Here’s a novel definition of neo-liberalism: “A neo-liberal is a man who, if he saw the aurora borealis twinkling over a Scandinavian snowfield would only see a missed opportunity for a public private finance initiative.” I have stolen this line (and messed it up) from Stuart Lee, the brilliant English… read more →

A recent meme has arisen having ineffectual fun with the resemblance of Trump to Biff Tannen the bully from the 80’s hit movie, Back to the Future. Its more than the uncanny physical resemblance, in the second movie of the series Biff is depicted as a Trump like success who… read more →

The Nefertiti 3D Scan Heist Is A Hoax Posted on March 8, 2016 by cosmowenman “The New York Times’ March 1, 2016 story “Swiping a Priceless Antiquity…With a Scanner and a 3-D Printer” by Charly Wilder tells how two German artists made a surreptitious, unauthorized 3D scan of the iconic… read more →

Last week the national daily The Independent announced that it would discontinue its print editions, going entirely on-line. As the economics of serious newspaper journalism become increasingly non-viable it is unlikely to be the last such casualty. By coincidence in my annual clear out I came across the collection of… read more →

From a splendid auditorium to the intimacy of numerous small workshops and seminars the infrastructure offered by the annual media arts event, Transmediale is one of the few examples of a media arts project that has not either disappeared or sold its soul to the “creative industries” meme. This year,… read more →

Eric Kluitenberg and I have been working on Tactical Media Connections, a project that contains a number of projects including a publication (an Anthology of Tactical Media) and a series of exhibitions. As Tactical Media Connections we are invited to  Transmediale 2016 in Berlin. Tactical Media Connections project Just before… read more →

The Volkswagen case reminded me of case study (more of an anecdote really) related by the distinguished Sociologist the late Ulrich Beck. It was a story he told to illustrate the process of institutionalised denial by which some organisations seek to mis-manage a new era of risk. The story is… read more →

There has long been a question over whether the default humanistic anthropology and “interiority” of the traditional 20th century “literary novel” was equipped to say anything fresh about life in the technological society. Proponents of speculative or science fiction from Ballard to Gibson suggested that other forms were of fiction… read more →

One of the defining attributes of Tactical Media, that quasi-movement of the 1990s, is that it continually sought to propel itself beyond the confines of the semiotic landscape, setting out, not so much to describe things, as to do things. Tactical media’s preferred modality is that of “media acts”, which… read more →

This morning in a newspaper article Tony Blaire made a last gasp appeal to preserve some shred of the New Labor project, urging those planning to vote for Corbyn to come to their senses. It was a strange article laced as it was with the clear understanding that no one… read more →