Disintegrator

Marek Poliks, Roberto Alonso
Disintegrator

What does it mean to be human in an age where experience and behavior are mediated and regulated by algorithms? The Disintegrator Podcast is a limited series exploring how Artificial Intelligence affects who we are and how we express ourselves. Join Roberto Alonso Trillo and Marek Poliks, as they speak to the artists, philosophers, scientists, and social theorists at the forefront of human-AI relations. In-depth contributions from these visionary thinkers will be released in a book entitled Choreomata: Performance and Performativity After AI, out on CRC / Taylor and Francis in December 2023.

  1. 23. The Club (w/ Li Zhenhua)

    2 DAYS AGO

    23. The Club (w/ Li Zhenhua)

    No notes, pure vivid realness and realism. Li Zhenhua is a major force in the art world, especially in film. A tone poem from Torino.  Marek's favorite episode.

    51 min
  2. 22. Janky (w/ Daniel Felstead and Jenn Leung)

    NOV 25

    22. Janky (w/ Daniel Felstead and Jenn Leung)

    Two of our discourse besties from UAL's Fashion Media Practice & Criticism -- experiential designers Daniel Felstead and Jenn Leung -- join us to talk Janky Capitalism (the obvious falling-apart weirdness of the world while capital spins off farther and farther away from it, leaving us behind), Roblox, and neural media.  You probably know their work from the iconic 'The Metaverse in Janky Capitalism' on Dis and its associated 'Literally No Place' and 'Always on My Mind' -- or from associated speaking / discourse production all over the internet (++ more on Jenn (link) and Daniel (link)). References from the pod include: Ruba Al-Sweel's awesome piece for SQD: 'Sandbox Semiotics' referenced in the intro.Jenn references artworld queen Anna Uddenberg (e.g. 'Continental Breakfast'), Harvard's GSD's Guide to Shopping, and Ian Bogost (whose critique of anthropomorphism in video games we really relate to).Daniel references Sam Cummins from Nymphet Alumni, a favorite podcast that everyone should already know and spend all their time listening to.Daniel references Catherine Malabou's concept of plasticity (throughout her work, typically referencing neuroscientific plasticisty, here used in its more generalized form).The second half of the episode spends some time with the theory of K. Allado-McDowell, specifically the concept of neural media. We could not recommend this episode of our other favorite podcast (New Models) more strongly.Roberto mentions Zachary Horton's 'Cosmic Zoom', which is our obsession atm.Ok enjoyyyy byee!

    55 min
  3. 21. LIFE (w/ Blaise Agüera y Arcas)

    NOV 14

    21. LIFE (w/ Blaise Agüera y Arcas)

    Blaise Agüera y Arcas is one of most important people in AI, and apart from his leadership position as CTO of Technology & Society at Google, he has one of those resumes or affiliations lists that seems to span a lot of very fundamental things. He’s amazing; the thoughtfulness and generosity with which he communicates on this episode gently embraced our brains while lazering them to mush. We hope you have the same experience.   References include: Blaise’s own books Who Are We Now?, Ubi Sunt, and the upcoming What Is Intelligence?He references James C. Scott’s Seeing Like a State, which we strongly recommend, Benjamin Peters’ How Not to Network a Nation, and Red Plenty by Francis Spufford.Strong recommendation also to Benjamin Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World.Roberto references Luciana Parisi’s Abstract Sex (our favorite book!) and the work of Lynn Margulis with respect to biology and reproduction.Blaise references James E. Lovelock’s project “Daisyworld” with respect to the Gaia hypothesis.He also references the Active Inference thesis, e.g. that of Karl J. Friston, and the work of Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercer on reason.The cellular automata work referenced here involves the Von Neumann cellular automaton and the Wolfram neural cellular automaton.Wish us a happy 1 year anniversary of the pod!

    1h 3m
  4. 20. Low-Power Mode (w/ Tega Brain)

    OCT 31

    20. Low-Power Mode (w/ Tega Brain)

    A very warm welcome to Helena McFadzean, who is joining the Disintegrator wrecking crew.   This week’s episode features one of our favorite artists, Tega Brain. In this episode, we talk through two of our favorite pieces, both of which are not just great exercises in conceptual design, but are actual practical engineering projects whose artistry consists in real solutioning. References from the pod: Sam Lavigne is an artist and engineer and educator whose collaborates frequently with Tega Brain. Both his creative technical work and his writing are highly recommended.The two pieces we talk about most are Cold Call, a collaboration with Sam Levine, and Solar Protocol, a collaboration with Alex Nathanson, and Benedetta Piantella, among others.Tega references the Critical Engineering group (Julian Oliver, Gordan Savičić, Danja Vasiliev), whose manifesto is very much worth reading, and 100rabbits, whose blog and methodological work are super super engaging.In climate-related discussions, we talk about Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Breeding Sweetgrass, Holly Jean Buck’s Ending Fossil Fuels, the concept of ‘feral computing’ from Austin Wade Smith, and the data work by Crowther Lab on forest development.Marek briefly mentions Joshua Citarella’s absolutely phenomenal ‘A Public Option for Social Media’. Thanks for your patience while both Roberto and Marek were in mega-travel mega-project mode. We will be releasing something very large in the next few weeks to make up for it. :)

    51 min
  5. 19. Anamnesis & Prosthetic Imagination (w/ Jonathan Impett)

