, the average man, the tapeworm-citizen, and of course the pitiful couple Cyber-Gideon and Turbo-Bécassine.

To celebrate the release of Chronosis, Keith Tilford and Reza Negarestani join Robin Mackay to talk about their collaboration and the ideas that fuelled the time-twisting plot of the comic. Creative tension and backchannel bickering, cat monks, Boltzmann brains, cosmic body horror, Bertrand Russell the armchair stoner, the Harold Lloyd theory of time-reversal, psychopaths, AGI monkeys, and The Mortiloquist all make an appearance. Music: ‘Dionysus’, by Herman Polsus aka Drew Flieder, and ‘Timeshift’ by Eschaton.

A conversation with Steven Warwick aka Heatsick about his March 2016 show Neutral at Exile in Berlin, followed by the text of his play Neonliberal, in which a gaggle of animated superfoods travel around Fortress Europe seeking the hip and the accelerated; and an exclusive Heatsick track, StaylienZ.

François J. Bonnet talks about The Order of Sounds: A Sonorous Archipelago, his book on the philosophy of sound and listening, explaining the motivation behind its examination of modes of listening and its mapping of plural sonic ontologies, and expanding on some of the concepts he introduces in order to take account of the ‘schizological’ nature of sound. The podcast concludes with an exclusive track by Bonnet’s alter-ego Kassel Jaeger. Music used in this podcast: Kassel Jaeger, ‘Campo Del Cielo’, from Deltas (Editions Mego). Bernard Parmegiani, ‘Des mots et des sons’, from L’Oeuvre Musicale (INA-GRM). Robin Mackay, Field Recording from St Agnes beach, 12 May 2016 0930. TLAOTLON, ‘The Co-Domain’, from Natural ...

The ​art world​, as it is known today, can be understood as an enormous ecosystem. Or, more accurately, as a series of ecosystems, incorporating artists, cultural institutions, funders, collectors and many others. This publication series is intended for those with an interest in the development of future art ecosystems. Each issue will provide strategic analysis and recommendations in areas where new actors and processes are emerging. This inaugural issue of FAE focuses on practices that artists are developing in their work with advanced technologies and the new infrastructure being built around these practices. The view presented here is based on the ...

In-depth discussion of the aesthetic, political, historical architectural, and passional dimensions of artist Yves Mettler’s work on urban squares whose names invoke a multitude of concepts and visions of Europe. With Mettler himself and Atlas Europe Square contributors Stephen Zepke, Teresa Pullano, Neil Brenner, and Reza Negarestani addressing the many dimensions of the project, and with designers Emmanuel Crivelli and Ernesto Luna of DUALROOM about the process of transforming it into a book.

A volume on artificial intelligence, which attempts to disassemble and reformulate what one might understand as AI by taking apart both notions of ‘artificiality’ and ‘intelligence’ and seeing what new meaning they produce when recombined. We summon the trickster of the natural order, chimera, both a mythical creature and a genetic phenomenon. Drawing upon chimerism allows us to broaden ‘artificial intelligence’ into ‘synthetic cognition’⁠—an approach that highlights the duality of ‘artificial’ and ‘authentic’, amplifies non-human methods of cognition and anticipates modes of symbiosis. With this aim, the editors, Ilan Manouach and Anna Engelhardt, assembled an inventory in which one can find contributions ...

Kolmogorov’s axioms present an abstract conceptual formalisation of probability that runs counter to our intuitive image of randomness and its concrete instances. But are the relations between concept and intuition, concrete and abstract, so straightforward? And does the revolutionary historical sequence leading from set theory and measure theory to abstract probability occlude a deeper, conceptual order of priority? Elie Ayache takes the true measure of this revolution in our understanding of randomness and probability, and its as yet unthought ramifications.

By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth, true believers! Tristan Garcia dons his cloak of levitation and enters the dazzling world of Master of the Mystic Arts to tell the strangest tale of all, as Steve Ditko’s greatest creation confronts the outer limits of the comic form itself.

Kristen Alvanson’s XYZT is a genre-busting collection of tales probing the complex relationship and cultural differences between the US and Iran, threaded along a speculative science fiction thriller plotline. Much of the novel is based on Alvanson’s years living in Iran, but in XYZT she reworks her experiences into myriad different styles, perspectives and genres ranging from the quotidian to the fabulous. In this interview with the author we talk to her about her time in Iran, the unconventional structure of XYZT, and the common threads between the novel and her work as a visual artist.