networked worlds

closed net cultures such as One Direction fandom do produce a lot of creative work, but it’s basically like the inside jokes you come up with at summer camp rather than innovations that will diffuse into the mainstream.

In its most popular use, worldbuilding refers to a practice derived from fantasy or science fiction, where systems, characters, and mechanics assemble to satisfy the expectation that a fictional world should be convincing and complete. More broadly, it should be stated, worldbuilding is simply part of writing fiction: Sally Rooney does... See more

I love hiking in LA, which is quite ironic when I think that this nature is completely artificial. All the icons of the Angeleno landscape are imported, which creates a paradox, a discomfort: the unconditional love of the locals for an absolutely fake landscape.

Holly+ represents the future that Herndon and Dryhurst anticipate for music, art, and literature: a world of “infinite media,” in which anyone can adjust, adapt, or iterate on the work, talents, and traits of others.

Los Angeles, for example, has already been fully modeled by others. I didn't need to recreate it. Ditto for the desert or the puma. You go to this 3-D images supermarket and choose a palm tree pack, a piece of desert to download. This perfectly matches the mix between reality and artificiality in my projects. It's thanks to these virtual... See more

We stand united against the commodification of our digital future, advocating instead for an ecosystem that is imbued with our collective cultural values, desires, and identities.

Metaphors mixing mind with machine proliferate across pop psychology—not least in subliminal fan communities, where the videos are seen as programmes that can delete, rewrite, and generate new “programming.” That a behaviour can be ‘soft-’ or ‘hard-coded’ is useful shorthand for nurture and nature—programming from parents, society, and environment... See more