    SEP 16

    19. Anamnesis & Prosthetic Imagination (w/ Jonathan Impett)

    Here’s a gem from our archive, a recording with Jonathan Impett — Director of Research at the Orpheus Instituut.   Impett has had a MAJOR impact on Roberto and Marek, a kind of intellectual godfather to the two of us. His staggering breadth of knowledge continues to blow our minds. You can find more about Impett's work here.  A number of references from the discussion include:  Impett's chapter in Choreomata is awesome. Buy our book! :) Impett references Alexander Nagel and Chris Wood's Anachronic Renaissance an unbelievably ambitious tome that delves into the situatedness of art both inside and outside of the Renaissance.A few California references -- Jonathan tags in Swarm and references the composer Brian Ferneyhough. We're all Reza Negarestani fans here -- for more about computational interactionism, check out Reza's epsiode of the pod, Anil Bawa-Cavia's episode of the pod, and Reza's absolutely mondo Intelligence and Spirit.At the time of the interview, Matteo Pasquinelli's influential The Eye of the Master had not yet been released and is referenced as an upcoming release.For more information on the "waste product" -- Alain Badiou's Immanence of Truths is actually pretty forthcoming in this respect. Jonathan also references After Sound, a very timely read by G. Douglas Barrett.

    37 min
  6. 18. What is a World? (w/ Patricia Reed)

    SEP 5

    18. What is a World? (w/ Patricia Reed)

    Majorly excited to have Patricia Reed on the pod. This is a beefy episode! If I was looking for a major reset in my relationship to the world around me, I'd start here. Here’s a list of the references we make throughout the interview: Here's that e-flux diagram I talk about in the intro, and here's a lecture in which she discusses this diagram. Here's the Diagramming the Common piece, which is older but I really like it. Here's a must-read interview with Denise Ferreira da Silva where the concept of "the end of the world as we know it" is postulated.When Patricia Reed refers to the "logics of worlds" in a Badiousian sense, she's referring to Alain Badiou's work on truth and world. Unless you're down for a real rabbithole, you're likely good with Reed's description here.Reed references Margaret Morrison and the Black-Scholes model in the context of finance.Reed references Sylvia Wynter's work consistently, specifically her discussion of humanism and of Frantz Fanon.Check out Beth Coleman's work on Octavia Butler AI, as well as da Silva's "Unpayable Debt" (inspired by Butler's Kindred) -- and if you somehow haven't read the Lilith's Brood Trilogy after we discussed it with Luciana Parisi, go read it (aka Xenogenesis). It's like idk the most important work of fiction in the last 50 years idk!!!Ofc big shoutouts as always Anil Bawa-Cavia -- this is the book we discuss toward the end of the episode.If you aren't aware of Laboria Cuboniks and the XFM, stop listening and read it!!!

    1h 12m
  7. 17. Computation is Computation (w/ M. Beatrice Fazi)

    AUG 19

    17. Computation is Computation (w/ M. Beatrice Fazi)

    This episode features one of our most anticipated guests: M. Beatrice Fazi. M. Beatrice Fazi is a philosopher working in philosophy of computation, philosophy of technology and media philosophy. In this episode we mostly cover some key definitions relating to computation and its onto-epistemology grounded in Fazi’s landmark book, Contingent Computation: Abstraction, Experience, and Indeterminacy in Computational Aesthetics published in 2018. But our discussion doesn't end in 2018. Now more than ever, Fazi`s work on computation holds unbelievable importance with wide-ranging implications. Philosophy is becoming a major foil to technocapital and technopolitics, forcing us to seriously (re)consider fundamental questions about technology and correlated fundamentals of knowledge and being. Ever wondered what computation actually is? According to Fazi, it exists and unfolds not only as a function, but also as a creative modality forming its own conditions for existence. This episode dives deep into the concept of computation as an autonomous form of thought and creation, that is nevertheless contingent, i.e. not independent from the material conditions of the world. We move further into Fazis more recent work in ontology: the triangulation of abstraction, representation and thought. This pushes us into massive questions - what does computation mean for the future of thought? How should we conceptualize the relationship between humans and technology? And why should we rethink the idea of technology as merely an extension of ourselves? Relevant Links & References: Fazi’s landmark book, Contingent Computation: Abstraction, Experience, and Indeterminacy in Computational Aesthetics—still essential reading for anyone interested in the philosophy of technology. About the fundamentals of what computation does and what material, ontological and epistemological consequences this holds. Brian Cantwell Smith’s essay, “The Foundations of Computing” (2003)—a text we explore, even if Fazi offers a different perspective on the nature of computation.Oh, also, look to Anil Bawa-Cavia's (life changing) episode of Interdependence, where he enumerates further on computational functionalism, computational realism, but more importantly for more color on the paths to incompleteness traced in Gödel and Turing -- to which Fazi builds her main thesis: these incompletenesses are actually strengths and not limitations of computation.Pls like and subscribe or leave a review or whatever we're a baby podcast that's doing huge things!

    51 min
  8. 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛 (𝑤/ 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚01)

    AUG 10

    𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛 (𝑤/ 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚01)

    𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑚01 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒

    55 min
See All (27)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

What does it mean to be human in an age where experience and behavior are mediated and regulated by algorithms? The Disintegrator Podcast is a limited series exploring how Artificial Intelligence affects who we are and how we express ourselves. Join Roberto Alonso Trillo and Marek Poliks, as they speak to the artists, philosophers, scientists, and social theorists at the forefront of human-AI relations. In-depth contributions from these visionary thinkers will be released in a book entitled Choreomata: Performance and Performativity After AI, out on CRC / Taylor and Francis in December 2023.

Information

  • Creator
    Marek Poliks, Roberto Alonso
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Marek Poliks, Roberto Alonso
  • Show Website
    Disintegrator

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