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. 25 - CRIT (w/ Avocado Ibuprofen)

    FEB 4

    25 - CRIT (w/ Avocado Ibuprofen)

    You already follow @avocado_ibuprofen. His memes IV-ed into the arm of the artworld, circulating through the DMs; they are acidic and thereaputic, they throw up solidarity through critique and gentle negation. We talk about art education, disappointment, exhaustion, glamour, and a beautiful idea (automating the viewer) he began to expand upon in an interview with Valentinas Klimašauskas here. Buy his mugs.  Memes we discuss: (Selling Mugs Galaxy Brain)(Phone/Pocket/Lineage)(AI Meme 1, AI Meme 2) Ambient track is 'Respect for the Medium' by friend of the pod They Became What They Beheld, show them some love on Bandcamp.

    47 min
  2. 24 - A Girl is a Gun (w/ Alex Quicho)

    JAN 23

    24 - A Girl is a Gun (w/ Alex Quicho)

    Few people have done more to define the contemporary media theory landscape than Alex Quicho @amfq, an indefinable thinker and artist and intellectual force who brought Girl Theory to the front and center of The Discourse.  One note, friend of the pod Morgane Billuart has also just released an interview with Alex on her excellent podcast Becoming the Product. We don't believe there's such a thing as too much AMFQ. Morgane is an upcoming guest for us too, so it's a nice trifecta! In terms of Quicho-core: Everyone is a Girl Online (September 2023) -- if you haven't read it, HARD RECCO.The Aura Points lecture (December 2024)Small Gods: Perspective on the Drone (May 2021) GIRLSTACK at BODYSTACKThe amazing girlstack substack -- because everyone is a girl and everyone is online ;) Key references and concepts from the pod include: Helena shouts out Bogna Konior whose work is absolutely at the top of the top atm. We love her lecture ANGELS IN LATENT SPACES omg.When identifying AI with/as a girl, Alex leverages concepts from K Allado-McDowell on model-as-self.Alex references Sayak Valencia's Gore Capitalism and Maggie Nelson's The Art of Cruelty on media representations of violenceWe briefly chat about Maya B. Kronik and Amy Ireland's "cute accelerationism" paradigm and their year-defining book on the topic.Alex grabs some concepts from Paul Virilio and Susan Sontag's foundational work on photography, violence and war, Edward Glissant's work on opacity and resistance, Benedict Singleton's traps and levers, Helen Hester and the Laboria Cuboniks collective's xenofeminism, Tiqqun's young girl, and (IYKYK) Luciana Parisi's absolutely singular "Abstract Sex" (the book that brough Roberto and Marek 2gether).Marek shouts out master of blur Dana Dawud's Monad series.Helena references artist Zein Majali's work "Propane" and Jennie Livingston's generation-defining "Paris is Burning."

    1h 9m
  3. [Superlecture]: Nobody Listens to Music Anymore (Marek)

    12/30/2024

    [Superlecture]: Nobody Listens to Music Anymore (Marek)

    On finishing the project of music, on TikTokCore and SpotifyCore, on music as cosplay and the technicity of cultural imperialism, on the bureaucratic turn in the arts, on being dangerous. Lecture given for my beloved DMR at Columbia University at the beginning of December.   Feeling a bit bolder than usual on this one, but it's cuz my toddler is sleeping good. 3    Shoutouts included at the top. Shoutouts to EPFL Pavilions and especially Jonathan Impett, who I revere, for giving me an initial platform for my obnoxious ideas.   Also — Liz Pelly’s new piece for Harpers is extremely relevant here: https://harpers.org/archive/2025/01/the-ghosts-in-the-machine-liz-pelly-spotify-musicians/. Thanks to Micah Silver for pointing me to it, and for introducing me to Alex Reisner, who completely blew my mind open on the subject of copyright law. Thanks to the Wire for distilling this entire thing into one sentence. Reinforced shoutout to New Models we 3 u. Don't listen to this, listen to their interview w/ Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst instead. 2025 babyyyyyyyy

    53 min
  4. 23. The Club (w/ Li Zhenhua)

    12/11/2024

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

    11/25/2024

    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
  6. 21. LIFE (w/ Blaise Agüera y Arcas)

    11/14/2024

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

    10/31/2024

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

    09/16/2024

    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
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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 - 2025
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Marek Poliks, Roberto Alonso
  • Show Website
    Disintegrator

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