Benjamin H. Bratton: Alphaville, The City Layer, and The New Normal

Benjamin H. Bratton's work spans Philosophy, Art, Design and Computer Science. He is Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego. He is Program Director of the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow. He is also a Professor of Digital Design at The European Graduate School and Visiting Faculty at SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture).

His current research project, Theory and Design in the Age of Machine Intelligence, is on the unexpected and uncomfortable design challenges posed by A.I in various guises: from machine vision to synthetic cognition and sensation, and the macroeconomics of robotics to everyday geoengineering.

His publications include The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (MIT Press, 2016), a new theory for the age of global computation and algorithmic governance, and Dispute Plan to Prevent Future Luxury Constitution (e-flux/Sternberg Press, 2015), a collection of short fictions on architecture and political violence. There will be a book signing immediately following the lecture with both texts available for purchase.