New Dark Age: Our Technological Future
Everywhere we turn, technology promises to transfigure our lives. But at what cost?
As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation, and more data is enough to help us build a better world. But at what cost? And what does it actually mean for our lives?
James Bridle's New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, Hito Steyerl's Duty Free Art, and Adam Greenfield's Radical Technologies are 3 landmark texts bringing together questions around digital globalization; revealing the dark clouds that loom over our technological future, as well as the implications for art and society.
[book-strip index="1" style="buy"]In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle surveys the history of art, technology, and information systems, and reveals the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime.
“[New Dark Age] lucidly argues how our enthusiasm for, and reliance on technology is working against us by undermining our ability to reliably anticipate future risks…Bridle’s multidisciplinary research deftly hopscotches across science, politics and the arts. His writing is clear and precise, showing his background in computer science and experience in public communication.” – Frieze
[book-strip index="2" style="buy"]What is the function of art in the era of digital globalization? What can we do when arms manufacturers sponsor museums, and some of the world’s most valuable artworks are used as currency in a global futures market detached from productive work? Can we distinguish between information, fake news, and the digital white noise that bombards our everyday lives? Exploring subjects as diverse as video games, WikiLeaks files, the proliferation of freeports, and political actions, she exposes the paradoxes within globalization, political economies, visual culture, and the status of art production.
[book-strip index="3" style="buy"]Everywhere we turn, a startling new device promises to transfigure our lives. But at what cost? In this urgent and revelatory excavation of our Information Age, leading technology thinker Adam Greenfield forces us to reconsider our relationship with the networked objects, services and spaces that define us. It is time to re-evaluate the Silicon Valley consensus determining the future.
