Goldsmiths, University of London

Graduate Student, Art

PhD Art Practice (researcher/writer/artist)

Website: http://machinemachine.net

Thesis Title: “To read what was never written”: Writing Beside the Digital Paradigm

About

Portfolio of work: http://machinemachine.net/portfolio

My thesis interrogates the division between error (both human and machine) and mutation, through modalities of the digital. Building on the work of Michel Foucault and Georges Canguilhem, (Foucault 1999) my first chapter sets up a major concern in my thesis: that although the creative results of change are a consequence of error, those errors are necessarily distinct from the neoliberal, humanist conception of the autonomous subject. Further chapters interrogate this ‘object-oriented’ position, writing into principles of closure, normalcy and nature through a series of allegorical ‘paradigms’ mutated from film and literary fiction. Working with Foucault’s notion of ‘Similitude’ (Foucault 2008) and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘The Paradigm’ (Agamben 2009) my writing is an attempt to write beside the digital. In order to break the privileged status of the thing referenced, my research embodies a lateral logic, indicating theoretical relationships that are non-hierarchical in the structure and content of writing. Taking Walter Benjamin’s essay The Doctrine of the Similar (Benjamin 2007) as a starting point, my thesis questions the logic of mimesis, which binds and dominates the resemblances between art/writing and its subject. Using Michel Serres’ work on ‘The Clinamen’, (Serres 2000) Bruno Latour’s notion of ‘Hybrids’ (Latour 2002) and artist Hito Steyerl’s essay In Defense of The Poor Image (Steyerl) my writing insists on a critical framework, not of resemblance and representation, but of noise, glitches and translation. A paradigmatic turn for writing that, echoing Friedrich Kittler, “puts code into the practice of realities.” (Kittler 2008)

My work revolves around writing, both as an artistic tool and critical paradigm. I have a long interest in web-based media and design, elements of which I use to extend the space of the experimental essays I write. My knowledge of digital media and its theoretical impact on writing, the page and the creative industries has allowed me to develop innovative approaches to discourse and collaboration. Through my writing, and in my role as teacher, I have a long history of exchanging knowledge, acting as a bridge between distinct creative and theoretical fields.

Creative approaches to the research and writing of critical theory are a principle function of my work.

Contact Information