[Image: Ole Worm, Cabinet of Curiosities, Musei Wormiani Historia, c. 1650] Performative Materiality and Theoretical Approaches to Interface by Johanna Drucker: ABSTRACT – This article outlines a critical framework for a theory of performative materiality and its potential application to interface design from a humanistic perspective. Discussions of the materiality of digital media have become richer and more complex in the last decade, calling the literal, physical, and networked qualities of digital artifacts and systems to attention. This article extends those discussions by reconnecting them to a longer history of investigations of materiality and the specificity of media in critical theory and aesthetics. Continue reading

Turbulence.org Commission: Global Direct by Paolo Cirio: Promoting global, participatory democracy Global Direct is a political philosophy driven by information technology and the failure of current political systems to respond to the complexities, crises, and speed of contemporary life. Inspired by the tradition of utopian artistic visions, and informed by extensive research, Cirio’s fifteen organograms illustrate alternative protocols, procedures and policies for actualizing a global democratic system. On the website you will also find an invitation to “Suggest a Slogan,” video statements by prominent advocates of participatory politics, and more. The slogans and printed posters of the Global Direct campaign will be disseminated through social networks and in physical public spaces. Global Direct showcases how distributed networking technologies can be used for participatory decision-making, transparent accountability, and civil awareness. Continue reading