I read Benjamin Bratton's book, The Stack, in 2020 as a grad student in ANU's Applied Cybernetics program. I give it credit for directing my attention to the interaction between layers of digital and physical infrastructures. Trained as a social scientist in media studies, my mind
Technology's Distortions of Language Language is a vessel through which meaning is mutually constructed. From this shared imagination, we learn how others understand and aim to understand them. We also navigate how much of ourselves to put into this space. The imagination space is therefore negotiated through language:
Puppetry as Dream Analysis for AI Anxiety This is a discussion between Camila Galaz, Emma Wiseman, and Eryk Salvaggio, collaborators behind an experimental workshop linking puppetry and generative AI that took place at RMIT in Melbourne this summer at the invitation of Joel Stern and the National Communications Museum. We
Something I Can Tell Students Now That I Am Not Teaching You and I probably both keep hearing that students should be working toward AI literacy. That you should know what to type into prompt windows, because it will save you time. That will get you jobs in the economy
My father died on June 30 while rescuing a bird trapped inside his garage. While closing a window behind it, he fell from a ladder, lost consciousness, and died. It was the week of his birthday, and he had gone out with three groups of friends over the week. He
Video & prepared remarks for the symposium with Vladan Joler, Valentina Tanni & Eryk Salvaggio examining the transformation and consolidation of the Web from the 1990s up to the age of generative AI.
My latest piece in Tech Policy Press examines two AI copyright rulings and the legal rationales that will likely be setting precedent beyond the the short-term legal victories.
If you missed it, my piece in Tech Policy Press tackles the relationship the AI industry has with uncertainty: using what they don't know about AI as evidence that they're right, or that it should be feared, or that it can't be properly regulated.
A new paper from Apple proves what I've discussed before – that so-called "reasoning" models aren't doing much reasoning at all – but now that is clear even by the bizarre industry definitions of the term. The researchers created a series of puzzles with similar problem-solving
Interfaces, and design of all kinds, exercise decision-making. Decision making is a form of power. What, then, is generative AI for design?
Remarks from an in-person debate, 'L’IA en question, questions à l’IA', a two-day event at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, on May 24/25. The event focused on debates about the role of AI in contemporary society.
Remarks on AI, Noise, and Creative Misuse for the Artificial Intelligence & Contemporary Creation conference, 24 May 2025 at the Jeu de Paume, Paris.
I'm three events into this tour talking about AI, and there's a question about the environment every time. What's the environmental impact of AI? In London, the question was a bit more pointed: How do I justify using AI as an artist, knowing the
My new piece in Tech Policy Press is up, and it’s about the recent re-emergence of very silly chatter about whether AI “experiences the world” and therefore ought to have something akin to human rights. In the piece, I argue that they don’t need them. Here’s how
Are pro and anti AI camps talking about the same thing when they say “useful”?
exhibitions
A walk-through of the NCM's "Signal to Noise," a recently opened exhibition curated by Eryk Salvaggio, Joel Stern and Emily Siddons in Melbourne, that examines how artists have worked with noisy channels.
signal to noise
Thoughts on noise, for the opening of “Signal to Noise” at the National Communication Museum in Melbourne.
Signal to Noise explores how artists work with, challenge, or complicate the relationship between signals and noise—disruptions, glitches or interference—in communication technologies and the messages they send.
dance
Unsorted Depths visualizes the archive as a cultural formation but also charts the field of memory against the backdrop of noise.
tpp
Gaining traction in the bleakest depths of 2020, Generative AI offered something more than just a tech product. It proposed a way of reimagining the future.
Over at Tech Policy Press, I wrote about the government commission that lead to the creation of the 1974 Privacy Act, and how an expanding AI state puts the values of privacy from government surveillance at risk. The Privacy Act was created as a response to the growing presence of
It's been a busy few weeks, but I'm on a panel for the latest podcast of Tech Policy Press' "Sunday Show" alongside Borhane Blili-Hamelin and Margaret Mitchell to discuss a paper we co-authored – with a slew of additional authors – called "Stop Treating
Pollen
New work inspired by the history of diffusion and pollen.
Elon Musk and DOGE's AI plans are not at all about efficiency, but about centralizing power to a small group of technical elites. A sample: